[Edward POV]
In the span of a single night, news of me punching the agitator in the face spread across the entire country. A five-second clip of me knocking him out went viral on social media, YouTube, and entertainment websites.
Those who were at the dance club began sharing their experiences online, recounting multiple versions of the same story. However, by design, the opinions that accurately reflected the incident were pushed down, while exaggerated narratives that painted me in a bad light gained traction.
Many stuck-up people—I mean, conservatives—expressed their disappointment, convinced I was following in the footsteps of my predecessors.
Even my grandmother texted me early in the morning to voice her dissatisfaction. However, after hearing my side of the story, she quickly added that I had given that boy too light of a punishment.
The media's selective reporting was intentional, aiming to paint me as a problematic figure—because controversies drive clicks on their articles.
While I brushed off their flimsy arguments, Robin, Harvey, and my new lawyers, Camila Vasquez and Ben Grim, were quietly gathering evidence for the defamation lawsuit.
Sitting cross-legged on the single-seater couch in Pepper's office, I stroked Vader's glistening black fur as he purred contentedly on my lap.
"Villain," Pepper mumbled under his breath.
Renaldo chimed in, "Definitely a villain."
"More like a mastermind," Claire whispered.
Frankie nodded in agreement, adding, "He's definitely not up to anything good."
"You guys know I can hear you, right?" I said, turning to face the group in disbelief.
All four of them were gathered by Pepper's desk, which was at a 90-degree angle from where I sat. Vader glanced at them with disinterest before continuing to enjoy me petting her.
Claire and Renaldo smiled sheepishly, but Frankie approached me and patted my head. "You're not a villain. We're just joking."
She affectionately brushed my hair before returning to the group. Claire looked at me nervously and asked, "Are you sure you want to do this, Ed? You know you'll be under fire afterward."
"I'd rather stand in the flames and sing one last time than stay silent and cater to those who deserve it least," I replied casually, tilting my head slightly.
Claire, Renaldo, and Pepper fell silent, their expressions a mix of disbelief and awe, while Frankie simply nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, I turned to them, a hint of uncertainty creeping in. "Did that sound corny? It felt a bit corny."
They remained speechless, and after a moment, I nodded slightly. "Definitely corny."
Just then, one of the assistants—a tall, bespectacled brunette with a curvy figure reminiscent of a Pixar mom—burst through the door. "The victim's legal team is here," she announced.
"Is Vanessa here yet?" I asked urgently.
"She's packing her stuff from the dance studio," the assistant replied, a hint of anxiety in her voice.
Everyone exchanged confused glances, and I pressed on, "Why is she doing that? Can you please get her here? Ask Maggie to drag her here if you have to."
The assistant nodded and left hurriedly. Pepper commented, "She might think we're going to let her go."
"Is she an idiot?—Wait, she might be," I muttered, letting out a heavy sigh. "She must've panicked when I told her to meet us here this morning."
Harvey stopped by the office before heading to meet the victim's lawyers. "Ed, I'd really appreciate your direction on this. We can settle, no problem. I can make them settle."
With the recording from last night in our hands, it would be easy to force a settlement from the provocateur if we wanted to.
"Just give me a minute. If I don't get Vanessa's consent, it'll all be for nothing," I replied, slight agitation creeping into my voice. Harvey sighed and said as she entered the room, joining in the group, "Sure. I'll wait for her decision."
Five minutes later, Vanessa finally entered the meeting room, clutching Maggie's hand for support. She took a deep breath before stepping inside, and when I laid my eyes on her, I noticed she was sniffling, struggling to hold back tears.
"What's this? Why do you look like you're the one who got punched last night?" I asked in disbelief. "Sit down." I gestured for her to take a seat in front of me.
"Maggie too, you can sit down," Pepper added with a reassuring smile as he settled next to me. Both girls walked slowly to their chairs and sat down.
"Alright, we need to talk about last night," I said, cutting in before Pepper could steer the conversation.
"I'll take my things and leave the company," Vanessa suddenly announced. Maggie, looking distraught, chimed in, "Ed, can you not be so heartless? Why are you firing her?"
"I'm not firing her! Where did you even get that idea?!" I exclaimed, glancing between them in disbelief. Maggie turned to Vanessa, revealing that the idea had originated with her.
Vanessa stopped sniffling, her teary eyes widening. With a shaky voice, she smiled faintly and said, "This feels all too familiar—being called into the boss's office and realizing everyone has turned their back on you."
Given her lack of recent contributions to the company—aside from that one song for the game—she must have thought it would be easier for us to cut ties with a controversial figure like her, especially since her presence had gotten the company's top talent into legal trouble.
"Yeah… I'm going to put 'therapy' on your future schedule," I said, raising an eyebrow. "Do you need some emotional support from Vader?"
"Meow?" Vader seemed surprised as I suddenly picked him up and handed him to Vanessa. She took Vader into her arms immediately and said, "Yes, please."
Pepper then explained my intentions to Vanessa and asked for her opinion. She looked at me, disbelief etched on her face. "Why do you want to do that to yourself? Are you insane?"
"I'm not doing this for me. Sure, it'll be on my permanent record, but I want to use this opportunity to address a much larger issue. People can call me controversial all they want; I don't care."
Pepper chimed in, "I CARE?!"
Ignoring him, I turned back to Vanessa. "I know it's unfair to ask you to make a decision without giving you time to think—"
Vanessa interjected, "Ed, do you really think it'll work?" She gazed straight into my eyes, searching for confidence.
I smirked and replied, "It'll work. I promise."
After a moment of silence, Vanessa finally said, "Oh, what the hell, let's do this."
No one applauded; they all understood the risks we were taking. Harvey's sharp gaze fixed on me as she said, "Alright, so no compensation. No settlement."
Pepper muttered, still grappling with doubt, "We're going to take our top talent to juvie court. All of this feels like a bad dream…"
"Renaldo, can you call the makeup artist? I need to get ready for my mug shot," I said with an evil grin. Renaldo looked faint, his knees buckling. Frankie had to steady him by the arm.
Harvey had done her job, agitating the lawyers representing the agitator and pushing them to press charges instead of settling for compensation. They were demanding $50,000 for emotional distress, dental work, therapy, and other expenses, which was laughable to me.
The agitator—Phil—was the son of a senior manager at MF Global, a prominent financial services firm. While his father didn't hold the top position, his family's status afforded Phil significant clout, which only seemed to inflate his ego.
However, I recalled that the company was currently heading into bankruptcy, one of the largest in U.S. history, with debts exceeding $41 billion.
Phil might have thought he could hide behind his father's influence, but the truth was his father didn't really care about him. It made me wonder if Phil had become a prick in a desperate bid for attention.
Regardless, I didn't feel the need to justify his actions. MF Global would likely stay out of the scandal; frankly, they didn't have the resources to intervene right now.
This fact was one of my considerations in my entire plan. Would I really put myself in the line of fire without a solid enough strategy?
The short video clip of me punching Phil was taken by Giuseppe, the waiter at the dance club. After the incident, he approached me and handed over the full video leading up to the punch, as he didn't want to get me into trouble.
I was genuinely thankful to Giuseppe, but I had to temper his expectations. The five-second clip was my idea, and Robin was the one fanning the flames of the incident. It was all part of our strategy to give the agitator's legal team the moral high ground to press charges against me.
And, like a sucker, they did. An hour after the lawyers left the company, a few detectives arrived at the building to take me to the police station for my statement.
"Oh, Detective Chloe. It's you again. Did the police decide you're going to be my exclusive detective or what?" I said playfully as I noticed the attractive detective entering the meeting room.
"You're pretty chipper for someone who's in big trouble," Chloe replied, concern in her voice. I propped my head on my hand and looked at her flirtatiously. "And you didn't think I was doing this just to see you again?"
She snorted in disdain and turned to Pepper. "Sorry about this, but we have to bring him in."
As soon as she spoke the trigger word, Robin immediately uploaded the full, audio-enhanced video of the altercation to the internet.
With over 10,000 followers across Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Entertain Thread—a new platform that had gained 12 million users in a month, primarily promoted through Instagram—Robin now wielded significant power to sway public opinion.
"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" Pepper yelled dramatically, fully embracing his role. "Oh, I'm going to faint!" He slumped against the other detective, whining about how unfair life was.
While he did that, I was already out of the room with Chloe. Then, I found myself standing in front of a camera with the mugshot backdrop on my back. Standing at 6'1, the female police officer in her uniform started taking my pictures.
*Snap Snap Snap*
A few police officers posed with me as I got my mugshot taken. The whole thing turned into a fan photoshoot opportunity .
The mugshot photo turned out exceptionally well, capturing my rebellious spirit and condescending look.
Honestly, it looked like it could be an album cover or promotional poster. My head was slightly tilted back, my hands resting on the lower half of my face, and my black hair partially obscured my shining emerald green eyes.
Chloe looked at me and the other officers with disbelief. "Guys, he's not here for a visit." She said wearily. The other uniformed officers weren't discouraged and they continued to take pictures with me.
I sat next to Chloe's desk as she took my statement about the incident. Her desk was cluttered with unsolved case files, and I couldn't help but grab the nearest one.
"Alright, so do you have anything to say—Gimme that!" Chloe snatched the file from my hands as soon as she saw me reading it. She sighed, exasperated, and asked, "Can you describe the events of last night?"
"Well, it started out quite normal. I was enjoying my time with my friends and was about to go home before—"
Before Chloe could begin her official report, the police captain rushed over and interjected, "Mr. Newgate! I'm really sorry you have to go through this. Please, let's do this in my office."
"Huh? Captain? Why?" Chloe stood up, disbelief evident on her face. The captain smiled sleazily, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I just received a call from the police commissioner. Deckard, you won't be handling this case anymore."
I interjected, "Oh, then I'll leave. I only trust Chloe here. In fact, the only reason I'm here is that she's the one picking me up." As I prepared to stand, the captain became anxious and quickly retracted his order. "Deckard, this case is all yours. Just don't screw this up!"
From his reaction, I knew that Robin had succeeded in changing the public opinion about the matter. He must've been pressured by the top brass to handle these things perfectly so as to not implicate the police.
As the captain left, I turned to Chloe, intrigued. "Do you always screw things up? Why does the captain seem to have something against you?"
"That's not something I want to share with a criminal," she replied with a stone-cold face, though a slight smirk betrayed her. I chuckled and pointed at the case file I had been reading. "By the way, the culprit here is the grandmother."
"Huh?... Wait, what?!" Chloe quickly opened the case file and skimmed through it. After some explanation, she finally grasped the truth. When she looked at me in awe, I caught her off guard by reading another case file.
"Gimme that! Stop reading it! You don't have authorization!"
…
[General POV]
Twitter and Thread users have been going crazy about the whole incident.
Lily, Edward's fan club president has been backing up Edward on social media before the full video was released, and when she noticed the full video, she raised her hands up and shouted in celebration, "I FUCKING KNEW IT!!"
@LilyFelicity: I knew there's more to it than that! Edward was only protecting his friend! (Video.link)
She reposted the entire video on Thread. During this incident, the numbers of new users on the apps climbed upwards exponentially since they have a much greater user experience there.
@NewgateCanSuxThis: You can say that, but he still resorted to violence.
One popular user named, @OliviaRodrigo, who was Robin in disguise, quoted the hate account comment and said, "Did he run away from it? He complied with the cops and took responsibility for it, which in my opinion, he shouldn't have to."
@Sarahhyland (Robin) replied to Olivia, :This whole thing has been tasteless. From the moment Hollywood reacted to the whole Vanessa leaked videos. They victim-blame her, even @Disney cut her off.
Haley Dunphy read the tweet and felt the need to quote it and repost it to her timeline.
@ArielWinter(Robin) : Why are the victims is alway blamed for it? No one talked about his ex who leaked it as revenge for her. He broke the trust between them. Is she really the bad guy here?
Alex Dunphy also found a tweet that she related with and reposted that. "This girl looked really similar to me." She zoomed in on the girl's picture and saw the version of her 10 years into the future, with tattoos on her arm, wearing a tight bikini.
@SophiaVergara(Robin) : #IStandWithNewgate #IStandWithVanessa
Gloria didn't repost anything because she didn't have social media.
One true fan account owner, which was created by Annie Edison , scrutinized the video with Abed to try and find something to help Edward.
Abed said, "See here, he looked at Vanessa, but we cannot see her face. Then his eye turned cold and he walked backward to punch the guy."
Annie protested, "He turned when that guy mentioned Taylor's name! He might not be able to hold it anymore because his girl's name was mentioned."
Abed looked at Annie with confusion and asked, "I thought they had broken up?"
"Um, breaking up doesn't mean he doesn't love her anymore." Annie replied, feeding into her delusional imagination.
Many of the shippers shared the same thought as Annie, which made Robin's effort to change the public opinion become increasingly difficult.
Then, Robin decided to infiltrate this Swifties rank and played with their imagination by creating stories about how Taylor bandaged Edward's hand while telling him not to hurt himself because of her.
The shippers ate those up, even Edward didn't think Robin would go so far. Fanarts, fanfics, a lot of them popped up, which made the already big news about Edward and Taylor's song battle become bigger.
@JulieBowen(Robin) : There's a reporter interview after Edward comes out of the police station. Check it out!
Claire, who was eagerly waiting for updates, immediately clicked on the video as soon as it was released. Frankie, Pepper, Renaldo, Vanessa, and Maggie gathered around Claire's laptop to watch.
Meanwhile, Edward stood surrounded by reporters after giving his statement to the police. One of the interviewers asked, "Mr. Newgate, what prompted the attack?"
Edward replied, "I'm sure you all already know the details. The full video is out there, so don't waste your time with that question. I'm only answering five of them."
A reporter from Fox News asked, "Are you concerned about the legal repercussions of your actions?"
Edward nodded and said, "Yes. I don't regret my actions, but I do regret not handling the situation better. I'm tired of bullying victims being forced to just stand there and take it while the bullies thrive. It happened in school too, you know? The administration would rather brush off bullying incidents than take action and make the school look bad. This happens in the real world, sadly."
"Are you referring to the time Miss Hudgen's nudes were leaked?" another reporter asked.
Edward replied, "Yeah. I still remember when she went to an award show and had to smile while the host joked about the most traumatic event of her life. It still haunts me to this day."
Netizens quickly dug up the notorious "Girl, you have to keep your clothes on" clip about Vanessa, bashing the host who made that comment. Every media outlet covering the topic faced scrutiny for their poor handling of the matter.
Edward thought about how if the incident had happened five years later instead of in 2007, Vanessa's career wouldn't be in such a downward spiral. The media's biased facade was slowly being torn down by Robin, prompting everyone to speak out about the issue.
As Vanessa was in his company now, he wanted to do everything he could to help her before she released her comeback album. Accidentally, the incident exposed Harvey Weinstein, which created another drama on social media.
"Wait, what the fuck?" Edward muttered in disbelief after he read Robin's report about everything that had been going online when he got home.
…
The next morning came, and Edward continued his filming as usual. He was invited to numerous interviews, in which he accepted a few of them. As he sat in his office, Pepper entered, dragging Taylor with him.
Edward was confused and asked, "What are you guys doing?"
Pepper ranted, "I can't do it anymore. The whole back and forth with me stuck in the middle. So, What I'm going to do is lock you guys inside this room, and force you guys to work things out amongst yourselves."
"Pepper! You can't do that!" Taylor protested. Pepper said, "Even your dad agreed with this. SO TALK! Leave me alone! For the first time in my entire life, you guys made me hate getting the drama! You know how much a gay man has to face in order to hate getting the drama!? Congratulations, YOU GUYS DID THIS!"
He got out of the door and locked it behind him. He shouted from afar, "TALK AND WORK THING OUT!"
Taylor grunted in disbelief as she shook the locked handle door, "He really locked it!"
I was still doing some work on my laptop and I replied casually, "He just said that. Why are you so surprised?"
Taylor slowly turned to face me, fixed her hair and provoked, "I've seen how you handle everything yesterday. All I got to say is, I'm thoroughly underwhelmed by it."
"Really? From your expression, I thought 'constipated'."
Taylor gasped as she took offence and turned to the door again. She hit it and shouted, "PEPPER LET ME OUT OF HERE! You're locking me in with A CRIMINAL!"
"A smooth criminal!" Edward said before he played the song on his laptop. Taylor shouted again, "LET ME OUT!!"
Outside of the door, Harvey, Pepper and Renaldo watched the room from afar. Harvey asked, "What's the point of this again?"
Pepper scowled and replied, "Who knows? Ed told me to do it. I told her she made a gay man hate getting the drama. But I lied. There's absolutely no drama in this world that is too much for us."