hearsay

noun

1. information received from other people which cannot be substantiated; rumour.

I was dropping JacJac off at the parental unit's estate when Wallace asked me to see him for a moment in his office.

"What's up?" I asked as I was guided to the seating area by Wallace's house assistant.

My step father thanked his assistant who took their leave, then he poured me a cup of coffee from the fresh carafe left by his house hold staff. "Sugar?" He asked. I nodded. "Milk or cream?"

"Milk please, trying to maintain my weight now that I'm no longer active in sport." I signed and pinched my waist, noticing how tight my jeans are now getting on me again.

"You're fine. Just take advantage of your building's swimming pool more often, eat smaller, more frequent meals and don't sleep on a full stomach." He sat down after handing me my cup, and drank from his own. I nodded along to his well intended advice

"I don't know if you have read the headlines today? Don't take anything to heart. I've already got my team working on the report. It should be taken down from all micro blogs and social accounts within half an hour."

"Headlines?" I asked as I pulled out my phone and checked out all of my social medial pages and online news outlets. Right there, front and centre was Eyva and I, in all our black and white glory. She was sporting a weird, sarcastic smile on her face and I was giving a really shocked look. If you didn't know me and my fake and somewhat exaggerated emotional cues, or that Eyva had suffered memory loss, taking this photo at face value, it looked like a couple of high society second-generation b$%ches were at each other's throats. It was quite impressive really. We looked like a pair of those famous Californian House Wives, or a pair of ratty eighteenth line web actresses clashing over a script audition.

Then I laughed when I read the headlines.

[Step sisters at logger heads again, which rich kid will come out on top?] [Social faux pas highlighted by elder sister, not received well.] [Which ugly step sister is showing her real face?] [Ms Overmeyer's public shame of new family addition.] [Insiders tell all over behind the scenes in-fighting Overmeyer Estate on the weekend.] [Ugly step sister claims family violence, calls for mitigation.]

"I my goodness, this is amazing!" I laughed again. I didn't even bother reading into the articles or micro blogs. It was all rubbish. But I had never been the subject of online gossip like this before, not even in my last life. Eyva just wasn't really a digital user like most rich kids were these days. She always had someone do her online social media posts and was too lazy to do it herself. So finding myself combined together with Eyva in some very pointed and – in all honesty – pathetic looking and sounding gossip, I knew that someone was trying to make trouble.

"Are they aiming at you or me?" I asked as I looked up at Wallace. He was watching my reaction to it all and when he saw that I was perfectly fine, he nodded and smiled at me, then shrugged.

"Not too sure at this stage. Before you told me about Patricia Palmer's ex-husband and his black washing her, I'd have been sure that it would be aimed at me. I have plenty of enemies, inside and outside of business."

"What do you think they are trying to do? What is their purpose for all of this?" I asked as I watched the various news pages and social accounts refresh followed by a 'page not found' notice. Wallace's team worked fast.

"We will keep an eye on things. I've let Eyva and her team know to keep safe and not get herself into trouble, media wise, but I don't believe anyone knows of her itinerary. She should be safe in Italy with her mother. I'll have my Australasia team work with her and her body guard when she arrives Downunder.

"Do you think it is because of my show? Or the building or just from being part of the Overmeyer family?" I bit on a thumb nail as I tried to figure it all out. I was pretty clueless when it came to things like this. I've seen plenty of actors and artists being black washed like this online plenty of times to know that it all comes out in the wash eventually, but often the reputation is already lost before things calm down. But what was the point here? I was a businesswoman, not an actor or artist. This kind of thing wouldn't really make any kind of impact on anything I did.

"Do I need to do anything about it?" I looked up to Wallace, hoping he knew of a good publicist I could use, or at least had a way forward from here.

"At this point, there is nothing you need to do. I will have legal notices sent out to the online sites and my lawyers will carry it from here. It wont be hard to get you and Eyva compensated for this, and then there is this." He turned his phone my direction and showed me a photo of Eyva and I hugging at the airport. "Your mother posted this online last Friday night. Forwarding this with the original post's date settings should be enough, don't you think?" I grinned at him. Very clever.

I quickly found my mother's post and shared it to my own timeline with a quick message saying that I hoped my sister enjoyed her overseas trip. Simple, sweet. My online social pages hadn't been found yet, thank goodness, so I was able to curb the blackening before it begun. I hope. Not that I really needed to care.

"This isn't anything new to me or my team. But it is something you yourself need to watch out for and plan towards in the future. I've lost one or two contracts due to underhanded dealings online like this before, so I have my team already trained and ready to curb things as soon as I am mentioned anywhere in social media and news outlets. You will need to find someone on your team who can focus on this aspect of your business face and set yourself up a business online presence. Just having a website isn't enough."

Wallace then lead me quickly through a number things I could set up online to help future protect my business and suggested what things my new staff needed to watch out for. It was really informative.

When Wallace's assistant arrived with his next appointment, I stood up, quickly thanked Wallace for all his help, then left. Yes, Wallace was taking appointments at his house on a Sunday afternoon. The way he talked with his guest though, it sounded more like a social business meeting than anything more formal. These old guys probably new each other from years ago, by the feels of it.

I wandered out of the manor and found my SUV parked and ready for use by the front door. Someone had kindly washed it too, looking all waxed and shiny. I drove home thinking about all the info that Wallace had given me for free. As a business mentor, he was amazing and I decided to find something to give him as thanks for all of this.

When I got home, I changed into my swim suit and swam laps in the basement swimming pool for an hour. It felt good, stretching my muscles and giving my recuperating knee a light workout. I felt much better for it.

Lunch was leftovers from dinner last night. I'd made too much spaghetti and there was plenty for another few meals. I ate a small bowl of it and froze the rest for another day.

Patricia came over in the afternoon to my apartment to help me finalise the cafe opening night invitations. She showed me the design work for the digital invitation cards and the invitee list.

"I feel like we've just done something like this before." I said sarcastically, thinking back to when we'd sent out invitations to the fashion show. It really was just the month before that we'd done this. After this opening, I think I need to give myself a break from any more shows or openings. Although, I have been keeping my eyes open for new real estate for a new idea I have for opening an art studio and gallery space. I would love to get into show casing some of my fabric and silk painting artworks. But that is for another day.

We finally sent the invitations off to everyone on the list and I ask Patricia to help me print off a few to hand out to Grandma and Grandpa Overmeyer and my Mum and Wallace.

"Also, please print a few for the staff here in the building as well. Peter, Bob and also Mr Anderson. Also, can you make sure to send one to Elijah Millers, the guy you are planning on head hunting for our marketing team? Thank you."

"He probably wont come, but I'll deliver it to him tomorrow personally, while you're at Uni." She finalised her notes, packed everything up then, and when I invited her to dinner, she declined saying she had a date with a good book and a bottle of Dashwood Chardonnay from New Zealand.

I saw her off, then looked at my pitiful excuse of a wine rack while I heated up a dinner-for-one from the freezer. My apartment was rather large and lonely when I was the only one home. Waiting for the microwave to do it's thing, I quickly watered my blue hyacinths that were still blooming lovely. When the giver of the flowers faded into my thoughts, I smiled, then realised what I was doing.

"He's a class A jerk. No be thinking about him, Lily." I scolded myself, ate my dinner then went back to my office for an evening of study.