After Divorce I Married a Tycoon-Chapter 84: Judith Caldwell’s Revenge

As she watched Claire Mercer walk away, Judith Caldwell’s eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. She ground her teeth with a grating sound.

"That little bitch... She’s getting more and more audacious. More and more brazen."

The more she spoke, the angrier and more furious she became.

The thought that she had spent three days and three nights at the police station all because of Claire made her seethe.

And after she got out, a mob of lunatics had chased her down and pelted her with rotten eggs and pig guts...

She couldn’t just let this go.

"No, I’m going to expose her online for the ungrateful wretch she is."

"I’ll expose her for being cold-blooded, selfish, disrespectful, and treacherous. I’ll let everyone see her for who she really is."

With that thought, Judith Caldwell immediately sprang into action.

She planned to record a sob story video right away, just like Claire Mercer had done.

She opened her phone’s camera and sat down on the sofa to start recording, but Oscar Mercer stopped her.

He felt a surge of fear whenever he remembered how netizens had flamed the Sinclair Family so badly that they hadn’t dared to leave their home.

"Mom, maybe we should just let this go."

"The Sinclair Family has been drawing all the heat from netizens these past few days."

"People online have finally started to forget about our family. We shouldn’t stir up trouble right now."

"No," Judith Caldwell shot back. "Why should I have to swallow my pride and keep quiet?"

"I’m telling you, I can’t let this go."

"If Claire Mercer can stir up such a storm online, why can’t I?"

"She made a mountain out of a molehill, claiming we imprisoned her, and then took it online, causing a massive public uproar."

"She got me hauled in by the police for three days of questioning, got me completely trashed online by netizens, and had a bunch of psychos chase me down and pelt me with rotten eggs."

"I’m the adoptive mother who worked hard to raise her for twenty years! Why can’t I call her out for being an ungrateful wretch?"

"Once we prove that Claire Mercer is nothing but an ungrateful wretch, I refuse to believe those netizens will let her lead them by the nose."

"Mom, I really don’t want the Mercer Family to be back in the spotlight, thrown to the wolves again."

"The netizens these days are ruthless when it comes to digging up dirt. I don’t want them unearthing the Mercer family’s skeletons."

"What on earth are you so afraid of?" Judith Caldwell couldn’t understand his hesitation.

"If we can just prove Claire Mercer is an ungrateful traitor, she’ll be the one getting all the hate."

She started to fantasize about netizens turning on Claire, hounding her with insults.

Her heart pounded with excitement. Nothing could stop her now.

No matter how Oscar Mercer tried to reason with her, she wouldn’t listen.

Her mind was set on making Claire Mercer get a taste of being cyberbullied.

Oscar Mercer felt utterly helpless.

He thought about his mother, a woman in her fifties, being hauled into the police station for questioning.

Hounded and cursed out by people online.

And even getting covered in rotten eggs and pig guts...

He could understand his mother’s current state of mind.

In the end, he could only sigh and let her be.

In truth, a small part of him was hoping for a lucky break.

’Maybe the netizens really will turn on her, just like Mom said. Maybe she’ll be the one getting torn to shreds?’

That was something he wanted to see, too.

So he said, "If you’re set on calling her out online for being an ungrateful wretch, then I’ll go find a ghostwriter."

"Why a ghostwriter?" Judith Caldwell asked, confused.

Oscar explained, "A professional writer can put together something much more logical than we can."

"We’ll have them write a script beforehand. All you have to do is read it, and it’ll be far more effective at stirring up outrage and sympathy from the public."

Hearing Oscar’s explanation, Judith Caldwell thought it was an excellent idea.

She told Oscar to immediately contact a professional writer and get a script ready.

Then, all she’d have to do was read the script to the camera.

Squeeze out a tear or two when needed...

She refused to believe she couldn’t win the public’s sympathy.

As long as people online sympathized with her for spending twenty years raising an ungrateful traitor...

...public opinion would naturally swing to her side.

She had completely forgotten that she’d tried to force Claire Mercer to marry Mr. Bower, a man whose three previous wives had all died.

She had also forgotten that she had, in fact, imprisoned her in a locked room.

Her eyes were now clouded by hatred; all she wanted was revenge on Claire Mercer.

Oscar Mercer quickly found a ghostwriter and struck a deal.

After getting the script, he even hired a professional makeup artist to make Judith Caldwell look utterly haggard.

Finally, he helped Judith Caldwell record the video again and again.

He made sure the final cut presented them in the most favorable light possible.

After posting the video, he hired an online astroturfing army to flood the comments and bought a spot on the trending topics list.

Soon, the video denouncing Claire Mercer as an ungrateful wretch began to spread across the internet.

"I worked so hard to raise her, and this is how she repays me."

"I may not have given birth to her, but everyone knows that the parent who raises a child is more important than the one who gives birth."

"All these years, we treated her like our own daughter. We gave her the best food, the best clothes, the best of everything."

"I just don’t understand why she had to blow a small family matter so out of proportion and create a public spectacle."

"We weren’t fully aware that Mr. Bower’s three previous wives had died."

"We only wanted to marry her to Mr. Bower to ensure she’d be financially secure for the rest of her life."

"We never thought our good intentions would be so maliciously twisted by her."

"Now, for every one thing we say, she has ten things to say back. She doesn’t have a shred of basic respect for us."

"She won’t even call us Mom and Dad anymore. But we raised her for twenty years!"

"Not only did she get me stuck in a police station for three days, but on the day I got out, she actually hired people to throw rotten eggs and pig guts at us..."

"..."

Some netizens who didn’t know the full story saw Judith Caldwell’s video, and their previous support for Claire Mercer began to waver.

Coupled with the astroturfing army the Mercer Family had hired to steer the online narrative, Claire Mercer was once again thrown into the center of a firestorm.

"See? I told you there’d be a plot twist, didn’t I?"

"So Ms. Mercer was the real villain who struck first, manipulating public opinion from the start?"

"Whatever the case, the Mercer Family did raise Ms. Mercer for twenty years. You can’t argue with that."

"What Ms. Mercer did before was definitely going too far. They’re her adoptive parents who raised her for two decades, after all."

"Sending her adoptive parents to the police over a small issue and then turning the internet on them... that does seem pretty ungrateful."

"Would Ms. Mercer have had such a good upbringing without the Mercer Family? She might have been abducted and sold off as a child bride in some remote village for all we know."

"You have to have a grateful heart."

"Did Ms. Mercer really hire people to throw rotten eggs at her adoptive parents? If that’s true, I completely misjudged her."

"..."

Seeing so many people online starting to doubt Claire Mercer, Judith Caldwell finally broke into a satisfied smile.

When Adrian Sutton saw the video, he laughed out of sheer anger.

He couldn’t believe Judith Caldwell actually had the gall to go online and attack Claire.

He watched Judith Caldwell’s tearful performance in the video as she denounced Claire Mercer.

She accused her of being an unfilial daughter, of defying her elders, of being an ungrateful traitor.

She claimed Claire had called the police over a trivial matter, landing her in the station for three days and nights.

She accused Claire of slandering her online with exaggerated lies.

She accused Claire of hiring a mob to throw rotten eggs and pig guts at her.

She shifted all the blame onto Claire Mercer.

In her telling, Claire Mercer was transformed into a defiant, unfilial, rebellious, and vicious liar.

Towards the end, she even managed to squeeze out some crocodile tears.

Forcing himself to watch the video to the end, Adrian Sutton was so furious he wanted to gouge her eyes out.

Yes, he was just that violent.

Anyone who dared to bully his Claire, he wanted to flay them alive.