Avery smirked. “You can’t underestimate my big sister too much. She’s got a lot of tricks up her sleeve, and they’re going to get married sooner or later. You better seize the chance while you still have it, Idania. I’ll even help out if you need me to.”
“No thanks.” Idania rolled her eyes, ignoring Avery’s quip. “I know what I should do. I’m Tobias’ biggest weakness. I know he’s still not over me. You wanna know why he hasn’t changed his phone number all these years? It’s because he’s been waiting for me to get back in touch with him.”
On stage, Skylar was enjoying a mini meet-and-greet with her fans. Every candid picture captured of her could be used as the cover of a glamour magazine.
“I heard that you’ve liked this brand ever since you were a student, Skylar!” the host said. “How did you feel when they approached you to become a spokesperson for the brand?”
The woman on stage’s smile stiffened for the briefest moment. This host had not done their homework: she had been too broke to afford to buy Gucci knockoffs as a student, let alone buy any original items from the brand.
“I was very excited when I found out!” she replied instead. “Gucci has always been one of my favorite brands. It’s just that it was out of my league when I was a student, you know? I couldn’t afford it back then, so I made it my goal to one day be able to afford it. I remember telling myself that when I grew up, I had to buy some clothes from the brand for myself.”
“Fortunately, our prices are all very reasonable, and your dream was easily achieved, no?”
Skylar laughed awkwardly, her mouth suddenly dry. Gucci’s prices were the farthest thing from “reasonable.”
At that remark, Avery rolled her eyes. “What a joke. She couldn’t even afford to buy a pair of Anta shoes back then, let alone Gucci ones.”
“I couldn’t afford to buy Gucci back then either,” Idania commented absentmindedly. “Everything branded I owned were gifts from Tobias. I think he has some sort of obsession with poor girls, and that’s why he’s so infatuated with Skylar. He wants to use her as a replacement for me.”
Avery kept mum, unsure of how to respond to that comment. Sure, Idania was very confident, but… When was Idania finally going to steal Tobias away from Skylar?
Skylar would be much easier to deal with without that man supporting her, and it would be much easier for Avery to steal everything away from Skylar and make her pay the price for insulting her.
After being notified that Skylar was scheduled to make an appearance at one of his affiliated shopping malls, Tobias took some time out of his schedule to go and visit her.
He was taken aback when he saw swarms of fans crowding the mall to the point where they were hindering business for the other shops on the premises.
“Since when did Skylar become so popular?” he asked Susan. “Did these people all come to see her?”
“Empyrean Sword has absolutely exploded in popularity,” Susan laughed. “Even the little boy living next door to me called Skylar a ‘pretty lady.’ Weren’t you aware of this before, Mr. Ford?”
Tobias wasn’t. When he scanned over the crowd, he noticed that it was made up of mostly men, their gazes trained on his girlfriend on stage.
He and Susan did their best to push through the crowd and get a spot as near the stage as possible.
“Skylar has really gotten much prettier from when I last saw her in a big, loose shirt at her school dormitory,” Susan remarked. “Royal Entertainment did a great job cleaning her up.”
Tobias preferred the Skylar from back then. Now, there was a constant, nagging feeling of fear that she was growing further and further away from him.
Skylar was halfway through the mini meet-and-greet with her fans, and her cheeks were starting to cramp from the smile she was forcing.
Suddenly, a large figure lunged towards her.
Before she realized what was happening, someone wrapped their arms around her, and she screamed.
