Chapter 208 Lost Everything

Chapter 208: Chapter 208: Lost Everything

Ever since Stella Sutton’s ambitions grew, driving her to pivot from medical academia to the commercial sector, Finn Lockwood had been highly optimistic about her project’s prospects. Sophie Winslow didn’t know exactly how much he had invested, but with this recent scandal, it was practically equivalent to losing every last penny.

Peter Preston suddenly sighed. "With a background like that doctor at Mercywell, any accident can be covered up cleanly. When we wanted to partner with Mercywell to deploy our surgical robots, we couldn’t find a single trace of his repeated malpractice incidents during our background check. If we had actually deployed our equipment there, we’re the ones who would have been tainted by the scandal."

Since that doctor was only there to pad his resume, he would inevitably participate in as many surgeries as possible. That meant he would have had extensive contact with their equipment. If they had actually signed a contract with Mercywell, they might have been the ones caught in the center of today’s storm.

Sophie also understood this logic. After all, who could have known that Mercywell was hiding an entitled princeling who used live patients for practice?

Sophie suddenly realized something. She patted her forehead and said in sheer relief, "Then she left Longview at the perfect time."

Stella had wanted to break away from Longview, taking her team and project with her. After Stella had flaunted her power for so long, Sophie was glad she hadn’t stooped to her level or stubbornly dragged things out just to prove a point. When Julian Sterling offered a buyout contract, Sophie was fortunate enough to sign it. Otherwise, Longview would have become a target of public outrage today. After all, a fatal medical accident was a devastating blow in the healthcare industry. Even the largest enterprise would need a long time to recover from the fallout.

Peter also looked surprised. "Longview already suffered a credibility crisis a while ago. If we had been implicated in this, we would’ve been dragged down again. Moreover, as Stella’s boss, you would’ve had to clean up after her."

In other words, Sophie would have suffered an undeserved disaster.

Leaning back in her chair, Sophie shook her head and chuckled for no apparent reason. "Then I should thank my ex-husband. To prevent his sweetheart from suffering under my thumb, he paid the buyout fee for her so we could make a clean break."

"You’re still laughing? You’re treating your own scars like a joke," Peter said, feeling a pang of sympathy as he scolded her fiercely. Her own husband had bent over backwards for another woman—didn’t that twist a knife in Sophie’s heart every single time?

Sophie blinked, looking completely unfazed. "Anyway, all we need to do now is watch the fire from across the river. It’s quite nice."

Though it was a pity about that innocent life, what was done was done, and nothing could change it. But for now, Stella’s project had indeed taken a massive hit. After this battle, all her hard work and investments were likely going down the drain—unless Julian truly had some way to turn the tide.

Meanwhile, Stella Sutton was indeed having a miserable time.

She had been dealing with this mess since last night. Just when the Sterling family had finally shown signs of relenting, she was dealt a massive blow before she could even reap any tangible benefits. Such a catastrophic incident was enough to leave her completely overwhelmed!

When Finn Lockwood pushed the door open and walked in, he saw Stella on the phone with a terrible expression. He didn’t look much better himself. Striding over, he ground his teeth to keep from losing his composure. "How could this happen? With the machine having such a massive issue, have you figured out how to handle the aftermath? Will this affect the future rollout?"

After all, he was facing the loss of a sixty-million investment. That was an astronomical sum. Initially, his grandfather had told him to seek out Helios and invest in their so-called East-meets-West surgical robot. At the time, because Sophie hadn’t spoken to him nicely, and because he genuinely looked down on the project, he had secretly invested the money in Stella instead. He had lied to his grandfather, claiming he had invested in Helios.

But now, disaster had struck.

If the money really went down the drain, he would have no way to explain himself when he went home.

"I’m trying to figure something out, but the people at Mercywell refuse to meet with me face-to-face. They’ve pinned the entire problem on my equipment and are determined to make me take the fall," Stella said, looking equally distressed.

If this project succeeded, she would be able to establish a firm foothold, achieve entrepreneurial success, build her own brand, and realize her grand ambitions domestically. But now...

"So you’re saying you still don’t have a solution?" Finn was furious, unable to stop himself from kicking a chair. Stella was miserable, but he wasn’t faring any better. If he didn’t handle this well, his grandfather would probably "handle" him.

"Where’s Julian?" Finn suppressed the urge to speak harshly to her. After all, the Lockwood family still owed Stella a debt of gratitude; even though he was implicated, he had to endure it. In his eyes, Julian was the only one who could resolve this mess.

Stella could tell that Finn was in a terrible mood and lacked his usual gentleness toward her. Pursing her lips, she replied, "Julian has a meeting. He should be over in a while."

Because of this incident, she had also lost face in front of the Sterling family. She was more anxious to resolve it than anyone else. Charles Sterling was about to be released. She knew his temperament wasn’t as stable as Julian’s, and she worried about future complications. She needed to fix this so the Sterling family would accept her, or at least solidify her relationship with Julian before Charles came out... Only then would Charles lack the courage to challenge his older brother.

The door was pushed open once more.

Julian Sterling strode in on long legs, his handsome, cold face completely unreadable. He cast a sidelong glance at Finn, whose complexion was awful. "How do you plan to explain this to your grandfather?"

This so-called concern only made Finn even more irritable.

Stella quickly walked up to Julian, her pretty face full of grievance and sorrow. "Julian, I don’t know how to calm this down anymore. I’m out of options."

Julian lowered his eyes, then looked sideways toward the door. "Come in."

Stella and Finn looked over, only to see the two foreign experts she had recruited for her team walking in.

Julian took a seat. "These two are willing to step forward and take the fall."

Stella instantly understood—they were going to be the scapegoats. "But even if someone takes the fall, doesn’t that still tell the public that my equipment was faulty and caused the accident?"

Julian looked at her. "The person who performed the surgery is the son of a powerful figure. If you offend him, you’ll likely still be blacklisted in the industry down the line. It’s better to do him a favor."

Stella’s expression changed slightly. She knew this was the truth. At the very least, these two foreigners on her team were willing to step up and take the blame. But...

"I will prepay half of your asking price. Once everything is handled, I’ll pay the rest," Julian said, looking at the two men.

The two experts were clearly doing this voluntarily. After all, they could walk away with a massive sum of money—more than they might earn in ten years of work. Beaming with joy, they agreed, "Of course."

After all, their reputations would only be tarnished here; it wouldn’t affect them much once they returned to their home country.

Stella’s tense heart relaxed a little, and she looked at Julian with deep gratitude. To think he would go to such lengths for her—her heart swelled to the brim. However, Julian looked at her calmly. "These two are willing to publicly state that they deliberately sabotaged the equipment due to an unequal distribution of profits within the team. Furthermore, they will claim they were dissatisfied with your decision to leave an industry leader like Longview.

"But whether this team, and especially these two individuals, were genuinely headhunted from overseas, whether they had ulterior motives, or whether you just found random people to take the blame—that needs to be proven to the public. You can only convince people if you prove that these two joined halfway through. To do that, you need Longview to provide the original employment contracts and documents from when they were recruited.

"In other words, you need to talk to Sophie Winslow."

Stella’s slightly eased heart was suddenly pierced. Didn’t that mean she had to beg Sophie?

Finn walked over. "Julian, Sophie definitely won’t do us any favors. How about you call her? If you call, she’ll definitely be thrilled."

Stella also looked at him, full of expectation.

Julian lowered his gaze. Unsure of what he was thinking, he simply agreed, "Alright."

He immediately dialed Sophie’s number. However, it only rang three times before Sophie hung up on him without a second’s hesitation.