As for my own revenge, I remember one specific event. Since I had been married -- and divorced -- and had a different name from my family's, Dad thought it would be a good idea to get me a job at the company where he worked. He worked in accounts and I got a job, on my own merit, in data processing. We seldom saw each other and didn't take lunches together, but we did ride to work together. If anyone asked, we car pooled. That was enough of a story. But there was a girl I worked with that got fired after I started working in DP because I was doing all the work and she, for all her years of service, wasn't pulling her fair share. The fact that I also put together a procedure manual and streamlined their operations had nothing to do with her being fired and everything with me sucking up to the boss (can I just say, "YUCK!") and getting her fired. She was determined to see me fall.
She got lucky.
She happened to see my family and I at the Westland Mall and heard me call my father Dad. What else would I call him but Dad? She hightailed it to my boss and to the owner of the company saying that Dad and I were related (well, duh) and that I should be fired. That's not what happened. My father was fired because the company deemed me the more valuable asset. Dad didn't have a problem finding a job, but I had a problem with the woman that caused all the trouble. Revenge begets revenge.
My revenge took the form of setting her up for a big fall . . . right on her plastic enhanced backside. And I got pictures. This was many years before computers.
My friend bumped into her and bought her a drink, then dinner, then they started dating. It didn't take long for Miss Torpedo to drag him into the bedroom or to get out of her clothes -- in the dark. My friend got laid and she went to sleep, at which point he photographed her under garments, which included a plastic and foam butt enhancer. Had I been her, I'd have enhanced my boobs not my butt. He broke it off and the picture of her in her butt enhancer (he had a small pen camera, too) without anything else on (see what she missed by not enhancing her boobs?) were plastered all over the company billboards and at the neighborhood grocery store and her church.
I took maternity leave a few months later and after my maternity leave and vacation ran out, I tendered my resignation and went to work full time for my part time job. She was not rehired and I heard she moved to a different town to escape her shame, taking her butt enhancer with her.
I would have accepted being fired for being related to my father, but for Dad to get fired because of her vendetta with me was unacceptable. I'm not sure I'd do the same thing again, preferring as I do to confront people directly, but I would have protected my father, as I did when I offered to quit if they would keep my father on. That's how I found out the company considered me a more valuable asset. In street speak, they got more out of me than they were paying me. All of this came about because of her firing and my big raise -- 25 cents an hour. After I saved the company so much money when they fired the other 4 employees, you think they could've come up with a bigger raise. They were cheap for all their profits and property all over town, but the rich can be so cheap when you get right down to it.
Yes, revenge is seductive, especially when someone bad takes a big fall. Amanda/Emily's father asked her to forgive the people that destroyed him and set him up to take the fall for their misdeeds; Emily chose to get revenge. It's easy to forgive someone who hurts you, as it would've been had I been hurt, but much harder when the target ends up being family.
What have you done for revenge?
