Chapter 217 You Are Right, Aren't You?
Outside the Peace Group building, a live interview was underway.
Molly tearfully told the reporters' cameras, "I know he's the perfect bachelor in many women's eyes, but I don't love him. Even the baby in my belly was forced on me. I hate him, but the child is innocent."
"You know about his ex-wife, right? The woman who caused a huge scandal online and led to the bankruptcy of the Baker Group and the Rivera family. I heard she has connections to organized crime—I misspoke, just pretend you didn't hear that."
So fake! Too fake!
At that moment, Sophia listened to Molly's lies in disbelief.
She apologized to Lyanna in front of her, "There's something I need to handle. Ms. Wells, I hope we'll have a chance to work together in the future."
After saying goodbye to Lyanna, Sophia walked straight toward the elevator.
Meanwhile, reporters in the lobby across the way kept asking questions. Molly and Henry's coordinated performance completely destroyed William's reputation.
Several days had passed since this whole thing blew up.
Whatever plan William had, all Sophia could see was his incompetence in handling it.
The enemy was making a scene right outside his company building, and the CEO of Peace Group was just letting them trash his name?
In front of the cameras, Molly continued her performance, "I just hope he'll take responsibility for the child. I heard he even acknowledged his ex-wife's daughter with another man, so he should be a good father, right?"
After saying this, Molly burst into tears.
Among the reporters was someone who had taken Quinn's money. Hearing this, they immediately took the moral high ground and attacked William for his moral corruption.
[I hope all girls who have the same experience as Ms. White will bravely speak out! Rich people's power is strong, but the power of the people is stronger! As a journalist, I'm calling for wealthy people to leave these girls from ordinary families alone. They carry the burden of their entire families on their shoulders!]
This reporter directly steered public opinion toward a conflict between "the rich" and "ordinary families."
Once this statement came out, the online impact grew bigger and bigger.
More and more parents with daughters joined the campaign attacking William and the Peace Group.
Standing to the side, Henry couldn't hide the smile creeping from the corners of his eyes as he watched the online abuse increase by the second.
Why should everything from the Peace Group and the Smith family skip over him and go straight to William?
He wanted Holden to know how wrong his choice had been!
At the same time, in the CEO's office on the top floor.
William was worried about leaving Emily alone in the lounge, so he chose to hold the meeting in his office.
Tony reported, "Mr. Smith, the public opinion from this incident is affecting the company's stock too much. If we don't take direct action, the losses will only get worse."
Peace Group's PR department wasn't useless—they'd proposed many solutions over the past few days.
But all the proposals got the same answer: wait a bit longer.
They didn't know what William was waiting for.
Right now, all the online comments favor Molly. If this matter wasn't handled well, they'd become an incompetent laughingstock in their circle.
Tony noticed William's gaze fall on a photo on the desk, and a thought flashed through his mind: 'Could it be that the boss is waiting for Sophia to make a move?'
But risking tens of billions of dollars in losses to bet on an unknown answer—
Wasn't that being blinded by love?
Suddenly, the sound of something falling came from the lounge. William immediately stood up and strode inside.
Emily had just thrown off the covers and was about to get down from the bed to pick up the remote when she was lifted up by a pair of large hands.
Her little legs kicked, never quite reaching the ground, as she was carried back to the bed. She looked at the messy bedding and smiled a bit sheepishly.
"It's okay, Emily can play however she wants."
William was currently in his "everything Emily does is adorable" phase. He placed the remote by the bed and gently patted her head.
Emily crawled up, stood on the bed, and reached out her arms to him, "Hug."
When the PR team, who had been in a heated discussion, saw William emerge from the lounge carrying a delicate and adorable little girl, they instantly fell silent.
Emily enthusiastically waved hello to them.
William had just sat down at his desk with Emily when he heard her point at the large screen in the office and say, "That's Mommy."
Hearing this, everyone snapped back to attention and looked over.
The person on the screen really was Sophia!
Downstairs in the lobby.
This was Molly's first direct confrontation with Sophia. The madness in her eyes couldn't be hidden, and her hands were clenched into tight fists from excitement.
Sophia caught a glimpse of the true emotion beneath her pitiful facade, let out a cold laugh, and walked up to her. "I have connections to organized crime?"
Everyone had witnessed her fighting skills online before.
The reporters who wanted to rush forward hesitated, not daring to get too close.
Molly, who had been so aggressive just moments ago, now acted timid and immediately made false accusations, "I just misspoke. Ms. Johnson, please don't hit me again. I have a baby now and can't take another violent beating from you."
Sophia laughed at her words.
She thought that for Molly to have gotten this far, she'd be at least somewhat clever, but she was still using the same tactics as Alice and Lily.
Honestly, she was a bit disappointed.
This situation had blown up to the point where it would definitely affect the children. She had just transferred James and Michael to a better kindergarten and didn't want William's scandal affecting the kids.
Sophia glanced at the two receptionists, and they immediately brought her a chair.
After sitting down, she calmly asked Molly, "Where's your proof?"
"You keep saying William is a wealthy person who uses his power to oppress people, and that you couldn't resist. But I think you're way more capable than him."
"Because you could even predict being 'forced,' and you prepared a perfectly angled camera in advance in a stranger's apartment, and managed to get such high-definition video evidence. Isn't that way more impressive than those rich people?"
Sophia took out her phone, found the text under the latest video, and read the content aloud.
Molly's claim was: [She was kidnapped by William to a strange apartment and was forced into it.]
Sophia looked up, facing the male reporter who had been spouting nonsense to Molly. Her gaze seemed to penetrate the fog of lies, reaching the darkest corners of the human heart.
The man felt guilty under her stare and quietly looked away.
Sophia smiled, turned to look at Molly, and said seriously, "Then I suppose if I really did fight fire with fire, you'd also have the ability to predict it and record a video, right?"
Hearing this, Molly froze.
Wasn't Sophia basically mocking her, saying this whole thing was a setup?
Snapping back to reality, Molly immediately defended herself, "That wasn't the first time! I secretly installed the surveillance earlier to record his crimes."
Sophia scanned the crowd around her, her gaze sharp as a hawk's. She caught sight of the female reporter who had earlier asked Molly about school—she rolled her eyes at Molly's explanation.
Sophia mocked, "Really? Then William must be pretty useless if he couldn't even notice that."
Catching her sarcasm, Molly clenched her teeth. She glanced at Henry beside her, hoping he'd help.
But Henry looked away indifferently. Yeah, right—when this woman went crazy, she really would slap him, and he didn't want to lose face in front of so many reporters.
Just then, the male reporter checked a message on his phone and immediately stepped forward to speak up for Molly again.
[You're the perpetrator's ex-wife—who knows if you're in on it with him! What you're doing now is just enabling the perpetrator's terrible behavior!]
Sophia's gaze swept over, sharp as a knife aimed straight at the male reporter's heart.
"Right now, I'm discussing with her the fact that she slandered me about having connections to organized crime. What does that have to do with whether I'm William's ex-wife or not?"
"You're a journalist—can't you tell what's primary and what's secondary? Stirring up public opinion without knowing the truth—do you deserve to call yourself a journalist?"
Her voice was very gentle, but it carried a force and power that could see through people's hearts.
Sophia steered the topic back to Molly's slander against her. She looked directly into her eyes as if seeing through all pretense.
"I don't care what's between you and William, but you'd better explain clearly about slandering me."
"Otherwise, if it affects my reputation, I won't let this slide. After all, I'm a malicious donor, aren't I?"
The corner of her mouth curved in a composed smile as she slowly uttered a name:
"Isn't that right, Lilith Nguyen?"