Derek said, “Now, everyone is on her side. We did the wrong thing initially. We won’t have any supporters if we want to win this war. I bought a plane ticket. I’m going abroad. You can take over the company when I’m away. I will come back when this subsides.”
Charles laughed coldly, “You wanna take the money and disappear? Don’t you think it’s already too late?”
Derek frowned, “It’s still better than waiting to be caught by Cody Bradley, isn’t it? If the government decides to investigate our company, we will all be doomed. If I go aboard right now, at least I still have a chance to find new investors. There’s still a chance that we can survive this.”
“Well… That surely makes sense. Then what about Paris? She’s leaving this business, right?” Charles asked.
Derek didn’t even know if he could survive this crisis. He didn’t have the power to take care of other people. So he just said randomly, “Just do whatever you see fit. If she can’t stay in this business anymore, just make her quit.”
Charles nodded, “Fine. When will you leave, though?”
Derek said, “I still have a couple of things to deal with. I will leave in two days.”
Charles hummed, “Okay. I will hold a press conference for Paris this afternoon. People have a lot of questions to ask her. You should present as well.”
Derek shook his head, “I don’t think I need to present. There will be so much chaos. I will leave it to you.”
“Sure,” Charles cast Derek a long look before leaving his office.
****
Thea had been shutting herself in her room for days after what happened. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. She was fine with being criticized. She had gotten used to that. But those people online were accusing her sons.
She felt so sick and tired of this.
She thought about her career and her life a lot. Showbiz was a vanity fair. People were fighting their heads off to get in. Some of them wanted fame, and some of them wanted money.
But those things were not real. Thea had everything she could ever want in her life. She suddenly grew tired of living like this.
She scrolled down her phone and read those posts. Paris was crying her eyeballs out in a video. Staring at her, Thea somehow felt extremely calm.
Maybe this was the time to quit. She had thought about quitting a long time ago. Maybe the time had finally come. However, Thea still had the moves of Heavenfall to complete. Candace was the scriptwriter of those films, and Cody had spent a lot of money and strength on the making of those films. Thea knew she had to finish them for the people she loved.
Meanwhile, in Derek’s mansion, Paris was crying so hard that her voice became hoarse, “Why did you do this, Derek? You know, releasing those pictures would only destroy us. Why did you still do that?”
Derek was so tired of her drama. If she didn’t ask him to send Thea to that man before, if she didn’t persuade him to do those foul things, he wouldn’t have ended up like this.
Derek was so sick and tired of this woman, “Stop fucking crying! Go back if you really want to cry. You chose your path, Paris. No one has ever forced you to make any decisions.”
Paris wiped her face with her sleeve, “Derek… Are you gonna leave this country? Could you please bring me with you? I’ve quit showbiz. I don’t wanna stay here anymore. These people are so scary…”
Derek lit a cigar. He sounded extremely irritated, “You wanna go with me? Are you fucking kidding me? If we appear at the airport at the same time, the rumors will only spread wider. It will become even uglier.”
“Are you gonna abandon me like this, Derek?” Paris asked, crying.
Derek blew out a smoke circle, “If you want to leave, you need to wait until a couple of days later. We can’t appear before the public at the same time. I know you have the money to leave this country, Paris. Don’t do any stupid things.”
Paris felt a sharp pain in her chest as she saw the dismissive look on Derek’s face. Maybe everything was wrong from the very beginning.
Paris drove back to her home after leaving Derek’s house. She couldn’t stop crying as she thought about the old days.
She remembered she and Thea used to be best friends. They said they would become big stars together.
She loved Derek so much, but Derek wouldn’t even cast her an extra look. She used to be so jealous of Thea just because of Derek.
She tried everything she could, and she finally cast Thea away from the man she loved. However, even though Thea had left, she was still so lucky.
She got the best resources and Derek’s love. But Paris didn’t get anything, no matter how hard she tried.
The more she thought about it, the sadder she felt. She used to be holding some unrealistic hope toward Derek. But now, she only got to know that that man only cared about himself.
She felt so stupid.
At this moment, however, a call suddenly came in. Paris didn’t want to pick it up, but the caller was Charles.
She hesitated for a second and picked it up, “Charles? Why are you calling?”
“What’s wrong? What happened to your voice? Did you cry?” Charles was quite gentle on the other side of the call.
Paris sniffed, “I’m okay. You don’t need to worry about me.”
Charles sighed, “Listen, Paris. I know you’re feeling sad right now. You don’t need to hide anything from me. If you don’t wanna stay here anymore, I can always send you aboard. People here are vicious. They want you to die.”
Paris sighed, “I’m planning to leave this country, actually. Maybe a couple of days later.”
“Okay… Before you leave Paris, I actually have something to discuss with you. Can we meet up right now?” Charles asked carefully.
Paris nodded, holding back her tears, “Of course. Do you want to meet me at the beach? Remember the place where we used to talk and walk a lot? It’s quieter.”
“Sure,” Charles’s voice was gentle, “I’ll see you there in a minute.”