Chapter 10 · Villainess No Longer Obeys

Chapter 10

My follower count was skyrocketing. Just half an hour ago, I only had 100,000 fans, and now it's already hit 600,000! And it's still going wild!The comments section had totally flipped. All those hired troll posts got drowned out, and now the top comments were all backing me up:"Damn! That evidence is solid! Rose is such a double-faced girl. So disgusting! She tried to frame someone and then paid trolls to smear them?""Sis is so cool! No messy drama, no playing the victim, just dropped the receipts and hammered them! This is what a real clear-headed boss lady looks like!""I almost believed those hate comments before. Sorry, sis! My bad! I'm a stan now!""Is the Lane family blind or what? They ignore their awesome real sister and protect a scheming fake innocent instead?"Even those no-name brands that tried to kick me when I was down deleted their posts overnight and sent me private messages begging for forgiveness, asking me not to call them out.I didn't even bother to reply. I just blocked them all.Meanwhile, at the Lane family villa, Richard sat on the couch, his face dark as the bottom of a pot as he watched the viral video on his phone.He looked up at Rose, who was sitting across from him with her head hung low, his voice cold as ice. "Was this all your doing?"Rose trembled, tears falling nonstop, but she couldn't say a single word to defend herself.The evidence was all laid out. There was no way she could talk her way out of it.I was scrolling through the comments, laughing so hard I could barely keep my mouth shut, when my phone suddenly rang again.The caller ID showed an unfamiliar number, with the name "Richard" saved.It was my so-called dad from the Lane family, the one who'd never looked at me kindly, not even once.And now, he was actually the one calling me.I stared at the flashing caller ID, wiped my fingers still sticky with snail noodle soup, and rolled my eyes so hard they nearly got stuck.Well, the sun must be rising in the west today,' I thought.The same guy who used to jab his finger in my face, ranting about how I was a disgrace to the family and threatening to cut me off, is actually calling me now?'I didn't rush to answer. I let the phone ring until it was about to cut off, then lazily swiped to pick up, put it on speaker, and slouched onto the couch, my tone lazy and casual. "Hello? Who's this? If you've got something to say, say it. Otherwise, I'm hanging up. I've got ad revenue to count."There was a couple seconds of silence before Richard's voice came through, stiff and awkward, with an awkward hint of softness,none of his usual arrogance. "Sophie, it's me.""Oh, Mr. Lane," I said, raising an eyebrow and taking a sip of my ice-cold Coke. "So, what's up? Are you calling to freeze my bank account again, or is it just another lecture about how I'm a disgrace to the Lane family?"Richard was caught off guard by my comeback, coughed a couple times, and his voice got even softer. "Sophie, about what happened before... I was wrong. We misunderstood you. We saw everything online. Rose just didn't know any better, and we've already told her off."I almost spat out my Coke.Just told her off? That's it?' I thought.So she paid trolls to trash me and nearly wrecked my whole career, and all you did was give her a slap on the wrist? When I got framed, you guys were all but ready to toss me behind bars.'I scoffed. "Don't tell me you called just to say that, Mr. Lane. If there's nothing else, I'm hanging up. I've got a bunch of brands waiting for my reply. If you're wasting my time, are you gonna cover my losses?""Wait, wait, Sophie," Richard hurriedly stopped me, sounding almost nervous. "Uh... how about coming home for dinner tonight? Your mom made that pork rib soup, your favourite. Let's all sit down together and talk things out as a family."A family? Seriously?' I thought, and let out a snort of laughter."You were the ones who kicked me out, said the Lane family didn't have a daughter like me. Now you want to talk about family? Mr. Lane, you change your tune faster than flipping a page. I can barely keep up."

Chapter 10