Chapter 54
Chloe completely panicked, gritting her teeth and glaring hard at Charlotte.
"You... you just don't want to take responsibility, right? Fine, I won't ask you for compensation anymore. For the sake of us both being part of the Johnson family once, I won't hold it against you."
With that, she turned to leave.
Jason immediately held up his phone and shoved it right in her face.
He said with a half-smile, "Oh, you think you can just leave? You falsely accused us, damaged our studio's reputation, and now you want to walk away? There's no such easy deal in this world!"
The other designers crowded around, surrounding Chloe.
"If our studio didn't use anti-counterfeiting marks to distinguish fakes from genuine pieces, we'd have no way to prove our innocence today, and our reputation would be completely ruined!"
"You think you can brush this off with a few light words? No way!"
Jason's face darkened. "Someone, hold her down! Either prove our innocence with facts today, or you admit to everything yourself!"
Chloe completely panicked, not knowing what to do.
If she admitted it, that would be social suicide.
But if she didn't admit it, how could she get past this situation?
In desperation, Chloe immediately pulled out her phone and made a call, scolding loudly.
"Hey! Get over here right now! The necklace you gave me has problems—it's a fake. Did someone with dirty hands swap it out when you were handling it? Look into it again!"
"Yes, check everyone under me who had a chance to touch this necklace and see what really happened!"
She was clearly putting on an act, reminding her subordinates to find a way to help her escape blame.
Charlotte stood with her arms crossed, waiting.
As for whether Chloe wanted to find a scapegoat for this matter, that was her business.
In any case, her side would never compromise and take the blame.
Soon, a servant from Chloe's household rushed over.
The servant brought an authentic necklace and came directly before Chloe, bowing her head guiltily in front of everyone.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Johnson. It was the driver who delivered the necklace for you—when he saw how valuable it was, he got greedy and contacted his relative in the jewelry business to make this fake. This has caused you inconvenience..."
Before she could finish, Chloe angrily slapped her across the face.
"Do you know how humiliated I am? How dare you deceive me like this! Now I'm practically socially dead!"
She flew into a rage. "I'm telling you, I absolutely won't tolerate this! Tell that driver and everyone who helped him trick me with the necklace—they can all wait to be sued and thrown in jail!"
Chloe threw her tantrum, acting all righteous, as if she had always been completely innocent and hadn't intentionally wronged Charlotte.
Then she looked at Charlotte with some guilt in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, this was all a complete misunderstanding. I never meant to cause you this kind of trouble. I'll definitely manage my people strictly so this never happens again!"
Chloe walked over and warmly grabbed Charlotte's hand, completely different from her earlier attitude.
"Please forgive me, okay? This was all a misunderstanding."
Charlotte unceremoniously shook off Chloe's hand.
"From now on, you're blacklisted from my studio. From today forward, we won't accept any orders related to the Johnson family. Also, you brought all these reporters here today to livestream and cause trouble, which has seriously inconvenienced our company. You need to compensate us $500,000 for our losses."
"How much did you say? $500,000?" Chloe was stunned and blurted out, "Why should I pay so much money? Why?"
Jason sneered. "The segment you livestreamed just now—plenty of people already misunderstand that our studio uses inferior materials and does shoddy work. How many people didn't see the complete story from beginning to end? How many potential partners have we lost?"
"Our studio handles million-dollar orders. Asking you for $500,000 is perfectly reasonable. If you don't want to pay, that's fine—we'll go through legal procedures and sue you directly."
Chloe was speechless.
The Johnson Group's situation had been very bad lately. For some reason, ever since Charlotte left, their company's business had been declining rapidly.
She didn't know if this woman was doing something behind the scenes, but partners who used to come in droves for cooperation were now gone—they'd lost several already, and even her allowance had been cut.
Right now, she simply didn't have that much money to compensate!
But in front of so many people, she couldn't possibly show that she didn't even have a mere $500,000.
After thinking it over, Chloe had no choice but to pull out her phone and ask Benjamin for help, asking him to lend her the money first.
After all this trouble, Chloe lost money and indirectly helped promote Charlotte's studio.
The studio had guaranteed sources, genuine materials, and would never cut corners—its reputation in the industry went up another level.
The storm was perfectly resolved.
Jason laughed. "Great! I knew this woman came to our place to have things designed with ulterior motives. Now she couldn't wait to come cause trouble. Now we have a legitimate reason to blacklist her fair and square, otherwise who knows how difficult it would be to deal with her in the future."
Charlotte turned back and said, "Alright, everyone was startled today. Go home early. If something like this happens again in the future, I'll handle it. You don't need to worry about it."
She turned and left.
As soon as she went out, she saw Chloe apologizing to several reporters, begging them not to talk about what just happened.
But not a single reporter paid attention to her.
Just then, Benjamin called.
"Chloe, you caused such a huge mess and you have the nerve to ask me for money to compensate! If there's a next time, I'll definitely break off the engagement. I'm only realizing now that you're not worth a single hair on Charlotte's head!"
Chloe's eyes widened in shock. "How can you say that about me! How can you say I'm not as good as Charlotte!"
"Because it's true! I've been pursuing Charlotte all along. If I'd known Charlotte was the Johnson family's daughter, the person I admired in the game, I would've definitely changed the engagement to make her my fiancée. What are you!"
Once Benjamin started despising Chloe, he spoke without restraint.
Chloe swayed unsteadily, feeling utterly humiliated. When she turned around, she discovered Charlotte was still listening nearby.
She slowly tightened her grip on her phone, hung up the call, and a crazy murderous intent burst forth in her eyes.