Chapter 5 - Relax, It’s Content
The ambulance arrived within eight minutes.
By then, Noel had stopped crying and started calculating.
Michael knew the difference now.
He could see it in the way she kept glancing at the phone.
The way she adjusted her sweater before speaking.
The way she asked the paramedic, “Is she actually injured?”
Alice heard that.
Her face went blank.
Michael did too.
The paramedic examined Alice’s chest and wrist.
“First-degree burns in several areas. Possible second-degree near the collarbone. We need to evaluate her at the hospital.”
Noel whispered, “Oh my God.”
For once, she sounded scared.
Marissa turned to Michael.
“Save the stream.”
Thomas was already recording the screen from his own phone while another staff member from his office downloaded the public feed.
Noel stepped forward.
“You can’t record my content.”
Michael looked at her.
“You don’t hear yourself, do you?”
Sloane suddenly spoke from the doorway.
“Noel, stop.”
Everyone turned.
Sloane was twenty-six, usually loyal to her sister in the passive way people are loyal when someone else is louder.
But now she looked sick.
“Noel, this is bad.”
Noel snapped, “Stay out of it.”
Sloane’s eyes filled.
“You told Mom it would make Alice look unstable.”
The kitchen froze.
Camille gasped.
“Sloane.”
Michael turned slowly.
“What?”
Sloane looked at Alice, then at Michael.
“I didn’t know she would spill hot soup. I swear. She said Alice was trying to ruin her brand and that if she looked confused on live, people would understand why Noel had to take over the house content.”
Alice closed her eyes.
Michael’s hand tightened around the blue folder.
Noel shouted, “She’s lying.”
Sloane shook her head, crying.
“You said older people get sympathy until they look difficult.”
Marissa’s face turned colder than anyone had ever seen it.
“Repeat that carefully.”
Noel backed up.
“No. Nobody is taking a statement in my kitchen.”
Alice looked at her.
“My kitchen.”
Noel turned on her.
“You didn’t even use it before I made this house relevant.”
That sentence landed like glass.
Michael stared at his wife.
Relevant.
The home where his father died.
The kitchen where his mother fed half the neighborhood after storms.
The place Noel saw only as a set.
The paramedics moved Alice toward the stretcher.
Alice paused beside the phone.
The livestream was still going.
Her face appeared in the screen, pale and wet-eyed.
She looked at the comments, then at Noel.
Her voice was soft.
“Relax,” Alice said. “It’s content.”
Noel went white.
For the first time, Alice’s politeness had teeth.
Michael followed his mother to the ambulance.
Before leaving, he turned to Thomas.
“Preserve everything.”
Thomas nodded.
Marissa added, “And notify every brand sponsor attached to unauthorized use of Alice’s image.”
Noel’s face crumpled.
“Michael.”
He looked at her one last time.
“You humiliated my mother for strangers.”
May you like
Then he walked out.
👉 Alice was taken to the hospital, but Noel’s own sister had just revealed the livestream was part of a bigger plan.
