"Have some water." Ethan Sinclair poured Josephine Sterling a glass of water, smoothly providing an excuse to cover up her momentary lapse in composure.
He was a very well-mannered man, which made Josephine feel incredibly apologetic.
"I actually like spicy food. It’s probably just been too long since I last had it," she said.
That was why such an ordinary meal had brought back all the grievances she had suffered at the hands of the Sterlings.
"I like it quite a bit myself." Ethan handed her another tissue. "If you ever want to come here again, you can look for me anytime. I’d be more than happy to accompany you."
Josephine’s smile deepened. "Sure, but I’m afraid President Sinclair might not have the time."
"Why don’t you try asking me out a few times and see?" Ethan’s smile mirrored hers.
Josephine simply took it as a joke and didn’t take his words seriously.
After dinner, the two said their goodbyes. Josephine immediately instructed Ken Moran to find a law firm.
Normally, slander and defamation could be settled with a deleted post, an apology, and financial compensation. Without serious consequences, Yvonne Young would have been detained for a few days at most. That wouldn’t cause her any real harm. If Stella White spent a little more money on her, Yvonne would probably even be thrilled.
But the current situation was different.
After having the lawyer draft a litigation agreement and send it to Yvonne, Josephine didn’t sit idle. The day after returning home, she had Sean Pierce contact the media to release the complete, unedited video from the car dealership.
As soon as the video was released, the recently cooled-down discussions about Stella being "The Saint" surged again, and she was quickly cursed all the way back to the top of the trending topics.
"Holy shit, there’s no washing this clean! The Saint is totally exposed!"
"On the internet, she cries about their deep sisterly bond and begs people not to wrong her, while secretly contacting other friends to keep spreading rumors about Miss Sterling. What a ’deep sisterly bond’ indeed."
"Girls, open your eyes and see if you have any ’sisters’ like this around you. If you do, cut ties immediately. Don’t wait a single second."
"Yes, yes, yes! Learn from Miss Sterling—post the breakup letter directly online. We should all post friendship breakup letters!"
"Do you guys think this girl surnamed White has any shame? From the dealership video, she’s clearly standing on Mr. Young’s side. How does she have the nerve to keep calling Miss Sterling ’sister, sister’?"
"Well, didn’t calling her ’sister’ snatch away her three older brothers? Why would she be embarrassed? Now even the parents belong to her. She’s probably feeling pretty smug right now."
"Is there no one in the White Family to discipline her? She’s supposed to be a lady from a prominent family. Where’s her dignity?"
"If she cared about dignity, she wouldn’t have done this. She must be desperate to marry. The Sterlings are new money; they probably have a lot of cash."
"One out of three brothers? And she kicked the real sister out? What is she thinking?"
"The weirdest part is the Sterling Family. Abusing their biological daughter for a future daughter-in-law? Why?"
"That’s because the Whites are an established family. They’re just kissing up! What’s a daughter worth? Their sons are the real assets."
"It feels like none of them are any good. Let them rot together. Sterling is better off alone."
"Exactly! A toxic family like that isn’t worth keeping. Sterling will shine on her own, and The Saint will get her karma sooner or later."
"..."
The internet was flooded with curses directed at Stella, dragging both the Sterling Family and the White Family through the mud. The White Family took it especially hard; their reputation as an elite family was damaged, causing their stock prices to plummet.
Stella was ordered to return home.
Stella’s face crumpled in misery. "Liam, I’m afraid I won’t be able to come over and help you for the next few days. My parents are furious about what happened online. I have to go home. It obviously wasn’t like that. Why did things turn out this way?
"When Josephine and Yvonne argued that day, I just wanted to break up the fight. I even apologized on Yvonne’s behalf. I didn’t take her side, and I certainly didn’t instruct her to slander Josephine.
"Why is everyone online cursing at me? What did I do wrong?
"Does Josephine really hate me that much?"
Seeing that the new material was on the verge of being successfully manufactured, it was incredibly frustrating that Stella had to leave the laboratory right at this critical moment.
Liam looked furious. "Josephine is such a jinx. Nothing good ever happens when she’s involved. If she wants to sue Yvonne, fine, but she actually had the nerve to drag you into it. She’s already left the Sterling Family, yet she’s still scheming to frame you. It’s truly disgusting."
He wondered why she was so jealous of Stella. Back when she was still part of the Sterling Family, she was always fighting and competing with Stella. Now that she had left, she still refused to let Stella go. But what use was jealousy? She was just an incompetent piece of trash. How could she possibly compare to Stella?
Liam grabbed Stella’s hand. "Don’t worry, Stella. I will manufacture the material as quickly as possible.
"I’ll definitely make Josephine pay for everything she’s caused.
"You head back to the White Family for now. I’ll explain things to Dad for you.
"If your parents scold you, just push the blame onto Josephine. This whole thing was her fault to begin with. If the White Family is willing to step in, she’ll be dead meat."
If the White Family had been willing to step in, she wouldn’t have needed to go to such lengths scheming within the Sterling Family. The White Family was an elite clan; her father and brothers were all about saving face and following the rules. They would never stoop to doing such dirty deeds. If they found out she had stirred up this much trouble and even affected The White Group’s stock prices, they would only view her as incompetent and reckless. Not only would she inevitably be severely reprimanded, but she would also be grounded and forbidden from ever associating with people like Yvonne again.
At the thought of Yvonne, Stella only felt a wave of disgust. She was truly an incompetent fool; up against Josephine, she had been completely useless. If Stella had known she was going to be dragged down, she would never have gone to the car dealership with Yvonne that day.
But it was too late to say anything now. With the internet in such an uproar, there was no way she could clearly explain herself. It was probably for the best to retreat to the White Family and wait for the storm to pass. After all, she wasn’t some movie star, so these online comments wouldn’t have any lasting impact on her. The White Family would just pay to have the trending topics removed anyway!
However, Stella had no idea that this was only the beginning.
Before she even arrived at the White Family’s estate, she received a call from Yvonne’s mother.
"Stella, you can’t just abandon our Yvonne! She did all of this for you," Mrs. Young pleaded.
"Mrs. Young, what are you saying? It wasn’t me who told her to spread rumors about Josephine," Stella replied, her tone perfectly innocent. "On the contrary, I even tried to talk her out of it before she did all of this. But she wouldn’t listen. What could I do?"
Mrs. Young was overcome with fury. "But you know perfectly well she did it to defend you! Aren’t you two best friends? Now that she’s locked up, you have to help her.
"All it takes is a single word from the White Family, and the police station definitely won’t give her a hard time. Please, consider this as me begging you. Just help her."
There was no way Stella would dare to associate herself with Yvonne at a time like this. It would be fine if the Sterlings stepped in to deal with Josephine, but getting the White Family involved was absolutely impossible.
Yet, it was obvious that the Sterlings were currently helpless against Josephine.
They were all useless! A whole family of grown men couldn’t even handle one wretched little girl, yet they still had the nerve to claim they doted on Stella. In her eyes, they were clearly showing mercy to that cheap heiress. Otherwise, how could a woman like Josephine—who was completely alone, penniless, and utterly useless apart from being good at studying—possibly have the means to fight against the Sterlings?
"Don’t panic just yet, Mrs. Young. I’m heading back right now to beg my parents. Yvonne will definitely be fine," Stella said.
After pacifying the older woman, she hurriedly hung up the phone. The moment she stepped into the White Family’s home, she turned her phone completely off.
She would have to be out of her mind to plead for Yvonne!
As soon as she walked through the door, Mr. White punished her by making her kneel in the ancestral hall. Her eldest and second oldest brothers had also rushed home, glaring down at her with extreme disappointment.
Her eldest brother scolded, "Back then, you refused to join The White Group, insisting that The Sterling Group’s laboratory was more suitable for you. After all these years, you haven’t achieved a single thing, yet you’ve ended up dragging down The White Group.
"As far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to go back to your job at The Sterling Group starting today. Once this blows over, you’ll join our company."