Chapter 350 Treading Thin Ice
Chapter 350 Treading Thin Ice
“He thinks like Louis, holding all the power in their hands and doing whatever they want?” Dean scoffed, the bitterness practically radiating off him. “Andres handed over the entire Graham Group to Louis when the guy was barely in his twenties. Me? I’m still stuck under the Yang family’s thumb. Even if I wanted to develop a fully immersive holographic game like Louis did, I’d need the power–and the capital–to make that call.”
The resentment in Dean’s voice was thick. “All my dad ever does is nag. Nothing I do is ever good enough. I don’t even have the heart to talk back–what if I give him a stroke or something? But does he appreciate that? Of course not. And honestly, this is all Louis’s fault. I used to think Spencer had actually managed to take Louis down a peg, but now I see it was just Louis reorganizing his assets and using the chance to ditch the Graham Group. Nothing
more.
So basically, you just don’t want to admit Louis is better than you.
Sebastian said nothing out loud, but his inner monologue was ruthless. You ever stop to think maybe Louis earned that trust? That he got control of Graham Group because he proved he could handle it? Your dad didn’t give you power because he couldn’t trust you not to screw it up. And let’s be real- Louis assembled a dream team for that game project and secured his own funding. What’s your excuse?
Honestly, Sebastian couldn’t stand Dean. If it weren’t for Savannah, he wouldn’t be entertaining him at all.
Thanks to Andres’s mentoring, Sebastian had a pretty solid moral compass. As Andres once put it: “If you’re going to be a bad person, be a bad person with clarity. Don’t kid yourself into thinking you’re a good guy while doing dirty work. That just makes you a fool and a hypocrite.”
Dean’s whole rant was clearly designed to get Sebastian to see Louis as a common enemy. Before long, he steered the topic toward the new smear campaign against Sophia that had surfaced on Twitter.
Sebastian hadn’t checked social media yet and had no idea the production team had already dropped hard evidence, leaving Sophia to take the fall.
But he wasn’t planning to make any moves just yet. After a moment’s thought, he waved off
Dean’s concern.
“Now’s not the time to react,” he said. “If we push back right away, it’ll look like a cover–up. Better to let it snowball a bit, That way, when we finally respond, the turnaround will hit harder and feel more convincing.”
Dean wasn’t buying it. He’d been in the industry long enough to recognize a delay tactic when he heard one. He tried pressing the issue gently, suggesting a faster resolution would be
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Chapter 850 Treading Thin lee
smarter.
But Sebastian wasn’t budging. Even when Dean brought up Savannah, Sebastian just laughed.
it off.
The back–and–forth dragged on for nearly an hour, neither side gaining much ground. In the end, Dean had to give it a rest. He had other meetings to attend and figured Sebastian was just playing hard to get. He made a mental note to have Savannah smooth things over later. If Sebastian needed a push, who better than the girl he was trying to win over?
For the first time, Dean actually gave Sebastian a bit of credit. Huh. The guy’s finally growing a spine. Still, he told himself to warn Savannah not to string him along too long. If she was planning to accept him eventually, better to seal the deal sooner than risk losing everything
After Dean left, Sebastian rolled his eyes and finally opened Twitter. He summoned his secretary and had the platform’s team bring him the latest metrics.
When he saw how badly Sophia was getting dragged, even he had to shake his head. Deant had really put him in a bind. The evidence from Freya’s side was overwhelming–thorough, well–timed, and perfectly executed. Unless they had something equally damning in their pocket, there was no way to shift public opinion.
Technically, he could order the backend team to suppress keywords or manipulate trending topics. But doing so would mean Twitter itself would take the heat. And once a platform loses public trust, it’s only a matter of time before users start looking for alternatives.
Was he willing to take that kind of risk… for Sophia?
Still, he needed to have a plan B.
Sebastian ordered his staff to start prepping any materials they could use to spin the
wl with Louis, they’d need ammo to salvage situation. If it came down to an all–out brawl with Louis, they’d need ammo to salvage Sophia’s image. Freya, at least, was no longer a concern–her name had been cleared.
One of his department heads looked hesitant.
“Mr. Wells… if we go all in on rehabilitating Sophia’s image, we’re going to offend the Womez family,” the man said cautiously. “We’re just a platform, after all. We’ve always helped whoever paid the price–Womez, Scott, didn’t matter. That’s been our unspoken rule. And we’ve always avoided dragging/anyone’s family into things. If we break that rule now, what do we get out of it?”
Sebastian didn’t answer right away.
Because honestly? He was wondering the exact same thing.
