After Mr. Harrison left, Madam Mary tried to comfort Florence.
Mother: (Voice trembling, reaching out to hold her) "Oh my child... my poor child... whatever is happening? This is madness! We will fix this, I promise you. Come here, let me hold you..."
She tried to wrap her arms around Florence, hoping to shield her daughter from this storm of shame.
But Florence violently shoved her away, her eyes blazing with madness and resentment. Tears of rage streamed down her face as she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Florence: "Don't touch me! Don't you dare touch me! This is your fault! All of this is your fault!"
Mother: (Staggering back, hurt and bewildered) "M-my fault? Florence, what are you saying? I only wanted the best for you..."
Florence: "You wanted the best? No! You wanted fame! You wanted wealth! You were the one who kept pushing me, telling me I had to be better than everyone else, that I had to succeed at any cost! You made me feel like nothing unless I was on top!"
"You told me to do whatever it takes! You encouraged me to use whatever assets I had! So I did! I slept with Mr. Westley! We planned everything! I did it all just to make you proud, just to satisfy your endless greed! And now you look at me like I'm a monster?"
"You pushed me into this abyss, Mother! You are the one who created this monster! So don't you dare stand there looking at me with pity now!"
Her mother stood frozen, her hand over her mouth, tears flowing freely as the realization hit her like a physical blow. The words cut deeper than any knife, revealing a truth she had refused to see.
The harsh ringtone cut sharply through the tense air. She glared at Madam Mary one last time before snatching her phone from the table. Seeing her manager's name on the screen, she took a deep breath to compose herself and answered.
"Yes, sir?"
Her manager's voice was urgent and stern, leaving no room for debate. "Florence, get to the office immediately. We need to hold an emergency meeting. The scandal is blowing up online, and we have to deal with it and limit the damage right now."
"Understood. I'm on my way," she replied firmly.
Florence hung up and grabbed her bag. She shot Madam Mary a final look, the anger still simmering between them, but professionalism took over. "We aren't finished with this conversation," she said coldly, "but right now, I have a crisis to fix."
Without waiting for a reply, she turned and rushed out the door, her mind already racing about what awaited her at the company.
The moment Florence stepped into the company, the atmosphere shifted. The usual hum of work stopped dead, replaced by a heavy, suffocating silence. Heads turned, eyes stared, and whispers followed her every step like shadows.
She walked briskly toward the meeting room, her heels clicking loudly on the tiled floor, trying to keep her head high and her expression unreadable. But the words cut through her armor anyway.
"Look who finally showed up..." someone muttered from a nearby desk.
"Of course she would. She knows how to manipulate situations perfectly," another voice chimed in, sharp and bitter.
Florence clenched her jaw, refusing to look back, but the insults kept coming, louder now, no longer hidden.
"Homewrecker!"
"She ruined a family just for her career!"
"Do you think she slept her way to the top? That's the only way someone like her gets ahead."
"She acts all innocent, but she's just a manipulator playing games with people's lives."
"Watch out, she'll destroy you too if you get in her way."
The words stung, hot and cruel. Florence felt her cheeks burn, her hands trembling slightly inside her pockets. She wanted to stop, to scream back, to defend herself, to tell them they didn't know the truth. But she knew that right now, anything she said would only be used against her.
She took a deep, shaky breath, pushed open the heavy glass doors of the meeting room, and walked inside, leaving the venomous voices behind her, but carrying every single word like a weight in her chest."