Chapter 27

Time fleeted unnoticeably, and it was almost ten o’clock.

“Get ready, everyone,” an assistant called out to the supermodels backstage. “Stand by the stage. It’s almost showtime!”

The supermodels stood up to get in line according to their given number. Charmine was the last to appear on stage, thus it was not her turn for at least the next thirty minutes. She laid back languidly on her seat as she settled her mind.

Outside, amid the huge space of Ocean Pearl, a tall T-stage was built in half-translucent colourful glass, surrounded by chairs across its perimeters. The guests in the hall were the richest in the country, able to afford a ticket at a starting price of 200,000 dollars. Outside the hall, the standing tickets were as high as a thousand dollars. Most of the audience was looking forward to the show; some for the models while some for the jewelry. Of course, the one thing everyone was really looking forward to was Charmine Jordan and how she would ‘stun the world’ as she claimed to.

On the right side of the T-stage, inside a private space isolated by green bamboos, three figures sat inside: two adults and one young boy.

Luke slowly entered the space and, with anxiousness, muttered, “Mr. Bailey, Miss Charmine had rejected your offer to help. She also said—”

“Said what?” Anthony quipped.

Luke took a while to gather his courage before he spoke, “She asked you to spend more time with Momo, that she doesn’t lack men, and that you should give up.”

With that said, Luke actively took a few steps back, avoiding unnecessary injuries.

As expected, Anthony’s face darkened just like the sky before a heavy downpour. Did Charmine just reject his help? Did she say she did not lack men? How many men did she have?

Unable to hold it in, Nial guffawed at the situation. “Hah! Who would’ve thought my brother can be rejected by a woman? My sister-in-law is very impressive.”

Anthony stared at him with his frosty glare. “You should be thankful for the three words you said that saved your life.”

What? ‘Three words that saved his life’? Nial was confused.

“Daddy, what now?” Chris began to whimper. “Mommy placed a heavy wager against that douche. Can she still win without your help?” said the boy before he began to sob. “What if Mommy loses? I don’t want to see Mommy lose!” he whimpered in-between sentences.

Anthony ruffled the boy’s hair. “Don’t worry, Mommy won’t lose,” he affirmed, voice as enigmatic as ever, though laced with firmly planted belief.

Nial, by his side, saw the fire in his brother’s eyes when he spoke of Charmine, and this was for the second time. Unable to hold in his curiosity, he spoke, “Bro, if you treat Charmine so seriously, do you still want to search about the girl from five years ago? Once we find out who it was, would you still want Charmine or the woman from five years ago?”

Anthony’s face turned sullen in an instant, and after a while, he glumly answered, “Just search for her.”

At this moment, music danced in the air as the lights went off, and the hall turned pitch black. This was Ocean Pearl’s special function designed for hosting important occasions like this as external light could be blocked with a huge black backdrop. It was as though day turned into night.

The hall went into silence as the lights went off, and all eyes shifted to the stage. The technicians focused the camera on the stage, live-streaming the show online. The show was live-streamed on a few platforms, and they reached ten million views even before the show was started. Now that the show was starting, the views had gone up to a hundred million!

The comment section was bombarded by hundreds and thousands of comments every second, with fans cheering the names of their idols. Of course, more people were commenting as such:

[I’m here to see Charmine lose ten billion.]

[+1]

[+10086]

By then, a soft spotlight glared on the long T-stage, reflecting colorful lights off the modern glass stage. With the music blaring soundly, the models appeared one after another.