Chapter 261: Chapter 262

Anna trembled even more violently as she heard Wayne‘s words.

She clenched her fist tightly and remained silent to calm herself. Anna knew that if she spoke, her voice would tremble in fear.

To Anna‘s surprise, Wayne simply laughed and said, “Well, it seems you‘ve always been quite guarded around strangers, haven‘t you?”

Anna froze and then turned around. She felt relieved when she noticed him teasingly smiling at her.

She murmured, not daring to look him in the eyes, “Yeah, you‘re right. We were still strangers to each other at the time, so I can‘t tell you everything.”

“Ah, you make a good point. It might rain today, so bring your umbrella with you.” Wayne said as he took an umbrella from the stand and handed it to her.

“Thanks.” Anna pursed her lips, her heart pounding as she looked down.

Her heart was still beating like crazy as Anna walked out the door. She had a feeling that if she didn‘t tell Wayne the truth, something unexpected would happen. She knew Wayne was no fool. Therefore, if he had any clues, he would suspect her.

And Anna felt that she had no idea what would happen next, which made her worried.

***

Andrew called Anna because he wanted to discuss the Joan Group tender with her. There were recent Internet rumors that Anna was the sole heir to the Gabriel Group and had received all of Frank‘s inheritance. However, most of that money came from the group‘s tax evasion. Therefore, the money Anna received was stolen by her father.

Gabriel Group employed thousands of people, many of whom were laid off due to the company‘s abrupt demise. The entire group was preoccupied with financial liquidation and had not paid any employees for the previous two months.

While construction workers were protesting, white–collar workers in their offices became concerned. As a result, when the rumor spread, many people blamed the Gabriel Group.

However, Anna was relieved that many people accused her instead of Lemon.

She sat in the conference room on the second floor of her office, staring out of the window at the trees. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn‘t even pay attention to what they were saying “Have you seen the news about the rumors on the Internet lately? It‘s time for us to take action. I think we can work with these social media platforms to have these posts removed. It‘s a critical time in the bid vote, so we can‘t afford to have any bad news cloud the Joan Group‘s judgment of us. We must act immediately.”

Tony, the PR department manager, was a young man. He appeared thrilled at the prospect of finally being able to put his abilities to use. Also, he was the first to notice that people were cursing Anna online.

“Anna, what do you think?” Oscar asked.

When Anna heard Oscar call her name, she froze for a moment before returning to her senses and asking, “Huh? What?”

She‘d been thinking about her conversation with Wayne before she left home. So, she didn‘t listen carefully to what the group was saying.

At that moment, Andrew, who was sitting to her left, reminded her, “Anna, what‘s going on? Tony said we should let these rumors die before anyone knows that it‘s somewhat relevant to Lemon. If not, we may not be able to win the bid. If you ask me, I don‘t believe it is a good idea to work with social media platforms and have them block these posts. The netizens might think we‘re feeling guilty that way.”

Anna returned to her senses and concluded, “Okay, I get it. Andrew‘s right. We can‘t just rely on social platforms to handle these posts, just like we can‘t hold back a flood by our bodies.”

After that, a quick brainstorming session started.

Tony was the first to propose an idea, saying, “How about this! We can get social media platforms to delete fake posts but keep the most outrageous ones.”

When everyone heard his words, they initially didn‘t understand what he was thinking. However, they realized Tony did it because he wanted to push things to the limit.

Most of the netizens tended to believe in those false rumors. It was difficult to explain that to them, and they were unlikely to accept the truth. So, the best way was to do the opposite and let people discuss these outrageous things as they wanted. After everyone found these rumors exaggerated and ridiculous, they would realize they were all fakes.

Following that, everyone agreed on Tony‘s plan.

When Anna returned to her office after the meeting was finished, her assistant, Mona, had placed all of the documents she needed to sign on her desk.

“This is the invitation for the reception that AW Group is going to hold at the end of the month,” she said as she handed Anna the invitation.

Anna surveyed the invitation. It was a lovely blue card with the letters A and W printed in white on it. It looked more like a wedding invitation to Anna than a wine tasting invitation card.

Anna asked, “Who sent this?” “It‘s Mr. Wilson‘s assistant.”

Anna froze and thought, Isn‘t Randal quite busy recently? Why did he make his assistant deliver the invitation?

When Anna unfolded that invitation card, she saw that someone had written a line on it with a pen.

She read in her mind, “The more Scott wants you to come, the less I want you to be there. Randal Wilson.”

Anna laughed after reading the sentence. Mona didn‘t understand what she meant, and then asked, “Miss Gabriel, will you be there?”

Anna folded the invitation, set it aside, and then smiled and said, “Of course, I‘ll be there! I will definitely come because Mr.

Wilson has invited me so sincerely.”

Anna felt that she was going there not only to meet more well–known business people but also to distract Randall. In fact, she found it interesting.

Lemon had only recently been formed, so Anna needed to meet all business partners in person. She felt that having orders from the Joan Group was insufficient and planned to speak with Randall later. She knew that Randal, as a successful businessman, knew many people in the business circle.

After Mona left the office, Andrew walked in. Anna asked, “Andrew, what‘s up?”

Andrew put a few manuscripts on Anna‘s desk and said, “Check them out. Ryan just emailed these to me. Anna, do you think it‘s just too much of a coincidence? Why was someone spreading rumors about you when we were preparing to bid?”

“What‘s this? Aren‘t these your designs? Oh, gosh!” Anna immediately frowned after looking at a few of them.

“This is quite similar to the design we previously showed to Joan Group. So, if they make the sample clothes according to this, their clothes will be nearly identical to ours.”

Anna took a deep breath and asked seriously, “This is plagiarism, right? Who the hell did this?”

“They sent the manuscript to Joan Group before we did. I don‘t have any evidence, but I think White did it.”

People in Birmingham were well–known in the local company, White, a premier apparel company with a strong marketing presence.

Moreover, they also participated in this tender.

This company was well–known for its deception. They frequently hire talent from smaller companies and copy other people‘s manuscripts.

Because they didn‘t dare to offend White, those small businesses could do nothing when they were offended.

Anna frowned, and she asked, “What? Are they deliberately working against us?”

“I‘m afraid so. Carrie introduced you to the president of Joan‘s group, and that was why he took us into consideration. We‘re a small company or even a studio. So, when White saw us at this bidding session, they were envious.”