It was still a long walk from the parking lot to the beach. Paris took her heels off and walked toward the coastline. It was quite late right now, and there was not a single person around except herself.
Charles hadn’t arrived yet. Paris decided to take a walk and calm herself down a bit before seeing her manager.
She was enjoying her time alone, and someone suddenly grabbed her shoulder. Paris was startled. She tried to look back, but that person was so strong. She couldn’t break away. Paris tried to scream, yet the man standing behind her covered her mouth.
Paris didn’t have any strength compared to the attacker. The next thing she knew, she was dragged helplessly into the deep ocean.
****
The news about Paris’s suicide was everywhere on the internet the next day.
They said Paris had had depression for a long time ago.
When Thea heard about the news, she still couldn’t believe it had really happened.
But the posts were quite clear. They said Paris couldn’t stand the harsh comments on the internet again, so she chose to kill herself last night.
Thea went pale as she read those posts. Was she also responsible for Paris’s death? But she didn’t even say anything. Those people on Twitter did.
“Stop looking at those stupid things people said on the internet,” a pair of big and warm hands landed on her shoulders. Cody leaned in and left a kiss on her cheek, “Just stay at home with the babies. I will take care of the rest, okay?”
Cody was always so gentle and caring.
Thea shook her head, “No… I don’t want you to face it alone. I don’t wanna run from it anymore. I need to go with you!”
Cody smiled and pulled her in, “Anything you say, Mrs. Bradley. Let’s face it together.”
The wind on the internet changed again. Thea had still been innocent a couple of days ago. But now, she was a bully who used the power of her house to force a promising young actress to die.
They even suspected that Thea was the one who framed Paris and made her shoot that sex tape. Thea suddenly became the villain again.
“Now you guys finally see the true power of those big houses.”
“Showbiz is a game of those rich people. There is nothing new about that.”
“Poor Paris… We need to find her justice.”
“Paris was such a great actor. She was so beautiful. I didn’t know that she had been enduring so much pain all alone. Poor girl.”
“Please make the bad person pay!”
“Thea Todd, God is watching. You will go to hell for this!”
“She will go to hell for what? Existing? Thea did nothing! You guys don’t even have any evidence, and you started it all over again!”
“Thea is the victim. You can’t even be sure if Paris killed herself because of Thea. Paris killed herself because of those irresponsible comments on the internet. Are you people trying to kill Thea as well?”
Mia threw her phone away. She couldn’t bear reading those stupid comments anymore.
“These people don’t have common sense. They will believe whatever the authority feeds them. It’s pathetic! Dad! We can’t just sit here and wait. We need to do something!”
Drew was reading his newspaper, not seeming to be as worried as his daughter was, “Don’t worry about it. Linford and Cody have started to act. They will take care of everything.”
“You do trust them, huh?” Mia arched an eyebrow, “I just feel bad for Thea. She doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”
“Don’t worry. The truth will be revealed soon. It was clearly not a suicide case. Cody’s good at this. He has a lot of men who are good at doing this sort of investigation. He will definitely figure it out.”
Mia nodded and chose to believe what her dad said.
However, none of them had expected the stock price of Cody’s company to take a nosedive a couple of days later.
The two houses were both affected.
****
“How the heck did Paris kill herself? She told me that she was gonna leave the country a couple of days ago. Did you do that? Did you kill her?” After seeing the news aboard, Derek instantly called Charles.
“Why are you so nervous, boss? Don’t tell me you’re still in love with her,” Charles huffed. He didn’t even sound like he cared.
“You really did that?” Derek gasped, “You’re a freaking monster! She was still so young! How could you…”
“Well… If she’s gone, all our problems would be solved, wouldn’t they? Did you see the stock price of Cody Bradley’s company? It’s a pity that you ran off so soon. Or HC Entertainment would have been celebrating its victory right now.”
“You are a fucking psycho! Charles!” Derek did a lot of evil things, but he had never killed anyone before.
He felt a shiver down his spine when he realized that Charles was such a monster.
Charles’s voice was cold, “Derek, listen. You’ve chosen to leave your company up behind, and you should stay aboard for everyone’s good. If you dare to come back, I can’t be sure what will happen to you. Are we clear?”
Derek’s hands were still trembling after Charles abruptly hung up the call.
Now, he only felt lucky that he had left the company at the right time.
He couldn’t imagine what would have happened to him if he was still in the company. Charles probably would think that he was standing in his way.
****
“The police officer had found out that Paris received a call from her agent before she committed suicide that night. Her agent said Paris sounded quite depressed back then. She said she wanted to leave the country as soon as possible. Her agent also didn’t expect she would kill herself.”
Cody shared the newest information he got with Thea.
Thea only shook her head, “I knew Paris too well. She would never kill herself that easily. Right now, I’m just curious about the person who leaked the one-hour version of her sex tape. Could it have anything to do with this?”
Cody nodded, “Yeah. I’m also suspecting that. The police are also investigating that person. But I don’t think the result will come out fast. We can only pray that they can find something.”