Maybe the Other Side Still Has a Next Move

She immediately said firmly, "Alright then, Hazel. I'll listen to you about everything."

No one knew about the conversation the two of them had in the lounge.

The dinner gathering was also nearing its end. Throughout the whole thing, the so-called "Mr. Sterling" never appeared, and everyone kept pestering Hazel Lewis to ask about it.

Hazel Lewis could only brush them off with the excuse that Mr. Sterling had a last-minute meeting.

Quite a few people didn't really believe that excuse and had already started to doubt the relationship between Willow Lane and Mr. Sterling.

After the meal, everyone left the club separately. After Julian Sterling drove Molly Lee and Sienna Shaw back, he took Claire Bennett with him and returned to their apartment.

On the way back, Claire Bennett's phone received a photo.

The moment she saw it, her pupils suddenly contracted. The person in the photo was her, yet also not her.

Strictly speaking, the face was hers, but the wanton things the body was doing were things she had never done.

The message had been sent from an unfamiliar number.

It read: Claire Bennett, if you don't want your past exposed, come to this place immediately.

She looked at the address above. It was a hotel in Chicago.

At this hour, going to a place like a hotel was suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

A flash of ridicule passed through Claire Bennett's eyes.

Did Ian Walsh really think she was an idiot who would just deliver herself to him to be controlled and threatened?

His sudden appearance was no accident. Ian Walsh showing up at the department dinner tonight had been very strange to begin with. If no one was pulling strings behind the scenes, that was practically impossible. Maybe the other side still had a next move.

In the end, Claire Bennett ignored Ian Walsh and directly locked her phone screen.

Claire Bennett originally hadn't planned to pay Ian Walsh any mind, nor had she taken him seriously at all. But she never expected that when she went to work the next day, things would develop to such a serious extent!

The moment Claire Bennett arrived at the company, she saw that everyone was looking at her strangely. But when she looked back, they all averted their eyes.

She couldn't very well ask what they meant, so with a puzzled mood she took the elevator up to Maison Verne, where she saw Molly Lee and Sienna Shaw hurrying up to her with anxious expressions.

"Manager Claire, you're finally here!"

"What happened?"

Molly Lee took out her phone with a grave expression and said, "Something really serious happened in the company's main group chat this morning. You're not in the group, so you don't know. I've been waiting forever for you. Ugh... anyway, just look for yourself."

After saying that, Molly Lee handed her phone to Claire Bennett.

Claire Bennett took her phone suspiciously and looked through it with a solemn expression.

The incident had happened in the company's main group chat. Claire Bennett scrolled through the chat history.

The general gist was that Willow Lane had suddenly posted under her real name and started exposing Claire Bennett's past in the group.

Besides the old manuscript incident from back at Bennett Group, there were all kinds of gossip big and small that were very unfavorable to her. The most serious of them was the matter with Ian Walsh!

After all, Ian Walsh was a married man. If it were true, then her reputation would be completely ruined.

Along with that, they also posted surveillance footage from last night at the club, of Ian Walsh talking to her.

Claire Bennett's later words had been deliberately cut off, leaving only the line Ian Walsh said: "Claire Bennett, long time no see. Why are you pretending not to know me? Don't tell me you've forgotten our past?"

With just that one sentence, plus Willow Lane's utterly brazen embellishments and nonsense, everyone believed the whole thing was true!

It had obviously been Ian Walsh's fault back then, but Willow Lane twisted it into Claire Bennett being unable to stand the loneliness and trying to seduce Ian Walsh, failing, and then after the scandal blew up, being too ashamed to stay at Bennett Group any longer, which was why she had left Bennett Group and come to work at Sterling International.

Sterling International's main group chat had well over a thousand people in it, covering every department. It was extremely complicated, and everyone used their real names, so Willow Lane couldn't post anonymously.

But what she needed to do was use Claire Bennett to divert attention from Mr. Sterling not showing up yesterday.

What Willow Lane did was undoubtedly strip her bare and expose her to the public. Sure enough, everyone's attention was diverted, and no one paid any more attention to Willow Lane's affairs.

Claire Bennett suddenly understood. No wonder everyone had looked at her so strangely when she came in just now!

After seeing the exposé, people throughout Sterling International began expressing their shock in the group chat one after another.

"Holy shit! Is this for real? The new department manager at Maison Verne actually has such a colorful past?"

"Why do I feel like Maison Verne has so much drama? This new manager hasn't even been in the job that long, right? Did you all forget what happened between the last manager and Ethan Sterling?"

"Of course I remember. That thing with the last manager, Naomi Pierce—sheesh... it was just one thing after another."

"How can a woman with that kind of private life, climbing upward like that, possibly be capable of leading an entire department?"

"I heard she was involved with the director from the time she joined, and not long after that she was already sitting in the manager's seat. Who would believe there wasn't some kind of connection behind that?"

So everyone began speculating over who in Sterling International Claire Bennett had hooked up with this time to receive such special treatment.

But even at this point, the matter still wasn't completely over.

Quite a few Nia employees had originally transferred over from Maison Verne, so they knew more or less about Claire Bennett's situation.

A good number of them came out and claimed that even back when she was still at Maison Verne, Claire Bennett had often received flowers and chocolates, as well as all kinds of expensive gifts.

When the wall falls, everyone gives it a shove. If only one person came out and said it, the others might still have had doubts.

But when everyone came out and said it together, then the matter became the truth!

When Molly Lee saw those messages, her eyes turned red with anger.

Other people might not know, but she had been by Claire Bennett's side the whole time, so she knew best. Those things Claire Bennett had received before had obviously all been from her husband!

Before, she had thought it was something from the company's Mr. Sterling too, but later she discovered it had all been a misunderstanding.

At the time, she had even been force-fed a huge helping of PDA and had been insanely jealous.

Those people who jumped ship from Maison Verne to Nia were all ungrateful bastards!