Yours, Until Needed
Chapter 135: Propaganda

Chapter 135: Propaganda

ELIANA

Despite being busy preparing for the opening of their boutique hotel, which was now practically a resort, I still kept an ear out for developments on personal matters.

So, Lucian’s sudden appearance to tell me news about that family’s movement didn’t feel too unusual.

Then he told me the odd news.

"It seems like the Chairman met with an accident and was brought to the closest hospital."

"The closest hospital?" The Thornhills had always been particular about public opinion and wouldn’t readily go to hospitals that couldn’t guarantee their privacy.

This was a general practice for most influential companies, as stock prices would normally be affected by a major player suddenly falling ill.

So, was it that bad to bring him to the closest hospital, or was it for a particular reason?

Not that the Thornhills could still think about stock prices when the SEC had already frozen their public trading after defaulting on their loans.

"Yeah, according to our intel, the Chairman was found passed out by the foot of the stairs close to his private study."

"Who found him?" Not even the servants visited that area except for the scheduled maintenance.

"It was Ingrid Thornhill. She called for the paramedics after allegedly finding him like that."

"You don’t seem too convinced?" I asked.

"And you are?" He cocked an eyebrow at me.

"No. If anything, she’s the type to sell a person and require the same unsuspecting being to count the blood money."

"Do we have any idea as to his current condition?"

Lucian nodded, but with a complicated look on his face, I should know in advance not to hope for anything good.

"Not that good. It seems like he’s been found a little later than they hoped for."

"With Uncle disappearing like this, who’s caring for him?"

"Surprisingly, it’s your aunt and her two children. Both of them."

"They pulled Aldrin out of school?"

"Yeah."

"Then could you please inform me if some posts suddenly pop out about this? I have a strange feeling that something’s up."

__

Of course, like a bringer of bad news, I was right about this incident being too fishy.

News about the Patriarch’s accident spread quickly, and articles about Aunt Ingrid’s filial piety circulated like wildfire.

She surely used personal funds to drive this campaign, but it helped that she dragged a newly minted Sinclair into the ring.

It was again a contrast between Alexa’s worried faces versus photos of me smiling about.

"They could’ve at least picked photos that weren’t from two weeks ago."

I don’t like anything about this situation, but I’m particularly annoyed that it could lead to negative publicity for our upcoming opening.

That’s not going to be good for everyone who worked hard on the project.

I sound heartless, thinking about a mere opening when someone’s hospitalized. But I can’t just force my heart to put down its grievances.

Since our doubts were strong and there was really no other explanation for this behavior, the next step was to figure out the details of the actual accident.

The Chairman may not like surveillance, but Dad already learned an important lesson from him.

If the Patriarch felt entitled to breach our privacy, then why would his dislike for surveillance prevent us from doing the same thing?

Dad may not have positioned surveillance inside the actual study, but he sure had some right outside.

I hoped and prayed that they were still there as I called my dad for assistance.

In a way, he had the same guess and wasn’t surprised to hear about our conjectures.

He especially felt more agreeable after asking the Chairman’s personal employees. None of them actually knew of the accident until the public posts.

Nothing screams foul play more than crocodile tears and the presence of water armies.

So, Dad promised to look into the surveillance and send over a copy of whatever they would find.

Then, I was reassured that he’d deal with this before our opening. He sounded worried, and this was probably because of a blabber mouth saying something about that fainting spell.

All I could do was repeatedly tell him that everything was fine and that there was nothing much to worry about.

I’ve lived under the scrutiny of people nearly all my life, and something like this wouldn’t kill me.

But maybe I could punish this giant blabber mouth who had the gall to sit next to me after throwing me under the bus.

When the call ended, I gave Lucian a pronounced stink eye.

"You. It was you who ratted me out, right?"

With his selective hearing, Lucian pretended not to hear my accusation, and I had to grab his chin to force him to listen.

"I didn’t rat you out. You got caught."

"Caught? No one caught me!"

"I did." Lucain’s expression was dark, and he scowled as if a crime had been committed.

"I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place, so there was nothing to catch." I reminded him that that was not a crime in any country’s constitution.

"Who allowed you to faint?" Lucian deadpanned.

"Since when did something like that require anyone’s permission? And it wasn’t like I chose to faint."

"I was just a bit sleepless." I really was. It’s been hectic trying to get everything organized, especially since our project was a bit of a distance from here.

Thankfully, Alyssa was more than happy to temporarily be assigned there until we could train locals to manage positions.

"Bull."

"Even the doctor said so. I even got him to look at me."

"Yeah, and all you allowed him to really do was look at you. Tests weren’t even done."

I see. He was still salty about that.

"I’ll get them done as soon as I’m able to. And isn’t this enough that you’ve watched me like a hawk recently?"

"Are you trying to skip on your work? At this rate, do you even get anything done?"

Lucian went a tad bit nuts after finding me in the bathroom. To be fair, it wasn’t as gruesome or something; I just passed out a bit while in the bathtub.

Sure, it was a bit dangerous, but my head wasn’t even submerged as the tub had a built-in headrest.

It’s not like Lucian cared to consider that.

So, here I was, being followed around by a mother hen.