Chapter 26 The Truth Comes Out
Chapter 26 The Truth Comes Out
"I can't afford it, but you certainly can." Emily replied, smiling cheerfully. The submissive look on her face just now was nowhere to be found.
"You did this to deliberately annoy me?" Needless to say, Rose had access to money thanks to Jack, but she didn't have enough on her to buy all the clothes she had asked to wrap up. What was worse was that she just realized that Emily had chosen the most expensive ones on purpose.
"Yes, I did it on purpose. When it comes to you, I have no shame," Emily threw Rose's words right back at her.
A ghastly paleness had overcome Rose's face. Just as she was about to lose her temper, two policemen came into the store and walked towards her. Têxt belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.
"Ms. Rose, please come with us," said one of the policemen, politely, as he grabbed hold of Rose's arm.
"What are you doing? Why are you arresting me?" Rose opened her eyes wide, struggling in disbelief.
"Ms. Rose, you are a suspect in a case under investigation. Please come with us to the police station now for further investigation."
"Stay away from me! Don't touch me!" Not one word registered in her mind as she cried," Do you know who I am? How dare you arrest me without a reason!"
"Ms. Rose, we need to bring you in for further questioning," one of the policemen said in a harsh tone.
As soon as he said that, the other policemen grabbed Rose's arm in a firmer way to take her away.
Rose was flustered. She knew that she had done many misleads in the past but she couldn't tell which one would bring the police to her. And she didn't want any criminal record to be filed with the police
office.
"It's you! I should have known that!" Rose suddenly snapped at Emily, with fire burning in her eyes," This is your doing! Jack won't spare you for this!"
Although Emily did not really know why Rose got arrested by the police, she felt very delighted," Have a nice trip, Rose."
The old saying was right—"The payback is just a matter of time."
When Rose was being escorted out of the shopping mall by the police, a crowd of journalists waiting outside the mall rushed towards her and took photos.
"Ms. Rose, I have learned from the newspapers that you have framed Emily Bai. Is that true?"
"Ms. Rose, a video of the jewelry design competition shows that you copied Emily's design. Do you have anything to say about that?"
"A report online says that you seduced Emily's boyfriend, copied her design and defamed her as well. The netizens are calling you a rat. Do you have any comments regarding that?"
The journalists pointed their microphones towards Rose, almost poking her in the face.
Pierced through by scornful eyes, Rose roared," Nonsense! I will sue those who dare to spread such slanderous nonsense!"
The journalists gathering by the entrance hissed scornfully at her vulgar display of power. Her untenable words had no deterrence on the journalists at all. Furthermore, they had conclusive evidence about Rose's evil-doings.
They barked out sharper questions at Rose, causing chaos outside the shopping mall.
Amidst such chaos someone stepped on Rose's foot, causing her face to contort in pain. Fortunately, the police managed to control the crowd and quickly placed Rose into the police car, freeing her from the unrelenting journalists.
On the other side, Emily had no idea of what was going on outside, nor did the journalists know that Emily was in the mall; otherwise, they would have rushed into the shopping mall to collect information from Emily.
Frustrated, the salesgirl looked at the pile of expensive clothes that had not been checked out by Rose. She complained silently and then turned around to Emily, with smile.
Emily soon forgot the dramatic episode and picked up two formal suits for herself. Soon after she went to the Men's section.
A light grey business suit caught the attention of her eyes. It looked simple, yet any man wearing it would definitely look smart and dashing.
Imagining what Victor would look like in this suit, Emily glanced at the price tag and was surprised at how expensive the suit was. However, she finally bit the bullet and bought it.
When Emily left the mall, she cast her mind back the to the arrest of Rose. She checked her phone for new updates, when suddenly an update popped onto the screen.
Emily read the title of the news carefully, in puzzlement—
"The Truth Comes Out: Emily the Real Winner Was Framed!"
Emily couldn't believe what she was reading. She barely collected herself and continued to read the contents word by word.
The news was reported by Jinshi City's famous online newspaper, on its front page in one of its columns called "Find Out the Truth".
The news uncovered the ins and outs of Emily's story. Lately, the city had been abuzz whether Emily was a plagiarist or not. And it turned out Emily was innocent all along, while Rose, Emily's close friend, copied her work and claimed it as her own. With the help of a fraud, Rose not only remained impenitent about her misdeed, but she also invented a story to defame and belittle Emily publicly by saying Emily had bribed and seduced judges.
Emily even found a video recording from that day, with millions of comments below it. Emily had been searching these videos to prove her innocence, but due to Jack's influence, they were all deleted. This time, however, the video was released and reposted by lots of netizens at the same time and and so it could not be deleted.
Furthermore, the netizens also dug up all the secrets of the past that Rose desired to cover up— stealing from her college mates, bullying others in campus, compensated dating, and stealing her good friend's boyfriend.
The "good friend" in the report was Emily.
The netizens who learned the truth soon changed their votes for Rose overnight. They believed that they should embrace justice and vote for Emily.
Emily didn't expect this to be such a roller-coaster of a day. Even just a few minutes ago she was far from proving her innocence to the people and yet here she was, finally declared innocent. What a turnaround!
Emily did not, however, lose her senses and over-indulge in excitement. She realized that somebody must have helped her with this.
But who was that "somebody"?
Somehow, Jacob's face appeared in Emily's mind, and she was startled by the idea.
Could it be Jacob? But, why did he help her? Was it just because he was interested in Emily?
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch". Emily firmly believed in this old saying even more after she had encountered Jacob.
But, maybe the "somebody" was Victor?
Although Victor was not as influential as Jacob, he still had a voice in the jewelry circle. Since Emily was his employee, any bad rumor about an employee would bring negative impact on the company. Thus, Victor not only had enough power to help Emily but he also had the motive.
The more Emily thought of it, the more she felt that the "somebody" was Victor. Soon after, she put Jacob behind her and called to ask Victor for dinner, to express her gratitude.
This time when Emily sat opposite to Victor in the restaurant, she did not have as many butterflies in her stomach as she did before. She took out the business suit she had bought for Victor.
Victor raised his eye-brows slightly. He didn't accept the gift but asked," What is it?"
"Your suit was ruined when you saved me from the acid attack the other day," Emily smiled, and continued," So I bought you a new one to make it up to you. I know it may not be as good as the previous one..."
"No, I don't need it." Victor refused Emily without any hesitation.
Emily looked a bit dejected," I see..."
To her surprise, for some reason, Victor added," Let me have a look at it."
There was light in Emily's eyes again. She passed the suit to Victor.
Victor opened the packaging, took out the suit and tried it on. The warm, grey color diluted his apathy and made him appear more gentle and mild.
"You look drop-dead gorgeous," Emily sincerely offered praise to Victor.
Such a praise seemed to be nothing new to Victor. He treated Emily's words with indifference and said," I accept it. By the way, I have recorded the money I lent you on the account book of the company, which means from now on you don't owe me, but you owe my company the money. I will deduct half of your salary every month as repayment. Got it?"