Chapter 42 Man Behind the Curtain
Satisfied with the silence of the crowd, Arthur quietly squeezed Lucia's hand and made a conclusion of the day.
"I have invited you here today to tell you personally that your companies have received a lawyer's letter from Davonnis Corp, and I will sue you for making false reports and bringing bad publicity to my company."
Arthur's warning was blunt and bold, but none of the people here would dare to question his strength. None. The reporters in the left half of this morning's report quietly buried their heads, and no one dared to look at Arthur onstage.
Arthur had said all the things he wanted to say. The person in charge who had been standing at the side of the stage came quickly to continue to host so that Arthur and Lucia could leave safely. Arthur and Lucia seemed to have nothing to do with what just happened.
After walking into the elevator and out of people's sight, Lucia embraced Arthur and apologized, "Arthur, I'm sorry you have to go public with our relationship because I know you don't want your personal life to be public."
"You are wrong about that." replied Arthur, smiling as he hugged Lucia.
"What?" Lucia looked up blankly. Had she guessed wrong what Arthur was thinking?
Her eyes were large and round, and her lips parted. Arthur kissed her forehead lovingly and passionately before answering her question. "I want the world to know that you are my woman."
"You really fascinate me..." Lucia was shy from the kiss on her forehead and bent her head slightly to keep him from seeing her smile.
The press conference was over, and the reporters left one after another. Especially the reporters in the left half. They didn't look very good. They didn't expect Arthur to fight back in such an extreme way. Not only did he clarify the rumors on the spot, he had even sued these companies. Many of those reporters were paid to do this.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.
As soon as they left the meeting, many reporters received a lot of phone calls and they were all apologizing. These calls were all from their superiors at the companies, asking them why they had messed with such a powerful character as Arthur.
Among them, there was a male reporter who had just hung up the phone with his superior before he picked up another call, and he said impatiently, "What can I do? The lawyer's letter from Arthur has been sent to the office. I did the best I could. The managing editor has just called to give me a piece of his mind, and I was the only one in the room who dared to question Arthur. I'm afraid he'll call me later. I'm gonna have to go through another round at work later, so I can't help you."
The man on the other end of the phone seemed very dissatisfied with the male reporter's answer and continued to say something. Finally, the male reporter lost his temper and shouted directly into the phone. "Five years ago, I took the lead in helping you attack Lucia, and I also contacted other journalists. If they find out, I'll be the first one Arthur's ever taken revenge on! Poppy, Lucia isn't what she used to be. She's got Arthur and Eduard behind her now. If I go on attacking her, my life here at Athegate will be hell. Don't think I have to do everything I can to help you just because you're my homie. I've done what I can!" With that, the male reporter hung up the phone. Yeah, it was Poppy on the phone with him. He and Poppy came from the same place and he worked for a local entertainment magazine.
He was the one who helped Poppy and Jacob connect with other journalists five years ago and led the press to accuse Lucia of having an affair. Before today, Poppy told him to challenge Arthur's every word on the spot, but he couldn't, and he became the target of public criticism. He still shuddered at the sight of Arthur who was staring at him.
The male reporter was not happy. Poppy, across town, was even more upset. She was in Jacob's office when she slammed the phone into her hand and swore.
"Bastard! Talking about doing his best. He took so much money from me, but he's of no use in the end. It's just a letter from a lawyer. I don't believe Arthur really has the guts to sue all those magazines! Isn't he just bluffing?"
Jacob sat on the sofa and watched Poppy lose her temper. He was in a bad mood too.
Yesterday, when Poppy offered to use gossip magazines to tarnish Lucia's reputation, he hesitated. After all, Lucia had Arthur and Eduard behind her. But he had used it to defeat Lucia five years earlier, so he agreed.
The same thing happened again, but he was no longer the winner.
According to the brief notes sent back by the homie, Arthur not only cleared up the misunderstanding at the birthday party but also raised questions about Lucia's infidelity five years ago. The loss outweighed the gain this time.
He heard that Arthur had hired other reporters who weren't paid by them to cover the conference truthfully. Soon, the news from the press conference would become public and his reputation would be in doubt "Come on, don't lose your temper. What can a little reporter do?" Jacob was angry himself, but seeing Poppy lose her temper made him even more upset. He growled impatiently at Poppy and said, "Don't we know a editor-in-chief of a magazine? I'll call him right away and ask him to contact other magazines to speak for us. As long as the public opinion is not one-sided, we are not completely destroyed." "So, call him." Poppy replied.
Jacob looked at Poppy's broken cell phone on the ground, hesitated for a moment, then picked up the phone and called the editor-in-chief. However, the result was very disappointing to him.
"Sorry." In response to Jacob's offer to defend them against Lucia, the editor said, "It's not that I don't want to help you. It's that I'm afraid to. Do you think Arthur was just kidding? My boss has received the lawyer's letter right now, and there's more than one."
"More than one?" Jacob was confused.
"Yes, there is another letter from Jibillion before the launch. The content is similar to Arthur's. Eduard is probably also annoyed. These are two powerful men, and we can't afford to mess with one of them. I really can't help you this time."
After hanging up the phone with the editor, Jacob's face looked extremely gloomy.
Eduard had a hand in it, too!
When Jibillion Inc announced Lucia had been suspended on its official website at noon, Jacob thought he had won. He had no idea that Eduard would do this behind the scene. How could anyone help him now?
Like the editor said, messing with Arthur or Eduard was not something a magazine could afford to do. They might struggle and even go out of business. Who dared to touch this bad luck? Jacob learned how it felt to hurt himself by his own doing.
Poppy didn't know what happened. Seeing Jacob's terrible expression, she asked him what happened and if they agreed to help them. Jacob could not contain his anger any longer.