When I Was a Wallflower (Leo and Amelie) novel Chapter 21

Chapter 21 Shattered What Little Love There Was
Too afraid to tell Amelie, Mr. Cooper merely pointed at his phone. “The news.”
He then swiftly walked away.
“The news?”
Amelie hurriedly pulled out her phone and looked at the headlines for the day.
Today’s headlines were basically all about Elyse’s computer having been infected by a virus.
The contents leaked listed quite a number of dual contracts.
However, there was soon a new headline that popped up and swiftly went viral.
When Amelie glanced at it, she immediately saw Starlight Media mentioned in the article.
She finished reading the article in a few short moments, and what she saw made her gasp.
The new headline was related to the leaked emails of Elyse.
However, the content was about the mysterious boss of Starlight Media who had secretly been married for four years. Recently, the boss had been found to have been cheating on his wife with a certain divorcee that went by the surname Dillon.
There were no pictures of Starlight Media’s owner, just an outline of a human with a question mark edited over the face.
However, the picture of her attached to the article was crystal clear.
Thus, was this article the reason Leo disqualified her as a mother and stole Bria from her?
The owner of Starlight Media was a mysterious figure. The moment the article was posted, lots of people clicked in to read it.
In fact, the article was so popular that the dual contracts found in Elyse’s email had been forgotten about.
Now that Amelie knew what was going on, she found herself speechless.
Was there anything more hilarious than being accused of cheating on herself with herself?
“Hey, why is there trash standing in front of my home?” shrieked a sharp voice.
Jodie had arrived home some time ago. Dressed in an extremely short dress, she gasped in fake surprise with her mini handbag on her arm.
Amelie put away her phone and ignored Jodie. She thereafter walked away from the Alston Residence.
To her surprise, Jodie did not get angry. Instead, she cackled. “Your dirty laundry is being aired for the world to see. Stop pretending to be some virtuous woman!”
“Don’t think I do not know why you are here. My brother brought that b*stard home and you want her back, right?”
“B*stard?” Amelie repeated as her sharp gaze bore into Jodie.
Jodie was Bria’s aunt. How could she call Bria a b*stard?
“That’s right! She is a b*stard! Anything that crawls out of your womb will always be a b*stard child!” Jodie had flinched for a moment when faced with Amelie’s sharp eyes, but soon gathered the courage to shriek.
“Don’t think I do not know your plan to get back together with my brother using that brat,” she continued. “Also, I know my brother talked to you last night about remarrying you. It is your fault something this scandalous made the news! Do you know why he believes it to be true? It is because I told him how Starlight Media’s owner set up a charity organization in that brat’s name! That 200 million is proof of your involvement with him!”
No wonder.
Amelie now thoroughly understood what had happened.
No matter how much of a fool Leo was, he would never have easily believed one email.
It was all because of Jodie’s interference.
“Oh, right. I was the one who had someone email Elyse about your scandalous affair,” Jodie stated.
“Initially, I only wanted her to show the email to Leo. I did not expect a hacker to leak it to the world.”
“Oh, what fun!”
Carla was actually the mastermind behind this entire scheme.
Nevertheless, Jodie was claiming the credit for it all just so she could infuriate Amelie.
“What a pity,” she said. “Even if you pay us 200 million, you will never get that brat back again!”
Jodie’s face shone with visible glee at Amelie’s distress.
“Oh, by the way,” she continued, “Starlight Media’s boss is married too. Say, Amelie, would his wife come looking for you? You have hung her marriage’s dirty laundry out for the world to see. How should she ‘thank’ you for the favor?”
Unbeknownst to her, Amelie was the owner of Starlight Media. All she knew was she was overwhelmed with joy as she could finally hit back at Amelie for all the suffering she had to endure.
Everything she had done was for that purpose.
“I can’t wait for the drama,” exclaimed Jodie.
In Amelie’s eyes, Jodie was like an insignificant flea.
As she could not be bothered to pop Jodie’s bubble, she calmly replied, “Wait patiently then.”
Having no intention of staying any longer, she immediately walked away.
Jodie stared at her back in astonishment.
How could Amelie issue a dare to her at such a time?
Could it be that she had a way out of this situation?
No way!
Everyone was talking about it. The wife had been utterly humiliated. There was no way she would forgive Amelie for this.
That dare was merely Amelie pretending to be confident.
At that thought, Jodie was back in a good mood, humming as she walked back to her home.
…
“Regarding the dual contracts,” Elyse declared. “We would like to state that they were offered by companies seeking to help me save on taxes, but we had never used any of their suggestions. We had always done things with normal contracts. Everyone can look it up through the Ministry of Justice.”
That evening, Elyse finally made an official statement after a whole day of being bothered about her leaked emails.
As bright lights shone on her, her demure smile shone brightly. She was the perfect picture of innocence.
“As for the virus attack, I have already made a police report. I trust the police will have a satisfactory answer for us in time.”
As soon as Elyse finished speaking, a reporter immediately asked, “What about the email about the owner of Starlight Media cheating on his wife? How do you explain that, Miss Clayton?”
Elyse did not answer this time.
Instead, her manager stepped forward and spoke into the mic, “As everyone saw, the email was sent to Elyse by some random person. She is a very busy woman. Hence, she did not even know that email existed.”
The manager continued, “She did not ask for her emails to be leaked. She is also a victim in this case.”
“Even if I did not ask for it to happen, the leak still happened because my email was hacked. I would like to formally apologize to those involved.” On the television, Elyse respectfully bowed to the camera.
“Aargh! What a perfect picture of innocence she is!” Julia was so angry that she nearly threw something at the television. “Could a coincidence like that even happen? As soon as someone sent her an email about your scandal, her email was hacked! She swept away all of her dirty laundry under the rug while confirming your scandal,” Julia huffed. “She is such a schemer!”
She had been in the industry for years. Thus, she could see through Elyse’s ruse at once.
Beside her, Amelie was silently staring at the television as though she was deep in thought.
“I cannot bear this anymore! Let us slap her in the face with your identity as the owner of Starlight Media! Let us crush their reputation beneath our feet!” Julia continued to roar.
She had been itching to do so for a long time.
“No.”
Finally, Amelie spoke up.
“What do you mean? Do you not want Bria back?” Julia was confused.
“Of course, I do,” Amelie replied.
She did not care if she ruined someone’s reputation, but she did not want to destroy Leo’s reputation.
He was not wrong to take Bria away.
Moreover, she had once loved him.
She was unable to turn her love into hate and betray him after breaking up with him.
She wanted a kinder solution to the problem.
The two of them continued to chat when the camera suddenly panned to a few men striding into the conference hall.
Cameras flashed as everyone turned to take photos of the man leading the group.
It was Leo.
Leo and Elyse used to date each other.
While they eventually broke up and found new lovers, he was the only man Elyse was close to ever since her return from abroad.
Naturally, that made everyone curious about their relationship.
One of the reporters was unable to control himself and stood up to ask, “Mr. Alston, do you think Miss Clayton is innocent? Are you here to support her?”
Leo was honestly not there for Elyse.
It just so happened that the press conference was happening at the venue of his meeting.
For a few moments, he ignored the reporter’s question and looked at Elyse.
She looked calm on the surface, but her eyes glimmered in a plea for help.
Even though she had wronged him in the past, she was still the person who stood by his side in his darkest hours. She was still the woman who dragged him out of the pit of despair.
“Yes,” he eventually replied, pursing his lips. “Elyse Clayton is under my protection. No one is allowed to harm her!”
“Ha!” When Julia heard that declaration, her only response was a derisive huff.
“What does this manipulative, two-faced woman have that she should be worth worth protecting?”
Meanwhile…
A tear rolled down Amelie’s cheek and landed on the back of her hand.
Leo had given Elyse everything he should have given her.
Despite their divorce, the love she held for him as a young woman was still the sweetest memory in her mind.
In the end, he had mercilessly torn it all apart.
Still, this was not enough.