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Just as I was about to hang up out of impatience,she finally spoke.
"So,what will it take for you to forgive me?"
I took a sip of coffee,watching her pathetic figure on the livestream,and replied slowly,"That ring was my husband's only keepsake.Find it,or I'm suing you."
"It cost over$60,000.If you can't pay,you'd better figure it out."
She couldn't afford the hospital's$50,000,let alone my ring.
She'd have to dig through the landfill—a faint hope at best.
I expected her to scream,but she just said,"Okay,"calmly.
Surprising,but I only cared about my ring.Her fate didn't matter.
Days later,I saw viral videos of Olivia scouring the landfill.
Her story drew crowds,some livestreaming her.
Filthy,with cuts all over,she was pelted with spit and trash.
"Keep digging,garbage girl!Trash suits trash!"
"You were so smug slandering that doctor.Now you're picking garbage?"
She ignored them,muttering,"Ring,ring,where are you?I'm sorry,please come out."
She moved from one trash pile to another,searching day and night.
No ring.
As her story faded,the streams stopped.I lost track of her.
I filed a police report for intentional assault,using her livestream as evidence.
Millions had seen her attack,degrade,and discard my husband's keepsake.
When police found Olivia,she was unrecognizable.
Limping,her hands rotted from handling trash,she was crazed,no trace of the young girl she'd been.
I learned she'd searched so desperately because she'd taken a loan shark debt.
She naively thought my forgiveness would win Ethan back,who'd pay it off.
But without the ring,she got only a broken leg from debt collectors and a decaying body.
She was jailed but died days later.
They said her skin ulcers killed her.
Bacteria from the landfill spread as she scratched,rotting her entirely.
Two officers vomited seeing her corpse.
Hearing this,I felt nothing but a flicker of satisfaction.
On my desk sat my ring—my husband's wedding band.
Ethan,feeling guilty,had sent people to find it.
It wasn't in the landfill but in a corner by the hospital,spared from being hauled away with the trash.
I carefully slipped it onto my finger.Now,wearing this ring,I vowed to take the others who livestreamed my humiliation to court.
