The Villainess With A Heroine Harem-Chapter 42 - Spotlight
Emilia seemed to care for neither their confusion nor doubt, and continued her tirade nonchalantly.
"It only took fifteen minutes. Oh, of course, I bought him, and will send the boy to his parents…"
The lady officer finally seemed to realize what was going on, and her eyes were wide open.
'No way… did we walk into a huge trap? There's no way this little girl knows all of this, or could do any of what she's saying… it's probably… her father!'
"Don't look so shocked, officer Morgan. It was barely any effort, after all. Of course, there's plenty of other kids there as well, but reporting the site will at most only get it taken down, and the kids will be sold somewhere else."
"W-What, what's going on?"
Even if they wanted to believe that Emilia was just spouting nonsense, then she shouldn't have known about the existence of those two victims.
The fact that all the details she mentioned seemed to match with what they knew made them think there was a high likelihood of her words being true.
And if that was the case… weren't they just being played?
Emilia's words weren't entirely correct, but no one else in the room was knowledgeable enough to realize it.
According to Cynthia, to take down that kind of website, the authorities would have to find the physical location of the servers and disable or destroy them physically. And given how the whole thing worked, they could be anywhere in the world with no real way of pinpointing their exact location.
Emilia smiled, and both the police officers felt that they were looking at a devil donning an angel's skin.
"Oh no, no need to panic. We're not poor, and it's not nice to just sit on our hands and wait under such circumstances, so in fifteen minutes there will be a press conference here, and we'll be making the entire incident public."
Each word was like a hammer to their hearts. If this matter was made public by them now, wouldn't that make their entire department look like a joke?!
"Of course, even criminals adhere very closely to certain principles, or their 'business model' would collapse. As long as we pay the money, the children will be in our hands, unharmed. The children are safe, the parents are happy, we only lose some money. It's all good. Ah, miss police lady, why do you look so pale?"
Emilia's fake concern failed to touch either of the two officers. They only felt she looked more and more like a devil in human skin. Even if she was only a puppet to Mr. White's will, at this moment, the two of them hated her to the bone.
Not to mention Morgan, even officer Mark was having the same thoughts. Mr. White had probably known what was going on, and had led them straight into a trap.
He probably had arrangements already in place to make sure that not only would his reputation not go down due to this 'case', but would end up rising instead.
And at this moment, an entire hoard of cameramen and anchors were allowed to barge into the hall, instantly crowding the place as they clamored to be the first to get their questions answered.
The two officers weren't given any time to think of what to do at all before they were dazzled by hundreds of camera flashes. It didn't take them fifteen minutes to come at all!
Emilia watched them with a smile as her sister fielded the questions from the reporters professionally, her bodyguards barely keeping them at arm's length away from her.
"Miss Samantha, is it true that the White Deer corporation is spending 3 billion dollars out of its own pockets to rescue these children? Would taking out such a huge sum not affect the corporation's other activities?"
"How did you come to know of their existence?"
"Did the police department or Interpol collaborate with you in this?"
"Were these young officers the ones leading the case?"
Samantha's current attitude to the reporters was a complete contrast to her previous careless and sloppy self.
Although her face was still that of a cold beauty, a faint smile highlighted her graceful figure just right to give her an atmosphere of a girl who only pretended not to care, but was softhearted deep down.
Emilia couldn't help but think it was a bit ironic how she had to teach Samantha to give off this kind of vibe, when it was actually her true nature.
"Please remain calm, I'll respond to all your questions later. First, let me explain the whole matter from the beginning."
The clamoring of the reporters gradually stopped as the cameramen all focused their lenses on Samantha's figure. Although the girl was leisurely sitting on a sofa, the atmosphere almost resembled that of a conference table.
"A few days ago, my little sister Emilia happened to hear about a girl being bullied into paralysis in a local school, and her justice loving heart boiled when she was told that the perpetrators had gone completely unpunished. So she not only joined the disciplinary committee to make sure such a thing does not happen at her school, she even started looking into other nearby incidents."
The reporters looked at each other, wondering what this story had to do with the kidnapping and trafficking of little children. Although Emilia's actions were 'admirable', it sounded more like a PR stunt than anything else.
Basically she just joined the disciplinary committee and made a fancy speech, right? What's so special about that?
Samantha gazed gently towards the younger girl on her left, and many cameras shifted towards Emilia for a moment to capture both of them in the frame.
"Shortly after, she came across the report of the six year old Crompton going missing almost three weeks ago."
Unlike the paralysis girl incident, which had been suppressed by the school to avoid bad publicity, this one had received some coverage. Many reporters here were familiar with it, as it hadn't been long since this news was broadcast.
Samantha's smile had disappeared at some point, and her expression was solemn. At this moment, her cold features perfectly complemented her look, making her look like a no-nonsense business lady who knew how to get the job done.
"Knowing it's been a while, and the child might be in tremendous danger already, she swallowed her pride and asked me to investigate the issue, which I handed over to our very competent employees at the White Deer corporation."
There were a few flashes as some reporters captured still photos of Emilia. At her age, many would fancy themselves as superhuman and try to do everything themselves. Few knew how to put aside their ego to seek help, especially when the consequences had to be borne by someone else.
Of course, almost every word from Samantha's mouth was a blatant lie. But the only people who could know this were firmly on their side, so her elder sister fearlessly continued her propaganda.
"They manually searched through all the larger darknet sites for an image matching little Crompton, and finally found him. Of course, many facts they discovered in the process were quite disturbing, and they reported it to me along with their other findings. After discussing it with my father, we decided to take this step."
Although Samantha had explained it all clearly, many reporters still couldn't help but scramble over each other to put forth their doubts. Anyway, in their field, it was always better to dig deeper.
"Miss Samantha, won't revealing this publically right now put those children in danger?"
"Shouldn't your first priority have been to ensure the safety of the children?"
"Is it the White Deer corporation's intention to buy good publicity from this stunt?"
"Miss, how can you prove that this whole incident wasn't orchestrated by your corporation in the first place?"
Although many of their questions were extremely offensive, Samantha's expression did not fluctuate at all. She merely flicked her eyes towards those who had asked 'bad' questions before ignoring their existence.
The hearts of those seeking 'controversy' thumped. It felt as if they had been marked by a predator, but they quickly calmed themselves down. This was their job, after all, and not even the most powerful politicians dared to lay a hand on them.
"Don't worry. Our people are fast and efficient. Before we revealed it to you, the children had already been paid for and secured. Most of them are already on their way here. Some will reach the city today, and the rest will come tomorrow. We have released a full, detailed list on our website, and their parents can pick them up from our White Deer children's welfare center on the third avenue, where they will be housed until then."
Seeing how she was ignoring any question she didn't like, and not even fielding legitimate questions from the reporters who had been 'marked' by her, the rest of the reporters were a lot more careful with their words.
"Miss, what about the police department? How did they help in this case?"
This was the most crucial part of their 'act', and Samantha knew it. Her previously cold and indifferent expression cracked slightly to reveal some frustration. It was clear from just her face alone that she wasn't one bit happy with whatever the police had done to 'help'.
The reporters could already smell blood, and many cameras were pointing straight at the two dumbfounded officers when Samantha put the proverbial nail in their coffin with her words. f𝚛e𝗲𝔀e𝚋𝑛o𝘃𝒆𝗹.c𝗼𝒎
"Ah, they're not here to help.. They're here to investigate my little sister because the bullies she reprimanded haven't returned home for a few hours now, so they're very concerned."
