What kind of suffering did she endure to be so dismissive when recounting these experiences?
In the future, if anyone hurts you, I wont let them get away, he said as if he was making an oath.
She rubbed his head of black hair. Treating him very much like the younger brother she professed him to be.
But he knew better. Hed gotten close to her and saw how she responded to him.
She might try to keep him at arms length, but they were far past
that.
Jay, Im a big girl, and I can take care of myself. Dont keep saying stuff like that. She smothered a yawn. Hurry up and eat. As she spoke, she lowered her head and continued eating. the food before her.
A spark flashed through his eyes as if he was thinking of something.
The incident had indeed been blown out of proportion and yet it did not occur to Lily that her company would be unable to suppress this top search.
There were simply too many sites and too many people talking
about the event.
And while her people could bribe some news outlets, there were simply too many and the scene of her standing at the roadway while an entire dumpster of garbage was opened and sorted that was sweeping the world and trending.
Damn it!
Between the missing ring and speculation of what it cost and looked like, and the sanitation workers going through the trash looking for it, there was more than enough fodder to keep people talking.
The corresponding images were especially publicized. In it, she was dressed flashily as she stood beside the rubbish piles, and next to her were several sanitation workers bent over the trash looking for the ring.
Such a contrast immediately generated the ire of many. They all accused her of being morally flawed and putting on airs.
The rich bitch who watched while others labored.
There were even some online who stated, She lost her own ring and still wanted the sanitation workers to find it. They have already been working hard sweeping the roads for the entire day. Why didnt she look through the rubbish herself?
So shes better than everyone just because shes a celebrity?
Who is she to hog the citys resources? She doesnt pay the sanitation workers salaries. Why does she need so many people to help her look for a ring?
Even if Lilys fans worked hard to clear their idols name, they were unable to curb those negative comments. There had been plenty of people at the scene and many of them had recorded videos of the incident and uploaded them online.
It was a PR nightmare!
Why cant the top search be taken down? Lily saw that the negative comments online had increased and she was no longer able to sit still.
Theres nothing we can do. I dont know whats wrong with these key influencers. Were reaching out and asking them to stop posting. Were offering to compensate them. But they just arent willing to take down all of the related content.
This is absurd! Lily shouted. Offer them more money!
We have, her manager said. And we have to be careful not to push too hard because that could blow up in our faces. We dont want them to start saying that were trying to buy them. or silence them. Free speech and all that. There was some rustling on the other end of the phone as if he was covering the mouthpiece. Not for nothing, but if youd called me immediately, instead of just your agent and publicist, I wouldve told you to keep your money and to lavish it on the workers. Or to forget about the ring and go buy a new one-it wouldve cost a
fraction of what were spending now on damage control. Damn it, Lily, you couldve spun this way better, if youd rewarded those poor people or if youd actually gotten your hands dirty yourself.
Lily sucked in a breath. Im going to pretend you didnt just run your mouth at me, she said icily.
But his words struck a chord with her.
She couldve handled this better.
Better if she hadnt started this farce in the first place.
The manager relented. Sure. Fine. Hopefully, we wont run into a situation like this again. He was quiet for a moment. Then: Lily, did you offend someone, I mean not the public or those workers today? I mean someone big
Why do
you ask?
Because money cures most everything, and this situationwe arent able to pay to sweep it away. So Ill ask again, who did d you piss off?
Who could I have offended? She pondered over it. Im an Atkinson, and Im engaged to Sean. Everybody else should be afraid of offending me, unless
Lily froze. Could it be Jason Reed?
There were very few people more powerful than her family or
the Stevens-family. And it would take a lot of power and money for her to be refused. The ones who were capable of hiding the truth from the masses and who would be able to influence those key opinion leaders and the mediawere few, and Jason was one of them.
Could it really be that because of Jennifers death, he was taking out his anger on her and Sean?
There had been no change, and their businesses had continued as usual with Reed Group. Jason had accepted their wedding
invitation.
And yet, as Lily thought of the previously taken-down projection ads, she was suddenly not so sure.
Oh no, her manager whispered.
What!? What is it?
Turn on your television.
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Lily flipped on the tv. It showed aerial footage of the Sanitation Center and people sweeping the street and spraying it down where theyd emptied the dumpster to sort through the garbage.
Then the scene cut to security footage photos of her, with closeups of her hand.
Police in the city launched this investigation in a matter of
hours. And they made a shocking discovery the reporter said.
66
A composite of a series of security camera footage to prove that Lily had not lost a ring. The reporter shook her head at the camera. Its clear from the photos that she wasnt wearing it. The cameras show that she had only been wearing a pinkie ring. Other than that, there had been no other ring. The reporter shrugged. The ring in question was purported to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. She frowned. Perhaps Miss Atkinson just misplaced it.
At that line, the co-anchor arched a brow. Oh, yes, Joann. I can see how hard it must be to keep track of millions of dollars of jewelry.
The sarcasm was brutally effective.
In the blink of an eye, Lily was utterly hated on the internet. The fans who had originally defended her were powerless against such circumstances.
What else could they say? The police had already issued a detailed investigation report.