Jake hesitated. "But Leonard didn''t do anything to Aurora. There''s no concrete evidence... Are you sure this will work?"


    Joshua''s expression was impassive. "When Sherman Burton framed Star back then, he didn''t have any evidence either. But people still believed him."


    Jake froze.


    He finally understood. Joshua''s goal wasn''t just to create an irreparable rift between Leonard and Aurora. He intended to make them suffer the same humiliation Ste Cameron had endured.


    "Simone is still too green," Jake mused. "She didn''t manage to make the situation stick. If she had drugged Aurora as well, things might be more advantageous for us."


    But Joshua shook his head. "If a man is determined not to touch a woman, it doesn''t matter if he''s been drugged or has a knife to his throat. Whether Aurora was drugged or not would have made little difference. Besides, I wanted to confirm something."


    Joshua was an enigma. Even Jake, who was always by his side, often couldn''t decipher his thoughts.


    "And did you?" Jake asked instinctively.


    A chilling light flickered in Joshua''s dark eyes.


    "I did."


    Joshua didn''t borate, and Jake knew better than to press further.


    "I''ll have Harold get right on it," Jake said. "But... if Leonard, the Williams family, and the Burton family all work together to suppress the story, it will be difficult to get it out there."


    This wasn''t Aetheria, after all. They didn''t haveplete control here.


    "It doesn''t matter if the general public knows," Joshua said. "As long as our entire social circle knows, that''s enough. Since the normal channels of information are blocked, we''ll use the traditional ones."


    While Jake was skilled inbat, his mind didn''t work as quickly as Harold''s. He didn''t immediately grasp Joshua''s meaning.


    "Mr. Gardner, what do you mean by ''traditional channels"?"


    Joshua cast a sideways nce at him. "Send people to get close to some of the idle, hedonistic rich kids and the socialites who live forpetition and gossip. Don''t underestimate them. They thrive on drama, and they can spread a rumor faster than any socialwork."


    The pieces clicked into ce for Jake. Of course. How could he have forgotten?


    In this age of rapid technological and digital advancement, news spread at lightning speed, causing traditional methods ofmunication to be fargely forgotten. Whenever a story broke, it almost always started online.


    Everyone''s attention was focused on the inte.


    If you could control the flow of information online, you could effectively silence any narrative. Not just Leonard and his allies, but even Jake himself had fallen into that line of thinking.


    Leonard and the Williams family would never dream that while they had every media outlet in Solmaris under their thumb, they couldn''t control human nature. They couldn''t gag every mouth.


    Joshua was simply brilliant. When one path was blocked, he immediately found another. And this new path targeted the audience with surgical precision.


    This time, Jake didn''t need any more prompting. He knew exactly what to do. While Leonard''s camp focused their efforts on scrubbing the inte, it would be a shame not to throw a few digital breadcrumbs their way to keep them busy.


    Jake immediately contacted Harold. They wouldunch a two-pronged attack.


    One person would be responsible for creating trouble online, drawing all the fire. The other would handle the dissemination of the rumor through high society, achieving their true objective.


    When Harold heard the n, he was floored by Jake''s newfound shrewdness. "Jake, what''s gotten into you? Since when are you so sharp?"