CHAPTER 41: CARLA ON THE HEADLINES

"What?" Elara asked when she reached her apartment after visiting the studio.

Antonio shook his head as he walked to the kitchen to cook something for her.

"You were pretty cool back then," he said.

"Did you mean when I was singing that song? You heard it from outside?" Elara asked, confused, as she went inside her room to get changed.

"No. When you showed that man his place, when you stood up for yourself, honestly speaking, when you said you’d let them be, I thought you wouldn’t ever do anything. I hated it," Antonio said.

Elara chuckled from inside the room, her gaze fixating on her reflection before she smiled meaningfully.

"Oh, if only you knew, this was just the beginning of their downfall. I had indeed thought of letting go and wouldn’t have bothered them if they didn’t mess with me again, but now..." Elara mumbled under her breath.

These people really didn’t know what they had coming for them. She was docile and innocent around Andrew because she wanted him to like her.

However, she has no such thoughts, and thus, she was planning to be truly reckless, the kind of reckless that would take away their sleep.

She walked out of the room and looked at Antonio in the kitchen.

"What are you making?" She asked.

"Pasta. Is that okay?" He asked.

Elara made an okay sign with her hand.

"I’ll be in my room then," she said.

~~~

In the Lloyd’s mansion, Andrew sat on the couch with a stormy expression on his face.

Sophia and Carla didn’t dare approach the man and ask what happened in the meeting. His stance alone told them it didn’t go well.

Sophia, having lived in the social circle for so long, had already developed a few survival skills and knew not to say anything that would make Andrew explode, because that would catch Elder Lloyd’s attention—and that was the last thing she wanted.

However, Carla was growing impatient with the silence.

She didn’t care about anything and walked to her brother.

"What happened? What did Noah say? Will he take me back?" She asked, an underlying whining tone in her voice, making Andrew look up at her.

"We’ll talk about it later. Let’s talk about what you did to offend Macros group," Andrew said.

Carla scoffed. "What the hell are you talking about? What Macros group—?"

She started speaking but was cut off mid-sentence, and even Andrew slammed the file on the table and stood, towering over her.

Carla froze in her place, her body jerking a bit at the shock of how angry her brother looked.

"You know nothing? If that was the case, why the hell did the Macros group personally call Noah to terminate your contract? Do you have any idea what kind of humiliation I had to go through because of you?" Andrew asked.

Tears welled in Carla’s eyes. While she agreed she was quite mischievous, she seriously didn’t know what her brother was talking about.

"I didn’t, brother. Please believe me. I didn’t—" Carla started speaking, but she couldn’t complete her sentence.

Jason hurried inside the house with an urgent expression.

"Sir, you should check this," he said, looking at Carla with a complicated expression.

Andrew exhaled sharply and held Jason’s tabloid in his hand, his brows drawing together with each second until a vein in his forehead began to protrude.

Carla gulped.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Sophia held her hand this time.

"What the fuck is this?" Andrew asked, his slitting gaze stopping at Carla.

Carla trembled in place before walking forward and taking the tabloid with shaking hands.

#artistCarlaexposed

#fulltimesingerbutparttimebully

#Loydsdaughterisabully

Several videos of Carla bullying and mistreating people of lower ranks were published online out of nowhere. They each showed her face clearly.

Since Carla was a famous singer, people didn’t hold back and immediately did a fake test on the video. It turned out everything in the video was authentic.

In several videos, she was pulling the hair of her junior artists and making them run errands for her. She even placed her foot on one of the interns’ heads, asking him to bark if he wanted to continue working, all to gain some laughter from her friends.

"Brother, this is misleading. It’s not exactly like that." Carla shook her head.

"Sir, the stocks are being affected. The market value is dropping. We need to do something. The public outrage is causing the stakeholders to push us to hold a meeting soon," Jason said.

Andrew massaged his forehead in annoyance.

When Sophia watched the videos, she couldn’t help but raise her hand and slap Carla.

Carla’s face whipped to the side, and she looked at her mother in disbelief, her eyes wide as tears streaked down her cheek.

"Have you lost your mind? How could you allow people to film you while doing all this? Didn’t you know you were famous?" Sophia asked.

"But, mom—" Carla started, opening and closing her mouth because she didn’t really have an explanation.

Andrew looked at his mother, who was somewhat concerned about how Carla let others film her like this, rather than about how Carla actually bullied others, and couldn’t help but think about what Elara said.

A weird feeling settled in his heart, and he took a deep breath.

"Carla, I want to ask you something, and I want to hear the truth only. I won’t help you if you lied to me. Did you push Elara down the stairs back at the studio?" He asked.

Carla looked at her brother and swallowed hard.

Things were already going downhill. What if her brother dropped her completely if she admitted it? Besides, there wasn’t even a witness.

"No, brother. She is your wife, my sister-in-law. No matter what I say to her, I wouldn’t pull something like that. If I had really pushed her, why would I rush out and call you for help?" Carla asked.

Andrew looked into her eyes for some time before nodding.

"Okay. Stay inside the house for some time. Our PR team will handle this. You might have to come out to make a public apology if things turn worse. Go, prepare for that. I’ll handle the rest," Andrew said before he walked out of the hall.

Carla heaved a sigh of relief when her brother was gone before she looked at her mother, who quickly rushed to her side.

"You know I had to pretend to be a little hard on you. If not, Andrew might not have helped you," Sophia said.

Carla hummed, wiping her tears with a sigh.

"I want to know who dared to release those videos of me. I will skin that person alive. It can’t be one of my friends because of the angle, but who was it?" Carla gritted her teeth.