Madeline bit her lower lip, she was on the verge of crying, knowing that Oleana had a point. In the eyes of the public, she would get no justice. Madeline blinked, quickly turned away from the camera so it wouldn't catch her tears. "That's it, I'm done with this interview."
Madeline walked out of the talk show set with her head up high to her room backstage, purposely ignoring all the judging stares she got from the staff as she passed them.
Only when she entered her room and locked the door did she let her mask fall. She leaned against the door, closing her eyes in exhaustion.
"It's okay, Madeline. This is your life now. This is part of the job as the most hated woman on the internet," Madeline told herself, trying to calm herself down. But the moment she looked at herself in the mirror and caught sight of her pitiful appearance, her eyes began to pool with tears.
She began to sob to herself, "It hurts. It hurts so much. Why are people so cruel to me…"
She was hurt, and she felt so much injustice for what happened to her. But she had no choice. She needed money—a lot of it, not just for mother's medical bills but also for her father's gambling debts.
'If only that useless man didn't squander all of our money away before running off like a coward…' Madeline lamented, hiding her face in her hands. Then she shook her head, trying to give herself a pep talk. "No, I have no time to be sad. I have a lot to do."
Madeline wiped away her tears quickly with her hands and took out the first aid box she had prepared inside her luggage.
She treated her wounds and winced through the pain. It took her a while to treat the wounds all over her body, but it allowed her to compose herself. When she was done, she walked to the dressing mirror to wipe off her doll-like makeup.
She carefully removed her contact lenses and put them in the lens case.
Her real eye color was brown, just like her hair. But she had to wear blue contacts to give herself a more dollish appearance for the camera.
Next, she wiped off her eyeshadow and gently peeled off her fake lashes before storing them with her other lashes, all as dramatic as the ones she had chosen today.
In the bathroom, she rubbed her cleanser on her face, dissolving her makeup into gray swirls before rinsing it off. When she stood up straight again, the face that looked back at her was the one that everyone saw four years ago.
Madeline was lovely even without makeup—sweet, fresh, and innocent-looking with big doe eyes and pouty heart-shaped lips. The past few years had not been kind to her, but even after getting humiliated in a media circus and shouldering her parents' bills, twenty-three year old Madeline still retained a sweet innocence and purity that wasn't commonly seen in most celebrities.
But this pure aura and innocent face were also the cause of her downfall.
'Well, of course, they will hate me. Who wouldn't hate a seemingly innocent girl who's secretly a total shameless slut?' Madeline mocked herself.
It had been four years, yet she was still resentful, knowing that her promising career was cut short because of that man.
She sat on the sofa and checked her phone.
There was a text from Oleana Show's staff about her payment.
—
Your payment has been deposited into your bank account, and we've included a bonus to compensate for your wounds. Please don't take this further to the court, or you will be sorry.
Thank you for your cooperation.
—
Madeline checked her bank account and smiled when she saw the amount that had been sent. It was a lot more than usual, since they were trying to stop her from taking legal action. Seeing the money made her feel like she could bear through more wounds and bruises, as long as she could earn enough to get by.
"This should be enough for Mom's medication and also for us to get by for two months. Maybe I should give Nathan a bit more allowance. He has been good in school…"
As the family's only breadwinner, Madeline had to split her money into four categories.
1. Her mother's treatment and medication.
2. Her little brother Nathan's allowance and tuition.
3. Bills and groceries.
4. Debt accumulated by her gambling addict of a father.
Madeline closed her eyes. She massaged her temples as the thought of money always gave her a headache.
If only she could turn back time, the first thing she wanted to do was to stab her own father when he was asleep because, without him, their lives would be so much easier.
He had drained all the money that Madeline earned from her short career by gambling it all in Vegas and ran away after the debt collector from the bank chased him.
So, the debt was now Madeline's responsibility.
Madeline tried to shake off this resentment in her heart by distracting herself. She needed to rest after acting so raunchily in front of the camera.
So, she checked social media to see the new headline.
And as expected, her live interview on the Oleana Show was trending on every platform. After all, she was attacked by an anti-fan, and it was a live show, so they could see the attack wasn't a joke after seeing Madeline's sorry state.
She read a few of the comments, tweets, and posts made by people on the internet;
—*
'Damn, who is that woman? She is my new hero!'
'That lady needs to be given a badge of honor for tackling and scratching that shameless skank. If only I could be there to cheer for her.'
'If I was there, I'd help her instead. Please, who in the right mind would protect Madeline Rose? She deserves it!'
'I love how Oleana slapped her with the truth! Nobody wants to help her. She should just kill herself!'
—*
Usually, Madeline would chuckle at the people who mocked her on the internet.
She had gotten used to these demeaning opinions about her. After four years of relentless cyberbullying, she had grown numb to it and saw these hate comments as a source of entertainment instead.
But today was different. She really got attacked by an anti-fan, and the wounds are real.
Yet, nobody sympathizes with her. They kicked her while she was down, and would probably laugh at her if she really killed herself.
Madeline was trying to hold her tears for so long, but she began crying like a fragile woman that she truly was, not the shameless and crazy Madeline Rose she portrayed on TV.
"Why does nobody care about what I feel?" Madelaine mumbled between her sobs. "I'm also a human. I'm not a monster…"
It took a while for Madeline to cry until her tears dried out, but she continued to scroll through the social media timeline to see if there was at least one comment that pitied her.
Unfortunately, there was none.
But there was a comment that made her contemplate her life instead.
—*
'Is this really the same Madeline Rose from four years ago? She looks so different.'
—*
…
Madeline stared at the post in silence for a while. She's wondering the same thing. 'Am I the same Madeline Rose back then, or have I changed to this shameless slut that knows no boundary?'
Honestly, she also had no idea.
Deep down, she wanted to scream at everyone that she had many talents, that she was more than that "shameless homewrecker". She was great at singing, acting, dancing, and even modeling.
Her career from childhood to early adulthood demonstrated that very well.
But none of her talents mattered now.
After Jonathan's wife made their affair public, she had been branded as the most evil and shameless mistress, a witch that deserved to get stoned to death.
So, no matter what she did, that reputation would follow her.