Chapter 57: Madison's Unexpected Discovery
Sunlight coming in through the studio windows made the half finished canvas at the easel shine with a gentle glow. Madison was in front of her canvas, holding a brush, but her hand moved slowly all morning. Colors blended together loosely and lines became blurry due to wandering thoughts. Ariana was the one who took up space in her mind, not the painting.
Madison remained by the sidelines and observed everything after the gala ended. The famous speech that went viral. The glowing words spoken about these companies. Nearly immediately, the public began to question and criticize the film without any true reason. She felt uncomfortable with the situation. Ariana was just a shy teenager when she knew her and she was never anything but kind. Now, her behavior is described in online posts as that of a liar who plans everything in advance?
Something did not feel right to me.
Madison put down the brush, used her apron to wipe her hands and opened her laptop. She wasn't a hacker, but during her years abroad, she had picked up more than a few hacking skills to protect her artwork from online theft. She was now going to apply those investigative techniques to figure out who was behind the posts that hurt Ariana.
She wrote the first blog article which was the one that first started the whole smear campaign. He located the server used by Madison, made a few checks with DNS and tunneled through VPNs. The path had its issues, yet nothing could stop it.
She raised her eyebrows as she looked into a strange IP address.
"Got it," she murmured, following the instruction and starting another search.
After an hour, the address of an upcoming building was in front of her.
This is an apartment at Cambridge Heights, located at Unit 17B.
That unit was not like the rest it belonged to a luxury apartment managed through a subsidiary of Lawrence Holdings. Madison's eyes widened and her lips parted when she realized something important.
"Rachel."
Her index fingers were just above the keyboard. She had the choice to leave the scene. This wasn't an issue she should have dealt with. She had even accompanied Ariana with the art auction, remained with her through hard times and judged her only at the end. Madison realized what it meant to be wrongly accused and have no one stand up for you.
Not in this case.
She got her phone and dialed Ariana's number.
---
Just after her strategy meeting, Ariana was halfway done changing clothes when the call arrived.
A few times, she avoided my call.
However, Madison's name appearing on the phone brought a soft feeling within her.
"Hey," Ariana tried to sound as positive as possible.
"I found something, Ariana," Madison said in a hurry. "It looks like I know who is behind the slander."
Ariana sat down gently at the edge of her bed. "Tell me."
She explained her entire process from where the first blog post was uploaded to the trail of IPs and finally the place where the culprit lived. She also gave me the details I needed, like the address.
Ariana was surprised and her jaw twitched when she discovered Lawrence Holdings mentioned in the document information.
Ariana was sure she was right as she replied, "I knew it." "Rachel."
"I think it works," said Madison. I can hand it over to Lincoln or another member of your legal team if you would like.
"No," was Ariana's answer. "Not yet. I wish that she could feel safe for another moment or two. Sometimes, the best thing is to let her think that she is in control.
Madison paused. "Is everything okay with you?"
The air became quiet for a second until…
And Ariana added, "I'm not sure if I am." Even so, I'm certain there is more for me to do.
---
Later during the evening, Ariana went to her office in the Camelo estate and met with Lincoln. She showed him the evidence that Madison found.
Lincoln made a low whistling sound. "This seemed to be a larger lead than I was expecting!"
According to Ariana, she's very confident. She even thinks I'm not sure about how to handle my business. But now I am satisfied with everything I have.
Are you asking me to do the work for the legal strategy?
She shook her head to say no. A legal war will not happen. Not yet."
Lincoln frown. "Then what?"
Ariana's eyes narrowed. We bring out her beauty with sophistication. I wish that Rachel's lies are exposed in a very clear, impossible-to-ignore manner.
Lincoln leaned back and gave a smile. You're different from how you used to be. I didn't think I was meeting the same Ariana I saw when she started working here months ago.
"I'm still here," said Ariana. She just needed to feel more awake.
She adjusted her chair so that she could look out at the moon shining in the gardens. The pain from the past was no longer tied around her heart. It became what pushed her forward.
On the following day, Rachel Lawrence would understand that her image of perfection was about to show signs of damage.
Ariana would not have to scream to get her way.