There was no way Emily would accept defeat to anyone, most especially to Melinda. Jonas had always
belonged to her, ever since they were mere children. Sure, she might have left him behind years ago,
but she had good reason to do it.
She was in dire straits then; he had no penny to his name. She needed someone who could help her
elevate her status, and Jonas wasn’t that man yet. He wasn’t given any right to the Gu family
inheritance.
If she’d only known that Melinda would enter the picture at the time of her absence! It wasn’t even
Jonas, but Nelson, who wanted to take Melinda into the family, going as far as using Jonas's right to
inheritance as bait to get them to wed!
She made the right decision by coming back just in the nick of time. But she had underestimated the
old man’s stubborn resolve. She had underestimated Melinda as well, the bitch!
And now she was on the verge of losing everything again. She could never let that happen; she knew
the only person powerful enough to reverse her circumstances was Jonas.
He had always served as her contingency plan when things got rough, and Emily was sure that this
time wouldn’t be any different. After all, he came running all the way from Japan when he heard she
had gotten injured.
But when they saw each other again, and after she explained her situation, all she got was a flat and
resounding refusal. "I made it thoroughly clear the last time. I wouldn’t be helping you in any way
anymore."
Jonas never was a man who got back on his word. He was firm in his resolve when he made his
decision, and he would always stand by it. Besides, he had made a promise to Melinda, and that alone
carried a significant weight over everything else.
He also knew that if he would give in yet again to his childhood friend, his wife would only
misunderstand his intentions. He was having a rough enough time already; he had no reason to invite
further troubles into their marriage.
"Are you being serious right now?" Emily asked incredulously. "Are you really going to be so cruel?
Don’t you see that I’m being bullied? Are you just going to let this continue?"
"What I don’t want to continue is you constantly running to me and disrupting my time with my wife! I
know you well enough to know that if I help you again, it would never stop; these scenes will only keep
on repeating themselves. I’ve made a promise to my wife and my grandfather, Emily. There’s no longer
anything you can count on me for."
"Jonas, how could you change so much," Emily started to sob. "You always protected me! Are you
forgetting all those times, when we were still children?"
"That was in the past. You’re not a child anymore." Jonas didn’t waver. There wasn’t much in him that
Emily could still exploit anyway. She had already overstayed her welcome in his life, and for far too
long, too.
"You’ve been in the entertainment business for so long now, do you expect me to believe you never
learned or gained anything to protect yourself with? It is by far one of the most ruthless industries out
there."
She recognized the cold resolve in his eyes, and it was at that time that she knew he would never fold.
Emily racked her brains to find something to guilt him with, a chip, something from the past, anything.
"All right. All right, but what about this?" She pulled out a bracelet from under her pillow. It was a simple
silver chain with a single bell as its charm.
She held it out to him with trembling hands, and her face was now streaked with unstoppable tears. A
testament, perhaps, to her talents as an actress.
Jonas's eyes narrowed sharply. Unbidden, his mind traveled back to his childhood, and hazy bits of
memory played across his vision.
He was taken back to the time when he sneaked out from the mansion. His grandfather was away that
time, and nobody was keeping him under close supervision. He came upon a rather large pond, and
decided he would fish in it, and bring his hunt back home as a trophy.
Clumsy boy that he was, he slipped and fell into the water. Although it wasn’t too deep, it was deep
enough that a boy his size could drown in it.
He struggled in the water for what felt like hours, until Emily came walking by. She found a tree branch
and threw it over him and she pulled the gasping boy back to land.
He had sworn to her then that he would protect her all her life, in honor of his gratitude. He gave her
the bracelet as a token of that promise.
He came over to the hospital bed and took it from her hand. The silver still gleamed, in spite of its age.
"You’ve taken good care of it," he said softly.
He didn’t sound particularly happy, but he was no longer sounding cold and angry, and to Emily, that
was a good sign. "I have always cherished this," she continued to sob. "I will never forget the moment
you promised that you will protect me all my life."
Jonas was remembering that exact moment, too. As a matter of fact, that time was always at the back
of his mind all these years.
He thought he’d done pretty well in keeping that promise. He had always defended Emily against her
detractors, and even fought with his grandfather several times because of her.
A thought suddenly came to him: it seemed like Emily spent the past several years doing anything and
everything to make him cash in on that promise. His jaw clenched.
"Jonas, they’re trying to dismiss me in the agency. They’re taking away my role from the project!
This was no accident, I just know it. They just want to get rid of me so they could cast someone else as
the heroine."
She hung her head, and her crying started to get hysterical. He felt bad seeing her like this.
"Jonas, I really don’t know what to do anymore. I need this project.
Once the role is taken from me, I’ll be relegated to the ranks of the has-beens, and newcomers would
just grab all the prospects that would have been mine! Please help me.
I don’t know anyone else who can. Please. For the sake of our childhood memories."
She looked at him with pleading eyes, perfectly projecting the character of someone who was
abandoned.
Jonas closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. After a moment he heaved a big, frustrated
sigh.
"I’m taking back this bracelet," he finally said, and that cold expression was back in his face. "This will
truly be the last time I ever help you.
For the sake of our childhood, as you asked, but you no longer hold any aces, Emily. After this you
have to take care of yourself and deal with your own problems."
As he turned to leave, he moved to pocket the bracelet, and then realized he had no pockets. He found
that he was still wearing the fleece jacket, the one that was a match to Melinda’s. A couple’s outfit.
He wondered what she was doing as he strode out of the ward. It had only been a few hours since he
last saw her, but he was already missing her.
It was late. Jonas didn’t want to worry his grandfather by suddenly showing up at the Gu's mansion, so
he called William and had his secretary arrange for a hotel room.
When he was finally off his feet, he had felt a burning urge to call his wife. He balked, though, thinking
she might already be asleep at such a late hour.
But he really wanted to hear her voice. In the end he refrained from calling her, and slept a restless
sleep.
The next day, Melinda woke up and got ready for her tour. The guide was already waiting outside, and
she promptly refused his services as soon as she saw him. She was going to take her time today, and
go to the places that she herself wanted to visit.
However, instead of going to see the sights she’d never been before, she found herself wandering
along the places she had previously gone to with Jonas. She was doing well by herself, she thought, all
things considered.
But Japan no longer held the same beauty for her; the country had lost its former allure. She soon
packed up her bags, cut her stay short, and booked another flight back home.
That same morning, Jonas woke up cold and alone in his hotel bed, and had William bring him his
clothes for work. His sudden return brought a buzz in the company, and the employees were
incessantly twittering with a nervous energy.
"Didn’t the CEO say that he would be gone for a month?
Why is he back so soon?" Only William—ever the cool and efficient secretary—acted as though
nothing was out of the ordinary, and proceeded to update Jonas on the status of the company.
In particular, he relayed the company’s position regarding the impending bidding. Things were looking
good for Soaring Group.
"Never underestimate them regardless," Jonas cautioned his secretary. He had a high regard of Ryan’s
abilities.
They might have met only briefly, and didn’t get to know each other really well in such a short time, but
he could tell that Ryan was not a simple man. There was more to him beneath the exterior.
Jonas was soon deep into urgent meetings, firing instructions left and right. Naturally, Nelson was
notified of his grandson’s return.
Looking forward to hearing about their honeymoon abroad, Nelson waited all day for Melinda to return
to the mansion. The hours went by, and as morning turned to evening, Nelson finally dropped a call to
the company.
It was only then that he discovered Melinda was still in Japan, and that his idiot grandson had left her
abruptly because that damn Emily got herself injured.
Now he was certain that this Emily girl was a cunning, scheming witch, and that, regrettably, his
grandson was a fool who was being led by his nose over and over again. Well. He wasn’t going to
tolerate this anymore.
"William, contact the head of that crew." Jonas had finally finished his meetings. It was time to deal with
private matters.
As William looked at the business card Jonas handed for him to call, he realized it was the crew that
was involved in Emily’s accident.
After keeping his composure the entire day, the unwavering secretary could no longer help himself.
"Boss, are you going to lend a hand to Miss Bai?"
"Yes." The reply was curt, and perhaps a little frustrated, and William decided not to ask for details. He
hurried to see to the task at hand, and arranged for a meeting.
Since Soaring Group was very influential, the crew members immediately responded to the meeting
request.
By late afternoon, the director and the person in charge of the whole project trickled into the reception
hall.
"Go and ask the Legal Department to go over the file that I sent you," Jonas instructed when William
came to inform him of the guests’ arrival.
"If they say there’s no problem with it, print out several copies and bring them to the conference room."
Then he got up from his desk and put on his suit jacket. ‘Let’s just get this over with once and for all.’
His guests were ushered into the conference room, and were served tea and water. They had been a
nervous wreck since the phone call summoned them here.
They whispered among themselves, wondering why they were asked to come. Perhaps they had done
something that offended the huge conglomerate family?
After a while the producer said, with frightened hesitation, "I heard that Emily is somehow connected to
Jonas, the young master of the Gu family."
They exchanged meaningful looks then, and jumped in their seats as the door to the room opened.
Jonas strode in with such an intimidating air the two men shrank back into their seats.
"Mr. Jonas Gu," the producer greeted him first. The director followed suit, and they gave Jonas several
bows.
Jonas only nodded at them coldly as he took a seat on the other side of the conference table. "Soaring
Group wants to invest in your new project," he said without preamble.
He gave emphasis to the name of the company as he spoke, effectively implying that this was a
professional matter.
The producer’s eyes immediately lit up. If their project had Soaring Group’s backing, it would no longer
matter how much money the entire project would cost.
They wouldn’t have to settle for cheap materials and costumes, and would instead have the chance for
better quality production.
But how could such a valuable opportunity just be handed to their crew? He eyed Jonas warily.
"It’s extremely surprising to find out that Mr. Gu is willing to invest in our casting group. I wonder, given
your interest, perhaps you have some advice to our small band of creatives?
We will definitely do our utmost to live up to your standards."
He had such a roundabout way of asking for Jonas’s conditions in return for the funds, but he fooled no
one in the room.
Jonas gave the man what he was asking for without wasting any more breath. "The leading actress of
this play can only be Miss Emily Bai."
The two men looked at him in shock, their jaws dropping. They had already decided to change the
heroine.
This was to be expected, of course, given the circumstances. Emily was no longer as popular as she
used to be. She seemed to have lost even the favor of her own agency.
And now she was injured; there was no way she could still be their heroine.
But there was a lot at stake here now.
"Mr. Gu, Miss Bai is currently injured. Our team cannot delay the production..."
The producer tried to explain, despite his fright.
He knew he was treading on thin ice here, but he was only stating the truth. A day’s worth of delay in
shooting would cost a lot of money indeed.
The two men looked at him in shock, their jaws dropping. They had already decided to change the
heroine.
This was to be expected, of course, given the circumstances. Emily was no longer as popular as she
used to be. She seemed to have lost even the favor of her own agency.
And now she was injured; there was no way she could still be their heroine.
But there was a lot at stake here now.
"Mr. Gu, Miss Bai is currently injured. Our team cannot delay the production..."
The producer tried to explain, despite his fright.
He knew he was treading on thin ice here, but he was only stating the truth. A day’s worth of delay in
shooting would cost a lot of money indeed.
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