“We’ve figured out the ingredients, but we’re not sure about the proportions,” Jocelyn’s assistant, Abby Deckson, said.
Even with medicines, dosage mattered. If they got the amounts wrong, and not only would it not work, but it could cause side effects.
Jocelyn let out a cold laugh. ‘How complicated could anything Audrey makes be?‘ she thought. “If you can’t handle something this simple, you might an well pack up and get out.”
Abby didn’t know what to say. Ever since Talia got arrested, Jocelyn had become a completely different person–bad temper and a nasty mouth. Working under her was worse than eating shit.
Stellar Core Technology had already been looked down on by their competitors for copying other people’s software, and now they wanted to make knockoff face masks too.
Can’t we find our own way to make money?‘ Abby thought. She was really annoyed but had to say, “Yes, I’ll get it done as soon as possible.”
The online controversy was still brewing. Many marketing accounts were taking screenshots of netizens boycotting Lunesse face masks in the livestream and spreading them everywhere.
Amelia got wind of it and called to ask about the situation. “Do you need me to do anything?”
“Not yet,” Audrey said calmly. “Let’s let this play out a bit longer.”
The controversy wasn’t widespread enough yet. Even if Ruby’s lies were exposed and the face masks‘ reputation was restored, it wouldn’t cause any real damage to whoever was pulling the strings behind this.
Audrey wanted to let the person behind all this get cocky first. That was when they’d be most vulnerable to a counterattack.
After spending so much time with Amelia, Audrey found her way of handling things very comfortable. It showed the kind of boundaries that powerful people maintained.
When Audrey ran into trouble, Amelia would let her know she could tell Amelia about it and ask what she could do to help. But if Audrey didn’t need her help, Amelia wouldn’t take it upon herself to solve your problems and mess up your plans or timing.
This was the social code that successful people lived by.
Audrey had Joseph from the operations department make some preparations. Just because they weren’t fighting back didn’t mean they were doing
nothing.
At seven o’clock that evening, Yann came home.
Audrey didn’t think much of it at first, but after five straight days of him returning at the same time, she started to feel something
off
Yann was a workaholic who often stayed late at the office and flew to different cities on weekends. Darkshell International couldn’t possibly have enough downtime for him to keep regular hours like this. ‘What is going on with him?‘ Audrey thought.
After dinner, Yann walked with her as usual. When they returned, Freya was waiting in the living room and stood up when she saw them.
“I need to handle some business,” Yann said.
“Okay.” Audrey watched them head to the study, then did some stretching exercises under Sylvie’s guidance.
More than an hour later, Freya came out of the study to make coffee, but Audrey stopped her. “Video conference?”
Freya didn’t confirm it, but from her hesitant expression, Audrey knew she’d guessed right. She personally made a cup of coffee and cut a slice of lemon
1/2
Chapter 298
to put in it, then had Freya take it upstairs.
Freya’s mouth twitched slightly.
When Yann saw the coffee, his mouth twitched too. ‘No one knows me better than my wife, he thought. ‘No one knows me better than my wife, be thought.
After the meeting ended, Yann had Freya take the documents back to handle, then turned and went to the bedroom.
Audrey had just finished showering and was about to blow–dry her hair. “All done with work?” she asked, smiling at him through the mirror.
Yann took the hair dryer from her hands and tested the temperature on the back of his hand before starting to dry her hair.
His fingers ran through her hair as he carefully controlled the dryer’s
was about 80 percent dry, he turned off the dryer.
“Sylvie says you haven’t had much of an appetite lately,” Yann said gently.
king sure it reached her
hair without burning her ears. Then Serie
“I’m okay, I guess.” When Audrey first found out she was pregnant, she felt nauseous for two days.
After Sylvie adjusted her meal plan, the nausea went away, but now eating felt like a chore. Audrey didn’t get that happy feeling of her taste buds being satisfied anymore.
Audrey pulled Yann down to sit on the edge of the bed with her and started playing with the ring on his finger.
“You’ve been coming home right on time every day now because you want to spend more time with me. I’m fine though. Don’t let me interfere with your work.”
“I’ll manage everything properly,” Yann said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “We found the person who hit Randy. He has a history of drunk driving.”
On the day of the accident, there was alcohol smell in his car, but since he abandoned the vehicle and ran away, only turning himself in to the police the next day, they couldn’t prove he was drunk driving at the time.
His bank records didn’t show any large deposits or withdrawals either. While it seemed suspicious, there was no solid evidence.
Yann came home every day not just because he was worried about Audrey’s health, but more because he was concerned someone might be planning revenge. He didn’t tell Audrey that he had already asked a friend to keep a special eye on Talia.
Talia thought that with her family sending money and supplies, she could live more comfortably inside. She figured it would just be a matter of restricted
freedom.
But Talia never expected that the clothes sent in would be seized by the head inmate.
When she complained to the guards, not a single cellmate spoke up for her. Instead, they all claimed she had voluntarily given the clothes to the head inmate and was now turning around to bite the hand that fed her.
Talia didn’t get any justice and got chewed out by the guards instead. They told her not to cause trouble.
After that, mysterious liquid appeared on her bed with a foul stench. During meals, people would “accidentally” trip her. During work time, others would sabotage her tasks.
Eventually, Talia got moved to the bed right next to the toilet. The head inmate would deliberately not flush after using it, and the smell made Talia throw up several times.
Audrey didn’t know about Talia’s situation, but after hearing Yann’s words, she couldn’t help suspecting Jocelyn. “Can i borrow that really capable network security manager from your company?”
“Sure,” Yann smiled.
Chapter 298
The next day. Joseph met with Lunessé’s operations team’s manager. Following
her close contacts online.
Audrey’s instructions, he searched through Puby’s shopping records and
Before they knew it, the weekend had arrived again. Jocelyn’s face masks were ready to launch. She called them “Eclat and marketed them for brightening and smoothing skin, pricing them slightly higher than Lunessé’s masks. Promotional ads were everywhere.
Ruby posted another video, and the red marks on her face had completely disappeared. Her skin looked smooth and tight. She was like a completely different person.
“My doctor recommended this face mask,” she smiled. “You all know what I went through, and honestly, I didn’t want to try it at first. But after using it a few times, my skin improved dramatically.”
Her personal testimony basically gave Eclat mask the strongest possible advertisement.
Since Lunessé masks were out of stock and no one else came forward to say the masks were bad, the negative news was almost disappearing completely.
Some bloggers started doing paid promotions, putting one brand down to lift another up.
They were promoting Eclat and obviously trashing Lunessé. The comparison between the two masks–their effects, prices, and reputations–stirred up another wave of public controversy.
Audrey decided the time was right. For the first time, she went live using Lunessé’s official account. “Recently, some people have been attacking Lunessé face masks and questioning their quality. Today I’m here to respond publicly.”
Audrey showed Ruby’s WhatsApp chat records on the screen. First were the records showing how Ruby took masks from the company to give away as gifts. Then came her chat history with someone called “LaughingItOff“.
The back–and–forth messages clearly showed that Ruby had received seventy thousand dollars from this person and agreed to follow their script to trash Lunessé masks.
But that wasn’t all. Audrey also pulled up medical records from the cosmetic treatment center.
Ruby’s face had indeed been peeling and swollen from an allergic reaction, but the ingredient that caused her allergy didn’t even exist in Lunessé masks.
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