Chapter Four
Sloane’s POV
Dale immediately backed her up. “Exactly. Chloe is prettier than you, and she knows how to sweet-talk people. Once she starts hosting the livestreams herself, she’ll outsell you for sure. Don’t come crawling back and asking us for a cut after you leave!”
The whole thing was ridiculous.
They didn’t understand the algorithm, how online traffic worked, or what it meant to build a personal brand.
Did they really think the products were the reason I had managed to sell all that cheap junk?
“Fine.” I tossed the tissue into the trash and looked calmly at Chloe. “I hope you sell every last item.”
“Save the fake good wishes!” Chloe snatched the USB drive off the table and clenched it in her hand. “Take your team and get out! And don’t ever come back trying to piggyback off my traffic!”
“Mia, is everything packed?”
“It’s all loaded into the car, Sloane.” With her bag over one shoulder, Mia looked at the three of them with open disgust.
I nodded, picked up my coat, and headed for the warehouse door.
“Sloane!” Dale called after me, his voice full of condescension. “Since you’re still my daughter, if you can’t make it on your own, Chloe might let you work as an assistant on her livestream.”
I paused but didn’t turn around.
I pushed open the door and shut their arrogant boasting behind me.
The night air was cool, and the neon lights of Los Angeles glowed in the distance.
“Sloane, they’re unbelievable!” Mia slammed her palm against the steering wheel as soon as we got into the car. “Do they honestly think they can do this on their own? Chloe can’t even figure out a prepaid return label!”
I leaned back in my seat, closed my eyes, and smiled coldly.
“Don’t worry, Mia. The market doesn’t play favorites. Reality will catch up with them soon enough.”
“Let them party their way straight into hell.”
A month passed quickly.
During that time, I opened my own studio in Culver City, launched a brand-new TikTok account, and signed major partnership deals with several internationally recognized brands.
Thanks to the trust I had already built with my audience, my new account drew more than a hundred thousand concurrent viewers on its first livestream. My career was doing better than ever.
Meanwhile, things had been strangely quiet on Chloe’s end.
Then one evening, Mia rushed into my office with a tablet in her hands.
“Sloane! Look! Chloe is live!” Mia looked eager to watch the drama unfold as she shoved the screen in front of me.
I set down the report I had been reading and glanced at it.
On the screen, Chloe sat in the livestream studio that used to be mine. She wore heavy makeup and a low-cut sequined dress.
The same rundown warehouse in Vernon was behind her. She clearly hadn’t bought proper studio lights, so the entire video looked dark and cheap.
“Babes! I’ve got an amazing deal for you today! This face cream normally costs ninety-nine dollars, but today it’s only $9.99! At that price, it’s practically a steal!” Chloe posed suggestively for the camera, her voice high and grating.
But the viewer count in the upper-left corner of the screen was under two hundred.
The comments were nothing like what she had expected.
“Who is this woman? Where’s Sloane?”
“Why did they change hosts? That makeup and outfit look so tacky!”
“Don’t buy anything! I bought a tumbler from this store last week, and it leaked. Customer service completely ignored me!”
Chloe’s smile stiffened, but she forced herself to continue. “Oh, please. Anyone complaining about leaks is obviously a competitor trying to sabotage us. I stand behind the quality of every product we sell. All right, three, two, one. The link is live!”
Two minutes passed, but the sales counter was still stuck at zero.
“What’s going on? Is the system frozen?” Chloe panicked and turned toward someone off camera. “Mom! Check the dashboard! Is something wrong with it?”
Martha’s anxious voice came through the microphone. “Nothing’s wrong! No one’s buying!”
The comments erupted.
“Buy it? Hell no! When Sloane was here last month, she gave me a refund and sent a free replacement when my order was wrong. I bought clothes from this store two days ago, and the seams were already coming apart. When I asked for a refund, customer service called me a broke loser!”
“Without Sloane, this store is a total dump! Everything they sell is an unregulated knockoff!”
“She can’t even pronounce the ingredients, and she thinks she can sell this stuff?”
“Give us our money back! You’re a bunch of shady sellers!”
“Reported! Everyone report them for false advertising!”
The screen filled with insults, ridicule, and demands for refunds, all aimed at Chloe.
The looks and charm she had always been so proud of meant nothing to those angry customers.
She tried to explain, but she stammered so badly that she couldn’t finish a sentence.
“You... You’re all making things up! My products are good! Buy them or don’t. If you don’t want them, get the hell out!”
That was the final straw.
“You’re really going to treat customers like that? Everyone, flood the chat!”
“Boycott this trash store!”
“Get her off live!”
