Chapter 36: Scandal

The financial newspaper was abnormally popular today.

Typically, Janessa didn’t have to wait in line to get her copy of the newspaper.

On this day however, Janessa had to give up her attempt to get a copy of the newspaper after waiting
in line for quite a while, for fear of running late for work.

What was going on? Why did the newspaper keep selling out? After she had submitted her proposal,
Janessa saw today's newspaper in the company's news corner.

On the first page were the words 'CEO of the Lu Group Out All Night with His Mistress, while His Wife
was Spotted Drinking with Friends at a Bar.’ There were two photos below the headline.

One was a picture of Rayan headed back to his apartment with a woman in his arms, while the other
was a picture of Janessa drinking with Alana at a bar.

Although the photo of her face wasn't clear, those who have seen her in person would recognize it was
her.

It was obvious that the woman in Rayan's arms was Gracie.

Janessa and Rayan had gotten divorced for only a month, but it seemed as if Gracie couldn't wait to
take her place as the hostess of the Lu family's villa.

Their marriage had ended amicably, but the reporters weren't finished hounding them.

If the reporters could only see how uneventful their lives actually were.

As Janessa took out her phone to dial Rayan’s number, she noticed that she had gotten several missed
calls.



Some of the phone calls were from numbers that she didn't recognize.

She decided to ignore the calls for the time being and dialed Rayan’s number.

After waiting for a few moments for his answer, the call suddenly ended.

Did Rayan hang up on her? With the phone in her hand, Janessa stared at the number on the screen
and couldn't help but roll her eyes.

With everything that had happened between them, she wondered if Rayan would ever take the time to
answer her calls.

Whenever she attempted to contact him, he never answered, or a woman answered on his behalf.

Even if they were already divorced, he didn't have to be rude to her.

He never answered her calls, and one time, it led to her car accident.

Janessa lost her mother and her baby that dreadful night.

Every time the thought of this passed her mind, her hatred for Rayan grew tenfold.

She refused to call him again.

He could handle this scandal on his own.

They were already divorced, and they didn't need to interact with one another if it wasn't necessary.

The Lu Group's reputation was none of her business.

Janessa decided to leave this matter behind and get to work.



However, even if Sally wasn't planning on causing her trouble today, her colleagues were gossiping
amongst themselves instead.

They approached Janessa with their phones and discussed the scandal with her.

"Janessa, we're aware that you've already divorced Mr.Lu, but the netizens continue to say mean
things about you! They're taking this way too far!"

"That's right! None of them know the true story.Please tell us what happened between the two of you
so we can straighten things out."

Janessa glanced at the comments on their phones.

She knew that their concern was a ruse, and they were only concerned with getting the truth out of her
so they could gossip about it. In a calm voice, she answered,

"Yes, they're wrong.Why do I need to take the time to read their comments? Those people don't know
me and have nothing to do with me.They can say whatever they want about me.I know who I am and
what's true."

A press conference was to be held to announce their divorce, which would solve the problem they were
in.

However, it seemed as if this was the last thing on Rayan's mind.

He was probably too busy spending time with Gracie to care about this.

Janessa's colleagues continued to discuss the comments around her.

They carefully observed the look on her face as they read the comments to her.

When they saw the nonchalant look on her face, they gave up and walked away disappointed.



After they left Janessa's desk, she took out her phone and secretly checked the micro-blog.

The public opinion favored one side over the other.

Most of the female netizens naturally supported Rayan.

Rayan's supposed act of infidelity didn't matter to them, and they focused on abusing Janessa.

Their negative words were everywhere on the Internet.

Her personal information had been exposed to the public without her knowledge.

The netizens had located her place of work, her micro- blog account, and even her WeChat account.

Because of Rayan's "affair", Janessa had become a topic of discussion again.The last time she was on
the tabloids was when she married him, and now it was because of his mistress.

The news of this scandal spread like wildfire all over the city.

On the micro-blog, it remained the top searched topic for a long time.

Janessa and her colleagues received a barrage of phone calls from the female netizens who fiercely
defended Rayan.

Rayan had been cooped up inside the villa the entire time, so he heard of the news later than everyone
else.

He was furious when the headlines reached him.

Dressed in a delicate lace nightgown, Grace made her way downstairs.



Holding Rayan's hand in hers, she asked in a soft voice, "What's the matter? Did something bad
happen?"

"I need to teach these damned reporters a lesson," Rayan replied.

He called Corbin and ordered, "You have an hour to get rid of this mess.Otherwise, you can say
goodbye to your year-end bonus!"

Gracie picked up the newspaper that Rayan had thrown aside.

With her back to Rayan, a smug smile teased the corner of her lips.

However, when she turned back to him, she concealed her sly smile.

With tears streaming down her face, she said in a pitiful voice, "How could they write about us like this?
There's nothing wrong with what we're doing! How could they say these things?"

"You don't have to worry about anything.I'll deal with it.I promise to protect you from this mess."

Gracie's lips trembled as her tears continued to fall.

Rayan's heart ached when he saw the woman he loved crying like this.

When he spoke again, he softened his voice to comfort her.

"Why does everyone insist on giving us a hard time? Why can't we love each other freely? Is it because
of my humble status? I've done everything right, haven't I? I finished my studies and came back with a
degree,"

Gracie cried.She tore the wretched newspapers into shreds.



"I'll take care of this matter.I'm sorry to upset you like this.It wasn't my intention."

Rayan placed a gentle kiss on Gracie's forehead and held her tightly in his arms.

Things were spiraling out of control.

Corbin went out to locate Janessa to ask her to attend the press conference to clarify the issue.

Janessa's fingers trembled in anger when Corbin spoke to her.

How could Rayan leave this matter to his ex-wife and his assistant? Shouldn't he be here personally?
Perhaps it was because he wasn't concerned about the impact of this scandal on his reputation, or
maybe because he didn't know how to deal with it.

While Janessa was busy thinking about how to address this scandal, her phone suddenly rang.

It was a call from the Lu family's old house.

Janessa and Rayan both decided not to make their divorce public when they came back home last
time.

Today, news of Rayan's affairs had spread, and Rayan's family had probably heard the news of it by
now.

Rayan's mother was fond of Janessa, but that didn't mean that she could tolerate being deceived like
this.

Janessa hesitated before she answered the phone.

"Mom, we..." she began to explain.

Before she could explain further, the person on the other end of the call ended the call.



Janessa quickly sent a message to Rayan informing him of the call before she asked Sally for the day
off.

To her surprise, Sally agreed to her request with no hesitation.

Things were going so smoothly that Janessa began to wonder if this was a set-up.


62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda