Chapter 489 The Man Who Barged into the Press Conference
Courtney had a dream where she lay on a vast expanse of greenery. The skies were blue; there was a clear stream by the side; and there was also a light, floral fragrance in the air.
“Courtney.”
Courtney heard someone call out her name, so she got up and saw that Natasha was waving at her as the latter made her way over. Courtney waved back and was about to run toward Nathasha, but all of a sudden, the latter’s initially distinct profile became distorted, and her entire being disappeared from the scene.
Soon after that, everyone close to her started to disappear the same way one after the other as well—her grandpa, her aunt Alicia, and Cameron slowly disappeared. All of a sudden, she grabbed the hand next to her and ran for her life frantically.
As she ran, she turned back to look behind her and saw that the face next to her was slowly disappearing too, and the originally cheery world that she was in suddenly descended into a sea of red. There was a strong bloody scent that embodied her as a loud voice rang out in the air. “Let’s descend into hell together!”
“Alexander!”
Suddenly, Courtney was jolted awake. As she sat up in bed, the uneasy look that flashed across her panicked eyes was caught by Alexander. Thus, he grabbed her hand to pull her into his arms.
“I’m here.” His firm and warm voice managed to calm her terrified heart slightly.
“I had a bad dream.”
Courtney shut her eyes and leaned against his chest as she greedily took in his distinct scent, for the familiar smell could calm her spirits.
When Oliver called Alexander, the latter was actually at the office to help Courtney deal with the backlash online. As soon as Alexander heard that Courtney was unconscious, he instantly rushed over without even changing into some fresh clothes; he even sat by her bedside the entire night.
“Leave the issue with Citron Apparel aside for now—I’ll settle that for you.”
Alexander helped Courtney to lean back on the bed before he took a wet towel to wipe her sweaty body all over again. Meanwhile, she sat there and stared at him silently as she looked at him intently maneuvering his fingers; he even wiped the gaps between her fingers twice before stopping.
“I just encountered a minor accident during this critical period. I’ll be fine in two days.”
After he had wiped her clean, she toyed with her own fingers and saw that he was slowly inching closer toward her. Then, he took both of her hands into his and held them in place before stretching out his hand and reaching into her nightgown to help wipe her lower back.
“I won’t allow any accidents to befall you, even if it’s just a minor accident during this critical period!” Alexander’s voice was firm, and he didn’t stop what he was doing as he spoke. He leaned his head against the tip of her ears, and the warm breath he exhaled caused Courtney to shudder slightly.
Suddenly, something dawned upon her as her expression darkened. Unconsciously, she lowered her voice and asked, “Did Oliver tell you everything?”
“Yeah, he did.”
“Natasha and Grandpa suffered because of them; they are also the ones behind this incident with Citron Apparel. I don’t know what’s their motive for doing all this, though. I’m not sure to what extent they’ll take things to—”
“Yeah.”
Alexander’s reply remained quite nonchalant, and there weren’t too many emotions in his voice. After a brief bout of silence, he slowly said, ” Please trust your husband.”
She was momentarily stunned. At that point, Alexander wrapped his hands around her head and delivered a loud kiss on her forehead. Meanwhile, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter at his sudden gesture.
“Okay.” She nodded. At that moment, she suddenly realized that the Courtney from before, who used to be invincible, had become rather feeble.
Alexander took another towel with the intention of wiping Courtney’s thighs, but as soon as he uncovered the blanket, his expression darkened. Shortly after that, his features scrunched up slightly.
“Honey—”
He seemed quite lost as he tugged at Courtney’s arm. As soon as Courtney heard that, she looked down and was significantly shocked by the bloody scene that she saw beneath her. How could I have forgotten about this!
“How long was I unconscious?”
“About twelve hours.”
At that point, she was at a loss for words.
However, before Alexander could react, she had already gotten out of bed in a haste and ran toward the direction of the washroom. Meanwhile, he was left standing there as he stared at the pool of blood on the bedsheets, and he secretly felt quite taken aback by everything.
——
Alexander no longer wanted Courtney to worry about the matters related to Citron Apparel, so he took over everything related to the company and handled them alongside his work for Sunhill Enterprise. The work he took over included the press conference too, so he assigned the matter to the personal relations manager at Sunhill Enterprise. Two days later, the proposal was ready, and Courtney merely attended Citron Apparel’s press conference under the arrangements made by Alexander.
“We are open to the investigations by the relevant authorities, and there are records of us purchasing our materials. Essentially, we can’t be involved in the so-called contaminated fabric issue that’s currently spreading like wildfire on the internet. Besides, we have ongoing collaborations with many large-scale businesses and schools, and they have never had an issue with the quality of fabric we use.”
At that moment, Courtney made her stance clear according to the preparations she had made, denying that there were such issues with Citron Apparel.
“In that case, how would you explain the scandal of more than ten workers at Citron Apparel being diagnosed with acute leukemia in a span of one month? Could you also explain why they were wrongfully dismissed after their diagnosis?”
Courtney sat in a ramrod straight position as her expression gradually darkened. Subsequently, she slammed a stack of documents that had been prepared in advance on the table.
“After the incident happened, we instantly organized all staff members to go through body checkups, and these are the official medical reports released by the hospital. Every single staff member is perfectly healthy, so the rumors about acute leukemia are lies!”
She lifted a report in her hand, and soon enough, she heard the camera shutters clicking away repeatedly in her ears. The flashing lights of the cameras momentarily blinded her as she subsequently took out the second document.
“This is the security camera footage from our production line, and you can clearly tell from the recordings why I had to fire some of the staff. We have always strongly upheld the quality of our products during the production process, so we would take stringent actions according to our company policy against those staff members who refuse to comply with our instructions and sneakily try to find an easy way out.”
Subsequently, Courtney took out the final part of the documents.
“We have reason to suspect that this incident was a malicious plot by some of our peers to eliminate competition. I have the personal details of all the staff members that have been dismissed here; all of them were newly recruited staff from the last month. All of our existing staff members, who have been working for us for a long time, are in perfect health, but every single one of these newly recruited staff has been diagnosed with acute leukemia, so don’t you all find this quite suspicious?”
Soon after Courtney slammed the final document on the table, there was a loud commotion that broke out among the crowd below. The members of the press started to whisper amongst themselves as Courtney observed the unfolding scene coldly. She had a calm expression on her face, but her hands, which were hidden underneath the table, felt icy cold at the moment.
“If this is indeed a malicious attempt by someone else in the same industry, do you know which company it might be?”
The topic of interest in the press conference seemed to change at the mention of the second question, and Courtney silently heaved a sigh of relief. At the same time, she calmly replied, “We’re not going to speculate unnecessarily on this. After all, the incident is still under investigation, and we haven’t gotten hold of any substantial evidence as of yet. Besides, Citron Apparel has always maintained the goal of achieving the best we can, and we firmly believe that our success is based on consumer preference. Needless to say, we won’t follow the footsteps of those despicable people.”
“What about the outcome of the investigation? Will you be revealing the investigation outcome to the public?”
“Of course. All of the evidence I’ve brought with me today will be released through our official portal shortly. We fully welcome the members of the public to verify the information.”
Courtney’s attitude was very straightforward and no-nonsense. Besides, she didn’t attempt to hide anything, so her speech had basically succeeded in salvaging the situation. Not too far from the stage, Alexander looked at the woman as she spoke eloquently with an admiring expression on his face.
There was a slight smile on his face, but all of a sudden, there was an interruption as a sudden noise rang out. The noise of clamoring footsteps could be heard in the large hall, and everyone turned to look in unison in the direction of the noise, Courtney included.
“This is nonsense! Citron Apparel is unscrupulous!”
The crowd saw that amongst the loud, angry yells, there was a tall and skinny middle-aged man there. He was dressed in a light gray, old-fashioned suit, and he had a tattered briefcase in his hand. Just then, he made his way into the crowd in a rush.
As soon as Courtney saw him, her eyes narrowed slightly. She recognized this person.
He was the director of World Vision Orphanage in Melrose City—Mr. Raymond Newman.
