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.

and the place went nuts. Sophia spun around, her face

jewelry, or did you

frenzy, with

Ella, did

work

why'd you do

doing. She looked at Michael, desperate, but he just stared

nightmare, and the media suddenly remembered who she was the daughter

chaos unfold, ready to drop the

stepping onto the stage with

next to Sophia, who looked like a wilted

ready to deliver the knockout punch, staring Sophia

best thing ever. Not only did the daughter of the Brown family plagiarize, but she also pretended to be the mysterious

thinking she had it coming. But Emily wasn't ready to

crashing down. She had done her homework and knew Ella had never shown up in public or attended any events. She thought using

looks like. I can explain," Sophia

Moonlit Treasures' designer plagiarizing and pretending to be Ella was a huge blow to the company, which

busy dealing with the fallout to listen to Sophia. Ignoring her tears, he looked at 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 more out of Sophia,

eyes were swollen, her makeup a mess. She glared at Emily

the truth. But being ruined isn't fun, is it?" Emily