As she spoke, Gianna deliberately angled the side of her face that had been


    pped—still red and swollen—toward the reporters, letting it drift in and out of their


    view.


    Feeling the camera shes going off nonstop, she could not suppress the


    excitement rising in her chest.


    "That makes sense. If the rankings were already decided, wouldn''t Ms. Malone be going out of her way for no reason?"


    "Also, thispetition isn''t sponsored by CM Logistics alone. There are plenty of other organizers involved as well..."


    Listening to the murmurs around her, Gianna lowered her head, hiding the smile in


    her eyes.


    However, at that moment, Anneliese spoke up, unhurried and calm. "But if Ms. Malone did not use her privilege to cancel my eligibility, why did she admit to it earlier?"


    "You''re talking nonsense! When did I ever say that?" Gianna stared at Anneliese in shock, looking like she''d been falsely used.


    At the same time, she clenched her fists, rapidly reying everything that had just happened in her mind.


    Anneliese looked far tooposed, far too confident. Could it be that.....


    Suddenly realizing something, Gianna''s expression shifted slightly, her palms damp with cold sweat.


    Anneliese blinked at her, as if having anticipated her reaction. The next second, she took out a voice recorder and pressed y, bringing it closer to one of the microphones.


    A somewhat faint voice was broadcast through the sound system. "So what if I was the one who stopped you frompeting? Anneliese, who do you think you are?"


    It was only that single, brief sentence, cut off abruptly.


    Even though the speaker spoke in a low voice, everyone could tell that it was Gianna.


    Anneliese looked at the crowd, then took out her phone and held it up toward the cameras.


    "This is my registration process and confirmation receipt, as well as the invitation letter I received after sessfully signing up. Every step was clear, proper, and inpliance with the rules. Yet, I waster told there was no record of my registration in the system, and the organizers could not give me a reasonable exnation. Later on, Ms. Malone said something like this to me."


    She paused slightly before continuing, her tone steady.


    "Under these circumstances, I had my doubts and requested that the organizers conduct a thorough investigation and give me a fair exnation. I''m not being unreasonable, am I?" she asked.


    Earlier, she had deliberately said many provocative and unpleasant things, all to anger Gianna, make her lose control, and say those words.


    Did Gianna really think she would dare p her in public, alert the media, and make such a scene without having any evidence at all?


    Gianna had deliberately lowered her voice earlier Recording it clearly on a phone would have been


    impossible, but Anneliese''s recorder was high precision device,


    much capable of picking up Gianna''s voice.


    s?novels


    Gianna had no idea that Anneliese still managed to record their conversation, even though she had deliberately kept her voice low.


    Her face turned slightly pale, yet she shook her head in denial.


    "No! Anneliese got the wrong idea first and pped me. I felt humiliated and furious, and that''s why I spoke without thinking!"


    Of course, she could not admit that this matter had anything to do with her.


    Butpared to the recording Anneliese had produced, Gianna''s exnation sounded weak and unconvincing.


    Adrian frowned slightly. "Gianna, does this really have nothing to do with you?"


    "Of course it has nothing to do with me, Mr. Malone. I only said that out of anger," she replied.


    "I want a proper investigation to find out exactly what happened. Get all the staff involved in the registration process here, right now." The


    acting as the host who had provided: the venue, stepped forward and spoke.


    president of @ceato tion


    Soon, the relevant personnel were gathered. After checking the records, a bespectacled technician stepped forward nervously.


    "We''ve found the issue. I''m very sorry, Ms. ude. You didplete the registration process. We carried out a system upgrade earlier, but I had an urgent matter to attend to and shut the system down before the upgrade was fullypleted. I didn''t expect to lose the data, and your registration was deleted along with it. I''m very, very sorry..."


    It was obvious that this person had been used as a scapegoat.


    However, Anneliese did not have any further evidence to directly prove that Gianna had interfered behind the scenes.


    She nodded, barely epting this exnation, then looked toward Adrian.


    "Mr. Malone, since this was an error on your staff''s part, do I still get to participate in thepetition?"


    With so many representatives from the organizing parties present, Anneliese deliberately directed the question solely at Adrian. Anyone who understood the situation would know what she was implying.


    She was clearly suggesting that the incident had been orchestrated by Gianna, with Adrian''s tacit approval.


    Yet faced with the many spective gazes around him, Adrian had little choice.


    He could only smile and say, "Naturally. Mr. Dathce, what do you think?" Franklin Dathce and the others all nodded in agreement. In circumstances like these, if Anneliese were forbidden from participating, thepetition would not be able to proceed at all.