Several of her die-hard fans immediately rushed over and jumped into the lake without a second’s hesitation.
They managed to grab hold of her by her arms and swim back to shore with her safely in tow.
The crowd surged forward and surrounded them.
One of the fans shouted with anxious urgency, “Call an ambulance! Stop! Stop shooting!”
Meanwhile, Laney sneered from the spot where she had remained seated.
These people were really making a disproportionate deal of this.
For crying out loud, it was a man-made lake.
It was actually very shallow and people really couldn’t drown in it.
Further, Emani was over 5.5 ft tall.
If she stood up, the water may not have been able to submerge her.
However, had been bitterly cold for the last few days.It had snowed a few days ago and the temperature was still around zero degrees Celsius.
Because of this, it had really been a traumatic ordeal for Emani.
When Emani’s fans took her to the shore, she was soaked to the bone.
She was shivering with cold, and her face was pale.Her long, usually voluptuous and curly hair was plastered flat against her face.Her makeup was ruined, and she looked utterly haggard and miserable.
“What happened?”
Hearing the noise, Emani’s assistant and the other crew members rushed over.
The assistant quickly wrapped her with a blanket and asked anxiously, “Miss Gomez, what happened? How did you fall into the lake all of a sudden?”
Emani drew the blanket tightly around herself and trembled, as if she was still in a state of shock.
She kept shaking her head, and then looked through the crowd at Natalie, who was standing beside the lake.
Emani looked hesitant, as if she wanted to say something but decided it best to keep mum.
Someone in the crowd pointed at Natalie and said, “That woman pushed Emani on purpose!”
Emani’s assistant also turned to look at Natalie.
Emani’s fans and the reporters also looked at her.
After a few seconds, Emani said with an unnatural, slightly wry smile, “I am fine now.Don’t gather here.I should get back to work now. There’s still a lot of work to be covered later.Don’t let me slow you down.”
Her assistant rolled her eyes at Natalie and pulled Emani to her feet carefully.
Emani’s fans glowered at Natalie with deep-seated contempt.
“You are so raw! You didn’t even offer an apology.”
“Everyone saw it clearly.She pushed Emani.”
“Well, Emani is too kind-hearted.She decided to let it slide. We don’t want to get Emani in trouble.”
“She did it just because she knew Emani wouldn’t fight back!”
The crowd all whispered under their breath and left the lake area behind Emani.
Watching them leave, Natalie felt a little unsettled.
“Let’s go back too,” Laney said, holding her arm and walking with her when she noticed how awkward she looked.
“Don’t think too much of it.I Know you didn’t push her.”
“But they all think I did it.” Natalie felt wronged.
She had the feeling that it hadn’t been an accident at all and that Emani purposely threw herself into the water of her own volition.
Emani didn’t get along with Natalie.
In all likelihood, Emani did this to set her up and cast her in a bad light.
Having heard Laney’s remark, Natalie forced herself not to dwell on it too much.
Considering the fact that there were a lot of people here, she figured that at least half of them should’ve seen that she didn’t push Emani.
Sadly, she completely underestimated the power of Emani’s fans to incite public opinion.
Not only did they have bad eyesight, but they were also selectively blind.
The next day, Natalie went to a hairdresser to get a haircut.She felt that her bangs were getting too long, so she took Laney with her to a salon.
The hairdresser was a handsome man in his early twenties.He had short spiky hair, and he was quite adept at flattery.
“This hairstyle suits you perfectly.Hold on a second. You’re an actress, aren’t you? I think I’ve seen you somewhere before!”
“Has that pickup line ever worked for you?” Natalie bantered.
It was indeed an old pickup line
The next second, the hairdresser took out his phone, opened a video, and handed it to Natalie.
“I’m serious.Have a look at this! You look exactly the same.ls she your sister or something?”
When Natalie saw what was on the screen, she was taken aback.
Someone had secretly taken a video of her and Emani by the lake yesterday, and it had been posted online.
Natalie lagged onto Twitter to read more about the news.
After a few minutes, she had fully grasped the entire story.
There was an entertainment news report regarding Emani falling into the water while she was taking a break on the set.
And now, she had caught a cold and had to stop filming.
Many fans were concerned about her health and left many comments regarding this matter.
Most of them guessed that someone must’ve pushed Emani into the water.
The video showed that Natalie and Emani were just sitting by the water at first.
Without the intervention of outside force, one wouldn’t easily fall into the water.
When they took a closer look, they noticed that Natalie moved her arm slightly.
It was as if she was trying to break free of Emani’s grip.
Moreover, Emani’s reaction during the situation was quite odd.
If she didn’t fall into the water by accident, the only reasonable explanation was that the person sitting beside her had pushed her into the water.
And that person happened to be Natalie.
Natalie scowled while reading through the comments.She then checked Emani’s page again.
There, many fans had already left numerous impassioned comments.
“Emani, everyone is waiting for you to recover! Tell us what happened.Shed light on the situation.”
“We’ll always support you!”
“Did that woman shove you?”
“Who even was that woman? We should dox her!”
“Right.We should do that bitch. want to know what’s going on between her and Emani.How dare she do something like that? I’m gonna rip her head off!”
However, Emani didn’t provide any explanations.
It was as if she had acquiesced to her fans ‘sentiments, At this point, Natalie really wanted to speak up.
Just then, she got a call from Gerda.
“Girl, have you seen the trending video on Twitter? The woman in the video looks like you,” Gerda said anxiously
“Itis me,” replied Natalie.
Surprised by the response, Gerda said, “Seriously? I don’t believe you’d do something like that!”
She was one of Emani’s fans.
There was a time when she was so enamored by her looks.
She had even joined her fan club, so she could hear first hand news on Emani.
Gerda took a deep breath and said to Natalie, “You should be careful.I saw some of Emani’s fans discussing something in the fan club’s group chat. They said that they intend to dox you!”
Clenching her teeth tightly, Natalie said, “There’s more to the story than what’s on the video.”
“I believe you.But Emani just so happened to be a popular actress who had starred in several hot trending TV shows.Now she has a huge following.Also, most of her fans are young and radical. This means the cards are stacked against you. There are very few people who would believe your story.”
