My CEO Ex: Let Me Go.-Chapter 19

The contents of the box were flung out.

Inside was a lump of something unidentifiable—red and white, bloody and mangled. It was utterly disgusting to look at. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Bright red liquid spread across the floor, emitting a foul, rotting stench.

I was startled too, but once I regained my composure, I quickly said, "Mrs. Hawthorne, please don’t be scared. I’ll clean this up right away."

"Don’t clean it up—call the police immediately," she said, pinching her nose and limping off the bed.

"Alright, I’ll call the police. Mrs. Hawthorne, should I inform Mr. Hawthorne?" Maggie asked.

I hesitated for a moment. "He’s on a business trip. No need to inform him."

"Okay."

Maggie immediately called the police, and they arrived quickly. They began collecting evidence and documenting our statements, assuring us they’d find the cause soon.

Once the police left, Maggie started cleaning the living room, spraying disinfectant and air freshener several times.

This prank was just too simple.

Through monitoring footage and the entrance logs at the security booth, the police quickly traced the courier’s details. They then tracked the parcel back to its sender.

According to household registration information, the sender was an underage student.

Once confirmed, the police immediately launched a pursuit.

When the suspect was arrested, the police informed me, and Maggie went to the station to handle things.

At first, the student denied sending the package, but being young and naive, he was quickly caught by the experienced officers, who made him confess.

He explained that he did it because he was a diehard fan of Isabella and couldn’t stand seeing her "bullied" under my management.

I had a friendly lawyer from the company’s Legal Department handle the situation.

After returning from the police station, Maggie couldn’t help but sigh, "Kids these days and their celebrity obsessions... they just don’t think."

I asked, “Did he say how he found out where I live?”

“It seems like his grandfather is the cleaner for the neighborhood.”

“Let the security company know and have him reassigned,” I said.

Having him stay could be a potential hazard.

"Alright, I’ll talk to the security company."

Once I calmed down, I finally had the time to check my public relations situation. That was when I noticed my Twitter had received a flood of replies and private messages.

I opened my phone and froze when I saw there were 99+ new notifications.

When I opened the comments, the first one I saw was: What kind of inept director is this? You ruined the makeup. Open your eyes and see what you’ve done.

The second comment read: Is this Director Vivienne? We’ve worked together for so long, and you’ve never said a word. Your taste is so superior, V&R doesn’t deserve you, Isabella doesn’t deserve you. You should find a better company. Please spare Isabella.

The third comment said: If I’m guilty, let the law punish me, but don’t force me to see this kind of makeup on Isabella. Spare the fans, spare Isabella. What did we do wrong?

The fourth comment simply said: I’m blind.

...

I was speechless when I saw these comments.

I went through each one, and nearly every single comment was the same—attacking me.

My Twitter account wasn’t verified; it was just a regular private account, but somehow, a flood of comments had appeared.

In my latest tweet, comments from a few old friends had been pushed far down, replaced by these new, popular comments. The first one had over a thousand likes, and the others had hundreds.

The comments kept coming, growing in number.

From what they were saying, I could infer that someone had shifted the blame onto me, claiming that I had ruined the makeup, which led to this mess.

I opened Twitter and quickly found the source of the online uproar.

In Isabella’s Twitter hashtags, someone had posted a screenshot of a conversation from the fan group.

The Community Manager was clearly a member of Isabella’s team.

The Community Manager wrote: "Fans, please stay calm and avoid posting overly aggressive comments under V&R’s Twitter posts, as this could harm Isabella’s image. We’re all frustrated too. Isabella’s makeup was perfect, but that Director Vivienne insisted on changing it! She just had to change it! But since Vivienne is the project leader, Isabella had no choice but to follow the client’s demands."

Someone in the group asked: "Isn’t Isabella involved with CEO Hawthorne? Isn’t there anything she can do about it?"

The Community Manager replied with a ‘shh’ emoji: "I can’t say any more."

Then came another screenshot from the fan group. One of the major fans had somehow dug into my identity: "No wonder Isabella can’t do anything to her. I found out that she’s actually Chairman Hawthorne’s adopted daughter and has some standing in The Hawthorne Dynasty. She’s only twenty-five. Think about it, twenty-five and already a director. There’s no way she could have achieved this without some power behind her."

Fan A replied: "No wonder."

Fan B: "I tell you, people like that usually have big egos."

Fan C: "Yeah, don’t even get me started on how ugly her makeup looks. She probably thinks it looks great though."

Fan D: "Does she have a Twitter?"

Fan E: "Found it."

That’s where the screenshots stopped.

These unofficial Twitter comments under Isabella’s hashtags had already accumulated over a thousand replies, and they were growing rapidly. With fans from the group joining in, they flooded my Twitter.

It wasn’t just the comments; my direct messages were also full of red dots.

The comment section was far more civilized than the direct messages, which were full of insults aimed at my parents.

After glancing at a few, I chose to delete all the direct messages.

So this was the “solution” Olivia and Isabella’s team had come up with?

They were trying to shift the blame onto me?

I saved the image evidence, then logged out of Twitter and immediately contacted the head of the studio, instructing him to find out who the internal staff member was that leaked the images and to pull up the surveillance footage.

Next, I called Olivia.

She clearly knew I would, because as soon as the phone rang, she picked up. "Hello? Director Vivienne, how’s your rest at home?"

"Olivia, cut the act! Did you post those tweets?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

"Director Vivienne, please don’t be angry. I had no choice," Olivia said, her voice oozing with smugness. "CEO Hawthorne asked me to handle this. I couldn’t let Miss Blackwood’s image be damaged, but I couldn’t let the brand take a hit either. So, you had to be the one to take the fall."

The mention of Alexander made my heart tighten for a moment, but I kept my voice steady. "Did CEO Hawthorne tell you to do this, or was it your decision?"

"It was my decision," Olivia said, her tone shifting. "But even if I acted without CEO Hawthorne’s approval, once he finds out, he won’t do anything about it. Want to bet?"