After dinner, Eric led Emma to his home office with Ashley and Lisa following along. The women were surprised to see someone already sitting there, waiting for them.
“Welcome, Emma,” he said, then turning to Eric. “So, this is the owner of the famous legs? We’d be happy to ensure those.”
Emma finally understood what was going on. Several days ago, Eric had mentioned wanting to purchase insurance for her legs. It wasn’t all that unusual for famous people to ensure parts of their bodies, but she thought they mostly did it to create attention.
“Eric, I don’t really think this is necessary,” Emma said, looking nervous.
“I don’t agree with you. Your legs should be insured. They are unique and the most beautiful legs I’ve ever seen on the modeling stage,” Eric insisted.
“But Eric, don’t people generally ensure their body parts just to create a buzz for themselves?” Emma was still unsure.
“Listen to me,” Eric nudged her towards the estimator. “I know you don’t like me to do things for you, but I think this is important. And I’m sure Global will never offer to purchase insurance. Why don’t you let me take care of this for you?”
Emma couldn’t refuse. She hated the thought of Eric spending money on something that seemed so unnecessary, but she took comfort in the fact that she wasn’t very famous right now. Even though her legs were beautiful, her lack of fame probably meant the cost wouldn’t be too high. With this in mind, Emma gave up resisting and let the estimator do his job.
However, even before he could quote a price, Eric said, “No matter what the final estimated value is, I want to increase the insured amount by 10 times.” In that case, the final value would be over a hundred million dollars.
Standing quietly to one side, Ashley and Lisa were in shock over what they were witnessing. But they realized that Eric wasn’t doing this to create attention; he was doing his best to help Emma. The beneficiary of the insurance policy would be Emma. If something happened to her legs and she was unable to continue modeling, she would still be financially secure.
Emma was quiet, a million thoughts running through her mind. Eric put his arm around her shoulders and said, “The entertainment industry is chaotic and unsafe. I want to do all that I can to give you peace of mind. I want the path ahead of you to be protected.”
“Then why don’t you also buy a policy for yourself?” Eric leaned over and laughed quietly into Emma’s ear. “Because I don’t have such beautiful legs.”
In that moment, Emma only had eyes for Eric. He did things for her without expecting anything in return. She had originally married him with a motive in her heart—to get back at Nathan. But Eric constantly surprised her with his wholehearted devotion.
“Because of everything you’ve done, do you know how many promises I’ve had to make to myself?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” Eric responded seriously.
“I promised myself that I will love you as wholeheartedly as you love me,” Emma responded seriously.
Eric smiled at her, the room around them forgotten. He’d never met a woman like Emma—someone who not only didn’t expect him to do things for her, but she didn’t even want him to. And in return, he found himself wanting to do more and more for her. Such was life—one person had trampled over her heart, while another treated her like a treasure.
“Emma is now precious,” Lisa whispered to Ashley. “She’s insured for over a hundred million dollars. That’s enough to buy Global outright.”
“You don’t know how tempted I am to thank Nathan the jerk for sparing Emma from having to marry him,” Lisa said.
“Please, did Ashley. I want to see him go off with Amber into the sunset and get out of our sight as quickly as possible.”
“It’s pretty funny, isn’t it?” Ashley asked. “Think about it. While he’s using all his brain power to think of ways to bring Emma down, there’s someone who’s willing to purchase a hundred million dollars’ worth of insurance for her.”
Indeed, as the Secret magazine shoot was fast approaching, Nathan bombarded the American media to make sure that Amber had as much exposure as possible. His statements were not the least bit subtle. According to him, Amber was the best model to make an appearance in recent memory and would soon outshine everyone else.
Not much information came out about Emma, however, only a few lines mentioning her among all the news about Amber. Emma’s fans became anxious and even reached out to Ashley to find out what was going on. Ashley turned to Emma for guidance, but she was in no rush to take action. Ashley understood that outside of Mexico, Secret magazine didn’t get a lot of attention.
Making such a fuss over it would only make Emma appear short-sighted and shallow. So, Ashley simply responded to the fans with four words: “Have faith in Emma.” With these four words, Emma’s fans felt a sense of relief. Judging by how Emma had handled herself previously, they knew she liked to keep a low profile. As Ashley had reminded them, Emma usually had a plan and would release it when she was ready.
“Nathan, look at this,” Amber’s assistant said. “Looks like your work is paying off. The American media is loving Amber.” Luke scrolled through the comments, looking for positive mentions of his employer.
“And what are they saying about Emma?” Nathan asked.
“There’s not much there at all, thanks to Mia’s work. Once we used Emma to boost Amber’s popularity, we didn’t really need to mention her again. It does seem like we’ve offended a few fans, but it’s worth it. Emma’s name is showing up far less often than Amber’s. Our strategies are working,” Mia chimed in.
“Right now, we have the media interested in Amber, and her popularity is growing right in front of our eyes. But we’ll have to wait for the results of the secret photo shoot to beat Emma once and for all. If Amber’s performance is as good as you say it’ll be, Emma won’t even exist in anyone’s memory once we return home. You don’t need to worry about me,” Amber tossed her hair confidently as she responded to her team.
“I’ve seen what Emma can do. I’m just as good as she is. You know that when she filled in for me, she was nothing special,” Amber had no idea that when Emma had filled in for her, she’d done her best to imitate her exactly, which meant dropping her own high standards. If she worked to her usual high level, Amber would be much more worried now.
“I’m going to meet with a photographer and work my magic,” Mia said. “I’ll make sure that you are the main focus of the shoot, Amber. You better spend some time thinking about how you’re gonna pull off the theme they’re going for.”
“I will,” Amber nodded. “This will be your first time sharing the stage with Emma. You should know it’s not just your reputation that’s on the line. If you fail, Global Entertainment will be humiliated along with you, and everyone will start doubting Nathan’s judgment. Make sure you do your homework.”
“Emma humiliated me yesterday, making me beg to share the stage with her. You can bet that I’ll do whatever it takes to get my revenge,” Amber was full of determination. And with her rise in popularity, she was now full of confidence too. Let the battle begin.
