“Of course not, the time isn’t right, Eric,” picked up the phone and handed it to Emma, who put the call on speakerphone. “Emma, where are you right now?” Ethan asked.
“I was afraid the reporters would find me, so I found a place to hide,” she answered calmly. “So, you don’t know what Lisa did?” Nathan asked in disbelief. “What did Lisa do? I don’t have good Wi-Fi here, so I haven’t been keeping up with the news,” Emma tried to sound curious.
“Thanks to your manager, Global Entertainment is in crisis. I need you to get back to the office right now to prepare for a press conference. I’m counting on you to clear Global’s name,” he said. “Press conference?” she thought. “That’s just going to be another opportunity for him to pin the blame on me.”
“Alright,” she said, tired of the whole business. “I’m on my way.” As she hung up, Eric looked at her with concern and said, “I put my number in your phone. Anytime you need me, just call.”
“Thank you, Mr. Roberts,” she replied. “You can’t call me that anymore. I’m your husband,” he said, pulling Emma onto his lap. “Call me something else, or I won’t let you go.” She blushed and whispered shyly, “My husband.” A rare smile appeared on his face.
“Come on, I’ll drop you off at Global’s offices. Remember what you promised,” he said. “Lately, don’t get too close to another man,” she responded with a reassuring smile, and his heart skipped a beat.
Eric drove Emma to Global Entertainment’s offices. As the king of entertainment, he knew how destructive the industry could be. As Emma’s new husband, he wanted to see if she could turn the tables on Nathan and Amber and reclaim her position as a top model. After stepping out of the car, she entered the building through a private walkway.
As soon as the staff spotted her, they began whispering to each other. All of them were sure Lisa had been acting on Emma’s orders. Pretending not to notice them, she knocked on the door of Nathan’s office and then pushed it open. “You’re back,” Nathan turned to her, holding back his anger. “Tell me what happened with Lisa.”
“Emma, are you sure you don’t know?” Nathan threw a newspaper down in front of her. “If you didn’t tell her to make this statement, who did?” “Nathan, we’re about to get married. Why would I do something that would hurt you?” Emma almost choked on her words as she looked at him innocently.
“Then how do you explain putting that bracelet on your ankle? You know very well the biggest difference between you and Amber is your legs,” Emma just looked steadily at Nathan as he interrogated her. She thought back to the many times he had protected Amber. She thought he was acting to promote his own career, but now it seemed that he wanted to help Amber all along. “I couldn’t wear the crown star anywhere but my ankle. Amber’s assistant, Gary, was there. Ask him.”
“I did ask him,” he said. “You made the decision yourself.” Nathan pressed on, “But why would you believe him and not me?” Emma faked a look of disappointment as she continued to observe Nathan’s reactions. “Look, the damage is done,” Nathan said. “And now Bellamy is threatening to sue us for breach of contract. Thanks to your manager, the public has turned against us too. You need to fix this. I can’t have this incident hurting my career. Emma, for the sake of Global Entertainment, you have to step up and explain to everyone that your manager created this mess to grab the spotlight, and Global had nothing to do with it.”
“Saying that my manager was responsible is the same as saying I was responsible. You were the one who called me to stand in for Amber at the last minute,” Emma cried. “Why should I be sacrificed?” “Because being recognized was clearly your fault,” as soon as those words left his mouth, he must have felt that he had gone too far. He forced himself to calm down and reached out to hug Emma, but she just pushed him away.
“Emma, maybe I was a bit impatient, but please, just this once, okay? After we’re married, I promise you this will never happen again,” she held back her tears and nodded. “Alright, I’ll do the press conference. But you should know that I’m doing this for you and your career, and there better not be a next time.”
“Yes, I promise there will be no next time.” In fact, Nathan was confident Emma would fall for this kind of stunt again and again. That was just the kind of person she was. And once they were married, he would be able to control her even more easily. The press conference will be this afternoon at 3. We’ll be meeting soon to go over your script.
Emma stopped crying and forced herself to look into Nathan’s eyes as if she still loved him. But as soon as she left the room, her gaze turned cold. She couldn’t get out of it this time, but she would never take the blame for Nathan’s messes again. As soon as she returned to her office, she called her manager Lisa. “Nathan is trying to use me.”
“Of course he is. Tell me what I can do,” Lisa responded, ready to fight.
“At 3 pm, I’m going to announce that I created this mess and then apologize to Global and the public. But right after that, I want you to anonymously release the photos of Nathan and Amber together at the hospital.”
“You got it. I even thought of a great headline: ‘Exposed: Global Entertainment’s Boss’s Affair.’ He’s a big cheating piece of scum,” Emma couldn’t help laughing. But then she began to apologize. “I’m so sorry for dragging you into this, Lisa.”
“As long as you’re willing to fight, I’ll help you do anything you want. And not only that, I’m planning to turn you into an international supermodel.”
