Chapter 91

"You think I need money?" Emily Smith let out a cold laugh, her voice cutting through the mall. "You're right. I do."

Her gaze sharpened like a blade, piercing straight at Mrs. Chen. "But I've needed money for years. Seven years, to be exact. Where were you when I was working four or five jobs a day? Now you throw cash at me in front of all these people—what's your game?"

Mrs. Chen's face twisted, but before she could speak—

"Your daughter has always hated seeing me succeed," Emily continued, her voice icy. "The moment I did better than her, she wanted to destroy me."

Mia Harris trembled with anger, pointing at the Chen mother-daughter pair as she addressed the crowd. "Look at them! All polished on the outside, but they only pick on the vulnerable!"

Whispers spread through the onlookers. Someone raised their phone to record.

Emily took a deep breath, then bowed deeply to the crowd. "Sorry you had to witness this." She grabbed Mia's hand and walked away, her back straight and unyielding.

Behind them, Mrs. Chen's hysterical screams faded into irrelevance.

That night, a video titled "Two Women Brawl Over a Man in Mall" went viral. Posted by a small influencer, its explosive content quickly racked up tens of thousands of views.

Twelve hours later, New York.

William Johnson had just wrapped up a meeting when his assistant, Daniel Chen, sent him a video link. One glance, and his expression turned glacial.

The sight of Emily's defiant figure made his chest tighten. When Mrs. Chen threw money at her, his knuckles whitened from the force of his grip.

"Daniel," he said into the phone, his voice like ice. "Handle this. Now."

Back in Jinzhou, it was Monday morning. Within ten minutes, every trace of the video and related accounts vanished without a trace.

On the subway, Emily stared blankly at her phone. The link Mia had sent her no longer worked—the video had been scrubbed from the entire internet.

"Emily!" Mia's call came through. "The video's gone! Even the account got banned!"

Emily froze. "How...?"

"It must be your mysterious friend!" Mia exclaimed. "Who is he? He's got serious pull!"

Emily pressed her lips together, William's stern face flashing in her mind. "He..." She hesitated. "I'll tell you over dinner."

"No 'someday'!" Mia insisted. "Today! Lunch or dinner?"

Emily sighed in resignation. After hanging up, she watched the scenery blur past the subway window, her emotions tangled.

What she didn't know was that, at that very moment, in the Chen Group's boardroom, Mr. Chen was receiving a phone call—one that would bring his entire family to ruin.