Chapter 49
Chapter 49
“Did she answer your call?” Charlotte asked her father as she dialed Sofia’s number again. Lawrence frowned, his face contorting into an ugly scowl.
“If you had listened to me, this would not have happened,” Lawrence said sternly.
“Father, is this really the time to blame me?” Charlotte asked, her voice tinged with frustration.
Lawrence glared at her. He had warned Charlotte about the repercussions of her relationship with Daniel, but she never listened! “It must be Eulanda.”
“Her grandmother?” Charlotte asked, perplexed. “The timing is just perfect. She moved, and now something like this happened. Isn’t it too obvious that this was Eulanda’s doing?” Charlotte frowned. She never liked that old woman.
“Do you think this has something to do with her inheritance?”
“Possible,” Lawrence replied, now calling people in the media industry to try and remove those articles. There is nothing that money cannot buy, so it was pretty easy for Lawrence to talk to some of the executives of those companies and offer them a huge amount of money.
However, there were still some who did not even answer his call. He gritted his teeth as he thought about the effects of what just happened to Charlotte on Lawrence’s credibility.
To Lawrence, this was all Eulanda’s doing. That woman must have been waiting for this day to come. “That woman!” he hissed. If he was right, then Sofia should have already known about this issue even before the proposal! Yet, she accepted the proposal and even posted about it online.
Because of that, many people are now calling Charlotte or Caroline Locke a homewrecker. Surely, this would affect the shareholders' opinions of Charlotte’s father!
While Lawrence was trying to reach out to some of his friends in the industry, Charlotte was busy calling Daniel over and over again. However, Daniel seemed to have forgotten his promise to always answer her calls and had been ignoring her since the scandal appeared online.
“Miss Harper,” Charlotte's PA called out.
“What?” she hissed in response.
“Miss Johnson has been—”
“Do not answer it! Tell her I will fix everything!” Charlotte barked. “But Miss, she—”
“I said, do not answer it. Tell her I am busy or something and bring Min,” Charlotte called out to Lawrence’s secretary. “Tell the guards not to let anyone inside LH GROUP.”
When the first news erupted, she quickly came to see her father. At first, she was confident that her father could remove the news online before it spread. Sadly, she was wrong.
After the first news, the second news followed, and then there was a third and a fourth. At this time, Charlotte did not know how many articles had been published online about her cheating scandal.
“Tsk!” Why is Daniel not answering her calls? Was he trying to explain to Sofia? The images are already clear. They were kissing and holding each other’s hands. Unless Sofia is a fool, there is no way for her to believe Daniel’s words.
Yes, Sofia had always believed Charlotte's blatant lies in the past. She always indulged Charlotte with everything. She even damaged her relationship with her grandmother because of Charlotte alone.
She bit her lower lip as she tried to call Sofia again. After she got up, intending to go to Sofia's office to personally talk to her, another failure sank in.
“Where do you think you're going?” Lawrence said.
“I am going to talk to Sofia,” Charlotte said.
“Don’t waste your time. She’s not in her office or her apartment,” Lawrence replied.
“I already asked Min to search for her, to no avail.”
“Finally! What took you so long to use that brain of yours?” Lawrence sneered. “For the longest time, you were just a pretty face with no substance.”
“Dad, is something wrong?” Charlotte asked, her voice shaking.
Lawrence glared at his daughter. While Charlotte was pretty, she had the brains of her mother. She’s greedy, yet she could not scheme properly and openly had a relationship with Daniel Beaumont, thinking Sofia would forgive her soon. But now the scandal was everywhere!
Harper spoke up, “Two of your endorsements already canceled. If this continues, then the producer of your film might delay the release—”
“Damn!” Charlotte cursed. “Do you think I am scared of those people canceling endorsements? Do they truly think I care? Leave me alone. I will fire you next time I see your face!”
Harper immediately paled. However, she was already so used to Charlotte's way of treating her, so she was not that scared anymore. Harper just calmly left the office.
“This is why I told you to avoid the show business industry,” Lawrence said after Harper left. “One mistake and now everyone will call you a mistress.”
“Please Father, can we not talk about this now!” Charlotte sat back down, slumping onto the couch. Two endorsements do not actually matter. She could still sing and—Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.
The thought of singing only made her angrier. Sofia refused to write any songs for her, and Charlotte doubted that the woman would ever write another song for her.
Charlotte already took the drafts of the songs that Sofia had written for her. She knew they would do well on the charts, but now that seemed like a distant dream.
“Can you just let your PR team take care of this?” Lawrence asked. “LH GROUP has a PR team that handles all of our problems.”
“I can’t. However, I will still give it to them as he does not want the shareholders to think that he is using the company for his gain. You have been siphoning money to help with my projects. Why can’t you do something like that?”
“Having a relationship with someone is not a mistake,” Charlotte mumbled. Was it her fault that she liked Daniel? Was it her fault that she fell for his charms? It was not. Charlotte would like to believe that she is just a victim of her current situation.
When her father did not answer her, she got up. “I am leaving.”
“Min,” Lawrence immediately called his assistant. “Ask someone to drive her back to the mansion.”
“I am not going to the mansion.”
“Where do you want to go? To Daniel? Do you truly think he has the time to take care of you after the scandal exploded?”
“That man should be sitting in his mother’s room, whining. If he was not with his mother, then he should be with Sofia or attempting to find her. Do not delude yourself into thinking that you matter to him. Do—”
Charlotte gritted her teeth as she listened to her father’s words. However, she chose to ignore most of it. She clenched her hands into tight fists. Her father’s words sounded reasonable, but she found it very hard to accept. Yes, right now, she was not Daniel's priority.
“I need to go to my agency,” Charlotte said.
“You are going to the agency?”
“You are not fixing anything by letting the news disappear on its own,” Charlotte said firmly as she met her father’s eyes.
“Given the situation and the current position that you are in,” Lawrence approached his daughter. “You are now a liability. There is no fixing this. All you can do is disappear and hope that Daniel will marry you.”
“YOU CAN ONLY STAY AT HOME!” Lawrence bellowed. “Cancel all your engagements and pay the fee. Then you can hope that a decent family will accept you or I can just send you to Spain or anywhere in Europe where you will start a new life away from everyone else.”
Disbelief flashed in Charlotte’s eyes. “Father, this is—”
“That was not me asking for your permission. That was me giving you an order.”
Charlotte opened her mouth and attempted to say a word, but out of nowhere, two large bodyguards walked into her father’s office. Her eyes turned wide as realization sank into her brain.
“Father, what are you doing?” Charlotte asked as she took a step back. “What do you think you're doing?”