Twice Over

Chapter 138 - Hearsay

hearsay
noun
1. information received from other people which cannot be substantiated; rumour.

I was dropping JacJac off at the parental unit's estate when Wallace asked me to see him for a moment in his office.

"What's up?" I asked as I was guided to the seating area by Wallace's house assistant.

My step father thanked his assistant who took their leave, then he poured me a cup of coffee from the fresh carafe left by his house hold staff. "Sugar?" He asked. I nodded. "Milk or cream?"

"Milk please, trying to maintain my weight now that I'm no longer active in sport." I signed and pinched my waist, noticing how tight my jeans are now getting on me again.

"You're fine. Just take advantage of your building's swimming pool more often, eat smaller, more frequent meals and don't sleep on a full stomach." He sat down after handing me my cup, and drank from his own. I nodded along to his well intended advice

"I don't know if you have read the headlines today? Don't take anything to heart. I've already got my team working on the report. It should be taken down from all micro blogs and social accounts within half an hour."

"Headlines?" I asked as I pulled out my phone and checked out all of my social medial pages and online news outlets. Right there, front and centre was Eyva and I, in all our black and white glory. She was sporting a weird, sarcastic smile on her face and I was giving a really shocked look. If you didn't know me and my fake and somewhat exaggerated emotional cues, or that Eyva had suffered memory loss, taking this photo at face value, it looked like a couple of high society second-generation b$%ches were at each other's throats. It was quite impressive really. We looked like a pair of those famous Californian House Wives, or a pair of ratty eighteenth line web actresses clashing over a script audition.

Then I laughed when I read the headlines.

[Step sisters at logger heads again, which rich kid will come out on top?] [Social faux pas highlighted by elder sister, not received well.] [Which ugly step sister is showing her real face?] [Ms Overmeyer's public shame of new family addition.] [Insiders tell all over behind the scenes in-fighting Overmeyer Estate on the weekend.] [Ugly step sister claims family violence, calls for mitigation.]

"I my goodness, this is amazing!" I laughed again. I didn't even bother reading into the articles or micro blogs. It was all rubbish. But I had never been the subject of online gossip like this before, not even in my last life. Eyva just wasn't really a digital user like most rich kids were these days. She always had someone do her online social media posts and was too lazy to do it herself. So finding myself combined together with Eyva in some very pointed and – in all honesty – pathetic looking and sounding gossip, I knew that someone was trying to make trouble.

"Are they aiming at you or me?" I asked as I looked up at Wallace. He was watching my reaction to it all and when he saw that I was perfectly fine, he nodded and smiled at me, then shrugged.

"Not too sure at this stage. Before you told me about Patricia Palmer's ex-husband and his black washing her, I'd have been sure that it would be aimed at me. I have plenty of enemies, inside and outside of business."

"What do you think they are trying to do? What is their purpose for all of this?" I asked as I watched the various news pages and social accounts refresh followed by a 'page not found' notice. Wallace's team worked fast.

"We will keep an eye on things. I've let Eyva and her team know to keep safe and not get herself into trouble, media wise, but I don't believe anyone knows of her itinerary. She should be safe in Italy with her mother. I'll have my Australasia team work with her and her body guard when she arrives Downunder.