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第2章

Author: 就爱睡觉觉
Lola's voice drew nurses, patients, and visitors from the corridor.

Emboldened by her audience, she shoved my shoulder.

"Layla is like a daughter to me. I will not let you bully her during her final days!"

I sidestepped.

Lola stumbled past me and crashed headfirst into the nightstand, knocking the remaining containers of wings onto the floor.

Red hot sauce pooled across the tiles.

Matthew pointed at the door and bellowed:

"Security! Get this crazy woman out of here!"

I folded up my phone stand and looked at all three of them.

"No need. I'm leaving on my own.

"But just so you know, forging a terminal diagnosis and using a fake illness to collect public donations are both crimes.

"I hope you can keep this act up until the very end."

I turned and walked out. The System spoke again.

[Ding! Total satisfaction: 2,000.]

[While scanning Lola, I discovered something huge. Spend 1,000 satisfaction points to unlock it?]

"Unlock."

By the time I stepped out of the hospital, the internet had exploded.

Eight of the top ten trending topics were about me.

Clips from the livestream were everywhere. People across the internet were calling me a bully for tormenting a terminally ill werewolf. They said I was a jealous, heartless monster.

To control the narrative, Matthew and Lola quickly posted a ten-minute video, crying as they told their side of the story.

In the video, Matthew's eyes were red-rimmed, and he held up a diagnosis report that had been heavily blurred.

"This is Layla's diagnosis. Terminal stomach cancer. Please, leave her alone. Come after me instead."

At the end of the video, they included a donation link titled "Emergency Relief Fund for Terminal Cancer Patients."

The donation total shot up before our eyes.

The public's fury reached a boiling point.

The area outside my studio was soon packed with fans and influencers waving banners that read, "CLAIRE, GET OUT OF SHOW BUSINESS!"

Then a commotion broke out downstairs.

Lola had actually brought a crowd to the company plaza and was on the ground, screaming and throwing a tantrum.

"Claire, you've driven my son into a corner! You have to dissolve the mate contract today! The apartment and the money stay with Matthew. Consider it compensation for his emotional suffering!"

I took a heavy-duty megaphone from my assistant and headed downstairs.

Facing a sea of camera flashes, I cranked the volume all the way up.

"Lola, your son has been secretly married to me for three years. I've paid for his food and everything else. Even his so-called Best Actor title was bought with my money and connections!

"His personal bank account is cleaner than his conscience. Even that gold-capped false tooth in your mouth was paid for with my card.

"You care so much about that dying homewrecker? Why don't you pull it out and make her some soup with it?"

Someone in the crowd couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.

Lola's face turned beet red.

"You're lying!"

I pulled a stack of bank statements from a document folder and flung them at her.

They showed every charge from the past three years. Every luxury item Matthew bought for Lola with my card, every relative's debt he paid off with my money. Not a single transaction was missing.

"Want me to read them out loud?

"Last March, a $140,000 diamond bracelet. Last August, Matthew paid off your brother's $430,000 gambling debt. This January..."

"Shut up! Shut your mouth!"

[System alert: Lola is about to fake a collapse and blame it on you. Watch out.]

The next second, Lola's eyes rolled back and she toppled backward, stiff as a board.

The scene erupted into chaos. Someone immediately called an ambulance.

I watched her lying on the ground, playing dead.

"That little fainting trick. Layla taught you that, didn't she?

"When the ambulance arrives, make sure you pay for it yourself. I've canceled all my cards."

Back in my office, the System projected the unlocked data into my mind.

[Host, the diagnosis report Matthew showed in the video really did come from an accredited pack hospital.]

[But the patient named on the terminal stomach cancer report isn't Layla.]
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