The CEO's Empathy Pregnancy Pains

Chapter 31 Ruined Reputation

The crowd realized Ella was actually Sophia, and reactions were all over the place-some folks were shocked, others bummed out, and a few just plain skeptical. Sophia kept her cool and smiled on stage, while Emily just sneered, watching the whole thing go down.

"Let's see how she gets out of this one," Abigail said with a grin, clearly enjoying the drama.

Michael was caught off guard for a second but quickly went back to his usual poker face. The host kept the show rolling, asking, "So, why did Ella decide to join this event?" Sophia gave a shy smile, grabbed the mic, and said, "I wanted to surprise someone." The crowd started booing and buzzing about who this mystery person could be.

Emily shot a glance at Michael, and the media picked up on it, swinging their cameras his way.

Michael's face went stiff, but he kept his cool, sitting there like a statue.

Sophia looked bummed when Michael didn't react.

"Think she'll surprise you or just shock you?" Emily whispered to him.

Michael turned to her, cold as ice, "What are you getting at?"

Emily just shrugged, not giving anything away, while Sophia kept rambling about her jewelry design and inspiration.

Out of nowhere, the big screen behind her went dark, then lit up with a sketch of the jewelry Sophia had just shown off, dated way earlier than she claimed.

obvious Sophia had been lying, and the place went nuts. Sophia spun around, her

Ella, care to explain this sketch? Did you design this jewelry, or did you rip

a frenzy, with cameras and mics all

did you

whose work did you

why'd

in the audience. It hit her-this was all Emily's doing. She looked at

jewelry showcase turned into Sophia's personal nightmare, and the media suddenly remembered

chaos unfold,

stepping onto the stage with a

mic and stood next to Sophia, who looked like a wilted flower under the reporters' relentless

knockout punch, staring Sophia down and

reporters went wild, thinking this press conference was the best thing ever. Not only did the daughter of the Brown family plagiarize, but she also pretended to be the mysterious Ella. Then someone

watched the media swarm Sophia and chuckled to herself, thinking she had it coming.

had never shown up in public or attended any events. She thought using Ella's name would win Michael over and push him to divorce Emily. But now,

looks like. I can

Michael wasn't having it. The scandal of Moonlit Treasures' designer plagiarizing and pretending to be Ella was a huge blow to the company, which had

her with disappointment, then pulled his arm away. With Andrew and the bodyguards clearing a path, he dodged the reporters. Seeing they couldn't get

were swollen, her makeup a mess. She

does it feel to be exposed? Oh wait, it's not false; it's the truth. But