Chapter 205

Chapter 205

Victoria listened to his accusations, her brows furrowed tightly, sadness showing in her eyes.

Martin always acted so righteous. "Alright, make your choice quickly. Don't waste everyone's time."

Victoria felt frustrated. "Martin, what about the friendship we built through all those letters over the past year?"

Martin's expression flickered for just a moment, then he spoke mercilessly. "I didn't want things to come to this either, but what you did today is really wrong. I can't just stand by and watch you keep making mistakes."

Victoria let out a heavy sigh.

Before she could speak, Timothy stepped forward. "Martin, that's not fair to say. Everyone knows Ms. Spencer was in a car accident a year and a half ago and was recovering abroad. Celine's headquarters is overseas. How could Victoria have anything to do with some tax evasion issues in the domestic branch? She obviously didn't know about it."

Timothy's mind raced, thinking through every possibility.

Victoria actually appreciated him. She had thought his position was shaky, but she hadn't expected him to be this smart.

Timothy was full of regret now. He had originally just wanted to please Victoria, but now Victoria was in a difficult position.

Now he and Victoria were in the same boat, so he could only help clear her name.

Victoria still had Chase and Aiden backing her.

As long as they got through today, maybe Victoria could stand back up with their help.

Martin's face darkened, and he shot Eleanor a harsh look.

Eleanor's heart sank too. Victoria was in such a bad situation, yet people were still speaking up for her.

She hadn't expected Timothy to support Victoria at such a critical moment.

She quietly confronted him. "Have you really thought this through? If you're speaking up for Victoria now, and she really did those things, what will you do then?"

Timothy looked at Victoria hopefully, waiting for her to turn things around.

Eleanor couldn't wait any longer. "Victoria, even if you didn't steal anything, your company has tax evasion issues. You can't escape that."

Victoria was tired of this game. She cleared her throat. "I'm afraid it's not your place to say what happens to me. Like I said, if you want to bring me down, you need to show me evidence. So where's the evidence?"

Victoria couldn't investigate all these matters alone, but a while back Aiden had lent her Zane. With his help, the messy accounts in the company had already been sorted out and submitted to the court.

By her calculations, the court should have results by tomorrow.

Victoria turned to look at Eleanor, her eyes narrowing. "Ms. Hartley, the only reason you're targeting me like this is because Chase and I are together, isn't it?"

Victoria wanted to completely humiliate her at this party.

She looked at Martin again, a flash of pain in her eyes.

"How ridiculous. Martin, I really considered you a friend before. I never thought you'd been plotting against me all along. You say my company has all these problems, and that I told you about them myself. Well, I want to ask you—where's your evidence? And your company, can it really stand up to an audit?"

Martin's face darkened. His eyes seemed to waver for a moment, but driven by self-interest, he quickly became cold and heartless again.

"Of course I have evidence. Since you want it, I'll make you give up."

He projected what he called evidence onto the screen.

On the screen was a forged chat history with Victoria.

It clearly showed Victoria showing him the company's accounts, with Martin constantly advising Victoria to stop early. These three or four pages of chat evidence painted Victoria as a woman who had been forced into this.

Layer upon layer of evidence piled up. Even those who had believed Victoria before were now starting to waver.

It was one thing for one person to accuse Victoria, but now even Martin, who had such a good relationship with Victoria, was coming forward to testify.

Victoria suddenly started laughing, her laughter growing louder and louder.

To those around her, the laughter sounded somewhat hollow.

Eleanor's eyes darkened. "Victoria, what are you laughing at?"

Victoria wiped away the tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes. "I'm laughing at how much effort you've put into framing me."

She walked step by step toward the two of them, her eyes turning cold.

The scene fell into a stalemate.

Eleanor's eyes flashed with excitement. She smiled but spoke as if giving advice. "Ms. Spencer, when you've done something wrong, you need to admit it."

Martin used the same tone, even sounding pained. "After doing so many wrong things, as long as you admit it and hand over control of Celine to us, we'll protect you. From now on, just be a designer. We won't treat you badly."

Victoria was about to present all her evidence.

Suddenly, the closed doors of the banquet hall opened.

A familiar, strong voice rang out. "So this is how you bully Victoria when I'm not around?"

Ralph walked between two bodyguards, his presence commanding.

Victoria looked up, not expecting to see him.

Ralph quickly walked over, looking at Victoria with guilt and concern. "Don't be afraid. I'll help you. You didn't do any of those things, did you?"

Victoria didn't know what his purpose was, but she played along on the surface, putting on a pitiful act. "Yes, they forced me into this. I don't know anything. Mr. Cook, you have to help me."

Ralph's authority was natural. "You all keep saying Victoria did these wrong things and provide this fake evidence. Fine, let's call the police today! I fully support Victoria. Let's see if what you're saying is true or false!"

His eyes swept over everyone present. They all knew him as a charitable middle-aged businessman.

They had never seen this man so angry before. Even Martin and Eleanor hadn't expected that after leaving, he would come back for Victoria.

No one dared to speak anymore, except Timothy, who acted like he'd won the lottery jackpot and quickly stepped forward to complain.

"Mr. Cook, you don't know how these two people slandered Victoria just now. They presented this fake information as evidence. That woman worked with Victoria's assistant to accuse Victoria of plagiarism, and Martin said Victoria's company was evading taxes."

A fire seemed to burn in his heart. He really had chosen the right person—Victoria had so many powerful people backing her!

Even if Victoria really had plagiarized in the future, at least he'd left a good impression with Ralph.

Ralph raised an eyebrow at the so-called evidence on stage. "Keep a sample of this and send it to forensics to check for signs of fabrication."