Chapter 484
Rosalie felt her breath hitch. When she first met him, he appeared gentle and meticulous and was unfazed by the fact that she had been in prison in the past. She initially considered him a good person, but reality proved otherwise. He could be heartless, a schemer, a manipulator, a strategist, and a violent person with blood on his hands, but he could never be a good person.
“Tell me. What will you do if I bring Lucas into this?” Jonathan asked, trying to test her limits.
With her beautiful eyes, Rosalie looked right at Jonathan with firm determination in her gaze. “Don’t hurt Lucas. Otherwise, I will never forgive you!”
She was the only one who still could threaten him at the moment.
His expression darkened even more. “It’s merely Lucas, but you react so strongly at the possibility of him getting harmed. Are you still going to deny that you care about him?”
Rosalie contemplated this earnestly and wondered, “Do I care about Lucas? I don’t feel anything special for him. It’s his simplicity and ordinary nature that makes me wish for his safety. The more I experience dark times, the more I believe that his simplicity and ordinary nature are the most valuable qualities one can possess.”
“I just don’t want anyone innocent to be implicated because of me. I don’t want to feel guilty.” Rosalie tried to speak as casually as she could.
Jonathan pondered for a moment and then chuckled. “It seems that to avoid making you feel guilty or even thinking about Lucas constantly, I really can’t do anything to him. However…”
He then drawled out his words slowly. “You care about Lillian, Amelia, and her son. Now, you are even concerned about Lucas. But what about me? Where do I rank in your heart? Will you ever protect me like this?”
“You’re an exceptional and powerful person, Mr. Youngblood. You don’t require my protection,” Rosalie responded.
“What if I want you to protect me?” Jonathan said. “You told me before that you would protect me.”
Rosalie’s eyelashes quivered, and she lowered her gaze slowly. She smiled self-deprecatingly and said, “However, you’ve witnessed it as well. I can’t even protect myself. Otherwise, I won’t be your Rosie again now.”
After she finished speaking, Rosalie felt his body stiffen for a moment. Then, his arms were wrapped around her even more tightly to the point where she almost could not breathe:
Over the next two days, Jonathan didn’t reappear before Rosalie again. Instead, something significant occurred online, capturing everyone’s attention and quickly becoming a trending topic.
It was a video about the daughter of the Xanthos family, Zendaya
In the video, Zendaya was wearing a revealing costume. She lay on the ground, eating cold leftovers from a plate with a dog while barking like one too. That made it impossible for anyone to think that she was a socialite from Strico.
Once that YouTube video was posted, there was an uproar among the upper-class coterie. Ordinary people even left various derogatory comments.
The Xanthos family made desperate attempts to remove the trending topic, investing significant resources, but their efforts were futile. The video continued to trend at the top of social media.
It could be said that due to that video, what was left of the Xanthos family’s reputation had been tarnished.
Numerous reporters also surrounded Zachary and Yvette, but each of their requests for interviews was declined.
Presently, a group of tabloid reporters were camped outside the Xanthos residence. Fear and anxiety were evident on Zendaya’s face, and she was unable to fathom her misfortune. She couldn’t comprehend why she was so unlucky and ended up in that predicament. Her curiosity had led her to experiment with drugs that day, but she had no recollection of the events that followed. All she vaguely remembered was a sense of excitement.
When she woke up the next day, that video had become a trending topic on YouTube.
Over the past two days, she had stayed home, too afraid to step outside. She hadn’t even answered calls from her former best
friends.
In her room, almost everything that could be smashed was destroyed.
As soon as Zachary entered his sister’s room, he saw a mess in the room and a broken mobile phone on the ground.
“Zach!” Zendaya limped to Zachary in a rush and asked anxiously, “Can that trending topic be removed?”
Each additional minute that it remained trending meant that hundreds of thousands more people would see it.
At the thought of that video, Zendaya felt restless.
Zachary shook his head.
“Why can’t it be removed, Zach? Is it about money? Are you unwilling to pay more to help me get rid of the trending video?” Zendaya grew more anxious
“It’s not about money!” Zachary said. “No one dares to remove the video, even if I offer them a lot of money!”
“Why? As long as enough money is offered, how can anyone refuse to accept it?” Zendaya refused to believe it.
Zachary looked at his sister, sighed, and slowly uttered two words. “Jonathan Youngblood.”
Zendaya’s face suddenly turned pale, and she felt a little unsteady on her feet.
“Did Jonathan refuse to allow the video to be removed from the trending topics section? Why? Hadn’t he let me go that day…”
Zendaya’s voice trailed off as she fell into deep thought. “Jonathan didn’t claim to let me off that day! I had been presumptuous! Does that mean that the video is Jonathan’s doing? Was it because of what I had said that day about Rosalie being in prison, lying on the ground, and eating like a dog? Did Jonathan want me to experience the same thing?” wondered Zendaya.
Thinking of that, Zendaya couldn’t help but shiver in fear.
The terror Zendaya felt at Jonathan was far more intense than before. If she made enemies of Jonathan…
Zendaya then realized why others said that Jonathan was a man that one should never provoke in Strico!
“I’ll make arrangements for you to hide away abroad again later. You can return home after the storm has passed,” Zachary
said.
“Before this, Dad and Mom mentioned introducing me to some eligible bachelors from prestigious families. With the video. out now, it shouldn’t affect me too much, right? After all, this video wasn’t taken under normal circumstances, and I was set up.” Zendaya was still clinging to her delusions even now.
Zachary patted his sister on the shoulder gently and said, “Zendaya, when you come back from abroad in the future, I’ll introduce you to good young talents in the company if I find any.”
“What do you mean? Zach? Do those prestigious families completely disapprove of me after watching this video? I’m a daughter of the Xanthos family!” wailed Zendaya.
“Actually, it’s not a bad thing to get married to an ordinary person.” Zachary could only hint at the current situation euphemistically.
Zendaya went weak at his words.
“Marry an ordinary person? I’m a rich woman from a prominent family. If I actually married an ordinary person, I would never be able to raise my head high in front of others for the rest of my life!” she thought.
“It’s all Rosalie’s fault!” Zendaya said with hatred. If it were not for Rosalie, how could she have ended up in this state?
How could Zendaya admit defeat just like that?
“Don’t mess with Rosalie anymore. She has Jonathan supporting her, and you can’t afford to mess with him.” Zachary said with a complicated look in his eyes.
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