Chapter 7

I rolled my eyes at the director. "All you need to do is to make sure you have everything ready and arranged. Don't pull those tricks with me." "Yes, yes, of course! I understand!" the director hastily said. I got up and left. I'd gone through Makayla's portfolio and knew she was hardworking. She'd come from a small town and had worked hard to get into a film academy. Up until this point, she'd auditioned for many films. With her appearance and abilities, it was impossible that she hadn't been a good fit for any roles. It was clear to see why none of the productions had selected her for the role, though. I didn't want to use those dirty methods to sully someone like her. Perhaps one could take this to be a sort of obsession of mine—I had many more things I needed to do in this lifetime. … Time flew while I was on campus. In about a month, I'd selected all the actors for the film. At the same time, I heard about an explosive piece of news—Stacy was pregnant! This was something Cindy had told me. We were in a cafe, and she sat across from me with a mask on, concealing her face. "I told you about Stacy and Luca ages ago. Why didn't you stop her?" I looked at her. "Did you ask me to meet you here so you could blame me for not stopping Stacy from doing her thing?" She was the one who'd invited me to the cafe. She glared at me. "Don't you know what getting pregnant will mean for Stacy? There's no way a family like hers will allow such a scandalous thing to happen." I looked into her eyes. "I already told you that her business has nothing to do with me, right?" Cindy lost her composure at that. "You don't even get what I'm trying to say, do you? Why hasn't it ever occurred to you that I'm telling you this for your good, Xavier? Even if you don't want to have anything to do with Stacy, you have to make it clear to everyone else that there's nothing between you two! "Everyone in the upper crust knows that you and she made a promise to get married. Did it ever occur to you that her pregnancy won't only smear the Greene family's reputation? It'll affect your family, too! For all you know, it might even lead to things going bad between your families!" I calmly took a sip of my coffee. "You're right in saying that that hasn't occurred to me before. But you don't know what I've been through, Cindy. Stacy is an adult; she should bear the consequences of the decisions she makes. Getting pregnant out of wedlock is a scandal she chose to get involved in." I scooped up a cube of sugar. "Do you want some sugar with your coffee?" Cindy crossed her arms huffily. "I'm not getting through to you at all. Why do you keep acting like this isn't a big deal? It's my grandmother's birthday next week; your family and the Greene family will both be in attendance. I don't want this to ruin the celebration!" I couldn't help chuckling at that. "How could that possibly happen? My parents and Stacy's parents aren't dumb. Even if word were to get out about Stacy's pregnancy, they wouldn't hash it out during a birthday celebration." Cindy was also from an affluent family. That was why she and Stacy were good friends. In the past, she'd always considered me and Stacy a good match. Before Stacy had fallen for Luca, the three of us had gotten along pretty well. Cindy clutched her head and groaned. "God, this is so annoying. Don't you understand what I'm saying?" "I do." I put my coffee down and looked at her. "All things come to an end, Cindy. Before this, I was serious about Stacy. But now, there's nothing between us anymore. You can think of that so-called promise to get married as a joke our parents made." She wanted to say something else, but I didn't give her the chance. "Besides, even if Stacy were to get rid of the baby now, do you think I would want to give her another chance?" My tone was more severe than before. It took Cindy aback. I continued, "Things were over between us the moment Stacy made her choice." With that, I got up. "Thanks for trying so hard to resolve this, Cindy, but there's no changing reality."