“What are you doing here?” The manager demanded as he pulled Evie back to sit on the bed by her cor, his brows pulling together in a frown as he eyed Marissa suspiciously.


    Merissa pulled her lips together in a thin line while fidgeting with the paper in between her fingers. “I need to speak with Evie,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. Hearing her words, the manager’s frown deepened, almost scowling at her, “Why would you need to speak with her?” He asked, and Merissa tried to step into the room, only to be stopped by a ring M.


    “Stay out, I’m sure you can tell you are not needed here by just looking around,” she sneered angrily.


    Merissa scoffed and stepped back as she stretched out the paper in her hands towards M, who took it with a suspicious expression. “What’s this about?” M demanded coldly after reading the letter handed over to her.


    “What is it?” The manager asked curiously as M handed the letter to him. His eyes darkened with rage as he scanned through the words written on the paper, “What do you mean by this?” He questioned me, and Merissa shrugged.


    “As you might have known, I will be representing my school. For the nationals in a few weeks, having me pulled into Evie’s scandal will ruin my reputation and, by extension, that of the academy, you know we can’t have that. I can’t have my name written on the academy’s history for a bad thing. So, I would appreciate it if she testified to theizens that she ckmailed me into it,” Merissa exined without losing a breath.


    Her eyes roamed the room andnded on Evie sitting on the bed with fidgeting hands as a smirk grew on her face while thinking, ‘Onepetitor down,’


    “If you refuse to do that, my family and I will proceed to sue you and your team for emotional ckmail, and we all know that even if you win, you’ll only make your reputation worse because they’ll think you pulled strings to have the win,” she added, enraging those listening.


    “What the fuck do you mean by all that shit?! We never ckmailed you! You volunteered to give us those details, and they were all fake! We haven’t counted scores with you for that, and you are here telling us you’ll sue us to keep your reputation?!” Bethel countered angrily as he began walking towards her.


    As he got close, her mother stepped out behind her, holding up the phone with the camera on. “I’ll advise you to be careful about what you are about to do, you wouldn’t want it to be used against you as evidence will you?” she warned, coldly making Bethel stop in his tracks while gritting his teeth in anger.


    “Mrs. Smith, what is the meaning of this? You want to sue us for a crime we nevermitted?” The manager asked carefully, his tone detached and cold as he red at the mother-daughter duo.


    “It wouldn’t be the first time such a thing happened in the industry. We both know that the one with the most power wins in the end, and this time, your team is bound to lose because the public opinion is against you at the moment,” she smirked, and the manager sighed heavily as he brushed his fingers through his hair.


    One of the reasons he wanted to get up quickly in the industry was so he could avoid doing grunt work such as cleaning up after other people’s mess. Despite not being involved in the whole escapade, there was no way he could manoeuvre through the whole scandal without having his reputation tainted.


    After all, he is in charge of the team.


    Taking a deep breath, he dug his hands into his pocket and fiddled with the lighter and cigarette packet in them while thinking of the possible oue of engaging the mother-daughter duo in a court fight.


    No matter how much he thought about it, he knew too well that the odds were very much against them at this time. It might favour them at ater time, but at this very moment, getting sued will only bury them deeper in the web of scandals.


    It was not something they could afford when dealing with such a huge scandal.


    As he was pacing back and forth, thinking about what to do, he noticed Evie sitting all by herself on the bed, her eyes distant as she clutched her phone tightly in her hands.


    Her mouth moved subtly, as if she were mumbling something to herself. Feeling intrigued, the manager read her lips, and he noticed she was muttering one word over and over again.Content protected by N?v/el(D)rama.Org.


    ‘Lily’


    A smile bloomed on his face, showing his handsome features hidden under the massive stress, as his mind finally registered the name she was repeating to herself. An idea popped up in his head, and his smile broadened. “Don’t worry, we’ll do as you please,” he announced, and the team members stepped up to disagree.


    “No way!”


    “Hell no!”


    “I’m out of that! You expect me to take responsibility for her crime too? Would we be in this situation if she had not deliberately approached these two idiots?” M voiced, and the manager shook his head as he turned to the mother-daughter duo.


    “You can leave now and be rest assured; we will include it in our speech that your daughter was ckmailed into supporting us,” he said with a smile, and they shut the door in their faces.


    “Why would you agree? Even if we end up losing our reputation, at least hers would not be left clean either.” Bethel argued, making the manager chuckle.


    “She won’t be let off that easily; you think Lily is stupid enough to let her off easily? Somehow I can tell she’s baiting Merissa until the perfect time, so it’s better we give her a small push,” he exined calmly.


    “Besides, do you think theizens are blind not to see her role in all this? I believe she’ll get her retribution in due time. For now, we need you all to clear your name; at least what’s left of it.”


    “Thepany will hold a press conference tomorrow evening; all you need to do is ept that you made a mistake, apologise, be as sincere as you can be, and if possible, allow the inte to sympathise with you,” the manager instructed carefully.


    “And you,” he turned to Evie. “After tomorrow’s conference, I’ll advise you to stay away from the media for as long as you can; you cane back at ater time to salvage what’s left of your reputation,” he voiced and began to walk out of the room.


    “I hope this teaches you that not everyone can be offended.”