Chapter 74
Sophia was a woman of action. She immediately contacted a lawyer and had him draft a legal warning letter.
She also found someone to write an article for her - nearly two thousand words. After checking it over and confirming everything was correct, she posted it online, along with the lawyer's letter.
However, the effect wasn't as good as Sophia had imagined.
These days, plenty of public figures send out legal warning letters. Whether real or fake, whenever there's the slightest trouble, celebrities always post a lawyer's letter.
At first, netizens were a bit intimidated, but eventually they stopped caring.
James had just casually suggested this idea to Sophia without thinking about the consequences at all, but Sophia had taken it seriously.
Now things got worse - not only did the criticism from netizens not decrease, but it also became even more intense. They came at her wave after wave, and even dug up the relationship between Sophia and James.
"James was actually stolen from Emily by Sophia! No wonder she hates Emily so much, even trying to kidnap her child. Sophia is so shameless!"
"How can someone be such a terrible person? It's absolutely outrageous!"
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe there could be such a shameless person in this world. It's absolutely insane!"
Comments like these came flooding in. With netizens leading the charge, other things about Sophia were dug up even faster.
Now things were really bad - not only did the situation not calm down, but it also got even worse.
Sophia's plan had backfired. When she saw the messages online and the abuse from netizens, she got so angry that she smashed her computer, and her phone didn't escape either.
James saw it too, but he played dead and didn't say a word.
How could this be his fault? When he gave Sophia the advice, he hadn't expected such a strong reaction from netizens.
Besides, if the Johnson family hadn't done dirty things, netizens wouldn't have been able to dig anything up. It proved that saying - you reap what you sow.
He should focus on how to win back Emily's heart. Emily and William were getting closer and closer - who knows, they might announce they're together any day now.
If that really happened, wouldn't he have no chance at all? That couldn't happen.
As for Sophia, who cared if she lived or died? She caused this mess herself, so let her clean it up.
In the afternoon, after Emily and William finished eating and returned from the restaurant, they saw the news online.
Emily was very surprised. She had wanted netizens to criticize Sophia, but she hadn't expected things to get this serious - even Brian's old scandals had been dug up.
Now there was all kinds of talk online, saying everything imaginable.
Emily was stunned watching it. These netizens had such rich imaginations.
She complained to William, who was beside her. They had just gotten home, and the kids, full and happy, had gone back to their rooms to play.
Emily sat in the living room reading the netizens' comments, feeling speechless.
Reading the comments reminded her of what Brian had done before. He had wronged her mother, but acted as if nothing mattered. Now, at least the netizens were helping her get some revenge.
William walked over. "You know how netizens are - gossip is in their nature."
He paused, then continued, "But this is good too. Although things are a bit out of control, at least it helped you let off some steam. Sophia will have to keep a low profile for a while now, right?"
"True."
Emily nodded. "A complicated process isn't scary, as long as you reach your goal."
"So what do you plan to do next?"
William poured Emily a glass of water and asked.
Emily thought for a moment. "What else can I do? Find a job first, of course."
She took out her phone and opened her banking app to check.
"Although I have several hundred thousand dollars, I still have to raise three kids. This money is just a drop in the bucket for me. I need to prepare for the future."
"Good."
William nodded. "So what kind of work do you want to find?"
"I don't know."
Emily honestly shrugged. "If you ask me now, I have no idea. I'll just have to see."
Despite saying this, Emily wasn't hopeful.
A while back, after she quit her job at the funeral home, she had looked for work.
But those companies either thought she had too much baggage with three kids, or they thought she'd been out of the workforce too long and couldn't keep up. Anyway, they had all kinds of reasons - basically, they just looked down on her.
If she went job hunting again now, the result would probably be the same. She really couldn't say what the future held.
"It's okay, things will work out."
William held Emily's hand and squeezed it encouragingly. "How about I help you find a job?"
"No need."
Emily quickly refused. "You've already helped me enough. I can't depend on you for everything."
Thinking of William's identity, Emily felt an inexplicable sense of loss. She should have guessed earlier.
William was so generous - the last time before he left, he gave her a black card and left a million dollars for each of the kids. What ordinary person could do that? She was stupid not to realize he was the Brown family's son.
Thinking of this, Emily suddenly turned to look at him. "Shouldn't you also talk to me about Aiden?"
She paused and continued, "Last time when you weren't back yet, you told me clearly on the phone that when you came back, you'd tell me everything. It's time to talk now, right?"
Emily had been too busy lately. Ever since going on that variety show, her life had been magnified for everyone to see, and with three kids clinging to her, she was dizzy and couldn't focus on anything else.
But now she had some free time, and it was time to hear what William had been hiding from her.
When this topic came up, William surprisingly got stuck and even turned his head away.
"You don't want to talk about it?"
Emily stared at him. "You promised me yourself. Are you going back on your word?"
William quickly denied it. "Of course I won't go back on my word."
"Then tell me."
Emily sat up straight, ready to listen.
William opened his mouth, hesitating for a long time, but still couldn't speak. It wasn't that he didn't want to say it, but he didn't know how Emily would react after he told her.
What if she got upset? What if she didn't believe him? These were all difficult questions.
"So you really don't want to say it."
The light in Emily's eyes dimmed slightly, disappointed, but she quickly smiled with acceptance.
"I should have known. Your status is so special; the things about you must be wealthy family secrets. I'm just an ordinary person - how could you let me know about matters between wealthy families?"
"When you promised me before, you probably just said it casually. I took it too seriously. Forget it, if you don't want to say it, I won't pressure you."