Far from the noise outside and far from the chaos that had wreaked havoc on the whole city, the scene inside Alistair’s bedroom remained quiet and peaceful.

For a while, nothing changed on that. However, just minutes after that post, his phone started ringing frantically.

*Kringggg

*Kringggg

*Kringggg

The continuous call made Alistiar stir awake. His brows twitched slightly at the interruptions. The ringing of his phone filled his whole room, enough to pull him away from the comfort of his sleep.

’What the fuck is happening?’ He annoyingly muttered as his hands moved lazily across his bed, searching for his phone.

"Tch." Another low and annoyed sound slipped from his lips as his fingers finally found his phone, the edge of his bedside table. He grabbed his phone without opening his eyes, clearly irritated at it.

For a second, he didn’t even bother to check it. He just grabbed his phone to turn it off. However, when it rang again in his hands, his patience became thin.

"Hah..." With a loud exhale, he finally opened his eyes.

His room was still dim, so it took time for his vision to adjust slowly. The screen lit up his face, cutting through the darkness.

In there, he saw dozens of notifications, messages, and missed calls. There was more coming in as he stared at it.

His brows slowly drew together at that sight.

"What?" His voice was hoarse from sleep, but the confusion in his tone was very clear.

He wasn’t used to seeing things like this. Hurriedly, his thumb quickly moved to unlock his screen. The first thing he saw when he opened his messages was messages from his staff.

[Sir, please respond immediately]

[Sir, have you seen the post?]

[There’s a situation, Sir.]

"W-What situation?" His expression hardened slightly.

His heart started beating faster. He didn’t like the tone of their messages. Especially on a day like this—A day that should have been a good one!

"This better not be something stupid." His jaw tightened at that.

Without thinking much, he exited the messages and opened one of his social media apps.

It loaded for a second. Then the screen refreshed. The moment he saw the first post on his feed, everything around him stopped.

Alistair’s breathing hitched. His eyes widened as he saw the post that was shared hundreds of thousands of times.

"The Truth About Mayor Alistair."

His eyes simply stayed on the screen, unmoving as if his mind hadn’t caught up yet.

"W-What is this?"

The confusion came to him first. In his mind, there was nothing like this that should exist.

"T-this doesn’t make sense at all..." His hands quickly tapped on the post.

When the post loaded, his eyes were immediately glued to the screen. His expression began to change the moment he started reading.

At first, it was just a slight small frown as he read the opening.

"This is ridiculous." A quiet scoff left him.

He looked at the post dismissively, "T-this is fake!!"

However, the more that he looked at it, the more he saw that the post wasn’t just a simple one. It contained photos.

"N-No." His grip on his phone tightened. The word came out from his lips in a low voice. He couldn’t believe it.

He scrolled faster this time. He saw the words about the foundation, the accusations, and details that weren’t supposed to be known by the public.

"J-Just H-How?" The word slipped out before he could stop it.

Alistair’s breathing became shallow. His chest rose and fell slowly. He could feel his vision turning dark because of it.

"So this is what they’re doing." A low and humorless laugh escaped him.

He thought of the people who could do this to him.

"Who the fuck did this? Who had the courage to do this?!" He let out a loud and furious question. His lips trembled at that.

Was it his enemies? His allies?

That question stayed in his mind. His breathing slowed just enough for that single idea to settle in.

His allies... those people who had been acting strangely these past few weeks.

At the time, he brushed it off, thinking that they were just being cautious because of the election. But now, Alistair’s eyes slowly widened.

"No way." His grip on the phone tightened even more.

"Don’t tell me..."

The pieces started connecting on their own.

"Is that why they put on distance?" His voice dropped, almost inaudible.

"Is that why none of them were answering me?"

His expression twisted from confusion to pure realization to fury.

"Those bastards..." His voice trembled, but not from fear. They were from pure anger.

"They were setting me up?" His hand shook slightly that his phone nearly slipped from his grip.

"They knew about this, didn’t they?" The thought alone was enough to make his chest tighten and to make something inside him snap.

"WHO THE FUCK DO THEY THINK THEY ARE?!" His voice exploded through the room.

He stood up abruptly, the bed creaking behind him as he pushed himself to his feet.

"Do they think I won’t drag them down with me?!" he shouted, his voice echoing against the walls. "Do they think I don’t have anything on them?! His knuckles clenched tightly, his fingers digging into his palm.

"I MADE THEM!" The veins on his arm became visible as the tension built up. He walked a few steps forward, breathing heavily.

"I gave them everything! Positions, money, protection—"

"And this is what they do?! Destroy me?" His jaw clenched so hard.

He laughed humorlessly again.

"So this is what betrayal felt like, huh?" Without thinking, he grabbed his phone again and scrolled down on the comments.

There were thousands of them and they were still increasing every passing moment.

His eyes scanned through them rapidly.

[He’s disgusting.]

[If this is true, he deserves to be put in prison.]

[We trusted him.]

[What kind of monster does this?]

[Cancel him. Lock him up.]

"Heh." A bitter laugh escaped from his mouth.

"And these people..." His lips curled into a sneer.

"These people are acting like saints now?"

"Ha!" he scoffed. His eyes darkened more as he kept reading.

"They used to kiss my toes," he muttered, his voice filled with contempt. "They lined up just to get a piece of what I had."

"They were begging me... praising me... telling me that I was their savior." His breathing grew heavier.

"And now?" His eyes narrowed.

"Now they’re talking shit?"

"Who gave them the fucking right?"