Run the world

Why was I the bad guy to everyone?

My nose wasn't broken, thankfully. But it was bleeding like crazy. I washed my face and then dug my cell phone out of my pocket.

I had turned it off for the flight and hadn't turned it back on yet, thinking I would see Lia right away. Everyone else could wait. But when I turned it on again I was overwhelmed by a flood of messages and missed calls. I couldn't sort it all out as fast as it almost made my phone overheat.

Everyone had written to me and called me. Really everyone. Except Lia.

But her number was the first one I clicked on. I had to know what was going on. But I immediately got a busy signal. Then I would just text her to get back to me. It was important. However, when I opened our chat I found that she had blocked me.

What had happened while I had flown here?

A call from Christian interrupted my thoughts. I took it, because he had already tried to call me 20 times.

"Well, finally you answer the call! What were you thinking?" he sounded as angry as I had ever heard him.

"What was I thinking with what?", I growled "Everyone is just yelling at me. Lia blocked me and I don't even have the faintest clue what happened!".

"Well, that she doesn't want to talk to you anymore I can understand. The poor thing. Max you destroyed her career with that and our credibility too."

"WHAT WITH?", I yelled and could feel tears of anger welling up in my eyes.

"Max, it all came out. That you only dated her to get the data on Aston Martin. The chat histories with your dad, it's all become public and your dad has already admitted it too. We are summoned to a hearing in front of the FIA, where you have to confirm that you didn't do this on behalf of us. Otherwise we'll get points deducted for operating espionage and..."

"I what?", I sank down on my bed.

"I don't know what you plan to do with the data, but if you're smart, you won't touch it and forget you ever saw it in the first place."

"I don't have any data. Why would I... I love Lia. I would never do that to her."

"Max, there are Whatsapp histories. They're all public."

"No. I never wrote anything like that. I never even thought about it. I...", I dropped my head into my free hand "I would never do that to her. I do love her.", with effort I suppressed a sob.

"Max, I'm sorry about this, but I need you at the FIA in half an hour. The hearing is causing quite a stir. To be more precise, everything that has to do with it. The media are out in a spree reporting. The phones here are not standing still at all. You've really put us in the shit with this."

"But I didn't even..." but I interrupted the sentence. What was the point? He didn't believe me after all. Would anyone believe me at all?

But what hurt me most was that she believed I had really done it.

How could she believe that I had acted any of this?

The thought tormented me unspeakably.

I reached the FIA offices at the same time as Christian. He eyed me for a moment, then I remembered why he was looking at me that way.

"Kevin.", I mumbled, Christian nodded.

"He's her best friend, isn't he?", I nodded.

"I don't know why you did that, Max, but it's really quite a mess. Maybe we won't get out of it so easily. I might even have to give you a leave of absence, I'll be honest with you about that. Industrial espionage is not on. And certainly not in such a rotten way."

"Christian, I didn't..."

"Then where do these Whatsapp histories come from?"

"How should I know."

"Why does your father admit to everything?"

"I don't know that either, but...", I took my phone out of my pocket "I do have the right histories. I never wrote anything about Lia because I know he doesn't like her. And I would never think of...", at that moment the office door opened.

Lia came out of the office, shoulders drooping, accompanied by two suits.

"Lia!", I was with her in a few steps and put my hand to her cheek.

My heart was racing. I just couldn't find words at that moment.

"Lia!" one of the suits said sternly, she nodded and took my hand from her cheek.

For the breath of a second, she squeezed my hand. I could feel her shoving a piece of paper into my hand, then she pushed past me without a word.

I looked after her, completely overwhelmed, before opening the note.

"I know you would never do that to me. I know you wouldn't. But my lawyer says I shouldn't have any contact with you for now until this is cleared up. I don't know why all this is happening right now and it scares the shit out of me, but I know you would never do this to me. Ever.

Meet me on the hotel roof around 10:00 pm. I hope we can talk there.

I love you

Lia"

A relieved gasp escaped me before I folded the note again and slid it into my pants pocket.

I don't know where those rumors and those chat histories came from and especially why my father admitted that we had talked about something like that. It was complete bullshit. But I would look into it. I would find out where all this was coming from.

As long as she believed me, everything would be fine. As long as I hadn't lost her....

Still, my hands shook and my mouth went dry. But I had proof that it had never happened that way. I had the right chat histories and thus already saw myself on the safe side.

But I didn't expect that no one would believe me at the FIA hearing and that the chat histories had to be checked first, that my cell phone would be confiscated and that I would be treated like a criminal.

I didn't expect to be met with a wave of hatred as soon as I left the FIA offices. I hadn't expected all those hateful looks, all that anger.

And certainly not with the rotten eggs they threw at me.

I just felt terrible.

Why did everyone think I would do such a thing? Why didn't anyone believe me? Why was I the bad guy to everyone?

The only bright spot was that Lia trusted me. At least she still believed me. If no one else believed me, at least she did.

That had to be enough for me. At least for the moment.

Still, it felt shitty that everyone trusted me to do something like this. I had gotten so many angry messages, had had so many missed calls. Maybe it was even better that my cell phone was at the FIA. At least then I didn't have to read those messages.