Chapter 4 - The Viral Match
Within forty-eight hours of our return to Manhattan, the fallout from the Briar Glen wedding disaster began to detonate across digital space with the devastating precision of a smart bomb.
Declan Brooks hadn't just archived the video footage; he had spent thirty-six hours editing a tightly paced, cinematic mini-documentary titled *The Price of Tradition: A West Virginia Wedding Gone Wrong.*
He didn't need to exaggerate a single frame. The raw reality of Loretta marching toward me with the grease-stained apron, Uncle Earl’s sneering laughter, Corbin’s cowardly plea of *“just do it,”* the sickening *crack* of Corbin’s hand striking my face, and Earl’s subsequent assault on Harper played out with terrifying clarity.
Declan posted the video on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube simultaneously on a Monday morning at 8:00 AM EST, tagging bridal forums, feminist legal advocacy pages, and major lifestyle influencers.
By noon, the video had crossed one million views.
By midnight, it was at fifteen million.
The internet, fueled by an insatiable appetite for toxic in-law horror stories and accountability justice, turned the hashtag `#BriarGlenGroom` into a global trending topic. Social media sleuths—the terrifying, brilliant digital mob that never sleeps—had already tracked down Corbin’s LinkedIn profile, Sterling & Vance’s corporate office address, and Loretta Hayes’s local community Facebook page.
I was sitting at the marble kitchen island in the Tribeca loft, sipping my morning coffee and watching the view counters spin like slot machine dials, when my phone rang.
It was Harper, who had gone home to her own apartment the night before.
“Sloan,” she shrieked through the speakerphone, her voice practically vibrating with hysterical glee. “Tell me you’re looking at the internet right now!”
“I am,” I said calmly, watching a live commentary stream on YouTube where three different legal analysts were breaking down Corbin’s impending employment termination.
“Sterling & Vance just put out an official press release!” Harper yelled. “They suspended him pending an internal investigation into financial improprieties! And look at Twitter—people are picketing outside his mother’s packaging plant in Briar Glen with signs saying *‘Boycott the Hayes Family!’* It’s absolute, beautiful chaos!”
“Has he tried calling you?” I asked.
“Blocked him on everything. My phone has been silent since midnight. What about you?”
“He left forty voicemails and three text messages threatening to sue me for defamation,” I said, taking a sip of coffee. “My father’s lawyers sent him a cease-and-desist letter by courier at 7:00 AM this morning, informing him that any further communication will be treated as harassment and used as an addendum to the domestic violence restraining order we filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.”
Harper let out a long, satisfied sigh. “Good. May he reap every single thing he sowed.”
Later that afternoon, the doorbell chimed.
I walked out to the foyer and checked the building’s closed-circuit security monitor. Standing outside the private elevator doors was not Corbin, but a courier holding a thick manila envelope bearing the official embossed letterhead of *Sterling & Vance Financial Partners, Executive Compliance Division.*
I pressed the intercom button. “Leave it on the floor by the door.”
“Yes, Ms. Mercer,” the courier replied quickly, setting the envelope down and backing away into the elevator before it even closed.
Using the toe of my slipper, I nudged the envelope across the polished concrete floor, picked it up, and carried it to the kitchen island.
Inside was a single termination letter signed by the managing director of Sterling & Vance, accompanied by a formal audit summary detailing how Corbin’s embezzlement of client entertainment funds—funneled directly into Loretta’s home renovation account in West Virginia—had been uncovered. Furthermore, the firm noted that due to "conduct unbecoming of an officer of the firm, specifically involving documented physical assault and public notoriety," his employment was terminated with immediate effect, and all unvested stock options were forfeited.
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He had traded his career, his reputation, and his future for a greasy apron and a table of misogynistic relatives.
***
