Chapter 557:

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Things hadn’t completely flipped in her favor, but public opinion was now deeply split. And that was Hayley’s plan all along.

“Why? How is this possible?!” Emmalyn’s face twisted into a furious snarl. “I still have the original footage. How did it leak?”

She was certain she’d secured the file long before this smear campaign even started. There was no way Hayley could have gotten her hands on it. Was there a mole?

Emmalyn’s eyes narrowed, her gaze sweeping over Paula and then Karin.

“We didn’t do it!” Paula and Karin shook their heads, the words tumbling out in a frantic rush. “We would never betray you! We have no reason to!”

𝖯𝗼pul𝘢𝗋 ѕ𝘵𝘰𝘳𝗂𝘦𝘀 𝘰𝘯 galո𝗈𝘃e𝗅𝗌.с𝗈𝗆

Emmalyn knew they had no reason to betray her. But if not them, then how did Hayley end up with the footage? Could a hacker be behind this? But no ordinary hacker could breach her phone—it was secured with multiple layers of encryption, precisely for moments like this.

“Emmalyn, look! They’re spilling dirt on you now!” Paula exclaimed.

Emmalyn’s blood ran cold. She lunged for her phone and pulled up Twitter. There it was, already trending, a hashtag that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere: EmmalynMorganTheAdoptiveDaughtersTrueColors.

She tapped it. The feed was a flood of accusations against her: the design plagiarism at the international jewelry expo, the multiple public appearances where Hayley had put her in her place, humiliating her in front of everyone. The post ended with a single, damning question: “Can you really trust a word from someone this morally bankrupt?”

When Emmalyn had gone live with her own video, plenty of people had tried to point out her shady past, but her army of paid trolls and bots had buried every last comment. Now, though, Hayley’s counterattack was devastating. Backed by the full force of Pioneer Group’s PR machine, all of Emmalyn’s secrets were being dragged into the light.

“Ha! I called it from day one that Emmalyn was bad news, and you all jumped down my throat for it!”

“Replying to above: Fine, you were right. We owe you a massive apology.”

“She’s the pot calling the kettle black. How much of what she says is real, and how much is just another lie?”

The PR battle Emmalyn thought she had won was now spinning out of control. Hayley’s assault was relentless, and the situation had become dangerously unpredictable.

“Hayley, what’s your game?” Emmalyn muttered, her voice trembling. “Why didn’t you fight back earlier? Why wait until now?”

It made no sense. If Hayley had pushed back sooner, she could have avoided this whole mess—the public wouldn’t have turned on her so completely. What was the point of a counterattack now? People had already picked their sides. They wouldn’t swallow their pride and backtrack; they’d just look like fools. Hayley was only damaging her own reputation.

Then a chilling thought struck her, and Emmalyn’s eyes widened. Was this Hayley’s way of weeding out the people on the fence—the ones who weren’t fully committed to either side?

Just then, a notification popped up. Hayley had logged into her own Twitter account and posted a video.

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