Seeing this, Vanessa elaborated, "Mariah wanted to protect Leonardo, so she asked William to pretend to be her boyfriend. William might have liked Mariah before, but now he has someone else he likes."
Before Cassandra could feel happy about the first part of that statement, her mood plummeted at the latter half.
Vanessa didn’t notice the change and continued, "However, they’ve changed their minds again. After your incident, William and Mariah don’t plan to pretend to be a couple anymore."
The thought that her situation had influenced William’s decision made Cassandra feel a flutter of excitement, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he cared about her.
But if they weren’t pretending to be a couple, what would happen to Leonardo?
Cassandra voiced her concerns, and Vanessa reassured her, "You’re barely holding it together; why worry about others? Don’t worry, everything is fine with Leonardo. He’ll
A day had passed, but the overnight scandal involving Cassandra and Luca showed no signs of dying down. Instead, the uproar online grew louder.An anonymous user even dug up old photos of Cassandra and Luca together, claiming the two had known each other for a long time. Some netizens fixated on Cassandra’s expressions in the pictures, saying that she had admired Luca back then, with her eyes full of affection for him. This, they argued, only proved the accusations of her having ulterior motives.Under these posts, the comments were filled with sarcasm and insults directed at Cassandra.Some users even went to the social media pages of brands still working with Cassandra, threatening to boycott their products unless they canceled her endorsement deals, putting enormous pressure on the companies.At this point, Cassandra was practically trapped at home. Her agent, Nicole, ordered her to stay off the internet and avoid reading the posts and comments.
Ever since William met Cassandra, he feared rumors would surface that could harm her reputation, so he didn’t stay at her house that night.Even though he left, William couldn’t stop worrying about her. Despite repeatedly reminding Cassandra not to open the entertainment news sections or care about the hateful comments, the barrage of insults still infuriated him. He couldn’t bear the thought of Cassandra reading those words and feeling hurt.William knew that he was already deeply involved, but he accepted it willingly.Determined to help her get through the storm, William devised a plan—to confess his feelings as soon as possible. He believed that if they were together, it would give her the strength to leave the scandal behind.A confession was something a man had to take the lead on, and William had made up his mind. But uncertainty gnawed at him—what if Cassandra didn’t feel the same? This thought
The rain lashed against the window. In the darkness, Vanessa clung to her fading consciousness, counting the sound of water droplets echoing from outside. She strained to hear over the storm, her heart pounding as anxiety coiled tighter within her.Suddenly, the door creaked open, a sliver of light slicing through the darkness of the room, and a familiar, beautiful face came into view.The girl in high heels—Beatriz Langley—let out a mocking laugh and flipped on the room’s light. “Tsk... tsk... Still waiting for Luca to save you? Haha... Stop dreaming, Vanessa...”She casually picked up a knife from the corner and sneered, “The golden girl, the treasure of the Ness Corporation—did you ever imagine this day would come?”Vanessa watched as Beatriz brandished the long knife and rasped, “Beatriz, if you let me go, I’ll give you anything you want—my shares, the chairman’s position. I won’t fight you anymore.”Beatriz sighed dramatically. “Back then, no matter what I did, you refused to let
Five years later.In the principal's office of a prestigious kindergarten in the city."Look at how your child has treated my son! What if he ends up disfigured?!" A heavily made-up woman rolled up her sleeves and lunged at Vanessa but was stopped by the principal beside her."Calm down! Calm down! Let's talk this over civilly!"Vanessa squatted down, looking at the little girl in front of her, and gently asked, "Tell Mommy what happened."The five-year-old girl, with ponytails and a fair, round face full of grievances, said, "Today, when we were playing a game, Adrian lifted my skirt... and tried to touch my feet. Mommy, you said that girls' feet shouldn't be touched by others..."Vanessa's eyes turned icy. "Did he touch you?"The little girl shook her head. "I hit him when he reached out..."Vanessa gave a thumbs-up to the little girl. "Well done! If you encounter something like this again, do the same as today, understand?"The woman beside her scoffed and turned to the principal.
In the taxi, Vanessa smirked as she watched Luca leave, a fierce determination flickering in her eyes.The pain she had endured five years ago would be returned to them a hundredfold!Suddenly, the little girl tugged at her shirt and called out worriedly, “Mommy, what is going on?”Vanessa quickly suppressed her emotions and turned to face her, a gentle smile on her lips. “Oh, nothing. What do you want to eat today, Isla?”“I want spaghetti, with shrimp and meatballs!”Vanessa chuckled and pinched the little girl’s tummy. “You little glutton, you already have so much meat on you!”The little girl puffed up her cheeks, turned her head away, and pretended to be angry. "Mommy is bad!""Hahaha! Okay, okay, Isla has no meat on her tummy!" Vanessa continued to tease her."Oh no, Mommy, stop laughing!" The little girl complained, grabbing her hair in frustration."I won’t laugh anymore; let’s go home and eat."That night, after putting the child to sleep, Vanessa got up to tidy up.The livin
Beatriz observed Luca’s expression, unable to discern his emotions, and immediately continued her probing. "Forget that for now. I'm here today to discuss whether we should change Ezra's school. I’m worried about him being in the same kindergarten as Vanessa's child." With a loud ‘bang,’ Luca slammed the folder shut, a flash of anger flickering in his eyes. "Get out." Meeting his gaze, a chill spread through Beatriz's heart. She remained still and continued, "Vanessa and Daxton are not good people. How can their child be any better? I heard that she even got into fights with other kids in kindergarten, and I..." "Have you said enough?" "This is the truth! Five years ago, she betrayed you and slept with Daxton, colluding to deceive you. These..." Luca's dangerous gaze wrapped around Beatriz like a snake, his thin lips parting slightly. "Get lost." Realizing that Luca was genuinely angry, Beatriz smartly chose to leave, secretly breathing a sigh of relief. Although she had angered
Catching the hint of sarcasm in Vanessa’s tone, Beatriz's eyes flickered with anger."Well, I’m quite looking forward to seeing what President Saxon can come up with that’s better than Ness’s proposal."Her tone seemed calm, but internally, Beatriz was burning with rage."Next, please."Vanessa prepared her materials, stood up, and walked to the front."Let me introduce myself, I'm Vanessa Saxon from Cortex Group." She pulled up her PowerPoint presentation and continued, "Everyone, please take a look. This is the design draft we created after our company conducted a field investigation..."Before she could finish, she was interrupted: "I thought President Saxon's design draft would be something fresh. There's nothing innovative at all; it’s overly complicated. If we proceed with your proposal, it will be costly without any appealing features. Isn’t that just a facade?"Vanessa smiled slightly, "But compared to other companies, we place greater emphasis on the building's value retentio
Luca was startled to realize that Vanessa’s strength was comparable to his own staminaThe car was parked not far away, but the people behind were closing in. In the heat of the moment, Luca gave Vanessa a push. “Go start the car.” “Got it!” Vanessa sprinted towards the car like the wind, fishing the keys out of her pocket as she ran. Meanwhile, Luca spun around, raised his right fist, and swung his arm. The first attacker groaned in pain, stumbling back a step. Following his gaze, Luca saw another man charging from the side, brandishing a club. Unfazed, he took a calm step back, slammed a punch into the man’s gut, then kicked him hard in the groin. In less than a minute, two out of seven were down. “Oh wow, not bad at all, huh?” The remaining attackers, undeterred, swarmed Luca in unison. Even though two fists couldn’t match the power of many ha
Ever since William met Cassandra, he feared rumors would surface that could harm her reputation, so he didn’t stay at her house that night.Even though he left, William couldn’t stop worrying about her. Despite repeatedly reminding Cassandra not to open the entertainment news sections or care about the hateful comments, the barrage of insults still infuriated him. He couldn’t bear the thought of Cassandra reading those words and feeling hurt.William knew that he was already deeply involved, but he accepted it willingly.Determined to help her get through the storm, William devised a plan—to confess his feelings as soon as possible. He believed that if they were together, it would give her the strength to leave the scandal behind.A confession was something a man had to take the lead on, and William had made up his mind. But uncertainty gnawed at him—what if Cassandra didn’t feel the same? This thought
A day had passed, but the overnight scandal involving Cassandra and Luca showed no signs of dying down. Instead, the uproar online grew louder.An anonymous user even dug up old photos of Cassandra and Luca together, claiming the two had known each other for a long time. Some netizens fixated on Cassandra’s expressions in the pictures, saying that she had admired Luca back then, with her eyes full of affection for him. This, they argued, only proved the accusations of her having ulterior motives.Under these posts, the comments were filled with sarcasm and insults directed at Cassandra.Some users even went to the social media pages of brands still working with Cassandra, threatening to boycott their products unless they canceled her endorsement deals, putting enormous pressure on the companies.At this point, Cassandra was practically trapped at home. Her agent, Nicole, ordered her to stay off the internet and avoid reading the posts and comments.
Seeing this, Vanessa elaborated, "Mariah wanted to protect Leonardo, so she asked William to pretend to be her boyfriend. William might have liked Mariah before, but now he has someone else he likes."Before Cassandra could feel happy about the first part of that statement, her mood plummeted at the latter half.Vanessa didn’t notice the change and continued, "However, they’ve changed their minds again. After your incident, William and Mariah don’t plan to pretend to be a couple anymore."The thought that her situation had influenced William’s decision made Cassandra feel a flutter of excitement, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he cared about her.But if they weren’t pretending to be a couple, what would happen to Leonardo?Cassandra voiced her concerns, and Vanessa reassured her, "You’re barely holding it together; why worry about others? Don’t worry, everything is fine with Leonardo. He’ll
Luca felt a deep sense of guilt. As he watched Cassandra's career plummet, he could no longer sit idly by. He instructed his assistant, "Get everything ready; I'm going to hold a press conference later.""A press conference?" The assistant was puzzled, as there were no new products from the K Group to launch."Yes, to clarify some rumors about Cassandra."Understanding, the assistant set off to prepare for the press conference.However, somehow, this matter reached the ears of the board members, and they unanimously opposed Luca's suggestion."President, I think we shouldn't hold a press conference. This scandal has increased our visibility; if we leverage this hype well, it could be beneficial for K Group's future development.""Exactly, President. Although K Group is a big company, we still need recognition. This is free exposure for us."Hearing the words from below, Luca's frown deepened. "Enough. K Group does not need this kind o
At that time, Vanessa was at the hospital taking care of Mariah. Mariah suddenly stopped scrolling through her phone and looked at Vanessa, hesitating to speak.“What’s wrong? If you have something to say, just say it directly,” Vanessa said, frowning.Mariah didn’t know how to start, hinting, “Uh... Vanessa, why don’t you check your phone?”It was only then that Vanessa noticed the content Mariah had shared with her. She read the entire message with a blank expression, but her heart was already in turmoil.She had clearly sent Luca to check on things, and something might have happened between him and Cassandra, but why did she still feel upset?Meanwhile, Luca had just arrived at the office when he noticed the strange looks from his employees. Feeling puzzled, he didn’t think much of it.It wasn’t until his assistant had looked at him multiple times throughout the morning that Luca final
Knock knock.The sudden sound of knocking interrupted the two's thoughts.It was Luca, who was worried about Vanessa and had followed her to the hospital, bringing along some late-night snacks.“Are you hungry? I brought some snacks. Want to eat?” Luca waved the food in front of Vanessa, but she showed little reaction, and Mariah shook her head as well.Clearly, neither of them had much of an appetite at the moment.However, seeing Luca gave Vanessa an idea.“If you have some free time, could you go talk to Cassandra?”“Talk to Cassandra? Is she sick too?” Luca looked confused.“Of course not! What I mean is, can you find a chance to chat with her and see who she actually likes?”Vanessa
Cassandra was unaware that after William had asked her to be his wingwoman, he had already confessed his feelings to Mariah—only to be rejected on the spot.That day, they had talked a lot.Strangely, after being turned down, William didn’t feel as devastated as he had imagined. Instead, he felt as if a weight had been lifted off his chest, bringing him a sense of relief.William had long suspected from Mariah’s behavior that she didn’t have feelings for him. His years of affection had made it difficult for him to let go. However, Mariah’s decisive rejection had given him a fresh start, allowing him to fully release those feelings.Even now, hearing Mariah’s request didn’t stir any emotions within him.When Mariah heard William agree, she immediately said, “William, I think the sooner we go public, the better. If we wait too long, it might affect Leonardo’s life.”William furrowed h
For some reason, seeing Mariah like this made Leonardo feel uncomfortable.“Enough. Let’s not discuss this anymore.” He directly pulled his manager out of the room.“You’ve misunderstood her; we’re not in that kind of relationship,” Leonardo stated plainly.Though he understood his artist well, the manager still felt uneasy. The girl was indeed attractive, and it was normal for Leonardo to feel drawn to her.Reading the manager’s suspicious expression, Leonardo suppressed his unease and said, “Don’t worry; I’m not interested in her and won’t date her.”Hearing this assurance, the manager’s expression improved a little. “That’s best. Don’t worry; the company will quickly suppress this matter. But you must remember, no dating.”Knowing the manager was looking out for him and the company, Leonardo nodded.Unbeknownst to them, M
Meanwhile, at Cortex, Mariah had been busy with filming.Working on set during the day and investigating the fake account at night had left Mariah exhausted.The next day on set, Mariah was out of sorts. Several times, staff members called her name before she responded, making her colleagues think she was lost in thought. One joked, “Miss Hutchson, where were you last night? You seem so distracted!”“I…” Mariah was about to explain when suddenly her vision darkened, and she collapsed.“Miss Hutchson!”Leonardo was posing according to the photographer’s instructions when he heard the shout. He quickly turned to see Mariah fainting and rushed over, forgetting about the ongoing shoot.“Mariah! Mariah…” He called out several times, but she didn’t respond. Worried, Leonardo picked her up in his arms and instructed a nearby staff member, “Call for a car. We’re going to the hospital.”The scene descended into chaos as the shooting was