Chapter 76

After leaving the restaurant, Stella declined Jasper's offer to take her back and took a cab to the hotel by herself. As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, she saw Aurora standing in front of her room door with a worried expression. "Celestia just called me," Aurora reported. It was not working time, and if it wasn't something important, Celestia wouldn't have contacted them. Stella frowned slightly, led Aurora into the room, and then asked, "Is there a problem with the company?" Aurora looked hesitant, not speaking immediately, but handed her phone over instead. 10 minutes ago, Celestia had sent a long screenshot. The content of the screenshot was a post from a forum. The original poster seemed to frequently share insider information on the forum, and judging by the screenshot, the post had gained significant attention. Lush Aura had been in the spotlight recently, having done a lot of marketing and even hiring Lavinia as their spokesperson. However, over the past few days, rumors had surfaced suggesting that the woman behind Lush Aura was not as simple as she seemed. The post detailed the story of a certain "R" who was unfortunately "lost" as a child and only reunited with her wealthy family as an adult. Since her parents had passed away, a paternity test couldn't be conducted; only a less accurate kinship test was available. Although the test was not very reliable, the old man of the wealthy family was so determined to find his granddaughter that he insisted R was indeed his granddaughter. The old man's son-in-law, who had taken care of him for half his life, reluctantly accepted this niece to please the old man. Unfortunately, the son-in-law's good intentions ended up backfiring on him. Recently, after the old man's death, R inherited most of the estate, while the son-in-law who had taken care of the old man received nothing and was even framed by R and sent to prison. The granddaughter, L, only received a small portion of the inheritance. The post further claimed that if R was indeed the old man's biological granddaughter, it would be understandable, but there had been rumors suggesting that R was not related to the old man at all, and relatives had recently come forward to assert this claim. But even if that was the case, now that the inheritance was settled, R didn't give any of it back. Poor L had her reputation ruined and was forced out of the limelight by R, who also seized her inheritance. L's father ended up in jail due to R's scheming. R's actions were truly ruthless. "Oh my goodness, what kind of modern-day femme fatale is this?" "Wow, seriously? I just ordered the new Lush Aura liquid foundation cream on behalf of my goddess. Now I'm afraid it'll curse my face." "L used to be in the entertainment industry, right? Has anyone dug up her past scandals?" "I'm almost certain I've decoded it, but I feel there's another story that can't be told." "The PR department has already deleted this post immediately, but some marketing accounts have reposted it. Celestia is trying to contain the damage, but now there are malicious chargebacks on all our e-commerce platforms, and the media is starting to ask questions to our partners," Aurora said. Aside from their collaboration orders, Lush Aura had recently launched a new line of liquid products for the consumer market, with Lavinia assisting in promotion, and initial sales had been promising. Stella handed the phone back to Aurora with a calm expression. "Please book the earliest flight back now. Leave the rest to Dorian. We're heading back to Seattle." "Okay." Aurora nodded and hesitated for a moment before asking, "Are you okay?" Stella smiled reassuringly at her. "I'm fine. You've had a busy day too. Go back and rest." With that, Aurora nodded and left the room. The room fell silent. The smile on Stella's lips faded. Not many people knew about her childhood disappearance. Even if there were rumors in certain circles, out of respect for Ethan's influence, they wouldn't dare to bother her about it. Kate had mentioned before that Avery and Lionel had met, likely plotting about this matter. Suddenly, her phone rang. She took it out from her bag—it was Wyatt calling. "When are you coming back?" Wyatt asked. "If everything goes as planned, I'll be back tomorrow," Stella replied, sensing something, she softened her tone, "Anything you need to tell me?" There was a five-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a sigh. "Lionel brought someone to see me," Wyatt paused, "The person claimed to be your biological uncle."