#Chapter 54: Betting on myself

Fiona I was already standing in front of the TV, mouth agape in shock, watching one of the ads as it played live, when Nina called. “Yeah, I’m looking at it now,” I answered, scoffing. “How can they even air something like this? It’s totally baseless.” Nina snorted. “You can put anything on TV. And on the internet. And people really do.” I took a huge breath in and out, trying to calm myself. But the voice on the commercial kept droning on, unnerving me more with each over-enunciated word. It was basically a smear campaign against Crescent Ventures and our development partner, warning people against what the ad claimed was a dishonest business that would swindle them out of their hard-earned money. My body suddenly felt shot, depleted of every ounce of energy. If people really believed these ads, my project was going to tank. And I had already allocated every dollar in my operating budget, with a team preparing our new construction sites as we spoke. I suddenly regrette