Elliot brought Anastasia to the break room. Her eyes were welling up with tears and every time she thought about what her father was going through, her heart throbbed with pain.
He wrapped his arms around her and gently wiped away her tears.
“I’m sorry,” she said, turning to look at him. “I really don’t wish to get engaged at the moment. Can we postpone it?”
“Sure,” he said, nodding. “Don’t rush. It can be done after your father wakes up.”
When she heard that, hope filled her heart. That’s true! When her father was finally awake, she could select a new date with her father for her engagement to Elliot.
In Elliot’s eyes, postponing the
engagement party made no difference. After all, their relationship had progressed so much that it felt like they were already married. The engagement party was merely a ceremony to him.
No matter what happened, he would never abandon Anastasia. He would always protect her and stay by her side as they weathered troubled times together.
At this moment, there was a knock on the door before Rey walked into the room. He held an iPad out to them and said, “President Presgrave, Miss Tillman, have a look at this. Naomi and her daughter have released a statement to the press.”
She took the iPad from him and read out the headline of the article shown, “Eldest daughter holds comatose father hostage to steal the right to inherit Tillman Constructions.”
By the time she was done reading the entire article, she was trembling with anger. The audacity of those two women to release such an insidious statement at this time infuriated her.
“Many media outlets have shared the
statement as soon as it had been released,” Rey said. “Furthermore, many independent journalists are defending them, amplifying the message and causing considerable damage to Miss
Tillman’s reputation.”
Anastasia’s eyes turned as cold as ice
when she heard that. Naomi and her
daughter were playing victim by
attacking her first. “Find a way to suppress the news.” Elliot ordered.
“Sir, doing that might not end well for Miss Tillman. Also, there are a lot of eyes on this right now. If we do not publicly respond now, it would be a disaster when Miss Tillman marries you.”
“Yes,” she said, nodding in agreement. “We don’t need to do that. Let us ignore them for now. The most important task at hand is to wake my father up. When that happens, this lie would be exposed for what it truly is. As for my reputation, I do not care at all.”
Elliot’s heart ached at how calm and collected she was. “Okay.” He sighed. “I’ll hold back myself for now.”
Otherwise, the mother-and-daughter duo would have already been thrown into prison. There was no way he would have
tolerated their impertinent behavior.
“Ignore them. They are only doing this so that they can make healthcare decisions for Dad instead of me. It is impossible for that to happen. If I let them take care of my dad, he would never wake up again.”
Anastasia was determined to withstand anything and everything just so her father could be saved. Let Naomi and her daughter kick up a fuss because she couldn’t be bothered about them.
Elliot would eventually build her the greatest shield ever that would protect her from their attacks.
Meanwhile, Hayley was whiling time away at a cafe when she stumbled upon the article about Anastasia. She was
shocked by what she saw and also awed by how astonishingly beautiful Anastasia looked in all the photos shown in the video that kept bashing her.
Anastasia looked just like a rose proudly showing her glacial beauty despite the adversities she faced.
Even the comments of the video were all praising her beauty while they piled hate on her.
‘Anastasia is so gorgeous. She might be
evil, but she is amazing
‘Yeah! Well, the prettier they are, the
more dangerous their venom. She is
beautiful because she is pure evil.
“Is she the future head of Tillman Constructions? Oh, my goodness! She is just divine! I finally have a face for the female lead of the novel I’m reading
‘She might be evil, but she is just too beautiful. She is so sexy. What should I do? I think I’m in love. This comment
was made by a user who appeared to be male according to his profile picture.
Hayley was seething with jealousy as she read those comments. As expected, even though the situation was bad, Anastasia would still attract admirers for her beauty while being hated on.
The uproar online made Anastasia famous. Amidst all the insults, journalists kept uploading photos of her. Some people even dug up photos of her in university just so they could get more views and attention. Then, there was the photo of her at the annual celebration of Bourgeois Jewelry Atelier, shining brightly as she stood on stage.
