After The Mysterious Family wrapped up, the approval process for release was surprisingly quick, which no one had expected. Ronald had previously threatened Director Colby, saying he had connections and that if Elisa wasn’t cast, he’d make sure the movie never saw the light of day.
But it seemed like Ronald had already forgotten all about his empty threats.
With the release date set, the studio kicked off a big promotional campaign.
Around that time, Sarah received a payout. She took a closer look and remembered that back during Christmas, she had borrowed every bit of available cash from David on Butler Ted’s advice to make an investment.
The investment yielded a 15% return, which Sarah felt was pretty decent for a short-term deal.
She hadn’t had much time lately to catch up with friends, so she scheduled a dinner with David and Merry to see how things were going-mainly to check if David, the fool, had finally come to his senses. Once he was back to normal, she’d repay him with interest.
David really had been going through a tough time lately.
When Sarah borrowed money from David, he treated her like a real sister. It didn’t matter if she wanted to hire a hitman or just blow it all on shopping-he was fully on board and lent her as much as he could.
But after loaning her the cash, David didn’t feel comfortable hanging out with his usual crowd of party friends. When it came time to split a bill, with tabs running into tens of thousands, it was embarrassing to come up short.
Without his party crew to mess around with, all he had left were his love life and work.
On the career front, David had been working hard, and his company finally landed a big project.
But in the love department, things were getting confusing.
David had fallen head over heels for Nora at first sight-he was crazy about her, convinced she was the one. In his eyes, Nora was the sweetest, most innocent girl in the world, second only to Sarah when it came to beauty.
She was kinder and more caring than Sarah, smarter and more hardworking than Merry-basically flawless. If they got married, he could picture the perfect family life: a cozy home, a loving wife, and kids running around.
But recently, Nora had been asking him for money a lot, usually in amounts of hundreds of thousands. When he couldn’t come up with it, she started getting impatient with him-almost resentful.
David explained that his company was going through a rough patch, and cash was tight for the moment.
Nora didn’t miss a beat. “Why can’t you borrow from your friends? That actress friend of yours-Sarah, right? She could lend you some.”
“And what about that rich lady, Merry? She wouldn’t mind helping you out, would she?”
Then Nora added, “I want to rent a bigger place, so you can stay with me sometimes. My current place has rats and cockroaches.”
David felt a wave of irritation wash over him. The way Nora was acting now didn’t match the sweet, innocent girl he had imagined at all.
He ignored her for two days without replying.
Sensing his change in attitude, Nora softened up and started calling him with her usual sweet tone, pretending everything was fine.
Despite his frustrations, David couldn’t bring himself to end things-after all, this was his first love. So, he gave in and let Nora stay in one of his apartments, rent-free.
For a little while, things seemed to calm down. With a free place to live, Nora stopped nagging him to borrow from his friends.
But that peace only lasted until last weekend, when she told him her mother had broken her leg again and needed to be hospitalized. She asked David to lend her two million and promised to write him an IOU.
This time, David was fed up with her excuses. He didn’t have that kind of money anymore, and he wasn’t willing to ask his friends for it either. So, he didn’t give her a cent.
The intense feelings he once had for her were starting to fade.
When Sarah invited him to dinner today, David felt a little relieved to get away for a bit. But the moment Nora found out he was meeting up with some girls, she insisted on tagging along.
Sarah and Merry had already been waiting at the restaurant for thirty minutes by the time David and Nora finally showed up, strolling in late.
In all the stories about David, his feelings for Nora were described as one-sided and deeply emotional. On top of that, David was a total mama’s boy-but he’d even gone so far as to stand up to his own mother for Nora’s sake. He wouldn’t allow anyone, not even his friends, to say a bad word about her.
Sarah wasn’t expecting David to have some kind of epiphany today. She just hoped that maybe-just maybe-he’d start noticing the cracks in Nora’s perfect image. That way, when the truth finally hit him, it wouldn’t hurt so much.
Sarah and Merry hadn’t expected what they saw: David actually looked irritated with Nora.
“I waited for you downstairs forever,” David said, clearly annoyed. “I told you the time in advance. Why couldn’t you just be on time?”
Nora’s eyes darted around, avoiding his gaze. She had moved into one of David’s apartments to stay away from William. The love she once felt for William had turned into pure hatred.
Now that David wasn’t bending over backward for her like before, Nora found herself scared of losing him-and to her surprise, she was starting to develop real feelings for him.
But recently, William had tracked her down and started threatening her. Worse, he’d even moved into the apartment David had given her.
Nora was terrified that David would find out the truth. To make things worse, she had discovered just yesterday that she was pregnant-and since David insisted on no sex before marriage, the baby could only be William’s.
Her plan for tonight? Get David drunk enough and then have sex with her, so he will believe the baby was his.
As they approached Sarah and Merry, both looking polished and put together, Nora felt a complicated mix of emotions. “If your friends are so rich,” she muttered under her breath to David, “why can’t you just borrow some money from them to help my mom?”
David frowned. “Don’t bring that up in front of them. I’m a grown man-how could I ask women for money? Besides, a broken leg doesn’t cost two million.”
Nora clammed up, though frustration simmered beneath the surface.
During dinner, Nora couldn’t resist throwing a few pointed jabs at Sarah. “So, Sarah, I saw online that you got married. But weren’t you totally in love with that childhood sweetheart of yours?”
Sarah answered lazily, not even looking up. “People change. Who sticks around for a scumbag forever?”
Nora’s face twitched slightly.
A moment later, her phone buzzed. It was a message from William. Panic flickered across her face, and she quickly made an excuse about a stomachache and left.
Sarah gave David a glance. “Your girlfriend doesn’t seem to be doing too well. Shouldn’t you check on her?”
David shrugged. “She doesn’t let me go to her place. She says we’ll move in together after we get married.”
Sarah raised an eyebrow, amused. Typical David, blindly trusting whatever Nora said, never questioning anything. If anyone else even dared to suggest something was off, David would fly into a rage defending her.
“Well then,” Sarah said smoothly, “how about we all go? With the two of us girls there, it’ll be fine, right?”
Since it was technically David’s apartment, he had no problem using his fingerprint to unlock the door. The three of them stepped inside, and before they even made it past the entryway, they heard voices from further inside.
“You bitch! You think you can just ditch me and run, huh?” William’s voice was filled with menace. “I swear I’ll send those dirty photos of yours to that idiot if you try anything.”
Nora’s voice followed, tight with frustration. “I told you I’m not running! I’m pregnant with your kid. But we can’t tell him you’re the father-the baby needs to live a good life with David’ family.”
David’s face turned a sickly shade of green.