A Graduation Gift

Cassandra pored over social media posts and found that many of them were from major personalities who had overwhelming following in the internet. There was an endless string of comments after the posts.

Cassandra continued checking their tweets and posts. After a while, it was clear to her that these were all negative reports about Lyndsy.

"Lyndsy is hard to get along with. It is already a known fact in the entertainment industry. She will go through any length to maintain her popularity, even if the actions are questionable."

Comments of the same nature could be seen everywhere. It shocked Cassandra. She had no idea what to make of it.

"When a wall is about to collapse, everybody gives it a push," Lyndsy sighed. "I know who I am. I don't think about other people's feelings. I deserve it."

She leaned back on the chair as she spoke. Frustration was boiling inside her, but she held her lips tightly shut. Looking at her now, it would be impossible to think of her as a super star. Her hair was mussed, her skin pale, and her eyes had no trace of life in them. It seemed that she was now ruined, and there was nothing she could do to improve the situation. Cassandra felt sympathy for her even as she read the negative comments about Lyndsy.

She had started out as a child star. It was said that she came from poverty. Therefore, she worked a lot more and much harder than other actresses.

Her breakthrough came when she starred in an action movie. There were a lot of physical scenes, but she chose not to use a body double, saying that she wanted to make the fight scenes look more real and vivid. She went to action school and dedicated all her time in learning the stunts. During one of the scenes in the film, she once got a fracture and often came home bruised. Her passion translated into the big screen and everyone lauded her true-to-life performance.

Lyndsy reaped the fruits of her hard-earned position and her name was cemented in the industry when she was nominated in an international film festival for that film. Despite not bagging the award, she made a deep and lasting impression on domestic and international reporters alike. For days, her name poured out of the headlines, and the film that she starred in was a gigantic box office success.

After that, producers and directors flocked to her, offering her the lead parts. Everyone wanted her, and everything she appeared in was a guaranteed success. Soon enough, she became one of the top box office earners. Many well-known actors and directors mentioned her as someone they wanted to work with. All her hard work had paid off into such astonishing achievements.

Lyndsy had always be outspoken. People who truly knew her would praise her with the frank and direct way she had of handling things. However, success had a lot of pitfalls. Alongside praises, there were also plenty of criticisms about her, describing her as a mean gossipmonger.

Cassandra tried to comfort Lyndsy, "Don't worry. There are always news of this sort in the entertainment industry. I'm sure that the noise would die down soon enough. We can still fix this."

"Fix it? How?" she spat bitterly. "As things stand now, I have no other option but to leave the company. They wouldn't even let me stay until the end of my contract. Their value will plummet if they allow it; and even if they do, they would just use this chance to put me in a leash and control me. I won't have that,"

Lyndsy spoke, red-cheeked with rage. She had been in the industry long enough, and she knew those senior executives as well as she knew the back of her hand. They were the sort with tons of money who treated people ruthlessly, and all they cared about were filling their pockets. They would resort to the lowest, unspeakable means if it meant their bank accounts would fatten up.

It was more than likely that money was involved with the outpouring of the social media posts.

In normal circumstances, when such thing happened to celebrities, their companies and agents would waste no time and act quickly to try to quell the damage and rebuild their image with PR campaigns and strategies. Lyndsy was a top star. One would think that her company would be scrambling to pour water over the fire and stop further damage to her. After all, she was the cash cow, and her agency was one of the biggest. They had plenty of resources at their disposal.

However, instead of responding with damage control, they twisted the situation to their favor and threatened her. It would not be far-fetched to assume that they were the ones behind the very rumors themselves.

Cassandra furrowed her brows as she racked her brain, trying to come up with a solution. She was running out of ideas, and this was beyond her area of expertise and experience. She knew nothing about the entertainment industry, and it would take a while for her to figure these things out.

Suddenly, Cassandra's phone rang. It was Dylon, and for some reason, he sounded hesitant.

"Cassandra, I've been barraged with questions since this morning. They wanted to know if the man in the news was me. I don't know how to explain it but…"

Dylon was feeling both depressed and irritated. He just had an operation this morning. The moment he stepped out of the operating room, he was surrounded by a crowd of nurses.

really dating Lyndsy? The

Tong, how long have you two been together?

really have bad temper, like

"Dr. Tong…"

was annoyed at their ramblings. He was usually a nice and patient person, but he couldn't put up with this senseless questioning. He felt cornered by the inquiries

talk? I'm just a normal person, and I have absolutely no interest in becoming a celebrity. There are always people in the hospital, and

would be worried. He wasn't in very good condition these days, and Dylon didn't want to aggravate

We can discuss things together and think of how to solve this," Cassandra replied, trying to calm

running out of options, and Dylon might have better ideas. After all, two heads were better than one, and

showed him the posts and the

what do you think? Do you have any ideas about what we can do?" she asked, leaning

anything that came her way and she climbed her way to the top. This was the first time she came face-to-face with a problem she could not solve. To make matters worse, it had come at

if we make a public announcement

suggested, thinking that it would be the

company won't back me up and help me explain to the public; and coming from just us, it wouldn't be believable. To be honest, it might just add insult

were

over her mouth. Immediately, Lyndsy and Dylon's attention were on her. "People have started looking you up and posting information online," she said

checking the latest news about Lyndsy.

was taken aback. He grabbed Cassandra's

on wild animals. He graduated from medical school and is

Cassandra saw horror and

in the past years, very far away from the limelight. All of a sudden, his private life was now exposed for all the public to see.

they sat in shock, a man of medium height came to their table and snapped a photo of them. They had been so fixated on trying to think of the solution that they did not notice

to look at the man, shock and confusion in their faces. The man, however, just smiled. He didn't seem to be apologetic at all.

dating with Mr. Tong? Sorry for interrupting.

around to take his leave, but he had not taken three steps when Dylon caught up to him and

Can you delete the picture you just took?" he asked as he coldly

been treated with such rudeness

and it's my photo. Why should I listen to

didn't do anything wrong. Such jerks

consent? As far as I know, you didn't. This is an invasion of privacy. Would you like to end this, peacefully, or

his nerves, and this man just stirred up his frustrations further. He was no

picture of you. I just took the picture of the vase on the table, and I'm not deleting

knew that he was in the wrong. It was unbelievable how he tried to wriggle out the situation with such a

final straw. Dylon had completely lost his patience.

trying to get his camera from him, but Dylon was much taller and he raised the camera out of his reach.