Chapter 175 Intuition Tells Him, She Did It
People online were buzzing with discussion.
Just yesterday, William had explained things between him and Isabella at the press conference.
This morning, Isabella went live again.
And now, with this bet added to the mix!
"Gossip, gossip! I've been watching all this drama for days now. What's really going on between Isabella and William!"
"And Amelia - what does her part say she'll get? Does anyone know?"
"I love watching this kind of drama unfold. How are these two going to compete? I'm so curious!"
...
Public opinion was spreading like wildfire.
Soon after, Isabella came out to respond.
"The bet is real," Isabella said "weakly." "The timeline is just like what's written - three months. Finn said if I succeed, he'll host a wedding for William and me."
She smiled miserably.
With reddened eyes, she said: "I really, really want a wedding."
"You can think of it as my obsession."
In the livestream, she kept her head down, looking completely dejected.
"Anyway, I don't have much time left. I don't even know if I'll still be able to have that wedding by then. And I also don't know if Amelia is willing to... never mind, I shouldn't say it."
"Sorry, I'm not feeling well today. That's all for now. Oh, and about my short drama - it's currently going through the approval process for theatrical release, so it'll take a bit longer to meet everyone. Stay tuned."
With that, she ended the stream looking pale.
At the toy store, York had already put away his phone. William's brow was deeply furrowed.
Without another word, William turned and left.
York watched his retreating figure, then lifted the Cinnamoroll plush in his hand, a slight smile playing at his lips.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Isabella had already sent Carl to work on marketing.
Right now, online opinion was completely one-sided—
"She just wants a wedding. I think Amelia should grant her that wish. Isabella is dying, and Amelia and William are already divorced anyway. Amelia just needs to lose."
"Yeah, Amelia, just let her have this. You and William are divorced anyway. What could be more important than life and death?"
"Didn't Isabella say the short drama is going to theaters? Let's go buy tickets. Isn't that what the agreement measures?"
"Right, buy tickets! Go watch the short drama in theaters!"
...
There were some other voices online, but they were all drowned out.
Anyone who dared to speak up against it would immediately be labeled as disrespecting someone who was sick and dying.
So going to watch the short drama when it came out became the dominant voice online.
...
Amelia had now arrived at the Adams Group.
Besides Amelia, Soren and Jeffrey were also there.
The three of them looked at each other, eyes wide.
"So... should I just pretend to lose?" Soren said.
Soren had just learned that the song "Love in Micro" was actually written by Amelia.
Initially, what Isabella had bought were the transferable property rights and neighboring rights within the copyright.
But the moral rights like attribution still belonged to Amelia.
Yet Isabella completely ignored this, listing only her own name as lyricist, composer, and performer, and heavily promoting the song as her own original creation.
Even after the Adams Group sent her a legal notice, Isabella didn't stop the infringement.
She even later wanted to create a micro-drama based on this song.
"It's obvious now that Isabella wants to use the short drama to win the bet," Jeffrey said from the side. "But would she really be stupid enough to ignore the attribution issue?"
Amelia looked at the solid wood table beside her, her fingers tapping lightly.
"I'm not sure about Isabella," Amelia finally said. "But William will handle it."
Amelia looked at Jeffrey: "You told me before that William wanted to pay you hush money?"
Jeffrey nodded: "That did happen, but I refused."
Amelia thought for a moment, then stood up. William's usual way of doing things came to mind, and she said: "It should be within the next few days. If William wants to help Isabella win, then he'll definitely come to you again."
"Don't refuse immediately when the time comes. Say you need to think about it."
Amelia said calmly.
"What if they don't use it?" Jeffrey found it strange. Given how these people operated, if a project had extremely high risk, they wouldn't continue pushing it forward but would switch to another project.
William couldn't possibly not understand this.
And with William's resources, helping Isabella with another project would be easy.
So the probability of abandoning this project was very high.
Amelia looked at Jeffrey, her eyes completely calm.
"He will," she said.
...
On the other side.
William had already picked up Isabella.
The two were heading to a restaurant.
Silent the whole way.
Isabella looked even more "frail" than she had this morning.
The car sped along, the street scenes rapidly retreating on both sides.
"Did you leak the news about the bet?" William finally asked.
Isabella looked at William with a "shocked" expression, her face pale, her eyes red with hurt.
"William, do you have to suspect me like this?" she said weakly. "After Rhys came to make a scene today, I haven't been feeling well mentally. I've been resting the whole time."
But William just looked at her.
Only the people in the office that day knew about the bet. Only they could have seen the original agreement. Now that it was leaked online, the range of suspects was limited.
"William, I know what you're thinking," Isabella said. "But there are many ways it could have leaked. Maybe grandpa and grandma wanted to stir things up, maybe Amelia showed it to a lawyer who photographed it, or maybe the contract was just left on the table and someone saw it. All possible."
"But you're only suspecting me."
Isabella's eyes grew redder as she spoke, looking like she was about to cry.
"William, today when I said I didn't buy stocks, you didn't trust me either," Isabella said.
William felt a headache coming on.
He knew Isabella had a point, but his instinct told him it was her doing.
Forget it.
He didn't want to think about it anymore.
What he needed to do now was trap Amelia, so he had to let Isabella win.
With that thought, he said: "Don't do that short drama."
"Why!" Isabella immediately got agitated. "William, are you trying to help her?"
But William just looked at her calmly.
"There's an attribution issue," he said seriously. "If it were before, maybe we could work around it through negotiation."
But now...
In William's mind was the look in Jeffrey's eyes when he looked at Lika.
He could see it clearly - it was admiration.
This was also one of the reasons why he had repeatedly suspected Lika's identity but kept dismissing his own suspicions.
But Isabella wouldn't back down.
The short drama was very important to her.
No one knew she was faking her illness. She knew Finn and Cleo didn't accept her at all, and William was already starting to waver.
Only by completely crushing Amelia underfoot and proving she was better than Amelia in every way could she continue to maintain her position in the Brown family after the tests showed she wasn't sick.
Amelia had previously existed only as an appendage to the Brown Group, just taking care of William's daily life, with no real abilities.
The only ability she had was shining as Lika this time - her musical talent.
So she absolutely had to use the short drama to completely crush Amelia in both music and drama!