Chapter 157: Reversal

She unlocked her phone and tapped into the trending topics.

Number one trending: Plot twist—Claire is the Montague family's daughter!

Rowan stared at the headline. Something inside her head seemed to explode.

Her fingers trembling, she clicked on it.

The moment she saw the photo, her heart felt like it had been struck. Her mind went blank.

The image showed Claire's face—that face she'd been jealous enough to hate—and beside her stood a couple whose bearing alone screamed wealth and status.

She recognized the necklace around Claire's neck instantly: "Azure Oath." When the media had covered it years ago, she'd told her classmates about it, wondering which lucky soul would end up owning such a piece.

Now it hung around the neck of the person she despised most!

She skimmed through the text rapidly.

Words crashed into her consciousness one after another: Crystalbrook's four major families, the Montague family's long-lost biological daughter.

"Impossible!" Rowan slammed her phone face-down on her lap, her voice panicked and terrified.

Brooke, who was driving, noticed something was wrong. "Rowan, what's the matter?"

Rowan seemed not to hear her, muttering to herself, "Impossible. Impossible."

Brooke glanced over. Seeing her daughter shaking her head while muttering, eyes unfocused, she pressed anxiously, "What happened? Just tell me already!"

Rowan suddenly burst into loud laughter. "Mom, you know what I just saw? The internet's claiming Claire is the Montague family's long-lost biological daughter. Isn't that hilarious?"

"Which Montague family?"

Rowan kept laughing. "What do you mean 'which'? Daphne's Montague family, obviously."

"Is it true?"

Rowan sneered. "True? Last time Daphne said right in front of everyone that Claire was some distant relative. Claire must've paid for this publicity stunt."

As Rowan responded to Brooke, she told herself silently: If Claire really were the Montague family's biological daughter, how could Daphne dare call her a distant relative?

Right. This had to be Claire's doing—fake publicity.

But she didn't dare look at her phone again.

Brooke, hearing this, coldly remarked, "She's really living in a fantasy world."

Just then, her own phone rang.

It was Henry calling.

She answered and put it on speaker. "Honey."

"Who told you to do that live interview?" Henry's voice came through furiously.

"You're so busy I never even see you—how was I supposed to tell you? Did you watch the stream? Rowan gained tons of followers!"

"Shut up!"

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? We're in deep trouble, that's what!"

"What?" Brooke slammed on the brakes. Mother and daughter both lurched forward.

"Honey, what happened? Is there a problem with the project?" Brooke heard the gravity in Henry's voice and started to panic.

"Don't you check your phone? Claire is the Montague family's biological daughter. Your interview today just destroyed the Blackwell family. Get your ass home now." Henry hung up furiously.

Rowan could no longer lie to herself.

The reassurance she'd just managed to muster crumbled. Her heart sank.

Brooke frantically grabbed her phone. Her car sat in the middle of the road, horns blaring behind her, but she didn't hear them.

She pulled up the news about Claire first.

After reading it, she went limp against the seat back, repeating over and over, "We're done. We're done. We're done."

"Rowan, we're finished."

Rowan was already panicking, but seeing Brooke so defeated, her heart plummeted to rock bottom. She didn't even have the courage to check her phone.

Just as she was about to ask Brooke about the online reaction, her assistant called.

"Rowan, this is bad. Claire posted chat screenshots and audio recordings—everything makes you look terrible. People online are already trashing you. You've lost tens of thousands of followers."

No matter how much Rowan wanted to avoid it, she had no choice but to open her phone.

Her name was trending too: Rowan slanders Claire.

She clicked on it.

What she saw were screenshots of her chats from when she'd arranged for someone to get Claire drunk and frame her.

The chat content laid out her intentions to frame Claire, crystal clear. There was no talking her way out of this.

There were two audio recordings.

The first was from the day Claire left the Blackwell family, clearly demonstrating how the Blackwells had treated her.

The second covered the full story of when Claire had held Rowan under cold water.

It started in Nathaniel's hospital room: Brooke had accused Claire of asking Nathaniel for money and broken Claire's bracelet. Claire had demanded compensation.

In the audio, Brooke herself accused Claire of dating an older man.

Her exact words: "Rowan said she saw you out with some old man, looking all cozy together. I didn't want to believe it, but apparently you really would stoop that low just to stay in Crystalbrook!"

Then came Rowan's voice. "Claire, the Blackwell family raised you for over ten years. Doesn't that count for more than one bracelet?"

"Since your new boyfriend's supposedly so capable, here's a perfect chance for him to buy you something better, right?"

Next was the conversation during the cold-water incident.

Rowan screaming, "Claire, let go of me! You're the one being a sugar baby—are you afraid of me saying it?"

Claire, coldly: "You're too filthy. You need a good wash."

Brooke threatening: "Claire, let her go or I'm calling the police!"

Claire, unfazed: "Go ahead and call. Perfect timing—we can have the police deal with your daughter drugging me and trying to have me raped while we're at it."

"What drugging?"

"Your daughter, Rowan, slipped me an aphrodisiac and hired two men to try and rape me!"

The truth was laid bare.

The whole story about Claire bullying Rowan was complete fiction.

Instead, Claire had been insulted by Brooke and repeatedly set up by Rowan.

As for being a sugar baby—pure slander. The day the Blackwells kicked her out, Claire had been taken back to the Montague family.

The Montague family's daughter, a sugar baby? It was laughable.

Combined with Brooke's live interview earlier, internet users realized the whole thing had been fabricated by the Blackwells to generate sympathy for Rowan.

Discovering they'd been manipulated, users exploded with anger.

A hashtag demanding Rowan be removed from 'Beyond the Shadows' shot up the trending list.

The hundreds of thousands of followers Rowan had gained by slandering Claire—plus her existing fans—abandoned her en masse, joining the anti-Rowan brigade.

Immediately after, the official 'Beyond the Shadows' account posted an announcement: Rowan was no longer suitable for the lead role and had been removed from the production.

Simultaneously, an "Apologize to Claire" hashtag trended.

In the car, Brooke and Rowan sat in silence for a long time after listening to the audio.

Suddenly, Brooke straightened up and stared directly at Rowan. "Rowan, tell me the truth. What really happened when you came back from set?"

Rowan flinched at Brooke's expression.

She knew she couldn't hide it anymore. Timidly, she said, "Mom, I got fired from the production."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Brooke complained. "If you'd told me earlier, I wouldn't have done that interview or said those things. Things wouldn't have gotten this bad."

She was drowning in regret.

Now, all those carefully ambiguous things she'd said during the livestream hadn't hurt Claire at all—they'd hurt her. She'd personally proven on livestream that she was a vicious adoptive mother.

"They didn't tell me why I was fired. I thought Claire was behind it," Rowan said, her voice barely above a whisper, unease churning inside her.

Seeing her like that, Brooke couldn't bring herself to scold her further. She restarted the car and headed home.

Henry was already there. The moment mother and daughter walked in, he launched into a tirade.

Brooke shielded Rowan. "Enough! What good does yelling at us do? If you're so tough, go yell at Claire!"

"If she'd just said from the start that she was the Montague family's daughter, none of this would've happened! I think she did this on purpose."

Rowan, seeing an opening, chimed in, "Exactly, Dad. Think about it—so many people auditioned for the lead in 'Beyond the Shadows,' but I was chosen. The investor is Vincent. Don't you think Claire was setting a trap for me?"

"And she could've cleared her name immediately, but she waited. Wasn't she deliberately letting us dig ourselves deeper?"

"She just wants revenge on the Blackwell family. She wants to destroy me."

"Enough." Henry's sharp rebuke cut her off. "Even if she did set a trap, would you have fallen into it if you hadn't pulled those dirty tricks?"

Rowan hid behind Brooke, not daring to say another word.

Just then, a servant rushed in. "Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Blackwell."

Before the servant could finish, a group of people walked in.

Leading them were Ryan's parents, followed by two other couples. None of them looked pleased.

Henry quickly composed himself, plastering on a smile to greet them. He instructed the servant to bring tea.

Ryan's father, Clarence Jenkins, waved him off. "Henry, don't bother. We're here for one thing only. Your daughter got fired from the production and has no commercial value anymore. Time to settle that breach-of-contract penalty."