Chapter 540: Anything About Clement
Wendy felt better as she looked around the park. There were many kids playing and having fun with their friends and parents. This was also the first time she and Michael held hands in the park.
"Look, aren’t they Wendy Stewart and Michael Lucas?"
"I think so!"
"Have you seen the news today? Is it true, what the news said?"
"I don’t think so. Wendy Stewart isn’t someone like that. If so, why would Michael still be with her and treat her so well? I’ve always liked Corrine Swift’s designs. I’ve bought some of them. I’ve read about her before, and she’s indeed a very hard-working and talented designer. I just don’t believe that someone like her would do something like that."
"Come on, we all know that Michael and Christian are competitors, so it’s not surprising that they’re trying to destroy each other’s reputations. There are so many rumors circulating online. Nobody knows if they’re real."
"The last time when Christian exposed Michael and Wendy, there were lots of witnesses. But this time, there was no evidence. Besides, Wendy and Todd were indeed a couple, and couples take photos all the time. I just feel that Michael would in no way treat Wendy so well if he knew that she wasn’t carrying his child. He would know better than anyone else whether that’s his baby or not."
"I feel the same way, but I just saw so many people trashing Wendy online and I almost bought it."
"They’re just fanning the flames since such rumors have no negative impact on these gossipers. In fact, the more outrageous a rumor is, the more they’ll have a field day gossiping about it."
"Aren’t we all enjoying the gossip?"
...
Wendy had wanted to hastily walk away after hearing people talking about her, but as she listened to more of their conversations, she slowed down.
Michael held Wendy’s hand tightly as if he was trying to prove that Wendy was nothing like the person those articles described her to be. He whispered, "See, everyone believes in you."
Wendy had eavesdropped on some of their conversations. There were many people criticizing her online, so she was kind of surprised that there were people in the real world who believed in her.
"I told you that most of them are hired by Christian, who just wants to tarnish your reputation," Michael said. "People in real life have brains, and they can tell which are the lies that were made up."
Wendy looked up at Michael, curved her lips into a smile, and nodded. Before Michael could say anything further, Wendy received a call from Zess.
"Wendy, are you coming back for lunch? Or will you be at the mansion?"
Wendy took a look at Michael, who towered over her, and said, "We’re coming back for lunch. We’ll be home soon."
"Great! I’ll prepare some of your favorite food," Zess said cheerfully.
"Thank you, Zess," Wendy said.
"That’s my job."
Wendy put her cellphone into her pocket. She held Michael’s hand and said, "Let’s head back for lunch."
Michael smiled after seeing that Wendy was in a much better mood. "Sure!" he said.
...
Wendy checked the mirror again before Michael started driving, and she felt relieved after seeing that her eyes were less red and swollen. She didn’t want Jake and Leah to know that she had cried like a baby.
"Are you feeling better?" Michael could easily tell that Wendy was in a better mood, but he felt obliged to ask.
"Of course," Wendy said and rubbed her belly. "I can’t wallow in pain from that night forever. I know that you’ll be sad as well if I can’t step out of it, and my negative emotions will eventually affect our kids. Whatever that happened has happened, and we should face the consequences together. Besides, there are people who have faith in me."
"Of course! We will face them together," Michael said while holding Wendy’s hands.
Jake and Leah ran towards them when Wendy and Michael stepped into their home.
Leah held Wendy’s hand and asked with a smile, "Mommy, Jake said that you and Daddy went back to the mansion to visit Great-grandma. Why didn’t you take us with you? Great-grandma just told us that we should go spend some time with her ye sterday."
"Your great-grandma is tired, Leah. Let’s visit her next week, shall we?" Wendy patted Leah’s head and said.
"Sure!" Leah smiled innocently like an angel. "I bet you’re both hungry. We’ve been waiting for you to have lunch together."
"Of course! Let’s go have lunch. Don’t want to keep you two hungry," Wendy said and couldn’t stop smiling as she looked at the two people she loved the most in the world.
After lunch, Michael headed to the office. Mr. York stepped into his office after he arrived and said, "I’ve already asked the websites to retract those articles, but unfortunately, they’ve spread everywhere. Many people are still talking about it on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and many other social media platforms. I’m not able to get them deleted because they’re all from individual accounts.
Wendy was Michael’s wife and one of the most famous designers internationally.
Those rumors had caused just as much attention as they would for A-list celebrities.
It was easy for Mr. York to control the mainstream media because of the company’s established connections with them, but it was much more difficult to do so when it comes to individual accounts. After all, there were millions, if not billions, of them.
Michael knew this, so he didn’t blame Mr. York.
"Have you heard anything about Clement?" Michael skimmed through the documents on his desk and asked.
"He did come to Lake City," Mr. York said. "I asked one of our guys to send us the surveillance footage from all the airports. He arrived at ten o’clock yesterday.
Someone picked him up after he left the airport, but we couldn’t figure out who that person was. I bet he works for Christian though, as we lost him after they got to the west end of Southern Avenue."
"The west end of Southern Avenue," Michael said while signing the documents.
"That’s less than one mile away from Christian’s DR Group."
"That’s right. I wasn’t able to find any CCTV footage around the DR Group area," Mr.
York sounded guilty when he said that. "I apologize, Mr. Lucas. I should’ve done better."
Michael knew that it didn’t make sense to blame Mr. York as the area around DR Group was under Christian’s control, which meant it would be almost impossible to capture someone within close proximity to DR Group. After all, Christian still wielded tremendous power in the city and was very well-connected.
...
"Mr. Lucas, should we head to DR Group directly, now that Clement is in their area?"
Mr. York asked. "Perhaps he hasn’t left DR Group yet, and we might stand a chance if we try to seize him by force."
"They wouldn’t be so careless, and they must’ve figured out that we would know if Clement is within Christian’s territory, which means they might’ve left already," Michael said. "Besides, on what grounds do we seize Clement by force? My personal feud with Clement isn’t reason enough."
The personal feud referred to what Clement had done to Wendy, and Christian would love to blow it out of proportion. If Michael went to DR Group and did not manage to get Clement, Christian would seize this opportunity to spread fake news once again.
He could say that Michael demanded for him give up the man who Wendy tried to seduce previously.
Should that happen, the public would believe the slanderous comments that were being circulated about Wendy online. As for what really happened, nobody would care.
Michael refused to put Wendy under the spotlight again. The recent episode with the rumors had already taken a huge toll on her. He wanted to get Clement, and he was determined to capture him, but he couldn’t make any mistake that might give Christian a second chance to smear Wendy’s name.
"Sorry. I should’ve been more careful," Mr. York whispered.
"Keep monitoring the areas that we have control of. Mobilize all personnel and resources that we have on hand," Michael said sternly. "Clement will have to leave the area that Christian controls at some point, and we must be right there watching him."
Michael didn’t mind much that they had lost track of Clement when he first arrived, but now that he was in Lake City, he would in no way let Clement get away again.
"Sure, Mr. Lucas!" Mr. York walked out of Michael’s office and started putting the plan into action.
Michael went online after Mr. York left, and he saw that Wendy was no longer hogging the entertainment news headlines. He then logged into Twitter. As expected, people were still gossiping about Wendy. He scrolled through the tweets and saw a clear contrast between the tweets and true public opinion.
Around half of them showed their support for Wendy, and the other half was defaming her. Like what those from the park said, there were all sorts of people online.
Those who spend hours online every day are excited to see chaos, even though they are not related to the subject of their gossip. Once they are online, they are anonymous and carefree, and they can get on their moral high horse to berate public figures, who they can never match up to in reality. They find joy and affirmation by judging the moral character of those who are significantly more successful, and it shines a light upon their mediocre lives. These are keyboard warriors.
Although Michael couldn’t despise these keyboard warriors more, he didn’t want Wendy to suffer from their negativity, which was why he logged into Twitter, which he hadn’t used in a long while, and sent out a tweet.
The tweet said, "In less than a day, countless defamatory comments about my wife Wendy Stewart have been rife. I don’t know where they got the information, but I know my wife better than anyone else. If you keyboard warriors dare slander my wife again, I will make sure you are duly punished by the law."
He then attached a couple of wedding photos that he took with Wendy to that tweet.
This tweet showed Michael’s stance. He was determined to always treasure and protect his wife.
