"Who would want to destroy my life?"
She did not say it to Bill. She said it to the air between them. To the cold feeling on her spine. To the long row of nights that had brought her to a back table in a cafe on Hartwell Lane.
"So many times I kept thinking. Who could create a fake video of me. Who hates me that much."
Bill did not interrupt.
"My classmates. The girls. The boys. They had hated me without reason for years. I could not understand why. There were other orphans in my year. No one bullied them. No one made a video of them. Only me."
She paused.
"And then I thought of Nelson."
"Nelson."
"My old manager. He had asked me out. I had said no. He had not taken it well. For weeks after, he found small ways to humiliate me at work. I was sure for a time that he was behind the video. That it was his revenge for the rejection."
She looked at Bill.
"You are saying someone else might be behind my deepfake video?"
"Yes."
"Someone I might not even know?"
"Yes."
