Chapter 356 Mistake Born of Drunkenness
The moment the girl yelled, the rabble immediately all turned around, their gazes landing squarely upon Rachel. That’s Hudson Pharmaceuticals’ CEO.”
“She even defended her subordinate and twisted the facts just now.” “Grab her and take her to the police.”
The baffling words kept pouring in. Rachel’s expression shifted. By the time she realized her gaffe, it was already too late. This mob of insane fans would not listen to any explanation as they surged toward Rachel in fury. She immediately took a few steps back, but the heel of her shoe got stuck in a crack in the ground. She gave a surprised yell as she toppled backward.
Justin’s arrival was timely, as he managed to catch her just in time.
Rachel was stunned. She could see Justin’s gaze the moment she looked up from his arms. Before she could respond, Justin pulled her behind himself, shielding her. He blocked the rest of the mob by himself as he rebuked them. “Who here dares to take another step forward?”
His full height of over six feet was especially noticeable among the crowd of girls. The chilliness emanating from his gaze was enough to make some of the girls shudder. However, they had the advantage of numbers, after all. A girl with an LED board in the center of the mob immediately answered angrily, “She was willing to defend her own assistant when that assistant was ensnaring male celebrities into casting couch deals. She’s ruining the name of the entertainment industry. Shouldn’t people like her be shunned and shamed? Who are you anyway? Why are you still protecting her? Are you in league with her?”
“Yeah, you must be working with her!”
Justin’s expression did not change when he was faced with the mob’s fury. “The details of the situation still aren’t clear yet. Even if it’s exactly as you said, does that give you any right to attack and hit others? Then what are the police and court for?” he asked coldly.
“Don’t think that we don’t know they have been colluding with Hudson Pharmaceuticals. You’ve already bribed them!”
“Girls, don’t be tricked by their words. None of these capitalist pigs are good people!”
“We want Hudson Pharmaceuticals to put out a statement!”
“Don’t you dare think of leaving without putting out that statement!”
“Hand Jolly Carter over!”
The mob’s rage grew intense by the second. The security could not stop these insane fans who were seeing red. The only thing Justin could do to ensure Rachel’s safety was to take her and run.
“They’re escaping!”
“Stop running!”
“Get Jolly Carter out here!”
As the mob yelled, Justin bundled himself and Rachel into his car and quickly left the scene by driving back out onto the street.
Rachel clapped a hand over the safety belt crossing her chest. Her breaths were quick, shallow. “No, I have to go back.”
“You’ll just get in more trouble if you go back now. I just got the security to call the police. We’ll figure out our next move once the situation is under control for now.”
“Can we even get it under control? What if someone gets hurt?”
“The police will be here soon. Don’t overthink it. In fact, you should get in touch with Jolly and ask her what’s going on.”
It was only then that Rachel’s wits returned to her. She had been so frustrated and angry earlier by the crowd. She hastily pulled out her phone and dialed Jolly’s number.
The call took a long time to go through. A lazy, languid voice could be heard over the speakers at last; Jolly clearly still wasn’t fully awake yet. “Hello?”
“Were you still asleep? Where are you now?”
“Me?” Jolly pressed a hand to her head, which was throbbing painfully. The hotel room’s crystal chandelier greeted her when she opened her eyes. “A hotel.”
“You’re alone?”
“What kind of weird question is that? Of course I’m alone.” Jolly yawned. “I had too much to drink last night, and I was worried that I would wake you guys if I went back, so I ended up staying at a hotel. I asked for the morning off, so I won’t be going to work. My head hurts… I’m about 80% f*cking sure that I drank some fake swill—my head’s about to burst.” She rambled on and on, but she was still drowsy.
Rachel was well and completely at a loss for words. “You asked for time off? Go take a look at the news online, then tell me if you still want that morning off.”
“What news?”
“Take a look yourself. I just sent you the link.”
Jolly was reluctant to do so, but she forced herself to open one eye fully and look at her phone. She shot right out of bed the next moment.
“I forced Leroy Bennett to sleep with me using my position as brand manager?” Jolly instantly woke up fully when she read the content of the article. She began cursing as she stood on her bed. “Which media outlet wrote this? Dig up their name—I’m going to make them shut down right now!”
“Calm down a little.”
“How can I calm down? This is an insult to me as a person!”
“Let me ask you then: where is Leroy now?”
“How would I know?”
The moment Jolly said that, the door to the bathroom slid open. Someone emerged from the bathroom. He had just finished showering, so a towel hung from his hips, and his hair was still damp. The man was in the middle of towel-drying his hair when he suddenly froze on the spot and looked up in shock.
Right now, Jolly was in her birthday suit as she stood on the bed.
Their gazes met for a moment.
“Aaaahh—!” Jolly suddenly let out a piercing shriek. As she chucked a pillow at the man, she grabbed the blanket on the bed to cover herself.
Since he hadn’t been prepared for that, the pillow hit Leroy. However, the beautiful, titillating scene from earlier remained in his mind. His mind buzzed as red instantly colored his handsome face.
“Why are you in my room!” Jolly pointed at his nose. “How did you get in here?”
“You had too much to drink last night, so I brought you back here. Don’t you remember?”
“You brought me here?” Jolly pressed a hand to her forehead, but she couldn’t remember any of this happening. “So why didn’t you leave after you brought me back to my room?”
“You wouldn’t let me leave?”
“How? You just said that I drank too much!”
“It’s true.” Leroy shrugged. His eyes were clear and bright under his damp hair as he looked at her, an innocent look on his face. “You kept clinging to me the entire night. I couldn’t pull you off no matter what I did.”
“No way? You took advantage of me, and now you’re trying to paint me as the one at fault, aren’t you? I was so blind. I’ve completely misjudged you! And here I thought you were a good person!”
Leroy immediately took out his phone to explain. “I was worried that you wouldn’t believe me, so I took a video.”
“You even took a video?” Jolly snatched Leroy’s phone over at lightning speed. “Password!” she barked irritatedly.
“Your birthday.”
Jolly’s expression changed when she heard that, but she still entered her birthday, albeit doubtfully. The next second, the phone unlocked, just as Leroy had said.
Typically, hardly anyone would willingly allow someone else to check something as private as their phone. Leroy, however, looked like he didn’t mind as he let Jolly go through everything.
Jolly navigated her way to last night’s video roll. The moment she opened the aforementioned video, she saw her face.
“I didn’t have too much to drink. I’m telling you, we can still go for another round. Come on, I told you before that you got to live life to the fullest. Don’t just film movies all the time. That’s so boring. Live a little! Urk—”
“Hold it in for a bit. I’ll get a bin for you.”
Unfortunately, a drunk would not listen to others.
For some reason, the video after that inexplicably became “tense.” Jolly felt like she couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Are you a pervert? Are you trying to blackmail me by recording this?”
“No, I swear I wasn’t trying to blackmail you.” Leroy put his arms in the air. “I was just worried that you would think that I did something to you, so I recorded that video to prove my innocence. Nothing happened between us at all last night.”
Jolly reflexively looked down. Then, how did my clothes get removed?