Chapter 225 Ruined and Disgraced?
The glow from the large screen gradually faded, and as the venue lights came back on, they seemed particularly harsh.
No one spoke.
The audience who had just been caught up in "Stefan standing up for Amelia" now felt a chill run through their bodies, completely sobered up.
If they had thought Rufus was a devoted man before, now his "devotion" seemed especially terrifying and twisted.
After a brief pause, the live stream comments exploded with unprecedented controversy.
[Oh my god! This is so creepy! Cecilia's dying wish was to go back to her hometown, but Rufus kept her in Harmony City?]
[Rufus isn't devoted at all—this is clearly kidnapping! He won't even let go of Cecilia's ashes, and he wants to dig up Cecilia's grandfather's grave and move it here? That's so messed up!]
[But still... Mr. Chapman just loved his late wife too much and wanted the family together, right? Can we not assume the worst?]
[Are you out of your mind? Family together? Did Patrick agree to this? Did Cecilia agree? This is completely Rufus satisfying his own need for control!]
[So this is how rich people love? Moving themselves, disgusting everyone else. Amelia is really brave to expose this at an event like this!]
[The friendship between Amelia and Cecilia is so worth celebrating—they're both amazing!]
Standing center stage, Rufus felt like all the blood in his body was flowing backward.
He'd been played.
The dinner at Skyline Tower, Cecilia wanting to show off to the Hensley family...
All of it was fake!
This was a carefully designed trap.
Cecilia had used her current identity, used this nationally watched competition, even used his damned possessiveness to trick him onto this stage, making him face this moral judgment in front of tens of millions of people!
"You..." Rufus turned his head, staring hard at Cecilia beside him. His eyes were red, veins bulging at his temples, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, knuckles white.
Meeting his icy gaze, Cecilia wore a flawless professional smile.
"Mr. Chapman," she raised the microphone, her voice clear and carrying throughout the venue, "this is my wish. You just said that you could give me anything I wanted. As an entrepreneur with a distinguished social reputation, surely you wouldn't refuse such a humane request?"
Stefan sat in the shadows of the first row below the stage, watching that dazzling and aggressive figure above, a faint smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
He remembered how Cecilia had looked two days ago when she told him about this plan in the greenhouse.
"Why go to all this trouble?" Stefan had cut off an excess branch at the time.
"Since you have evidence, why not take this opportunity to expose all the terrible things he did to you back then? Let him be completely ruined—wouldn't that be more satisfying?"
Cecilia had shaken her head, her fingers gently stroking the pot of newly growing orchids.
"That would make too big a scene." Her voice was soft but exceptionally firm. "This competition is the hard work of countless staff members, and it's a chance for many designers to change their fate. If it turned into me confronting him head-on, the show would be ruined, and those innocent people would be dragged into it too."
She looked up, her eyes remarkably bright: "All I want is to reclaim dignity for my grandfather and myself. As for Rufus, destroying him all at once would be too easy. I want to cut away everything he's proud of bit by bit, like slicing meat with a dull knife."
Stefan had looked at her profile, and in that moment, he heard his heart pounding heavily.
This was her.
Ruthless, yet principled. Vengeful, yet not hurting the innocent.
She could always surprise him.
The atmosphere on stage had reached a breaking point.
Quinton was so scared he could barely hold the microphone, constantly signaling the director to cut to commercial, but the director's instructions were—the ratings had already exploded, absolutely no cutting!
Rufus's sanity teetered on the edge of collapse.
He wanted to grab the microphone and shout that it was all fake, that Cecilia didn't even know Amelia, that this was Stefan's conspiracy.
Just as Rufus's emotions were about to spiral out of control, the curtain behind him suddenly moved.
Rufus's assistant Louis, risking a pay cut, crouched down and rushed to the side of the stage. Ignoring his image, he frantically pointed at his wristwatch, made a "stock" gesture, and exaggeratedly mouthed: "Hold it! Penalty fees! Stock price!"
Rufus's movement suddenly froze.
To cut off Stefan and secure this "lead investor" title, the Chapman Group had urgently mobilized hundreds of millions of dollars in liquid assets yesterday and signed an extremely harsh performance agreement.
The agreement clearly stated that the investor must unconditionally cooperate with the organizers to complete all segments. If a major broadcast incident occurred or the show's reputation collapsed due to the investor's personal reasons, the Chapman Group would face ten times the compensation amount and bear all associated liabilities.
If Rufus lost it now, not only would hundreds of millions of dollars be wasted, but the Chapman Group's stock price would hit the limit down when the market opened tomorrow.
More importantly, the Hensley Group was watching like a hawk.
Once the Chapman Group showed such a large funding gap and public opinion crisis, Stefan would definitely seize the opportunity to pounce and extract benefits from the Chapman Group.
This was a dead end, one trap after another.
Either Rufus publicly admitted he was scum who didn't respect his late wife's wishes and obediently handed over Cecilia's ashes.
Or Rufus lost his temper and left, forfeiting the Chapman Group's cash flow and reputation.
Rufus took a deep breath, the air burning painfully in his lungs.
He forcibly suppressed the murderous impulse in his heart, the muscles in his face stiffly twitching into a smile that looked worse than crying.
"Ms. Martinez is truly a loyal and righteous person." He took the microphone from Cecilia, speaking through gritted teeth.
"You're right. Cecilia did mention during her lifetime... that she wanted to go back to her hometown."
The audience below erupted. Was he admitting it?
Rufus closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the madness in them was forcibly sealed beneath a layer of ice.
"Before, I missed her too much and wanted to keep her by my side. I was confused for a moment and ignored what she really wanted." He turned to look at Cecilia, his gaze sinister but his tone forced to sound gentle. "Since this was her dying wish, and also the champion's wish... I agree."
"I'll arrange the grave relocation as soon as possible and send her and her grandfather... home."
The last sentence came out very softly, yet carried a sense of unwilling resentment.
Thunderous applause erupted again.
This time, it was genuine cheering from the audience—for justice being served, for the deceased finally finding peace.
Looking at Rufus, who maintained his composure even in desperate straits, Cecilia felt no particular satisfaction, only desolation.
In her previous life, the respect she had begged for and even died for, in this life, could only be obtained through such schemes and coercion.
How ironic.
She bowed slightly in a standard gesture.
"Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Chapman."
She knew they had formed an irreconcilable hatred.
From today on, there was no room for compromise between her and Rufus.
A fight to the death.