The Merciful Female Boss Chapter 07
Kevin was still in the OR.
Lily and the others stared at the online comments, too stunned to speak.
Chloe was still in the group chat, desperately trying to stir the pot.
“Sophia did this on purpose. She wanted us to look like a joke.”
“The gear she gave you before was never this good.”
She took to Twitter to post a “statement.”
“Sophia has been overcharging the team for years. We couldn’t afford it anymore, so I stepped up to provide
gear at cost.”
“We were supposed to be a team, but she just wanted to bleed us dry…”
Chloe played the victim perfectly, painting herself as a savior and me as a greedy corporate shark.
Some people actually bought it.
“How can someone just quit for money right before a competition?”
“Leaving your team because they won’t pay a premium? Total traitor move.”
Renzo and his guys were fuming, ready to jump in and defend me. I stopped them.
“They’ll just say you’re only defending me because you benefit from it.”
“I can handle this myself.”
I dug up photos of the gear I’d provided to Kevin’s team over the years-raw materials, production logs, the whole nine yards.
Then, I posted screenshots of the twelve-hundred-dollar payments.
I hit ‘Post’ and watched the internet explode.
“Twelve hundred for that quality? And you call that overcharging?”
“The helmet alone costs more than twelve hundred to manufacture!”
Then they saw the screenshot of Chloe claiming she could get gear for two hundred. The laughter was
deafening.
“Climbing in two-hundred-dollar gear? You guys have a death wish.”
“Is your life really that cheap?”
It didn’t take long for the internet to dig deeper. Chloe’s family didn’t own a climbing shop.
Nobody knew where her gear even came from.
Kevin came through several surgeries. The doctors managed to save his leg.
But his days of high-intensity sports were over.
He was done with climbing. Forever.
The impact had left him with permanent post-concussion syndrome.
Every cent he’d saved from his climbing career went straight to hospital bills.
He lost his career, his savings, and was forced back into a three-thousand-a-month office job.
Bitter and broken, Kevin sued Chloe.
His grounds: she sold him non-compliant, dangerous equipment.
The police investigation revealed the truth. Chloe’s parents were just farmers in a rural county.
She’d bought the gear for dirt cheap on a bargain site.
The helmets? Six dollars each.
The shoes? Twenty a pair.
The whole set cost her less than eighty bucks.
She charged them two hundred and pocketed the rest.
In court, Chloe tried to play dumb. She claimed she was a rookie and didn’t know the gear was dangerous.
She argued that Kevin was an experienced climber and chose to wear it. He was responsible for his own
safety.
The judge ruled they were both fifty percent liable.
Chloe was ordered to pay two hundred thousand dollars in medical expenses.
Her family had to drain their savings and sell ten acres of land to cover the debt. Her father, blinded by rage, beat her right then and there.
Chloe’s right leg was shattered.
She lay on the floor, sobbing and begging her parents to take her to the hospital.
Her father just spat on the ground.
“All my money went to your settlement. Where the hell am I supposed to get money for a hospital?”
Chloe was left permanently disabled.
I’d just gotten home from celebrating with Renzo’s team when the CEO of Apex Gear called.
“Boss, the phones are ringing off the hook. Everyone wants custom gear.”
“Should we scale up the custom lines?”
