A Call That Changed Her Entire Life

Chapter 1430 Journalists Barge In

The man spoke so aggressively that Emily had to shift around to avoid the spray of saliva from his mouth. "Sir, I didn't mean that. How about this? You can go over there and fill in the form with your personal information. Free consultations start at nine o'clock. You can wait in the lobby until then."

"Why should I wait? Why won't you let me see a doctor right now?" the man asked, disappointed and seemingly hurt. He pushed Emily away and began to rush inside. "I want to see a doctor. Don't try to stop me!"

"Sir, you..." Emily began. Subconsciously, she reached out to stop him. As soon as her hand touched him, however, he stumbled and fell back with an exaggerated expression of pain on his face.

"Ow! She hit me! What kind of a clinic is this? How dare you hit a patient?" He lay on the ground, waving his arms wildly. "It hurts! It hurts! She hit me!"

Emily immediately saw through him and her face darkened. It was clear to her that this man was deliberately stirring up trouble for some reason.

"Sir, we are an established public service organization. If you think you can come here and play your dirty tricks on us, you've come to the wrong place." With cold eyes, she turned around and instructed the person in charge, "Call security immediately, and have them escort this man out."

Without hesitation, the personnel did as he was told.

Amid the chaos, no one noticed the man with a black hat standing in the corner, secretly filming everything.

In the CEO's office, Darren slowly flipped through the photographs in his hands.

He asked coldly, "Are the articles and pictures ready to be published online?"

Harlan nodded and replied confidently, "They are. Everything is in order. As soon as the news of Emily laying a hand on a depressed patient comes out, everyone will brand her a hypocrite."

"You just wait and see, Emily," Darren said softly. A cold smile formed on his lips as he brushed her face in the photo with his finger.

In the picture, Emily, with her outstretched arms, seemed to be shoving the man onto the ground. The depressed man was about to fall on his back, looking powerless and vulnerable.

It took a long time for the free clinic to end. Emily was about to head back to her office to get some rest when she received a call from Rita.

"Hello, Rita," she answered. Exhausted, she rubbed the area between her eyebrows as she made her way to her office.

"My dear Emily, take a look at the news on the internet! You're screwed!" The anxiety in Rita's voice was alarming.

Emily had no idea what she was talking about. Worried, she quickened her pace.

She still had Rita on the phone when she entered her office. With a trembling hand, she closed the door and hurried over to the desk. Then, she immediately turned on the computer.

In seconds, her screen was filled with pictures of a familiar scene. She couldn't believe her eyes. Although she knew what had really happened, in the pictures, she seemed to be pushing the patient down.

And to her astonishment, these news stories—and the whole matter, in fact—seemed to have been planned out. It was as if someone had been at the free clinic all along, ready to sabotage her.

There was no coverage of the full story on the news. Only details about Emily pushing down the man were discussed. Suddenly, she stopped scrolling through the article.

There was a picture of the man's medical records, which clearly indicated that he had a long history of depression. The following picture was a close-up shot of his injury after supposedly being beaten by Emily.

The caption read that Emily was a woman who pretended to be pure and noble, but that in reality, she was a hypocrite who had assaulted a depressed man while holding a free clinic.

"Emily? Are you there?" asked Rita on the other end of the line. Emily sighed; she had forgotten that she was still on a call with Rita. Trying to sound as calm and collected as she could, she tried to comfort Rita.

"Don't worry about me. I'll find out what happened. I'll call you later. Trust me, I'll figure it out."

After hanging up the phone, Emily sat down. The lines on her face grew deeper with concern.

She knew that someone had set her up. Panicking now would only please whoever this person was.

She could never let the enemy win. But what should she do?

Suddenly, her eyes lit up. She thought of a great idea. There had to be CCTV cameras at the venue, and the footage would tell her everything that she needed to know. Immediately, she hurried to the surveillance room.

If she didn't act now, the people who were trying to ruin her might get to the tapes first. If that happened, then there would be no way to redeem her public image.

The surveillance room was on the third floor of the building. Thinking quickly, she ran to the elevator.

When she got out of it upon reaching the third floor, she was so rattled that she bumped right into a man who was on his way in. He was dressed in all black.

"Excuse me," the man said. He had tilted the brim of his hat so that it covered most of his face. It was as if he didn't want anyone to recognize him.

Emily paid no attention to the man as she ran past him to the surveillance room.

In her hurry, she hadn't noticed the menacing smile that appeared on his face right before the elevator doors closed.

As soon as she stepped into the surveillance room, she looked at the staff and said, "Someone help me pull out the surveillance tapes of the free clinic held on the fourth floor this morning. Please. It's urgent!"

Her pulse was racing and it had become difficult for her to breathe. She was hoping that it was not too late, but she was about to be dismayed.

"I'm sorry, lady. The power was out, and that floor's feed was cut off this morning. We didn't record anything during that period," one of the surveillance personnel replied, clearly embarrassed.

That moment was the peak of Emily's desperation. Her head began to throb as she wracked her brains trying to figure out who was hell-bent on bringing her down.

Emily didn't know how she was able to go back to her office. All she knew was that the whole time, her legs had grown weak and her vision had become blurry.

She remained in her seat for a long time. Unable to figure out a way to deal with this, she finally picked up her phone and dialed Jacob's number.

At this point, she thought of how useless she had always been. She could do nothing but rely on Jacob.

Before the call could go through, Emily heard a commotion just outside her door. It grew louder and louder.

"No, you can't go in!"

"It's prohibited!"

Although the security guards tried their best to control the crowd, the doors to Emily's office flew open. In seconds, the once quiet room was filled with reporters holding microphones and cameras that blinded her with their flash.

Emily turned pale with fright. Time seemed to stop at that very second.

As she looked around her, she could hear all kinds of incessant buzzing sounds in her head.

Jacob was in a meeting when he received the call. At first, he had wanted to hang up, but when he found out that the call was from Emily, he made a gesture and quickly walked out of the meeting room. Once he was outside, he answered the call.

"Emily, what's wrong?" His gentle voice sounded over the phone. Although his meeting had been interrupted, he was far from impatient.

Emily, however, did not seem to be on the other end of the line. She did not speak. Instead of her voice, he heard random noises and voices in the background.

"Mrs. Gu, have you seen the news? Is it true that you assaulted a depressed patient?"

"Mrs. Gu, please clarify it. Is it true that you assaulted a depressed patient? Everyone is saying that you are just seeking attention and that you actually look down on people with depression. Is this true?"

"Mrs. Gu, please face the camera."

These statements dropped down on her like bombs. Even though Jacob couldn't see what was happening, he frowned.

'Are those reporters?' he thought. He was worried about Emily.

Not wanting to waste another second, he left in a hurry, forgetting to notify the people in the meeting room that he was leaving.

Sam watched Jacob's receding figure as he left and knew that something must have happened to Emily.

Without being told what to do, he decided to go back to the meeting room and explain the situation to everyone. This content belongs to Nô/velDra/ma.Org .

Some time later, Jacob arrived at Emily's office. He had found it difficult to get inside, but finally managed to enter.

The room was full of strangers, and the atmosphere was so tense that one could cut it with a knife. His face darkened. If these people kept bombarding Emily with all these stupid questions and allegations, her mental health might plummet again.

"Everyone, shut up!"

Jacob yelled. His imposing manner was so overwhelming that the room immediately fell silent.

Everyone's eyes were now on him.

Right across the room from him was Emily, who was squatting in pain and covering her head with her hands. It was clear that at this moment, she did not know what to do.