Chapter 131
Ella glanced at Joshua and tossed out a line, "Come over when you're free."
She turned around with a smile, but the moment her back was to Joshua, her expression instantly turned cold and grim.
She walked straight through the gates of the Lewis Villa without looking back.
She completely ignored Joshua, who was still standing at the entrance, silently watching her retreating figure.
Hoping Ella would turn around and say goodnight to him.
But she didn't.
After a long while, Joshua finally drove away, dejected.
It was already quite late.
Heath and Rhea had gone to bed, and Mason wasn't around either.
Ella went straight to her room. Seeing Dorian sleeping soundly, she didn't disturb him and sat by the bed, pulling out her laptop to handle some things.
The next morning.
News about Scarlett broke out.
It said that after the Lewis family's adopted daughter was called off from her engagement with the Thomas family, she degraded herself by going to nightclubs to dance provocatively and please men.
It even included a video of Scarlett in revealing clothes doing pole dancing.
This social news story even shot up to the trending topics.
Heath, who was still having breakfast at home and hadn't left for work yet, found out too.
Looking at the news about Scarlett on his tablet, Heath was furious and embarrassed, scolding Mason beside him, "Look at this woman. You need to cut ties with Scarlett immediately. I think we should hold a press conference to distance ourselves from her, or she'll ruin this family's reputation sooner or later."
Mason didn't know what had happened yet.
He grabbed the tablet and opened the news. He immediately flew into a rage too.
He hadn't expected that Scarlett's so-called ability to make money was earned this way.
Absolutely shameless.
Too angry to stay, Mason threw down his utensils and got up to leave.
As soon as he left, Rhea couldn't help complaining, "This Scarlett has been scheming since she was little. For her to so blatantly go to such places to please men, she's completely disregarding the Lewis family's reputation."
Looking at Heath, she reminded him, "Hold a press conference as soon as possible to distance ourselves from her. The Lewis family can't tolerate this kind of woman."
Heath understood.
After breakfast, he took Ella to the company.
Dorian stayed home to keep Rhea company.
But as soon as Ella left the villa with Heath, they ran into Joshua, who had come to pick her up.
Seeing Joshua, Heath was somewhat unhappy.
But Ella said, "Dad, why don't you go ahead? I'll take his car and discuss some business with him."
She knew that Heath had a project that was a bit short on funds.
She needed to get Joshua to invest some money.
And regarding the cooperation between the two families, to ensure long-term stable development in the future, she wanted to personally sign a few contracts with Joshua.
This way it would benefit her when she took over the company later.
Heath didn't like Joshua.
And he didn't want to see him getting entangled with Ella again.
But since Ella wanted to approach Joshua on her own initiative, and as her father who hadn't fulfilled his duty of raising her felt very guilty, he agreed.
After seeing Heath off, Ella got into Joshua's car, acting as if nothing had happened, smiling exceptionally warmly, "You're pretty punctual."
The two family companies weren't even on the same route.
This Joshua sure went to a lot of trouble.
Joshua took a bouquet from the back seat and handed it to Ella, along with a warm cup of coffee, "Well, when pursuing someone you like, of course you have to be on time."
Ella took the flowers and coffee, disdain showing in her eyes.
She set them aside, took out several contracts from her bag, and got straight to the point, "Joshua, my dad needs some funding for this project. Can you invest in it?"
She held the contract up to him.
Joshua hadn't expected Ella to talk business with him first thing in the morning. Though somewhat uncomfortable, he still glanced at the contract.
He knew about that project. Heath had approached him before, and he'd refused.
He hadn't expected Heath to send Ella to ask him.
Even knowing it was something he'd invest in with no return, but since Ella had asked, how could he refuse?
"Okay, leave it there. I'll sign it after I drop you off at the company."
Ella pulled out another one, "What about this one? Can you sign it for me too?"
Joshua glanced at it again. It was a new project.
He didn't know much about it, and couldn't agree to everything Ella asked, so he indicated, "Leave it there. I'll look it over later, and if it's suitable, I'll sign it with you."
Ella didn't push Joshua.
He had the right to refuse.
Sitting in the passenger seat with nothing to do, she opened the social news and saw that Scarlett's story had already hit number one on trending topics.
All kinds of mockery, calling her an ungrateful wretch, even hurling all sorts of insults.
Ella chuckled quietly.
After all, she had anonymously revealed the incident from childhood when Scarlett deliberately got her lost.
Now netizens were spinning all kinds of conspiracy theories about Scarlett.
Joshua knew about this too. He glanced at Ella and asked, "Was it you who leaked Scarlett's story?"
Because of the Thomas family calling off the engagement, any news about what Scarlett did was connected to the Thomas family.
Although it didn't have much impact, he just wanted to know if Ella had done it.
Ella deflected the question, "Do you think I did it?"
Joshua looked at her, seeing Ella's innocent eyes, and quickly shook his head in denial, chuckling, "No, you definitely wouldn't do that. After all, Scarlett has already left the Lewis family and can't pose any threat to you anymore."
Ella sneered inwardly.
For some reason, hearing Joshua's words always made her feel nauseous, like she wanted to throw up.
"You seem to really care about Scarlett."
Ella turned it back on him, "If you really can't let her go, just marry her."
Realizing Ella was getting emotional and sounded a bit jealous, Joshua quickly explained, "Don't overthink it. I was just asking casually. How could I possibly care about Scarlett?"
"I'll sign that contract for you later too. Okay, don't be angry."
Afraid Ella would get angry and ignore him, Joshua quickly tried to please her using the cooperation as leverage.
Ella didn't care at all.
Whether he married Scarlett or not had nothing to do with her.
In just one day, Scarlett became the target of everyone's criticism.
Not only was she attacked online, but classmates and friends in real life didn't spare her either.
Everyone now knew that the Lewis family's biological daughter had pitied her and brought her home.
But she, in order to take everything that belonged to her, had worked with human traffickers to have the Lewis family's biological daughter kidnapped and sold for twenty years.
No wonder the Thomas family had canceled the wedding on the spot.
No wonder the Lewis family had kicked her out and distanced themselves from her.
Scarlett had been a bad person since childhood, and everyone wanted to condemn her.
Mason searched for two days before finally finding Scarlett in a small hotel.
When he pushed open the door to the room, Scarlett looked at him as if seeing her lifeline, rushed toward him crying, "Mason, save me, please save me! It's not like what they're saying online. It's all Ella's doing. She wants to destroy me."
Now everything about her was spreading online.
Scarlett had no place to stay outside at all.
She had barely managed to hide in a small hotel to avoid being verbally abused by netizens.
Mason knew it might really be Ella's doing.
But she was his biological sister.
Ella had suffered outside for twenty years and had even lost a child.
It was normal for her to harbor resentment.
Looking at Scarlett's disheveled, panicked appearance, Mason coldly pushed her away, "Didn't you have the ability to go to nightclubs and please those men? Didn't you refuse to suffer hardship with me? How come after just two days you've ended up like this?"