Chapter 719 - 715: She Won’t Allow Anyone to Use Lily

"Ten million? Ha!" Connie scoffed, the offer so ridiculous it was almost funny. "Are you serious?"

"How could I joke about something like this?" the person on the other end offered. "Connie, how about this? I’m not just trying to scare you. I’ll send you a clip of the interview video for you to review. You can see for yourself if the content is worth the price."

Connie gripped her phone tightly. ’If he’s this bold, the interview video must be real.’

"Wait for my answer."

"No problem. But I can only wait until seven o’clock tonight. If I don’t see a gesture of goodwill from your company by then, my only option is to release the video. After all, we have to get either money or traffic out of this. Right, Connie?"

The man’s smug, triumphant tone was sickening. Connie hung up without another word.

"Connie, what’s wrong?" Beau asked, stepping forward with concern when he saw her expression. "Whose call was that?"

"The editor-in-chief of Stellarwind Media’s entertainment department." Connie explained, her face grim. "He interviewed those two and fabricated the content. Now he’s using it to blackmail us."

Looking at Beau, she asked, "Do you know anyone at their company?"

Beau used to frequent all sorts of industry parties and knew a wide, motley crew of people.

But this time, Beau shook his head. "Not well. I’ve heard of the company, though. They operate under the guise of a media company, but they’re really just paparazzi. And they handle everything in-house. Their own paparazzi dig up the dirt, and then they use their own marketing accounts to publish it. I heard they run over a hundred marketing accounts across the internet, and their astroturfing operation is very sophisticated."

Connie’s brow furrowed. "So you’re saying if they release what they have, they can use their own online army to control the narrative?"

Beau nodded, his face ashen. "That’s likely the procedure. Their system is very well-established."

"That puts us in a very passive position."

"How much do they want?"

"Ten million!"

"Seymour?!" Beau exclaimed in shock. "They’ve really got some nerve!"

Connie sneered. "They’re banking on how much we value Lily Sterling. They know we don’t want her career to face any disruptions."

Besides, when Miss Sterling first signed Lily to us at Goldman Golding, she made it clear. She just wanted Lily to focus on her acting and not get overexposed in other news stories.

Now that Lily’s fame and traffic have skyrocketed, avoiding exposure is obviously impossible. That means we have to do a good job with damage control. Otherwise, we’ll have no way to answer to Miss Sterling.

Therefore, this interview video absolutely cannot be allowed to leak.

"I’m going to see President Lockwood."

Without further hesitation, Connie headed straight for James Lockwood’s office.

In the office, James Lockwood had also been monitoring all the trending topics and news related to Lily Sterling that day.

"President Lockwood." Connie knocked and entered, walking straight to the sofa and sitting down.

James Lockwood stood up from behind his desk, still scrolling on his phone. "I see the related buzz has died down significantly. The PR department did a good job with this one."

He looked up and saw Connie’s frosty expression. "What’s wrong?" James Lockwood asked, confused. "This incident had some effect on Lily, but it’s still within a controllable range."

"It’s about to become uncontrollable, President Lockwood." Connie let out a long sigh and relayed the contents of the phone call.

James Lockwood’s eyes went wide as he listened. "Ten million dollars? Have those sons of bitches gone insane? Have they never seen money before?"

"President Lockwood, there’s no point in saying that now. The company has to pay up."

James Lockwood stood before the floor-to-ceiling window with his hands on his hips, biting his lip in anger. He naturally understood what Connie understood: if things spun out of control, he wouldn’t be able to answer to Miss Sterling.

After a long moment, he nodded. "Pay it. It’s not a small sum, but it’s the only option we have right now."

Receiving the go-ahead from President Lockwood, Connie didn’t say anything else. She stood up and said, "President Lockwood, you should probably be the one to inform Miss Sterling about this."

James Lockwood froze. "Inform Miss Sterling? Forget it. If she finds out we let paparazzi blackmail us over Lily, she’ll probably get angry at us for being incompetent again. She’s terrifying when she’s mad!"

"But this wasn’t our fault. Miss Sterling is certainly terrifying when she’s angry, but she’s actually a very rational and reasonable person. The company is willing to spend ten million dollars to handle this crisis for Lily. I think Miss Sterling should know what we’re doing for Lily."

James Lockwood was still shaken. Every time Miss Sterling got angry, it was about Lily. He was genuinely scared of her.

But what Connie said seemed to have some merit. To spend ten million dollars and have it disappear without a trace would be a bit too extravagant.

’I should at least get some credit for it!’

Finally, James Lockwood nodded. "I’ll call Miss Sterling."

Meanwhile, Cecilia Sterling was at home. She had recently decided to clear her schedule and focus on staying home with her sister.

Her phone rang. A glance at the caller ID showed it was James Lockwood, so she knew it had to be about Lily. She got up and walked outside before answering.

"Mr. Lockwood."

"Miss Sterling, are you busy?"

Cecilia Sterling glanced back at her sister sitting on the sofa. "I’m at home with Lily. What is it?"

"Yes, there’s something I think you should know, Miss Sterling." James Lockwood quickly and concisely recounted the entire situation.

After listening, Cecilia Sterling asked in a cold voice, "Isn’t that illegal?"

’This is extortion, isn’t it?’

"It’s hard to prove," James Lockwood said helplessly. "And this kind of thing is rampant in the entertainment industry. If we really go for a mutually destructive approach, things will only get more complicated."

Calling the police, filing a lawsuit... the whole affair would be dragged out indefinitely, and they would definitely leak the story anyway.

At that point, everything would be about Lily Sterling, and she’d become the absolute center of media gossip. That was definitely not something Cecilia wanted to see.

"Miss Sterling, please don’t be angry yet. While ten million dollars is a lot, we at Goldman Golding will use this money to suppress the matter for Lily."

"I’m not angry about the money," Cecilia Sterling said, her tone sharp. "Anything that can be solved with money isn’t a problem for me. But for them to use Lily as a bargaining chip to threaten you..."

She would not allow anyone to use Lily.

James Lockwood felt a chill in Cecilia Sterling’s voice, and a shiver went down his spine. "Then, Miss Sterling, about this matter..."

Cecilia Sterling gave a cold laugh. "Compile a file on this company for me. Include the person in charge, the legal representative, the person who called you for the money, and the people who conducted the interview. I want detailed information, and send it to me along with the company’s address."

"Alright, I’ll have someone get on it right away. But their deadline is seven o’clock tonight."

"Then have Connie reply to them. Tell them someone will be at their company before six o’clock to handle this in person. We’ll trade the money for the video on the spot."