Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 120: The Message.

Chapter 120: The Message.

"Wow! I’m a celebrity!!! I became the first page news in a tabloid newspaper!!! Yay me!! "

Talia drank some water not minding Rebecca getting excited seeing her picture on a tabloid based in Esteria.

That was a normal pap shot. The faces of pedestrians were blurred, focusing only on Talia. Only Rebecca’s side profile was visible and the angle the shot was taken made it seem like Talia was leaning in to kiss Rebecca.

She got the notifications and as she was reading the article, Rebecca butted in and she seemed to be pretty happy to see her picture in a tabloid.

How stupid is she!.

Mr. Ed informed her that those paparazzi must be paid for by someone just to slander her since they didn’t accept their offer to pay money to stop the article from getting published.

What a headache!

Talia could infer, her address is known to them and there are people out there watching her 24/7 waiting for her to slip up and every slip up will be published in Esteria. Although Mr. Ed said he’d get to the bottom of it to find out who is responsible for this, Talia had a gut feeling it would be Olivia.

There are articles over articles about the "Princess without Tiara" who is a gift from the Heavens to save Esteria.

Yeah, right! Olivia is a godsend! Talia could only roll her eyes.

"Tallie... The comments are not good..." Rebecca pulled a chair for her and sat beside Talia. The brightness in her face was gone and was replaced with worry. More than eighty percentage of the comments were using extremely offensive language against Talia. It made her heart bleed.

"It’s a tabloid! What did you expect? Don’t act like you don’t know how it is,"Talia leaned on her chair and looked up.

Rebecca could only curl her lips. She knows. She runs a PR firm for goodness sake! But it is different when you do the PR for others and others get bashed on the Internet. Even she makes hate comments occasionally about the celebrities she don’t like.

But it is different when your close friend is involved. What do these douchebags know about Talia? How dare they make such vulgar comments about her? None of them are even worth Talia’s clipped nail!

Rebecca was fuming. She wanted to release a statement clearing Talia’s name. How can they write such an article with just a photograph taken at an odd angle?

Talia looked at Rebecca pale as she was scrolling down the comments. She felt bad for Rebecca and blamed herself for it all. She sure is someone who drags everyone around her in the mud.

What a jinx I am!

She sure can handle everything but she didn’t want to involve Rebecca in her mess. "Rebecca, maybe you should distance yourself from me, at least for sometime..."

"F*ck you, Tallie!" Rebecca was highly displeased. As always, this girl will push everyone aside and go cry in a corner alone. Does she even know what friendship means? Has she ever had friends? If one is supposed to be with their "friend" sharing happiness alone, is that even friendship? True friendship is something that shares happiness and sorrow alike. A true friend is someone who is being a support when their mare is in trouble.

That girl is being the best friend to me, especially now in my troubling times and she is not allowing me to be one and wants me to go hide at the first sign of trouble around her? How dumb is she? Also this issue is caused by me in a way. How could I, just up and leave like that?

"I’m not going to leave you when you are in trouble. I know I can’t do much, but I will not leave you alone. I can explain to those..."

"Hey there, ladies!" Joe opened the door with a bright smile making Rebecca pause. "Welcome back, Talia!" he sported his usual smile but his crinkled suit and eye bags made him look a bit messy revealing his stress.

Talia smiled with a nod and she could see Rebecca trying to stand up. Joe, noticing it went behind Rebecca and gently placed his big hands over her petite shoulders and stopped her from moving.

"Hello, my lady!" he bent and kissed his wife’s cheek not minding Rebecca trying to scratch his face. "I missed you," he whispered in her ears and Talia averted her eyes elsewhere since she felt like a third wheel.

Judging by the smooth way Joe acts, Talia wondered if Joe planned all these. Yep! Isn’t Tracy his secretary? She thought she brought Rebecca here, but it seems like Joe played a long game even manipulating her.

Whatever! It would be better if those two reconciled.

Gently massaging Rebecca’s shoulders while she tried to get away, Joe continued, "I’ve already sent a mail through our firm’s lawyers to that tabloid advising them to take down that article that has no truth in it or face a lawsuit for slander."

Talia noticed Rebecca who was about to bite his hand, pause her actions. She seemed impressed. Talia was happy that Joe and Rebecca both are willing to stand by her side even when there is trouble.

Joe kissed Rebecca’s forehead as she was staring blankly at him. Of course he will support Talia to get back in the good graces of his wife. And there is another thing his wife cannot bear. His hunger!

Seeing her not pushing him away Joe decided to use his other weapon , "I’m hungry, Becky. I haven’t eaten a good meal after you left," he pleaded with her. He is not lying. His wife used to cook and iron his clothes and now he felt abandoned without her.

Talia tactfully left the office letting them work out their issues. As she checked her phone, she saw the article already taken down.

But in the social media there were comments discussing how Joe is the son of a Senator with power in A country and using his influence got that story down since he didn’t want his dirty laundry aired out.

There were some comments saying how Joe, Rebecca and Talia maybe in a "throuple" relationship and so they will protect each other. Talia had to look it up in the Internet for the meaning and when she learnt the meaning, she wanted to acid wash her braincells storing that information; maybe her whole brain.

"Alright! That’s enough Internet for today!" she mumbled and entered Joe’s office to do some work to take her mind off those vile people commenting whatever comes to their mind.

---

"Arthur... Are you sure about these flowers?" Joe asked as Arthur was about to step out from that luxurious car.

Jordan felt scared as Arthur suddenly asked to reserve dinner in a restaurant and even invite Sophia Clairmont. When he informed about the writer of the article, Arthur just contemplated for a while and just asked him to order these particular flowers and a dinner date.

But these flowers... They aren’t suitable for a first date or any date!

That article now seemed to be taken down without their interference. Jordan thought the Rosandale Royals has a hand in it.

Arthur’s eyes that looked scary as if he was going to kill someone, made Jordan feel scared for Sophia. They’ve waited till now as she was late and now his anger only seems to worsen.

"Isn’t she here already?" Arthur spouted and got out while Jordan trembled inside.

What will happen?

The moment he got out, a couple of paparazzi arranged by him, took pictures of Arthur with the big bouquet of flowers.

The moment that seven feet tall figure stepped in, the while restaurants seemed to have shrunken in size. Even the usher of that restaurant who polity led him to his seat was surprised to see the" King" in their humble restaurant.

But why did he chose that seat? Even though their restaurant is small they still had private cabins. Why did he choose the crowded room for a first date? And the flowers...

In the end the usher decided not to think too much. Who knows how the rich people think? He doesn’t.

Arthur with his long legs walked up to the small round table right in the middle of the room with everyone else in the room staring at him.

Sophia wearing a blue dress smiled politely at him and he returned the smile. He had recently seen her picture from the reports he collected about her and still he didn’t remember when or if he had met her in high school.

If his Iris didn’t confirm it, he would have thought the entire world was lying to him.

Arthur with a diplomatic smile, gave the bouquet to Sophia and Sophia who seemed to be blushing accepted the big bouquet.

"Thank you, Mr. Sinclair," she said and only then she looked at the bouquet and all the smile in her face got wiped out and her face paled.

Even the people in other tables who were witnessing it, pulled out their phones to take a picture and videos murmuring among themselves.

"Why, Lady Sophia, you don’t like the flowers? I picked them myself!" Arthur asked as if he was really surprised by the reaction of everyone.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.