Clout Is Thicker Than Blood Chapter 2

Taylor had taken every interaction from that afternoon, twisted it, and fed it to the internet.

My aunt and her family came over today and immediately started the marriage interrogation. I shut down my cousin, then my aunt, then my uncle. Didn't miss a single one lol... Seeing their faces was priceless. Finally, some peace and quiet. Block your toxic relatives. (PS: DM me if you want the scripts I used!)

I scrolled through the comments. It was a bloodbath of "Yass queen" and "I need this energy for my family dinner tomorrow."

You’re a legend. I’m literally taking notes.

Relatives are arriving in an hour and I feel powerful now.

This is the best thing I’ve seen all year!

In just three hours, she had over sixty thousand likes. Watching her reply to people—acting like some kind of social justice warrior for the "oppressed" single woman—made my blood boil.

Taylor is only a year younger than me. We grew up like sisters. At least, I thought we did. As we got older, life pulled us in different directions—different schools, different cities. We only see each other a few times a year now.

She’s thirty-three, living in the city, and has been single as long as I can remember. My Aunt Diane had called me several times over the last year, sounding frantic, asking if I knew anyone "nice" I could set Taylor up with.

I asked that question out of genuine interest. I had a coworker, a guy named Mark, who I thought would be perfect for her. I was trying to help.

And my parents? They weren't "interrogating" her. They were doing what people in our family have done for a hundred years: they were checking in. They were showing they cared.

But to Taylor, we were monsters. We were "toxic" intruders, poking at her privacy just to entertain ourselves.

I sat there, staring at my phone, the betrayal stinging. I had kept her in my heart, and she had hung me out to dry for views.

Finally, I couldn't take it. I commented: Not every question from a relative comes from a place of malice. Sometimes it’s just love. Let’s not demonize family for trying to connect.

My husband walked in, noticing my white-knuckled grip on the phone. I explained everything to him, and he spent the next hour trying to talk me down, telling me it wasn't worth the energy.

I fell asleep eventually, but when I woke up the next morning, my phone was a graveyard of notifications.

My comment had been picked up by the mob. I was being shredded. People were "wishing" me a life full of relatives exactly like the ones Taylor described.

I went to type a rebuttal, only to find the "User Not Found" screen.

Taylor had blocked me.

I wanted to call her, but my husband stopped me. "It’s the holidays, Riley. Don't blow up the whole family over a TikTok. Just let it go. We just won't see her as much. She's just a 'distant relative' now."

I tried to listen. For the next few days, we avoided Bill’s house. We took the kids to the movies, went ice skating, and tried to ignore the digital world.

Then, my phone started vibrating incessantly. It wasn't a call. It was the family group chat.

99+ notifications. I tapped in, and my jaw hit the floor.