Chapter 454 The Entire Internet Is Criticizing You
The burn on Luna's stomach was straight-up gnarly.
To make it even more obvious, she ditched the meds covering it this morning, showing off those nasty blisters to everyone in the room.
The whole conference room went dead silent. Everyone was just staring, totally freaked out by Luna's burn. They were so stunned, they forgot to even help her out.
Adeline was just as shocked. After a beat, she was the first to snap out of it and rushed to help Luna. "What the heck happened to you?"
Even though she wasn't Luna's biggest fan, seeing that wound made her soften up a bit.
But then, Luna's next words hit Adeline like a ton of bricks.
Luna bit her lip and covered the scar with her clothes. "It's nothing, Ms. Wilson. Even though you caused these burns, I don't blame you. It's my fault for insisting on bringing you coffee and getting burned."
Luna gave a weak smile. "Jasper thinks my injury is too serious, but I believe I brought it on myself. You've always been so nice to me; you couldn't have burned me on purpose."
The room went silent again.
Adeline frowned, staring at Luna in shock.
Next to her, the competition organizer, Jerry, frowned. "Ms. Jones, are you saying Miss Wilson caused these burns?"
"Yeah, I can back that up," Raymond Campbell from Adeline's team stepped forward. "I've always seen things clearly. Adeline has always isolated Ms. Jones, not letting her do any real design work, just menial tasks. And the burn on Ms. Jones's stomach was definitely caused by Ms. Wilson. Lots of people in our company saw it happen!"
Sienna Rogers also stepped up. "Yeah, Ms. Jones is the girlfriend of our CEO. No one should mess with her. But Adeline bullied her at work and even burned her. Yesterday in the cafeteria, Adeline poured soup on Ms. Jones. Mr. Foster asked Adeline to apologize, but she refused. In the end, it was Ms. Jones who convinced Mr. Foster to let it go."
Raymond quickly chimed in, "Exactly, Ms. Jones has always been helpful, always willing to assist colleagues. When she heard my kid was struggling in school , she asked Mr. Foster to help out. Such a kind person, treated so badly!"
Sienna nodded quickly. "Yes, Ms. Jones is kind and considerate. When she heard I was in trouble, she was eager to help and even said she hoped I could focus on the competition without worrying about money."
Adeline stood there, listening to their coordinated accusations, feeling like her head was being stabbed with needles.
She'd been busting her butt, working overtime to perfect her designs. But she hadn't realized that Luna had been winning over everyone with small favors.
Adeline knew about Raymond and Sienna's so-called problems.
Raymond's kid didn't have the qualifications but wanted to get into the best school in Radiance Springs and complained about social injustice when rejected.
Sienna made over ten grand a month but spent tens of thousands on designer bags, ending up in serious debt.
Adeline decided not to help them out, thinking they needed to sort their own mess. But she never saw it coming that Luna would use these issues to win them over.
Their words got the other teams talking smack about Adeline.
Organizer Jerry frowned at Adeline. "Ms. Wilson, you know our competition needs everyone on the team to pitch in, right?"
Adeline bit her lip and nodded. "I know. But..."
She hadn't totally cut Luna out of the design work; she gave her some small decorative stuff to handle. But Luna was so bad at it, she couldn't even manage that. Adeline had no choice but to give her menial tasks.
"You don't need to explain," Jerry sighed. "I'll contact Mr. Foster from the Foster Group to look into your team's issues. If it's true that Ms. Jones didn't do any core work, you're out of the competition."
With that, Jerry turned and left.
The other teams packed up and left, giving Adeline dirty looks.
Adeline stood there, her mind blank.
For the past few days, she couldn't figure out why Luna, who had planned to sabotage her, had been so compliant except for visiting her office yesterday. She really thought Luna was trying to help her earn money for Jasper and leave sooner. But Luna's scheme had come to light here.
Luna knew the competition rules, so she deliberately exposed Adeline's "misdeeds" during today's meeting, making the organizers consider disqualifying her.
But if they got disqualified, what would all of Adeline's hard work over the past few days mean? What about the team's day-and-night grind?
"Ms. Wilson," Robert's steady voice broke through her thoughts.
Adeline snapped back to reality and saw that only she, Timothy, and Robert were left in the conference room.
"Luna did this on purpose!" Timothy was fuming. "The competition's about to start, and she's causing trouble now!"
Adeline closed her eyes and sighed. Just as she was about to say something, her phone rang. It was Violet.
Violet's voice was frantic, "Adeline! Get online quick! You've been posted online! Everyone's cursing you now!"
Adeline was stunned and quickly grabbed Timothy's phone, opening the news. There were tons of insults directed at her.
Someone had recorded the scene in the conference room and posted it online. Soon after, a bunch of videos popped up.
There was one from yesterday in the cafeteria where Jasper asked Adeline to apologize, and she refused. Another from the office where Adeline supposedly burned Luna. And one from over half a month ago where Adeline forced Luna and Amelia to apologize and write a self-critique in the office.
In every video, Luna looked pitiful and heart-wrenching, while Adeline came off as cold and ruthless.
Finally, someone even interviewed the doctor who treated Luna's burns.
The doctor was super emotional in the video, saying the first thing Luna thought of after being burned was to defend Adeline!
Public outrage exploded, and the internet was filled with curses aimed at Adeline.
Adeline watched the video of her forcing Amelia to apologize and write a self-critique while Luna pleaded for mercy over and over again, a mocking smile slowly spreading across her lips.
She still remembered that day, thinking Luna would complain to Jasper, but Luna never did.
Turned out Luna had been planning this all along; she was waiting for this moment.
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