Chapter 42
That night, things at Cordia were anything but calm, and of course, those who stirred up the trouble wouldn’t have it easy either. Over at the Academy of Sciences, an emergency meeting was convened overnight in response to the attack on Aurora. A special investigation team was assembled to look into it. Working jointly with the police, they swiftly rounded up everyone involved in the assault. Over a dozen people were arrested overnight, all of them fans of Whitney. They were interrogated through the night, but their initial statements didn’t convince the investigation team. The team had already requested the hospital to provide Aurora’s medical report.
Those knife wounds didn’t look like something done just by some overzealous fans trying to vent their anger at an idol. The bigger concern was that the attackers might be spies disguised as fans, and they were actually targeting a key researcher.
So, early in the morning, the moment Whitney arrived at the company, the police came to take her away for questioning. They also took Ryan, saying it was a routine inquiry and asking them to cooperate.
The Klein family was completely dumbfounded. Rosalie couldn’t believe what was happening.
“What are you talking about? How can you just take people away like this? What if the media finds out? Do you know what kind of impact that would have on Venchi? Can you bear that responsibility? Who’s going to compensate us for our losses? You?” Rosalie snapped coldly, stepping forward with a determined stance to block the police. At the same time, she signaled Whitney’s assistant to go look for Jenny Caldwell. The assistant immediately understood and rushed out.
However, the police weren’t the kind to be easily swayed.
“Ma’am, this is a routine inquiry. It’s every citizen’s duty to cooperate with an investigation. If they’re innocent, they’ll be released immediately. Ms. Klein’s fans attacked Ms. Reed, causing serious injury. They claim Ms. Klein incited them. We’re taking her in to get to the truth. We want to make sure the victim gets justice and clear Ms. Klein’s name.”
“What? The fans acted on their own. What does that have to do with Whitney? Those mindless fans never think before they act. You can’t just pin it on Whitney when something happens…” Rosalie hurriedly grabbed Whitney’s arm.
“Grandma…” Whitney was also distraught. She never expected her fans to be so idiotic. They actually brought a whole group to attack. They were supposed to act in secret, but now, they’d been caught by the police so quickly. They couldn’t even hold up under questioning and had already ratted her out. They were nothing but a bunch of useless fools.
“Please cooperate, Ms. Klein! Ma’am, don’t obstruct our work, or we’ll have to take you in as well!”
“How dare you? You…”
No matter how unreasonable Rosalie tried to be, she couldn’t overpower the officials carrying out their duty; Whitney and Ryan were taken away.
“Grandma, contact Sidney immediately and have Jenny send the lawyer over! Today’s incident must not get out. Have the PR department handle it immediately!” Whitney, though terrified, forced herself to stay calm as she quickly gave instructions to Rosalie.
“Alright, alright, I’ll make the calls immediately. Don’t panic. Don’t be afraid. Just wait until the lawyer arrives…” Rosalie was clearly flustered. Watching her son and granddaughter get taken away right in front of her left her at a loss. Fortunately, Whitney’s reminder snapped her back to action; without that, she’d still be panicking, unsure what to do.