Chapter 16
Chloe's eyes dimmed. She didn't want Charlotte to have any connection with Alexander.
She had worked so hard to drive Charlotte away. Charlotte deserved nothing but a dim and hopeless life - she absolutely couldn't be allowed to latch onto any powerful figures!
Fortunately, Alexander had stayed away from women for years and didn't seem like someone who would necessarily fall for Charlotte's charms.
She just needed to smear Charlotte's reputation.
With this thought, Chloe quietly pulled out her phone.
Two hours later, Charlotte returned to Queen Studio.
Queen Studio enjoyed international prestige. Her studio gathered many outstanding designers, and their annual order volume was several times that of other studios.
Charlotte would usually come by to help out when she had free time.
However, unless a client offered a high enough price to request her personal design work, Charlotte generally wouldn't handle orders herself.
Charlotte had just arrived at the office when Jason came in with a contract.
"Someone just sent over a contract for you to review. They want you to design two sets of jewelry for an elderly person's birthday celebration."
Charlotte asked casually, "What's the offer?"
"The client must be very wealthy. They said you can set the price yourself - just write the amount in the contract."
Jason opened the contract and placed it in front of her.
Charlotte glanced at it. The contract specified the jewelry requirements very clearly - they just needed to have good symbolism and be suitable for an elderly person's birthday celebration.
The price section was deliberately left blank, accepting any quote up to fifty million.
Fifty million was an astronomical price for a jewelry designer.
The client was certainly sincere enough.
Charlotte thought for a moment. After the Langley family's welcome banquet, she didn't seem to have anything urgent to handle.
She said calmly, "If the client can accept a delay of a few days, I can take this order."
Jason smiled. "Alright, I'll respond to them right away."
He turned to leave, but suddenly his phone rang.
Jason answered the call, and after just a few words, his brow furrowed tightly.
"Yes, I understand the situation."
After hanging up, he turned around with a grim expression.
"Boss, someone seems to be targeting you. Many media reporters online are exposing that when you were in the countryside, you frequently associated with unknown thugs, had a messy private life, and even had an abortion at an illegal clinic."
Hearing this, Charlotte slowly curved her lips and sneered, "These people really won't give it a rest."
"You know who did it?"
Jason scrolled through his phone and indeed found that news about Charlotte's messy private life had spread everywhere.
Especially throughout the entire upper-class circle - everyone was discussing it. The discussions in the socialite groups and rich kids' groups were appalling.
[Ha, Charlotte really can't compare to Chloe. Chloe was raised in the Johnson family from childhood. Although she made mistakes and was suspected of plagiarism, at least her background is clean and she never messed around with men.]
[The Johnson family has already cut ties with Charlotte and kicked her out. It must be because of this.]
[Any family would cut ties with a daughter with such loose morals, right? Even though Chloe is the fake daughter, she's still way better than Charlotte.]
[That's terrifying. My mom was considering having me marry this real daughter who was just brought back to the Johnson family not long ago. Wouldn't that make me a sucker? I need to tell my mom right away.]
Jason's expression grew even darker as he read.
He sneered, "They believe these rumors without any evidence? Where are these people's brains? And this guy saying he almost got stuck marrying you - he should look at himself from head to toe and see what makes him worthy of you!"
Charlotte didn't respond. While he was venting, she had already opened her computer and quickly traced the source of the exposure.
Following the online trail, she easily identified the culprit behind it all.
"Chloe."
Jason snapped back to attention. "What? Chloe did this?"
Charlotte nodded slightly, her eyes indifferent. "Don't worry about it. I'll deal with her. Just suppress the buzz for now."
As soon as she finished speaking, the news on the computer screen suddenly disappeared from the trending list.
Charlotte looked closely and found that all the trending topics about her had vanished completely.
She typed in her name and some keywords, and all that came up was news about Chloe plagiarizing her and about her being Queen.
Anyone who could instantly remove such a hot trending topic must have an extraordinary status.
The Langley family?
Charlotte used her hacking skills to investigate, and a dazzling emblem popped up on the screen.
The emblem bore a single large word: Harris.
Jason leaned over and said in surprise, "What's going on? Why would the Harris family help you remove the scandal?"
"It's Alexander." Charlotte slowly frowned.
What exactly was this man trying to do?
Testing her, yet helping her.
Handling matters that had nothing to do with him.
Something was off.
Seeing her full of suspicion, Jason joked with a chuckle, "Could Alexander have fallen for you?"
Charlotte shot him a cold look. "You think that's possible?"
Jason scratched his head.
For such an unfathomable man to silently help just because he liked Charlotte seemed way too pure and fairy-tale-like.
Charlotte's eyes flashed with a sharp coldness. "He definitely has some hidden agenda."
She didn't contact Alexander, pretending not to know about the online situation, and got up to make a phone call.
"You're going to the Johnson Group for business talks today?"
"Good, do as I say."
After giving instructions to the person on the phone, Charlotte hung up.
Chloe still dared to make a move against her.
Fine.
If she was so eager to embarrass herself, Charlotte had no reason not to oblige.
Three o'clock in the afternoon.
Downstairs at the Johnson Group.
A red carpet was laid out at the company entrance. Henry, along with Susan, Chloe, and a group of shareholders, were all waiting for their business partner to arrive.
Chloe adjusted her women's business suit and looked somewhat confused.
"Dad, who exactly is this business partner? Why are we welcoming them so formally?"
Henry looked toward the street entrance and explained, "It's a major investor from Wall Street, Harper Anderson. Now that Benjamin won't give us that production line, our company is having some cash flow difficulties. We're counting entirely on this investment mogul who was supposed to come for an inspection half a month ago!"
Susan also unconsciously straightened her back.
"That's right. If the Johnson Group can catch her eye and get the investment, we'll have no trouble breaking into the top ten! Then Benjamin won't dare look down on you anymore!"
Chloe's eyes lit up at this. As soon as she saw two top-tier luxury cars appear at the street entrance, she immediately worked to maintain perfect posture.
"They're here!"
Everyone stood at attention.
When the cars stopped at the entrance, Henry and the others eagerly rushed forward.
From the back seat of the lead car stepped a middle-aged woman wearing top-grade jade jewelry, elegant and noble with an imposing presence.
As soon as Harper got out, she first ignored Henry's outstretched hand offering assistance and looked around at each ingratiating smiling face.
Finally, she said with displeasure, "Why isn't Charlotte here?"