Lawrence and Scarlett had gone home for breakfast. Only Sean and Abigail were left. Meanwhile, Analise was washing herself up.
Sean made some tea. "Are you going to keep Howard around?"
"I can't fire him. We made a deal with him. Once Xavien finds out about the truth, I'll make another statement. Give him a chance." Abigail had calmed down now. After the case had made its way to trending, Abigail finally calmed down. She was frustrated because things were uncertain before.
Sean looked at her, thinking that she had a flexible mind and could accept a lot of things. Yes, she could get mad, but she would calm down eventually. He finished making the tea and gave her a cup. "I had some. I think it's nice, so you should try it."
Abigail took the cup and had a sip. She cocked her eyebrow in surprise. "It is nice." She whipped out her phone and opened up an online shopping app. The tea wasn't expensive, and it was nice. And now she thought better of Scarlett and Lawrence. People who could buy cheap and nice things couldn't be too bad.
Sean knew she liked the tea. Oh, good. At least they did one good thing.
Fairy Meadow's Twitter page was still overwhelmed. At noon, there were already more than 50 thousand comments cursing Howard. Some people were trying to dox him, too. In the end, due to the great pressure, Howard posted an apology statement.
'I have let L.Moon and Alana down. After taking too many presents over the last year, I have lost my way. What happened this time isn't what the internet made it out to be. It was my greed. Adam Strong, GM of Fast Step, used my greed and set me up. I have told the cops about his attempt at extortion. He and that woman set me up just to get priority for Loveme. Leap Gaming developed that app, and Alana invested in it through L.Moon. The investor has exclusive use of that app for six months. That's Fairy Meadow. The app will then be open to other companies after that, but for his company's profit, Adam set me up. I will not defend myself for what I did, but I will take up arms against Fast Step.'
That statement sent ripples throughout the company. Abigail was surprised Howard would take up responsibility like a man and fight Adam.
'Oh, first I've ever seen a business war. Extortion, eh? That's the only plausible reason. I think it's true. It's been 24 hours since the video of Alana arguing with him in the hotel. If the victim really was violated, they would have called the cops right away.'
'You deserved that slap. I want to slap you, too. Haven't you made enough through Fairy Meadow? Your greed knows no bounds. Now you got Alana and Fairy Meadow into this sh*tshow. Damn you!'
'Hey, you're trusting him even without evidence? Show us the evidence. Besides, Fast Step has been in the market for ages. Do you think they would extort someone? I bet this is slander because he didn't get anything from this.'
As for Fast Step, they made an official statement on their Twitter page too. They claimed that Howard's statement was libel. Their lawyer had made a statement too.
The internet mocked them.
'Hey, they're calling the cops now. A lawyer's statement is weak sauce. You call the cops too, or it's going to be hard to believe you're innocent.'
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