After returning to Eric’s house, Emma was greeted by Ashley and Lisa who ran out to meet her. Emma simply laughed; she couldn’t wait to tell her assistants and her husband about the evening, especially considering how thoughtfully Eric had helped her. Once inside, Lisa noticed that Emma only had eyes for the man sitting on the sofa, smiling up at her as he put his work aside. She pushed Emma over to Eric, saying, “We’ll get out of your way now. You can tell us about it tomorrow. Go keep him company.”
Ashley and Lisa disappeared into their own rooms. However, not long after, Lisa ran back out, holding her phone towards Emma with an unsure look on her face. “It’s Nathan. Do you want to talk to him?”
Emma took a quick glance at Eric but then nodded and took the phone from Lisa. Nathan didn’t even bother saying hello but started speaking as if they were in the middle of a conversation. “Since the magazines decided not to use you, you should head back home right away. There’s no point in you staying in Mexico. And I don’t want to hear you blaming my sister for this latest failure of yours. Wasn’t happy with you. This has nothing to do with Mia. You and Mia used me to get Amber here, and you expect me to just take this sitting down?”
Emma did not let on that Secret magazine was now in hot pursuit of a contract with her. “Why won’t you give up? Why do you always have to try and take things away from Amber? Just let go already.”
Mason felt like Emma was always weighing him down. He was desperate now to get rid of her, but she just kept following him around. “There’s no reason for me to let Mia off the hook,” Emma’s tone was calm but firm. “I know what the industry is like today. Amber has support from you and Mia, so she can step on me to push herself up the ladder. But just wait, tomorrow maybe a completely different story.”
“Emma, just let it go. That I love Amber is not her fault,” Mason said.
“My sister was right, you really have no respect for…” Emma had had enough. Without meaning to, she suddenly clenched the phone as hard as she could, sensing the change in her emotions. Eric reached out, pulling her towards him. Nathan really was completely self-centered. He’d taken Emma’s love and destroyed her career. Now he even expected her to support his new relationship. He was trying to take away everything she had. Emma had one last thing to say before she hung up. “I know you love her, but you are so blind. You can’t even see that your selfishness is going to come back to hurt Amber.” Emma hung up and tried her best to calm down, reaching out to Eric.
Eric wrapped his arms around Emma and gently rocked her back and forth. “I’m fine,” she reassured him. “It’s okay for me to get annoyed once in a while. It helps make my heart stronger.”
“Did you see your mentor tonight?” Eric didn’t push to find out more about the conversation with Nathan.
“I did. It was wonderful to see her,” Emma sat beside Eric as she leaned against his arms. “I also met a few famous photographers, and a certain magazine editor showed up. I’ll tell you all about that later. All that was missing was you. I couldn’t help thinking how perfect it would be to attend an event like that, holding your hand. Sometimes it’s hard to keep this marriage a secret.”
“I know. I look forward to telling everyone that you’re my wife someday. But we’ll have plenty of chances in the future,” Eric responded.
“Are you tired? Would you like a massage?” Emma asked, gesturing beside him.
“However, before she could do anything, Eric turned towards her, picked her up, and carried her into the bedroom. “A massage sounds perfect,” he said.
Eric hesitated before continuing, “I realized something tonight when I thought about Mia and all your other fans running after you. The thought of someone else kissing you made me so jealous.”
Under the moonlight, they kissed, and as the moment became more passionate, she murmured, “I don’t want anyone kissing you but me.”
Early the next morning, at Secret Magazine’s offices, Linda asked Amber and Mia to attend a meeting to discuss the contract. Amber was eager to shoot the cover as soon as possible. If she waited any longer, her baby bump would become visible to everyone. The Top 10 Model Awards were to take place soon, and she wanted to be able to rely on the photos from the Secret shoot to win the award and start getting recognition as a top model.
Linda entered the meeting room with a glare at Mia. Mia didn’t notice; however, she was too focused on getting the contract signed. “Believe that we’re ready to go. We can get started with the shoot as soon as you’re ready. Amber is extremely professional, and we’re sure she’ll meet Secret Magazine’s challenge,” Mia started.
“Also, we’ve already made flight arrangements for Emma, so she won’t be causing us any more trouble. After all, as you know, she’s not easy to deal with,” Mia thought she had won. She couldn’t resist putting Emma down.
Linda played with the pen in her hand as she decided how to tell Mia that Amber wasn’t getting the contract. “I’m sorry, Mia. Unfortunately, I didn’t ask you here to sign the contract for Amber. I’ve asked you to come here because we’re going with a different model,” Linda took the contract out of Amber’s hands and slowly ripped it in half.
“I can’t use either of your models. This is a condition of the model we will be signing with,” Mia slumped her hands on the table, unable to believe what she was hearing. “Linda, what are you talking about? We agreed yesterday on Amber and another one of my models. I can’t believe you’d go back on your word.”
“I said I can’t sign Amber,” Linda was starting to react to Mia’s anger by becoming angry herself. “This is your fault, Mia. You forced Amber into my hands. Is this how you treat your friends?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mia said in surprise.
“Fine, let me ask you something. Why did you tell me that Emma was new to the modeling scene? I found out last night that she has international experience and has received multiple awards. She’s even a friend of Bella Dumont. Yet you intentionally told me she had no experience. Were you afraid I wouldn’t take Amber, so you deliberately bad-mouthed her?” Linda exclaimed.
Mia couldn’t come up with a response. “Do you know because of your selfishness how humiliated I felt at last night’s photography exhibition?” Linda scowled, then continued. “We’ve been friends for a long time, Mia. If you want to play your power games, you better play them with someone else. You better not try that nonsense with me ever again.”
Mia couldn’t take in what Linda was saying. She just couldn’t believe that all her scheming had gotten her nowhere. “But you can’t just say you don’t want her like that. You’ve seen what Amber can do, you know how good she is.”
“It doesn’t matter how good she is. I’ve worked really hard to get this model to sign, and I’ve already promised her that Amber won’t be part of the shoot. If you want to plead your case to her, go speak to her directly. If she agrees to work with Amber, I have no objection,” Linda placed the ripped contract on the table and turned to her assistant. “Has she arrived?”
“Yeah, she’s here,” Mia gritted her teeth. “Who is this model? I want to see who could make you rip up the contract and jeopardize our relationship.”
