Chapter 76: Nathaniel Sloan Suspects the Truth of the Plagiarism from 5 Years Ago

Chapter 76: Chapter 76: Nathaniel Sloan Suspects the Truth of the Plagiarism from 5 Years Ago

Laura Jennings hadn’t expected Estelle Lockwood to actually dare talk back. Feeling utterly humiliated, she flared up in anger. "It’s already come to this, so what more is there to decide! The evidence of your plagiarism is irrefutable. It’s set in stone! Even if Nathaniel wants to protect you, he can’t!"

Estelle lifted her eyes and shot her a glance. "During the half month I’ve spent at Evernight International, everyone in the Perfumery Department has watched me develop and revise the formula. Do you really think whether I plagiarized or not can be determined by a single word from Noelle Lockwood?"

Laura choked on her words.

The surrounding colleagues exchanged glances and nodded. Over the past few days, they had indeed watched the perfume formula take shape bit by bit.

"Miss Lockwood, we can understand that you want to defend yourself, but don’t drag me down with you!" Right at that moment, the assistant who had been working closely with Estelle suddenly took two steps back and said pointedly, "I have no idea if you plagiarized or not. I wasn’t even there when you wrote the formula. I don’t know anything!"

Laura immediately felt emboldened. "You hear that? Even your own assistant implies you plagiarized. Are you still not getting out of here?"

Estelle abruptly turned around, narrowing her eyes. This assistant had been assigned to her by Nathaniel Sloan after she arrived at Evernight International. The assistant had clearly seen the entire process of her perfume blending, yet now claimed ignorance? Not to mention, it was this very assistant who had touched her phone yesterday, right before it broke and caused her to miss a call. Stringing all these incidents together, it was obvious! This assistant had been bought off by Noelle a long time ago.

Estelle’s eyes turned icy. "Fine. Since Mrs. Sloan and all of you here believe I plagiarized and want to kick me out, I will leave.

"But don’t ever expect to invite me back!"

Estelle turned and walked away. Her imposing aura intimidated the crowd. A junior perfumer whispered, "She is President Lockwood of Star, after all. Driving her away without President Sloan’s permission... is that really a good idea?"

Laura announced loudly, "Nathaniel’s things are my things! I’m telling her to get the hell out of my company, what’s wrong with that?!"

Hearing this, the crowd finally felt reassured.

Meanwhile, in the CEO’s office.

After receiving the news, Nathaniel immediately ordered his people to take down the trending hashtags and launch an investigation. Noelle’s fans had been throwing vile, unbearable insults at Yara Lockwood for plagiarizing. And then... they started cursing out Estelle Lockwood as well.

Nathaniel couldn’t help but recall an incident from five years ago. The Lockwood family had accused Estelle of plagiarizing Noelle. Estelle had denied it, but the Lockwoods produced evidence, and everyone had taken Noelle’s side. Afterward, Estelle was brutally cyberbullied, leaving him no choice but to suppress all information related to the scandal.

But now, it was being brought up again. Nathaniel slowly closed his eyes.

Not long after, Rose Lowell and Noelle Lockwood came to visit.

"Nathaniel... I’m so sorry. I didn’t know things would blow up like this. Where is Miss Lockwood? I’ll go apologize to her..."

The mother and daughter were playing good cop, bad cop. Rose hurriedly interjected, "Oh, Noelle! You’re the one who was plagiarized, yet you’re the one going to apologize? What kind of logic is that?"

Noelle’s eyes were red from crying. "But this incident has caused Evernight International a lot of trouble. Nathaniel, I didn’t mean for this to happen..."

Rose turned to him. "Nathaniel, you really can’t blame Noelle for this! When she found out she was plagiarized, she was prepared to just swallow her grievances. But the operations department was so outraged that they posted that statement on social media behind our backs! By the time we found out, it was already too late!

"Sigh, Noelle really didn’t want to make a fuss over Yara, but, but... Oh, my poor daughter!"

Rose sighed heavily, acting as if they genuinely had no idea what was going on.

Nathaniel lifted his eyelids. "Ms. Lowell, you were unaware of that post?"

A trace of panic flashed across Rose’s face before she hurriedly offered an apologetic smile. "Of course I was unaware, Nathaniel. I know that once this plagiarism scandal breaks out, your interests will be affected too. Noelle is always so considerate of you; naturally, she wouldn’t do something like that."

A hint of mockery surfaced on Nathaniel’s face. "Then what does Ms. Lowell think we should do about this?"

Rose’s eyes darted around. "Of course... we should have Yara confess, and then come out and apologize.

"Noelle will keep her fans in check on her end. Once Yara apologizes to Noelle and admits to plagiarizing, we won’t dwell on it. We can turn this big issue into a small one, and eventually make it go away completely!"

Nathaniel looked at the mother-daughter duo. After a long moment, he suddenly spoke. "Ms. Lowell, it’s a pity that a matter like plagiarism can’t be decided by the Lockwood Group’s word alone. Star has plenty of evidence. All the data Yara left behind while formulating the perfume will be made public shortly. You want Yara to admit to plagiarism, but the Star Group will never allow it."

Rose’s expression shifted. She really hadn’t thought that far ahead, assuming Yara would be just as easy to manipulate as Estelle—that she could just throw a couple of accusations at her and force a confession. "T-this... But Yara really did plagiarize! Nathaniel, you can’t be biased toward Yara in a matter like this!"

"What are you so anxious about, Ms. Lowell?" Nathaniel said mildly. "If Yara truly plagiarized, and it’s set in stone, it won’t be too late for her to apologize then."

"T-that’s good..." Rose felt an indescribable panic rising in her chest. Her tone was full of insinuation as she added, "Nathaniel, you have to understand me as a mother. My daughter has been plagiarized twice, and both times she suffered a massive injustice. I just want to seek justice for Noelle!"

Noelle wept silently. The first time she was "plagiarized" referred to Estelle five years ago. The second time referred to Yara now.

Nathaniel slowly withdrew his gaze. "Of course, the one who plagiarized must provide an explanation."

Overjoyed, Rose pulled Noelle along and left.

After the two departed, Nathaniel stared at the stack of documents on his desk. He suddenly spoke in a hoarse voice, "Years ago, I might have gotten something wrong."

Luke White remained silent. Having followed Mr. Sloan for so long, he naturally knew which incident he was referring to.

Back then, the Lockwood family and Noelle had accused Estelle of plagiarism. The Madam was cyberbullied so severely that she couldn’t even leave the house. Then, one day, she suddenly called Mr. Sloan and confessed that she was the one who had plagiarized, begging him to suppress the matter. Mr. Sloan had used his influence to delete all the posts and hashtags about Estelle from the internet, and the incident seemed to pass just like that.

However, in everyone’s minds, Estelle was still a plagiarist. Even today, she was still being verbally abused by Noelle’s fans.

Now, Mr. Sloan was certain that Yara was the Madam. As a Chief Perfumer, Yara disdained plagiarism. If Yara was like this, then would the Estelle of five years ago really have plagiarized? And if she hadn’t, why did she make that call to Mr. Sloan?

Nathaniel looked out the window, lost in thought. Suddenly, his phone buzzed. He cast his eyes down at the screen, and his expression drastically darkened as he quickly strode toward the door!

"Mr. Sloan, there’s a meeting coming up!" Luke said hastily. "Where are you going?"

"To find Yara."