CHAPTER 450: LIES SO SLOPPY IT’S EMBARRASSING

Brooks repeated the question calmly. "You came to apologize to the chairman?"

For some reason, Eric felt a creeping sense of dread, like things were about to go very wrong.

Before he could answer, Brooks nodded once and stepped aside, clearing the space in front of the desk. "Go ahead. Apologize."

Eric instinctively lifted his eyes—

Across the desk sat Selina. She was seated while he stood.

The positioning made his heart jolt. He blurted, "W-what do you mean...?"

Brooks paused, lips curling in a faintly mocking smile. "Didn’t Taylor, our esteemed vice president, come here to apologize to the chairman? The chairman is right in front of you. Don’t waste time."

The chairman is right in front of you.

The chairman is right in front of you!

Eric’s mind finally caught up with the creeping horror.

There was no one else in the room. Only Selina, sitting in the chairman’s designated chair. The entire press conference couldn’t proceed without her. Brooks treated her with utter respect...

Even Eric couldn’t be that blind. The elusive SL chairman was Selina!

Brooks smiled thinly. "I’m sure you must have been confused before, that’s why you teamed up with Riley to drive the chairman out. They say ignorance is no crime, but..."

Eric’s face drained of color, bone-white.

"...But Taylor, you deliberately blocked the chairman from attending her own press conference. You’ll need to explain yourself."

Brooks’s tone turned regretful. "Otherwise, if you get away with this, what’s to stop anyone else from trampling over the chairman in the future?"

Eric flushed red with fury and humiliation. "I—I was tricked by Riley! It was all her fault! I was duped—I didn’t do it on purpose!"

Brooks’s expression turned stone-cold. "Not on purpose? You had nothing to do with this merger. You insisted on inserting yourself anyway. Even before today, I warned everyone repeatedly: Selina was the most important person here. Did you listen?"

He didn’t wait for Eric’s stammering.

"You ignored every warning. Before I even arrived, you were spreading Riley’s claim that she was the ’appointed’ lead. Don’t tell me you forgot what you said to the press?"

Eric felt like vomiting blood.

Sure—he’d gone out of his way during interviews to call Riley the chairman’s beloved, shaping the entire narrative.

But if Selina had simply exposed him on the spot... none of this would have happened!

Brooks, seeing he still refused to own up, waved a dismissive hand. "Turn in your resignation to HR. SL doesn’t need people like you."

Eric stumbled out in a daze, barely knowing how he made it back to the banquet hall.

Of course someone immediately pounced on him.

"Vice President Taylor! What did you do to get the chairman so upset?"

"So? Did the chairman accept your apology? When are they coming down? Riley’s been waiting forever..."

Eric’s eyes burned red. His dazed expression twisted into rage. He jerked his head up, glaring straight at Riley.

Whose fault was this? Was it really his? He was just an accomplice!

It was Riley. It was the entire Nelson Family’s fault. They’d all insisted, with such certainty, that she was the chairman’s ’beloved.’

Ha. The chairman was Selina. Did Riley even use her brain before telling that lie?

He laughed once, harsh and ugly.

"Nelson’s been waiting forever? Don’t bother. As long as Nelson’s here, the chairman will never come down!"

The entire room went dead silent. Faces fell.

Riley’s expression crumpled in barely contained tears. "Vice President Taylor, what are you trying to say?"

Madam Nelson refused to back down, screeching like a fishwife, "You offended the chairman and now you’re blaming Riley? This is all your fault! You should be grateful we’re not making you apologize to her, and you still have the nerve to mock Riley—"

"Nelson says she’s such good friends with the SL chairman? Childhood sweethearts? That he’s been in love with her forever?"

Taylor’s voice cut in, cold and mocking. He didn’t even let Riley answer before suddenly exploding, his tone rising several octaves:

"Riley, do you not even bother to get your lies straight?! You don’t even know if the chairman is a man or a woman, and you dare claim she’s in love with you? How shameless can you be?! Huh?! Does the entire Nelson Family have no sense of decency?!"

The room fell completely silent, dead still.

Riley had never been yelled at like that in public. Her face turned bright red, lips trembling. "Vice President Taylor, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but the chairman and I—"

"Riley, how long are you going to keep pretending?!"

Eric snapped, shouting in utter collapse. He had nothing left to lose. "I just came from the chairman’s office! You think I don’t know whether she’s in love with you?!"

He regretted everything. He never should have trusted a compulsive liar like Riley.

Riley’s eyes welled up with tears, her voice pitiful and trembling like she was the most wronged person in the world. "I don’t know what you’re talking about. The chairman and I have known each other for years, we’ve always been friends..."

"Excuse me, Nelson,"

A cold male voice suddenly cut through her act.

Brooks stepped forward, with Selina beside him, not giving Riley a chance to speak. His tone was ice-cold and cutting.

"Miss Selina Clark holds the controlling shares in SL. She is, without question, our chairman. But as far as I know, she’s never ’known you for years’—let alone been ’in love’ with you."

He paused, then twisted the knife.

"Or perhaps Nelson means some other SL chairman? Because I just asked every executive VP and above in our company, and not one of them admits to knowing you. Are you sure you’re not confused?"

Those words ripped away every last shred of her cover like a storm tearing through rotted cloth.

The entire audience froze, eyes going wide, then turned—one by one—to stare at Riley.

What was Brooks saying?

That Selina was the SL chairman all along?

That meant Riley had been lying the entire time.

Madam Nelson began to shake, shrieking incoherently. "Lies! You’re lying! SL’s chairman can’t possibly be Selina! How would you even prove that?! I know what this is—Selina bought you off! That bitch just can’t stand to see Riley succeed—"

Brooks let out a cold, mirthless laugh.

"Ridiculous. And who do you think you are, Madam Nelson? Our chairman owes you nothing—not even the courtesy of proving her identity. Frankly, I haven’t even gotten around to dealing with your family’s bullshit, and here you are, jumping up to die on this hill first."

He turned to Selina with a razor-sharp smile.

"Oh, Chairman—speaking of which. Miss Nelson here risked everything impersonating our merger lead. Trying to steal our trade secrets, I’d guess. Naturally, SL can’t just let that slide. I’ve already spoken to legal about pressing charges. She should expect a court summons any day now. Does that handling meet with your approval?"