Isabella felt her heart tighten, rushing over to ask, “Who? Who fell into the water?”
At that moment, she heard Cynthia running over, breathlessly shouting, “Isabella! It’s bad! I heard from the rescue team that your husband fell into the sea while surfing because of a violation. His surfboard fell off, and now there’s no trace of him!”
Isabella felt a buzzing in her head, her legs gave way beneath her, and she collapsed to the ground.
Cynthia hurried over, pretending to support her and said, “Hey, don’t be too upset. He clearly can’t surf but insisted on showing off to give you face. But the price he’s paying is just too high.”
After speaking, Cynthia smirked inwardly, eyeing Isabella with ulterior motives.
In reality, when Lucius fell into the sea earlier, although he had lost his surfboard, he was an excellent swimmer. He quickly surfaced from the water and, with the
Samuel looked at Lucius with satisfaction and said to the judge, “If Lucius's score is voided, who is the champion?”The judge checked the scoring device and smiled at Samuel, saying, “Of course, Samuel is the rightful champion.”Immediately, the fans surrounding them became restless. Just moments ago, they had been fawning over Lucius, the incredibly handsome new sports idol, and now his score was reduced to zero.Samuel's fans erupted with deafening cheers: “Congratulations to Mr. Hayes for winning the surfing championship gold medal...”Samuel's smile stretched from ear to ear as he basked in the adoration of his enthusiastic fans.Cynthia hugged him tightly and planted a kiss on his cheek to congratulate him.Watching the sudden reversal, Lucius's expression remained calm and unchange
Fresh air instantly filled Isabella’s lungs, overwhelming her with a euphoric sense of rebirth. She was so exhilarated that as soon as she relaxed, she sank like a heavy weight back into the sea.Panic-stricken, Isabella quickly held her breath, managing to stop her descent.Gradually, she began to grasp some techniques. Holding her breath, she paddled forward in the water, surprisingly gliding a significant distance ahead.When she could no longer hold her breath, she surfaced desperately, gasping for fresh air before floating back on the water, swimming toward the shore.At that moment, a piece of driftwood was pushed by the waves and brushed past her. She quickly reached out and grabbed it, finally able to lie on the wood and catch her breath.Thus, she drifted along, holding onto the wood as the waves propelled her toward the coast. Isabella realized, without even n
Lucius turned around and saw Caleb rushing over.“Caleb, do you have any news about Isabella?” He quickly approached Caleb.Caleb shook his head and said, “I’ve already sent people to search the entire beach, but we haven’t found her.”Lucius was momentarily stunned, staring blankly at the vast ocean.Could it be true, as they said, that Isabella had taken the kayak out to sea?Suddenly, Lucius felt a tightness in his scalp, and his heart skipped a beat, feeling disordered and chaotic. He grabbed Caleb by the collar, his face filled with urgency and even frustration. “Check everywhere—on the beach and in the sea! Don’t leave anything out!”Just then, someone came up to report to Caleb. “President, we just received news that a tourist's kayak has sunk in the sea. We’ve found a leaking kayak.”“A kayak?” Lucius’ eyes widened i
Lucius stared at the girl in front of him, unable to respond for a long time.Caleb and Lysander, standing nearby, both wore expressions of disbelief, at a loss for words.Isabella felt a bit awkward under everyone's gaze. She nodded at Caleb, the delivery guy, and forced a smile, saying, “What a coincidence! Caleb, you’re delivering packages this late?”Turning her head, she noticed that Lysander was also present, and was taken aback. She quickly greeted him, “Vice President, you’re here to watch the competition too? It’s quite late; you’re really enthusiastic.”She glanced at the helicopters circling overhead and the bright searchlights and asked in confusion, “Is there some big performance going on tonight? It’s so lively.”After speaking, she glared at Lucius, asking angrily, “I waited at home for a long time and came to see what you were up to. I can’t believe you
The next morning at the Training Camp swimming department, trainees arrived one after another.The sound of splashing water could be heard in the pool.Everyone wondered who was training so early when they spotted Isabella swimming gracefully in the water.Her curves were elegant, and her long, fair legs splashed through the water. Her shiny hair resembled blooming flowers in the water.With fluid movements, she was like an envious mermaid, playing freely in the water.The trainees couldn’t help but be mesmerized, especially a few boys who stared wide-eyed, their faces filled with amazement.This made Cecilia and Karrie feel dissatisfied.Overwhelmed by jealousy, Cecilia rolled her eyes hard. Standing by the pool’s edge, she coldly snorted. “Showing off so early, as if everyone doesn’t know she just learned to swim. How emba
“Just be more mindful. Don’t confront them directly; you need to be wary of those two. They’re up to no good,” Isabella reminded Masha as she watched Cecilia and Karrie walk away.“Isabella, you’re amazing! You spotted their scheme right away. I really envy you,” Masha exclaimed.Isabella shook her head and sighed. “This is all forced out of me by a difficult life situation. When you encounter danger often, you naturally become cautious. There’s nothing to envy about it.”As they chatted, they headed toward the training room.In the afternoon, they had a training session focused on flexibility exercises.Isabella and Masha paired up to practice basic movements on the parallel bars.Karrie moved over from the gymnastics area.Karrie looked up at the two practicing balance and flashed a mask-like smile. “Excuse me, ladies; I’d
The doctor put on a melancholic expression, nodding gravely. "Even if we manage to save her this time, she'll still need heart surgery. If things get worse, she may even need a heart transplant."Upon hearing this, Cecilia broke down in sobs, her tears streaming uncontrollably. "Karrie, it's all Masha's fault."She looked up and angrily confronted Masha, saying, "You deliberately hurt Karrie, kicking her so hard she's now seriously injured. You're about to be arrested, and you’re responsible for all the medical bills, including the cost of the heart transplant."The crowd gasped—those medical bills were astronomical.At this point, someone suggested notifying Karrie’s parents, but Cecilia stepped in and stopped them. "I’ve already told Uncle and Auntie, no need to call again. Anyway, Masha won’t get away."Masha turned pale with fear. Jail? Paying for a heart transplant
Cecilia, still trying to salvage the situation, stubbornly shouted, "Karrie really did get kicked into a heart attack! The emergency doctor said her condition was dangerous...""The doctor? He’s gone!" someone in the crowd shouted.Everyone looked over and saw that the supposed emergency doctor had already grabbed his medical kit and run off, taking the stretcher bearers with him.Cecilia was speechless now. The doctor she had arranged in advance had sensed the looming disaster and bolted.Masha, seething with rage, pointed at Cecilia and Karrie, shouting, "You two heartless liars! You staged this whole scene at the company to frame me and ruin my reputation! You’re despicable!"The crowd erupted in an uproar, realizing they had witnessed just how shameless people could be."It seems like Karrie never actually fainted, and she certainly doesn’t ha
“Bella, what’s wrong?” Lucius had been watching Isabella closely and could tell from her posture that something was bothering her. He rushed forward and enveloped her in a warm hug, gently asking in her ear, offering her comforting support.“I’m fine, it’s just that my father called me back. He probably wants to scold me again because of Cynthia,” Isabella blinked, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill over, and forced a big smile at Lucius.“Do you want me to go with you?” Lucius’s impression of Carlos was not very good, and not just because of him; he found the mother-daughter duo of the Rivera family quite distasteful. They were not only unattractive but also had malicious hearts.Hearing that Isabella was returning to the Rivera family, Lucius’s brow furrowed in concern.“No need, my home isn’t a den of tigers and wolves. You don’t have to worry,” Isabella said, turning around
Since Carlos had already decided that it was Isabella’s fault, if Regina spoke up for Isabella, it would only add fuel to the fire, making him even angrier with his biological daughter.“Mom is right. Maybe it’s just that my sister doesn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. Dad, you should clearly explain to her the urgency of the matter and make her pull herself together. She shouldn’t always be hanging around with that good-for-nothing boy who depends on her for a living. A daughter of the Rivera family is too precious to be associating with someone like that,” Cynthia said, cleverly fanning the flames and deepening the rift between father and daughter.Her insinuations suggested that Isabella, as Carlos’s biological daughter, was not nearly as good as his stepdaughter. The Rivera family had already suffered significant financial losses and was facing a massive crisis, yet Isabella was out there enjoying herself and keeping a
After leaving the training camp, she received countless messages from people wanting to cut ties with her.The entertainment news had exposed Cynthia's true colors, making those wealthy young men who had been deceived by her finally wake up.But she thought, let those small fry go; after feeling down for a while, Cynthia came to realize that Samuel was her best option.With the situation having escalated so dramatically, Samuel hadn’t even called to confront her, which led Cynthia to misinterpret the situation, believing he must love her dearly. He didn’t care about the photos and videos, and he must trust her, thinking the person in those clips wasn’t her.Feeling somewhat reassured, Cynthia decided to call Samuel.“Samuel!” As soon as the call connected, her sweet voice rang out.However, on the other end, Samuel’s response was cold and indifferen
When Lucius got home, he found Isabella in the kitchen wearing an apron, cooking. The delicious aroma wafted from the kitchen to the entrance of the living room, greeting Lucius the moment he walked through the door.Although this place was small—perhaps not even one-tenth the size of his residence—it filled Lucius with an overwhelming sense of warmth and happiness.He thought to himself that it would be wonderful if the days ahead could be as eternally beautiful as this moment.As he walked toward the kitchen, he wrapped his arms around Isabella from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder, leaning into her. In that embrace, they both felt each other's heartbeat and the fragrance surrounding them.“Bella, thank you for preparing this dinner for me. Just the smell is making me so hungry. You’ve worked hard,” Lucius said, savoring the scent of Isa
After hastily apologizing to Isabella, Samuel quickly redirected the conversation back to romance.Once he finished speaking, he let out a light sigh and was about to say something else to Isabella. However, after rambling on for a while without hearing any response from her, he glanced at his phone and realized she had already hung up.The post had been deleted, and this makeshift forum run by students didn’t have any backup features, so Isabella couldn’t use it to track down who was scheming against her.However, this person was indeed very suspicious, seemingly intent on ruining her reputation.Isabella was currently just an insignificant actress with very little fame; aside from Cynthia and her mother, who would want to target her like this?“Hello, are you Isabella Rivera from Next Girl?” A new person had entered the dorm room; it was Melissa.
Isabella hadn’t kept up with the rumors circulating online. After leaving the training camp, she was eager to get home, took a flight back, and rushed to her house. With the start of the new school term approaching, she had been busy eating out and shopping with Lucius, completely forgetting to address the rumors.The rumors continued to spread like wildfire online.But regardless, other people were now being dragged into the mess, and Isabella knew she couldn’t let things continue to spiral out of control.After a quick lunch in the cafeteria with Celia, Isabella hurried back to her dorm and called Mr. Derek.“Mr. Derek, this is Isabella.”“Oh, Isabella, aren’t you still at the training camp?” Mr. Derek was surprised to receive Isabella’s call.“I was eliminated. Recently, there have been rumors circulating that I have an improper relationship with
Samuel continued to chatter about how he wanted to help Isabella as he walked alongside her up to the fourth floor of the dormitory.However, his so-called help amounted to nothing more than empty words, with no real action to back it up. It was as if he were blind, completely oblivious to the fact that Isabella was juggling bags in both hands, walking slowly while having to endure his incessant buzzing in her ear like a fly.Isabella had long grown accustomed to Samuel's annoying presence.If she responded to him, it would only encourage him to be even more persistent.So, she decided to pretend she hadn’t heard him at all, giving him no reaction.But the girl and her father following them up the stairs could no longer stand it. Her father pointed at Samuel and gently advised, “If you really want to help, you should take the girl’s things and carry them for her. Just t
Within an hour, he had gathered all the information into a report and sent it to Lucius’s phone. He also managed to block all negative comments about Isabella across the internet.He made sure that all terms related to her were blacklisted in search engines on major platforms, hoping this would quell Lucius’s fury.He worked efficiently; Lysander knew him well.It turned out that after the ‘Next Girls’ announcement, Knight Entertainment had quickly arranged for both Isabella and Masha to participate. To prevent Masha from overshadowing Isabella, they had even scheduled them to perform separately.Knight Entertainment had been trying to promote Isabella, but the subsequent editing had taken an unexpected turn.The staff misunderstood Isabella's background, assuming she only wanted fame. As a result, they failed to consult the higher-ups and allowed her to become 'controv
It was unexpected that ‘Next Girls’ had become a major hit, especially with Isabella stunning everyone on her debut stage. This had catapulted her into the spotlight, and the rumors surrounding her and Derek had further increased her fame. As they walked down the street, some people recognized her.But unlike other rising stars, Isabella had a unique status—she was both popular and controversial. Thus, when people saw her, they didn’t rush over for selfies or autographs. Instead, they simply took out their phones and began filming her.Isabella understood that if she chose the path of acting, she would inevitably face this kind of attention. She didn’t mind it for herself, but with Lucius beside her, who wasn’t part of the industry, she wanted to protect him from being photographed. She stepped forward and said to the two girls, “Hi, were you just filming us?”“No, I was just taking pictures of the scenery. I wasn’