Under Jeffery's furious shout, Bella barely calmed down, but her expression remained ferocious.
"I can't accept this. Do I really have to swallow this loss?"
"This can't end like this. Honey, think of a way to make Lance pay the price, or make him marry our Bella!" Kelly chimed in from the side.
To her, it was because of Lance that her daughter ended up in such a disgraceful situation. Lance should take responsibility for her daughter.
Jeffery laughed angrily when he heard this. "Do you think Lance is stupid? You want him to take responsibility? Didn't you hear what the police just said? This has nothing to do with Lance!"
"But with this happening, how can Bella get married in the future?" Kelly said anxiously.
Jeffery gave Bella a cold glare and said angrily, "If she can't get married, who is to blame? Herself!"
After speaking, he was still fuming.
"I've told you before, if you want to marry Lance, you have to proceed slowly and cautiously unless you're completely sure. Otherwise, don't act rashly. But look at you, acting without consulting me first and not even cleaning up your tracks. Where's your usual cleverness now?"
Bella felt both wronged and indignant from the scolding. Her hatred for Lance and Deanna grew even stronger.
She clenched her fists tightly and vowed silently that one day she would repay today's humiliation tenfold or a hundredfold to Lance and Deanna!
Meanwhile, after sending off Lance, Deanna immersed herself in the herbal cultivation experiment.
By the time she came out, there were no more negative news about Lance on the internet.
However, she eventually learned about the Cody family suing Lance.
Julia had noticed this during the day but couldn't reach Deanna at that time. So after work in the evening, she went straight to the Jones family.
When she arrived, Lance was also there, helping two children with math problems in the living room.
"Deanna, tell me what's going on between Mr. Mercer and Miss Cody? Why did Miss Cody accuse Mr. Mercer of kidnapping and misconduct online today?"
Julia leaned close to her friend with a gossiping look.
Deanna was somewhat surprised. "You mean Bella accused Mr. Mercer?"
"Yes, it was all over the internet this morning. Didn't you know?" Julia looked at her in surprise.
Hearing this, Deanna shook her head. "I was in the lab at that time and didn't know about it."
She frowned and looked at Lance with some concern.
Although others didn't know what happened, she did.
Perhaps her gaze was too noticeable because Lance sensed it and asked with a gentle smile, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Deanna shook her head, suppressing the questions in her mind.
Since her friend was here, it wasn't appropriate to discuss certain things now.
Lance slightly furrowed his brows but didn't press further, planning to ask her privately later.
Later that evening, after dinner, Julia took the two children downstairs to walk the cat.
Old Ashley went along too.
Deanna stayed home because she was tired from a long day.
Naturally, Lance stayed as well.
At this moment, he asked about what Deanna had wanted to say earlier.
"What did you want to tell me before?"
"I heard from Julia that Bella made a fuss online this morning accusing you. Are you... going to be alright?" Deanna couldn't hide her concern in her tone.
Lance smiled warmly. "Don't worry; it's already been resolved. If I were in trouble, I wouldn't be here."
Hearing this, Deanna realized he was right.
Then she remembered that Lance had done all this for her and felt grateful. "I haven't thanked you for standing up for me."
"You don't need to be so formal with me. This is what I should do. Besides, you suffered because of me, so there's no need for thanks," Lance explained reasonably, not wanting Deanna to feel distant from him.
Deanna pressed her lips together and said nothing more.
In the following days, Cloudmere's business world was turbulent.
Because of Bella's incident, the Cody family completely fell out with Lance.
Jeffery abruptly withdrew from projects with Mercer Group without warning, hoping to cause losses for Mercer Group and vent his anger for Bella.
However, Lance had anticipated his move and separated their joint projects in advance while taking away core technologies.
As a result, Jeffery's withdrawal not only caused significant losses but also yielded no gains whatsoever.
But it didn't end there; Lance took the opportunity to suppress the Cody family further.
Bella had always relied on being the eldest daughter of the Cody family to disregard laws and repeatedly scheme against Deanna.
Since that was the case, Lance decided to crush the Cody family entirely so that Bella would have no capital left to look down on Deanna.