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But the next morning, when Ross went back to his apartment, he opened his beloved laptop, and<br />

checked the stats on the Silk Road before navigating to his social media accounts. There, in all its<br />

terrifying glory, was a new message from Erica posted on his Facebook wall, publicly, for all to see.<br />

“I’m sure the authorities would like to know about Ross Ulbricht’s drug website,” she had written,<br />

like a giant neon billboard on the Internet.<br />

The earth could have swallowed Ross whole. He began crying. He quickly deleted the message.<br />

Hands quivering, heart thumping, he picked up the phone and called Erica.<br />

“Please, I am so sorry,” Ross stammered on the phone, tears streaming down his face. “Please<br />

promise me you will never tell anyone about the site.” Hearing Ross cry, sounding like he was going<br />

to kill himself, Erica assured him that she wouldn’t say anything to anyone and hung up.<br />

But Ross’s mind swirled in a hurricane of thoughts. Who else knew?<br />

Fudge!<br />

There was only one person who could answer these questions. Ross got into his truck, floored it<br />

to Julia’s house, and then stormed up the stairs.<br />

“You betrayed my trust!” he yelled. “Who else did you tell?”<br />

“No one, I swear,” Julia pleaded as rivulets of tears rolled down her cheeks. “I can’t believe I<br />

told her. I’m so, so sorry. It was so stupid. It just came out of my mouth, I didn’t mean to—”<br />

Ross grew angry. “You’re a liar. I can’t trust you.”<br />

Hearing his accusations, Julia became defiant. “You left me alone in all of this. You told me all<br />

of this stuff and didn’t think about the risk to me.”<br />

“This is a huge breach to my security,” Ross replied, “because someone actually knows me and<br />

knows my face and knows I made the site.”<br />

Ross was remorseless and stern. Julia had broken his trust, and to Ross, that was much worse<br />

than any situation he had ever placed her in. Having simply uttered his name to someone else, having<br />

shared his most guarded secret in the world, she was done. Julia looked into his eyes, sensing that her<br />

explanation had only pissed him off more.<br />

“Maybe this is a sign that you shouldn’t even be doing this site anyway,” Julia whimpered as she<br />

fell to the floor in tears, pleading for his forgiveness.<br />

“No, it’s . . . not,” Ross stammered as he tried to calculate what he was going to do. “It means<br />

I’m going to have to hide. I’m going to have to leave Austin. All because of you.”<br />

“I’m sorry, I’m—” Julia said, sobbing. But it was too late.<br />

“This is over,” Ross said. He turned and walked out of the studio, the door slamming shut behind<br />

him.

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