Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Not a Single One Will Escape
Hector Donovan’s face went livid. "Which media outlet wrote this? I’m going to sue them for slander!"
His furious, hopping-mad display successfully amused the others, who had been somewhat stunned.
Seeing Hector’s huge reaction, Grant guessed that the situation might be different from what they’d thought. He quickly sought confirmation. "What’s written up there isn’t true, right? Why did you two really come here in the middle of the night, and how did you so coincidentally get papped and end up trending?"
"The place is swarming with reporters trying to get a scoop. If we don’t handle this properly and quickly, and just let public opinion run wild, it won’t just be you—my production will suffer too."
At that moment, Arabella Donovan was looking through Sheldon Webb’s phone. The photo had been taken over an hour ago.
In that hour, countless narratives had already spun off from that single photo. Hector Donovan and Grant’s film crew had both been pushed into the trending topics.
This was a common trick in the industry. First, hire internet trolls to hype up a topic. The more narratives, the more points of contention, making it easier to start arguments. And once the arguments start, the topic naturally trends higher.
Once things were heated up enough, they’d have a relatively authoritative media giant confirm the narrative, earning the public’s trust by "leaking" more detailed information and cementing the story for good.
The headline Hector had just seen was the result of that final step, and it was now sitting at the top of every major online trending list.
While Arabella was looking through the news, Hector had already briefly explained to Grant and Sheldon why he had come here, giving them both a shock.
Sheldon Webb couldn’t help but feel a wave of retrospective fear. "Thank god you were careful and noticed something was off early on. If you’d really gone alone, you’d probably have been eaten alive by now, with not even the bones left."
Grant also breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that his production crew was safe.
"Since you reported them to the police, why are those reporters still staking out the place and posting all this nonsense online?"
"Perhaps they think everything went according to plan, and that my brother was arrested along with those people?"
Her reminder brought a sudden realization to the others.
It was a chain of interconnected plots. Having paparazzi stake out the police station in advance meant that a police report was clearly part of the plan.
The problem was, the people carrying out the plan had no contact with the paparazzi, so the reporters had no idea the plan had changed. They just went ahead and broke the story according to the original arrangement.
Meanwhile, the trolls hired to guide public opinion didn’t know the first part of the plan had gone awry, so they were still busy fanning the flames, trying to blow the situation up as much as possible.
It was a massive screw-up caused by a simple communication breakdown.
The group fell silent. For some reason, they all felt an absurd urge to laugh.
Hector, however, couldn’t bring himself to laugh. As he scrolled through the news, he saw that one or two celebrities had already eagerly jumped out to accuse him of forcing them into sexual transactions in exchange for industry resources.
A number of trolls had also seized the opportunity to brand him with the label of "pimp."
After all that, he was still getting smeared with this crap. ’What rotten luck.’
"So what now? Have your company issue a statement in response? Or ask the people in there to help release an official report?"
"What’s the rush?" Since things had already developed to this point, Hector was no longer in a hurry.
"How can you catch a big fish if the water isn’t muddy? This is the perfect opportunity to see who are the good people that will help in a time of need, and who are the backstabbing villains that will kick you when you’re down."
Since Hector had put it that way, Sheldon Webb didn’t press the matter. Grant, however, offered a worried reminder, "Go ahead and fish, but know your limits. Don’t take it too far."
Hector knew that, so he just nodded without arguing.
Because of Hector’s side’s deliberate inaction, the online discussion about the incident quickly reached a fever pitch.
The paparazzi and trolls were just getting paid to do a job; what did they care about the truth?
As for the influencer-driven media outlets, they were like great white sharks that swarmed at the first sight of blood, caring only about engagement and looking to bleed Hector dry.
The only one who might have discovered the truth was the mastermind, Jacqueline Jennings. Unfortunately, she was too arrogant. She never even considered the possibility of her plan failing, and she subconsciously ignored the anomaly of Fawn Nicholson not calling her afterward to report on her progress. She was just excitedly thinking of how she could add more fuel to the fire.
With her covert push, more and more minor celebrities came forward to testify about Hector’s "evil deeds," leaving Sheldon Webb absolutely speechless.
He and Hector had been in the industry together for so long, practically joined at the hip every day, yet he never knew Hector was so "heinous and wicked."
Once the online frenzy had reached its peak, the police investigation had also made preliminary progress. Hector’s company’s statement and the police’s official report were released almost back-to-back.
[On XX/XX/20XX, our department received a report from a concerned citizen, a Mr. Donovan, regarding a potential suicide and group drug use case. Our department gave this matter high priority and immediately launched an investigation. Subsequently, we apprehended suspect Fawn Nicholson and five accomplices at a hotel in this city, seizing a quantity of illegal substances.
Upon investigation, it was found that Fawn Nicholson and her accomplices conspired to lure Mr. Donovan and his sister to the hotel to execute a "honey trap" blackmail scheme. They were also prepared to force the two to ingest illegal drugs to control them after the plan succeeded.
Currently, Fawn Nicholson and her accomplices have been arrested. Mr. Donovan and his sister, who sensed something was wrong and did not go to the hotel, have returned home safely. The investigation is still ongoing, and the criminal acts will be punished severely in accordance with the law.]
Compared to the police report, Hector Donovan’s company’s statement was much more simple and direct.
[Regarding the recent and ongoing malicious slander and rumors targeting our company’s artist, Hector Donovan, our company filed a police report on XX/XX. We have preserved all relevant evidence and will be taking legal action to seriously pursue the defamatory and rumor-mongering behavior of certain media outlets and individuals.]
The statement was simple, but its tone was firm.
Paired with the police report, it sent a chill down the spines of the media outlets and celebrities who had been so eagerly fanning the flames. They scrambled to delete their comments and posts, hoping against hope to feign a serene facade, as if nothing had ever happened.
Of course, some anti-fans and keyboard warriors refused to admit they’d been proven wrong, insisting that "where there’s smoke, there’s fire." With so many industry celebrities stepping up to accuse Hector Donovan, they argued, he definitely couldn’t be a good person.
Hector couldn’t be bothered with these annoying fleas. He simply reposted his company’s statement, then tagged, one by one, the news outlets and influencer marketing accounts that his company and his older brother had discovered were cooperating with Jacqueline Jennings, and added an arrogant message:
"Not a single one of Jacqueline Jennings’s dogs is getting away."
Seeing that post, many people were suddenly reminded of the arrogant nature Hector Donovan had when he first entered the industry—the kind that would take on the world, as if he wanted to punch a hole in the sky.
It was only because he had filmed more dramas in recent years and had matured somewhat that people thought his personality had changed, that he was no longer as fearless as he used to be.
But they had forgotten that some people’s defiance is carved into their very bones. Even if it’s hidden most of the time, the moment someone crosses their bottom line, they will instantly reveal their fangs and run through the wretched fool who dared to pull the tiger’s whiskers.
