Chapter 180: Total Ban
Gianna said, "I should've told you I was having dinner with Jonah last night. I'm sorry."
Felix just stared at Gianna, his eyes unreadable.
After a bit of silence, Gianna added, "What can I do to make it up to you?"
When Felix still didn't respond, Gianna moved closer, took his hand, and pleaded, "Please don't be mad."
Felix wasn't that angry to begin with. Seeing Gianna's hopeful look, whatever anger he had melted away.
He cupped her chin and kissed her. When she went limp in his arms, he pressed his forehead to hers and said, "Just this once."
Gianna nodded, "I promise it won't happen again."
"I have a meeting later. I'll have the driver take you home."
Gianna looked a bit disappointed, "Alright."
As soon as she left, Felix called Sophia into his office, looking cold, "Ban Jonah completely."
Sophia frowned, "Felix, Jonah has ties with the Getty family. It might be tough to ban him."
"Then pull all his upcoming films."
"Got it."
In the following days, Jonah's team worked on damage control, so the buzz about him dating died down.
But Jonah faced setbacks. He lost endorsements, and a new show swapped him for another actor, leaving his agent frustrated.
The agent made some calls and found out Felix was behind it, likely because of the incident with Gianna.
"Jonah, you should let it go. Gianna and Felix are together. Continuing this won't help."
Jonah smiled bitterly, almost to himself, "I gave up a long time ago."
When he saw Felix risk everything for Gianna, he knew he and Gianna could never be together.
The agent patted Jonah's shoulders.
"You've lost some roles, but another director contacted me. There's a film about an athlete, and since you've been learning to swim, it might be a good fit. Interested?"
After a pause, Jonah nodded, "Okay."
Everyone thought Jonah was learning to swim because he almost drowned last time. Only he knew it was because he didn't want to feel powerless again, to watch the person he loved in danger.
Just as the buzz around Jonah dating was dying down, someone claimed the woman dining with Jonah was Gianna, even posting a candid photo.
Gianna's outfit in the photo matched the woman from the video Jonah had been in. They were even carrying the same bag.
The photo quickly went viral.
The netizens dug up Gianna's past.
[Lost as a child, brought back at sixteen, and obsessed with taking her sister's things. I heard she even stole her sister's boyfriend. This kind of woman isn't even fit to shine Jonah's shoes!]
[Is Jonah blind? How could he fall for someone like her?]
[Gianna must've seduced him. Doesn't she have any limits? Wasn't stealing her sister's boyfriend enough?]
The internet was full of hate. Someone even got Gianna's number and kept sending her nasty messages.
Gianna just canceled her number and got a new one.
The leaker turned out to be a designer from MY FASHION, and Faith fired them immediately.
Despite Jonah's team trying to explain, no one believed them. Some fans even started cursing Jonah.
Jonah didn't care about the insults but hated that Gianna was getting dragged into it.
He told his agent, "Send legal notices to everyone spreading rumors! Get the websites to delete the news!"
The agent, already stressed, said, "Your fan base is huge. Even if we work overtime, it's out of control."
"So I just have to watch her get cyberbullied?!"
The agent sighed, "For now, yes. Responding publicly will only make it worse. The best way is to stay silent."
Jonah kicked over a chair in frustration.
He picked up his phone, opened his chat with Gianna, and typed a lot but ended up just sending: [I'm sorry.]
Gianna replied quickly: [This isn't your fault. Get some rest and stay off your phone. I'll handle it.]
Jonah wanted to ask how but didn't.
For Gianna, this whole thing didn't bother her. She kept going to work and eating out, much to Faith's disbelief.
"Gianna, are you really okay?" Faith asked.
Gianna felt a bit helpless. Faith had asked her this question many times since the photo went viral.
"I don't care about online stuff. It doesn't affect me. I've just been too busy to deal with it," Gianna assured her.
Faith frowned, "But letting this fester isn't good. This started because of Jonah, and now he and his company are hiding, leaving you to deal with it."
"If they explain now, it'll only make things worse. Besides, someone will step in soon. Don't worry."
"Felix?"
"Yeah."
Because of this, Felix had been coming home with a cold expression, telling her to have less contact with Jonah. Gianna had no choice but to agree.
Soon, the trending topics started disappearing.
First, the trending topics vanished. Then, Facebook crashed for three hours.
Facebook said it was system maintenance. But anyone following Jonah and Gianna noticed that posts or comments about them couldn't be posted, even with spaces or homophones.
People started mocking Facebook's official account, saying this was their idea of maintenance.
Without the posts and trending topics, the issue quickly fell off the radar.
Bella, who had been mocking Gianna, was so mad when she saw all the posts were gone that she didn't eat lunch.
As she sat fuming in her room, her phone rang.
Seeing it was Felix, Bella's eyelid twitched.
