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Scheduled Justice

On a trip to Disney with her husband their toddler, family vlogger Natalie's carefully curated personal begins to unravel.

A woman with perfectly tanned skin and the loveliest blonde balayage smiles prettily from the screen and wiggles her freshly manicured Moscow Mule nails at the camera. On her hip is an adorably chunky toddler in overalls. He looks just like his Mommy. She uses one shiny nail to point the toddler to look at the camera and then takes his little hand in hers waves it too.

"Hi guys! Natalie and Tyler here," she chirps then looks at the baby. "Where's Daddy?"

The little boy looks around with soulful brown eyes and spots Daddy off camera. Immediately he reaches arms toward the man who slides in next to his wife with a smile on his bearded face. He lifts tattooed arms to take the boy and then kisses Natalie on the cheek.

"Brandon here," he tells the camera.

Once the toddler is out of her hands, Natalie claps her hands together. "As you can see, we're not at home today! Where are we today, Tyler?"

There's a little blip, an edit, and Tyler says, "Hotel. Go Disney!"

"That's right. We're at Disneyyyy!" Natalie drawls happily. Brandon whispers in Tyler's ear before a quick cut to a scene from the hotel window overlooking the theme park.

"Come with us as we visit for Tyler's first time!" Natalie coos. A montage of scenes from inside the park follows, the toddler in a stroller or toddling ahead or on Daddy's shoulders. Natalie in the sunlight in shades of white and beige. Tyler shyly meeting characters. Swimming at the hotel pool. Eating and shows.

Then Natalie pops back in with Tyler, exhaustedly sucking his thumb with his cheek on her shoulder. "We will be here for 4 more sleeps. Follow us for more!"

----

Natalie clicked off the screen of her phone. She had watched it seven times now and she wished she could have fixed so much more. There were too many times when Tyler looked splotchy and she'd had to edit out so much of Brandon because he just couldn't seem to look enthusiastic.

"Ellie, schedule this post at the usual time," she told the digital assistant on her phone.

She threw her feet to the floor and stood up from the bed, tossing her phone angrily onto it. She marched out onto the balcony where Brandon was sitting, staring out at the park which was lit up in the darkness of the evening.

"Seriously, Brandon? Could you behave more childishly? I did the best I could with the garbage you gave me to work with today but tomorrow, for real, try?" she snapped.

Brandon's shoulders visibly slumped forward. He sighed but she didn't let him say a word.

"You're sulking? Really? This job is funding your little rebellious phase. If you want to get a job, we could probably stop having to do this. You think I love it?"

Brandon's mouth opened but he had had this conversation too many times with her before. He knew better especially when she goaded him like she was doing.

"Hello? Am I talking to myself? Are you going to stop being a baby and do what needs to be done? Because, if not, I can find plenty of real men who will."

If she knew she had hurt him, she didn't appear to care. Brandon looked up at her and gave her a quiet smile. "Tomorrow will be better. I was just tired from traveling," he said to appease her.

"Well you better get some rest, Tinker Bell," she said as he rose to his feet to go back inside. He avoided her eyes but she called after him. "Don't you dare wake up Tyler. The way that little brat cranked halfway through the day was ridiculous. Like father, like son, I guess."

Natalie retrieved her phone from the bed and went out onto the balcony again as Brandon slid into a shower. She spent several hours on her phone, catching up on TikToks and making plans for the content for the following day. She reserved the critiques she might have left for the other family vloggers she followed. They didn't need a leg up on her.

Eventually she went to bed, sleeping peacefully.

The next morning, Natalie woke to an empty room. Brandon had left a note on the desk that he had taken Tyler to breakfast so that Natalie could get some more rest. He had stopped putting hugs and kisses on the notes he left her and that annoyed her.

No matter, she pulled up TikTok to check the engagement with her latest post. The post from yesterday was scheduled for later that day.

Yesterday she had posted a video of their travel. So many people commented on how cute Tyler looked with his eyes full of wonder walking through the airport. How sweet he looked sleeping on the flight.

Natalie scowled at the inevitable few thirsty women who commented on how rugged and handsome her husband looked, mentioning his tattoos. She deleted the comments and blocked those users. She didn't mind the men who mentioned her and how pretty she was but made sure to gently chide them to keep it family friendly, of course!

All too soon, Brandon returned with Tyler and the day began. It was a bit of a challenge for Natalie because it was a gray day, threatening to rain. Which had not been in the weather forecast. Someone should fire every single meteorologist and get some competent people in that business. But she managed to get some very cute content and Brandon had mostly tried. Natalie had had to capture him interacting with Tyler without realizing she was filming but she'd done it.

There wasn't time to check the engagement for the post that had gone live that afternoon because Tyler had not wanted to go to sleep and she'd had to leave the room to edit at the hotel's business center in peace. When she was finished, it was late, and she went back to the room exhausted.

She woke to an empty room again. She was glad Brandon took her sleep seriously. It was the least he could do. Looking at her phone she realized she hadn't scheduled the day's post and so she asked Ellie to do it for her.

Stepping into the shower, she felt a sliver of frustration at not having the time to check engagement like she did at home. She wanted to see all of the positive feedback for yesterday's video. She wished, briefly, that Brandon would be more of a partner with her in this and give her a break now and then so she could do the other things she needed to do with the channel. He was bordering on useless most days anymore. Maybe she should divorce him. No, that would ruin the channel. She sighed and got out of the shower, sitting in her towel on the bed, to finally look at TikTok. Thank goodness Brandon and Tyler were still out of the room.

The comments were odd. People kept asking "What the heck was that?" or "Yo, what is going on?"

Natalie frowned. What were they talking about? She went to the beginning of the video and watched through. She didn't see anything at first. Then, at the very end, she saw it. Panic fluttered in her chest and she took the video down immediately. Somehow, three seconds of her with her voice raised at Brandon, had been left at the end of one of the clips she'd edited together. How could she have been so careless!

Quickly, she ran to her laptop at the desk and edited the video again, trimming off a larger chunk off the end just to be safe. She'd watched that a million times before posting. How had this happened? She re-posted the video as though nothing had happened and calm started to flow through her veins.

Shortly after she was dressed and ready to go, Brandon walked back in with Tyler who was eating what looked like a lollipop. Natalie's blood boiled.

"Are you serious, Brandon? Why would you get him all sugared up? You know that means he's going to crash really fast! Why are you such an idiot? Do I have to do all of this by myself?"

Natalie gave him a few choice words, her voice rising with each one, until Tyler's lower lip went from quivering to wide open and he was bawling inconsolably.

"Natalie," Brandon said quietly, picking up their son.

"Don't you Natalie me, Brandon! This is your fault and you know it. You never think anything through. You're the stupidest mistake I ever made."

Tyler looked between his parents and the tears on his face infuriated Natalie. She wiped them so roughly away with her palm that it made a slapping sound and made Tyler cry harder.

"Shut him up!" she shouted at Brandon who had already begun to walk away from her. He knew better than to make her listen to that noise.

From the bed, Natalie's phone's digital assistant said, "Your video is now live on TikTok," as per usual when she posted without scheduling.

"At least someone is smart enough to do their job," Natalie muttered.

It took far too long for Tyler to calm down but they eventually started their day. Today was about eating in the park. Which Brandon had known and why it was such a stupid thing for him to spoil the lollipop experience before they had even started. The footage was easier to get for this because being inside for a lot of it meant Tyler didn't fuss about the heat and get tired sooner.

There were scenes of Natalie asking Brandon about his favorite Disney movie while they ate Grey Stuff cupcakes at the Red Rose Tavern, Tyler's face covered in frosting. All of them eating Mickey shaped pretzels and meeting more of the wandering characters. Many shots of the food for lunch and stroller shots of Tyler drinking from Mommy's Encanto cup. Tyler on Daddy's shoulders at the parade too for another day.

When they got back to the hotel room for an evening rest before dinner, Brandon put Tyler down for a nap and Natalie signed onto TikTok to see how the videos that had posted this morning and later on in the day had done.

The first thing she saw was concerning. The video she had re-posted from the morning had seemed to have attracted the attention of family vlogger haters. The comments were nasty. Comparing her to a slave master and mentioning how that poor child should be taken away from her. Natalie had faced hate before so she wasn't really phased. She scrolled, looking for her regulars and the positive people who always made it worth the while to make money on this app.

She couldn't find them. Just a lot of hatefulness. Ugh. Someone who was bigger on the app must have decided to make a hate video. Whatever. She skipped on to the video that she'd scheduled for today with yesterday's content.

The comments were even worse. As she read in horror, notifications started coming in on her phone from family members. From her neighbors. And calls from unknown numbers began ringing through.

"Are you okay?" From her mother.

"What is going on, Nats?" From her sister.

"Why would you post that? What is wrong with you?" From Brandon's mother.

"The police showed up at your house." From her next door neighbor.

"You're incredibly evil. I hope you're punished." From a rival preschool mother.

What was happening? Natalie hastily scrolled back into TikTok to the video from earlier today and watched in horror.

There she was, in shot from behind, on the balcony. The side of Brandon's face visible as the scene played out from "Hello? Am I talking to myself?" to "The way that little brat cranked halfway through the day was ridiculous. Like father, like son, I guess."

"No, no, no," she whispered, pulse pounding. What was going on?

She found the scheduled post from earlier in the day and started to watch. "No!" she shrieked as she watched herself roughly smearing tears across Tyler's face and berating Brandon.

Tyler woke up, startled, howling and Brandon, who looked like he had been coming from the balcony to make sure she was okay, turned to the bed and picked up his son instead.

"No! No! No!" she screamed again and thumbed quickly through the TikTok settings to try to delete the account. "What did you do, Brandon? I knew I should never have given you access to our account!"

"What are you talking about?" Brandon asked and looked at her like she had lost her mind. Wrong move, Brandon.

"You posted the videos of me yelling at you and slapping Tyler on our TikTok? What is wrong with you!"

Brandon looked shocked and opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it. Through gritted teeth, she told him that if he hadn't been holding their son, she would have thrown her phone at his head.

"In fact, if you don't get out of this room right now? I will throw you both off the balcony and tell the police it was an accident!"

"I'm sorry. I cannot look up ‘ways to make a murder look like an accident'" came Ellie's voice from the phone in her hand followed by a male voice that said, "Uh Ma'am?"

Natalie's eyes bulged as she looked at the screen. Inadvertently she had answered one of the incoming calls. How long had he been listening? Who was he?

It sounded like he was talking to someone else when he said, "She's on record now, chief."

She punched the button to make the phone sleep and jumped at the sound of a loud knock on the hotel room door.

Brandon's eyes were wide when she looked at him next, eyes pleading for his help. Which was the biggest mistake she could have made and she knew it. She saw the concern leave his eyes, draining into a hard, closed look.

"Police. Open up, Ms. Roberts."

It all happened. That traitor, Brandon, with Tyler in his arms, opened the door to the police and they cuffed her. The cuffs dug into her skin and she started to cry. It had always worked in the past. Not this time. She screamed for Brandon to help her and, when he didn't, she screamed at him for being the biggest disappointment ever.

As she was being pulled reluctantly down the hall to the elevators, she heard behind her, "Your arrest video is now live on TikTok."

Ellie chuckled. Natalie screamed.

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