Chapter 41: Chapter 41: That’s Your Grandaunt
Perhaps he was too pleased with himself, but Tom Chase failed to notice the tense atmosphere. He just pulled out his phone, opened a social media app, and showed it to James Lockwood.
"President Lockwood, look! Our press conference is occupying seven of the top ten trending spots. It’s absolutely the biggest news of the day. The livestream’s peak viewership broke twenty million, completely shattering the previous record. The sponsors are ecstatic."
Seeing how clueless Tom Chase was, the corner of James Lockwood’s eye twitched in anger. He slapped Tom’s hand away and glared at him. "Feeling pretty proud of yourself, huh? I chewed out Ray Warner but not you, is that it? What the hell are you so smug about?"
Tom Chase’s smile froze on his face. He couldn’t make sense of the situation and had no idea what had caused President Lockwood’s sudden outburst.
He blinked in bewilderment. "President Lockwood, what’s wrong? The results already exceeded all our expectations. How can you not be satisfied?"
"Satisfied my ass!" James Lockwood growled through gritted teeth. "Someone was missing from the press conference! Are you blind? Where is she?!"
"Someone?" Tom Chase still didn’t get it. He stared blankly. "President Lockwood, what are you talking about? Who are you..."
"You son of a..."
James Lockwood looked ready to give Tom Chase a massive slap across the face, but just as he was about to explode, Ray Warner, the general manager for the press conference, arrived.
He ran up, panting, and immediately yanked Tom Chase to the side. "President Lockwood," he gasped, "I’m here."
He had just made it back to the office when a call from President Lockwood had summoned him right back.
Ray Warner was far more perceptive than Tom Chase. He immediately noticed Cecilia Sterling standing to the side, her expression ice-cold. He hurried to apologize, "You must be Miss Sterling? This was our fault. I am so sorry."
"Of course it’s your fault," Cecilia Sterling said, her tone sharp. "Or were you going to blame my sister?"
Ray Warner nodded profusely. "But the press conference is already over. Could you please give us another chance? I promise, we will be extremely careful from now on. Nothing like this will ever happen again."
Cecilia Sterling tilted her head slightly, her dark, intimidating gaze landing on James Lockwood. He understood immediately.
’Miss Sterling had said it on the phone: the press conference might be over, but this matter wasn’t. If she didn’t get a satisfactory resolution, she would pull her investment!’
He quickly composed himself and said, "Miss Sterling, let’s discuss this in the back. It’s too chaotic out here."
He then made a welcoming gesture with his hand. Cecilia Sterling said nothing more and walked toward the backstage area. James Lockwood shot Ray Warner and Tom Chase a furious glare before hurrying after her.
Ray Warner wiped the cold sweat from his brow. He started to follow, but Tom Chase frantically stopped him, asking with a look of nervous bewilderment, "Ray, who is that woman?"
"She’s the one person you can’t afford to piss off!" Ray Warner snapped, pointing a finger at Tom Chase. "You’ve fucked up royally. You’re on your own now!"
Tom Chase was dumbstruck.
’What is going on?’
Backstage, James Lockwood personally moved a sofa chair over for Cecilia Sterling, then pulled up a small stool for himself and sat to the side.
"Talk. What exactly happened?" James Lockwood demanded, his voice carrying the weight of his authority as he stared down Ray Warner and Tom Chase.
As the general manager of the press conference, Ray Warner knew that no matter what went wrong—even if it wasn’t his fault—he would ultimately be held responsible.
After a moment of hesitation, he was the first to speak up. "It was an oversight on our part, President Lockwood. We truly realize our mistake."
"I don’t want to hear the word ’oversight’!" James Lockwood’s expression darkened as he snapped, "Don’t try to placate Miss Sterling with such a pathetic excuse. Just state the facts. I want the truth!"
Claiming that they had failed to notice a missing person and calling it an "oversight" was something that not even he would believe, let alone Cecilia Sterling.
Ray Warner avoided his gaze, stealing a glance at Cecilia Sterling. She remained silent, but the pressure emanating from her was terrifying.
’This is the project’s main investor, a woman even President Lockwood has to worship. I absolutely can’t afford to offend her.’
"It’s... because the stage wasn’t large enough," he stammered. "We had to cut one person from the lineup at the last minute. We figured... we figured..."
"You figured that since Lily Sterling is a newcomer, you could just pick on the easiest target. Is that it?" Cecilia Sterling finished his sentence for him when she saw he couldn’t get the words out, her voice frigid.
Both embarrassed and terrified, Ray Warner could only bite the bullet and nod. He quickly added, "Miss Sterling, this is all a huge misunderstanding. If I had known she had you backing her, I wouldn’t have dared to cut her, not in a million years! You see that, right?"
’This should be a good enough reason,’ he thought. ’We’ve admitted that we intentionally cut Lily Sterling, and we’re being very sincere about our apology. Even if she’s angry, as an investor, she should be able to see the bigger picture.’
’After all, the press conference is over. There’s no point in dragging this out.’
However, Ray Warner’s words did nothing to improve Cecilia Sterling’s mood. In fact, they made her laugh out of sheer anger.
She fixed Ray Warner with a death glare. "Do you think that just because I look young, I’m easy to fool?"
"I... I didn’t mean that, Miss Sterling! I would never dare to fool you!" Ray Warner stammered in terror, casting a pleading look at James Lockwood.
James Lockwood ignored him. He knew that Miss Sterling was determined to get to the bottom of this today, and the matter wouldn’t be resolved until she declared herself satisfied.
"Then let me ask you this. If you had known from the start that Lily Sterling was my sister, who would you have cut instead?"
"The third male lead, Andrew Sutton? The second female lead, Jessica Reynolds, and Sophie Grant? Or the fourth male lead, Aaron Sanders?"
Cecilia Sterling’s tone was deceptively calm, but each word was laced with immense pressure.
Ray Warner opened his mouth, then closed it. For a moment, he had no idea how to respond.
At his silence, Cecilia Sterling sneered and answered for him. "You wouldn’t have cut any of them. They’re all established actors. Their teams would never allow them to be kept off the stage. If anyone raised a fuss, your precious press conference would have been ruined."
"So you would’ve done whatever it took to cram every last one of them onto that stage and into the camera frame. But you’re supposed to be a professional team. You wouldn’t have let a chaotic situation like that even be a possibility."
"Which leaves only one answer. The excuse that ’the stage wasn’t big enough’ is pure bullshit. I can have someone recreate the press conference stage right now, one-to-one, and get the same number of people to stand on it. If they really don’t fit, I won’t say another word. I’ll bow my head, admit I was wrong, apologize, and I’ll even add another five thousand to my investment!"
"But what if they do fit? Can the two of you handle those consequences? Hmm?"
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