Chapter 3 Letting Go Isn’t Hard at All
“It’s been a while, Rose,” Darrin Carroll smiled.
Rose was slightly stunned. “It has indeed, Darrin.”
She figured that he was abroad.
After all, Darrin had said that he would not let Judson get their relationship wrong and would not see her again.
She didn’t expect him to return home and show up here at Flourish Media.
He may have had something to do with her getting an interview so quickly and getting hired so smoothly.
“Will he approve of you coming out to work?” Taking over Rose from his HR colleague, Darrin asked as he walked.
She squirmed for a second and then was relieved. She replied calmly, “We broke up.”
Darrin stopped in his tracks and was stunned. “The Roach family agreed to this?”
She shook her head. “They haven’t known it yet. He broke up with me, and of course, I won’t go beg his family.”
Why put everyone on the spot again?
She knew that Tameka would force Judson by threatening him with her life. Yet what was the point of keeping him around this way?
Darrin paused for a second and then changed the subject, saying, “It’s a waste for you to be an entertainment reporter. If you don’t want to…”
“It’s fine. Being an entertainment reporter is great,” Rose smiled.
Darrin had helped her so much that she didn’t want to owe him anymore.
The Entertainment Department was divided into several groups.
The chief editor of Rose’s group was a middle-aged woman named Lakisha Whitney, lean and capable, wearing glasses, having a lollipop in her mouth, and complaining.
“Why does Lillian announce her relationship now? Does she want us to be stuck in the office forever?”
Rose’s heart skipped a beat.
She thought, “Already?
“I left Imperial Garden in the morning, and in the afternoon, they announced their relationship.
“Are they that eager?”
“Damn! Her boyfriend might be Judson Roach, the one in charge of the Roawards Group. The financial guys are snatching headlines from us? Hey, you! The newcomer! I need you to write this one!”
The news was all about speed. Lillian was a popular female star, so the second she officially announced her relationship, all the entertainment media needed to keep up.
“Girl, we got the photos firsthand. Please write something good.” One of Rose’s colleagues was a young man named Tommie Montoya. He smiled at her politely, “Within two minutes.”
Darrin brought Rose here.
Darrin returned to the country before the New Year and directly became the editor-in-chief of Flourish Media. Countless people were unconvinced.
Yet after some investigation, they not only knew his brilliant achievements while abroad but also found out that he was the future heir of Flourish Media.
None of the employees of Flourish Media were a fool. Those he brought would be treated with respect.
What was more, Rose was stunningly pretty.
Even those in the Entertainment Department, who were used to the glamour of countless female stars, were amazed by her.
Rose flipped through the photos and spent a minute before sending back the things she wrote.
“Good,” she said to herself.
She was not rusty. Instead, she was still a professional. Even when faced with the photos of Judson and Lillian, she could still remain calm.
In the old days, she would have suffocated at the news that they were together.
In the past, the thought of leaving him would have made her feel that she could not live at all.
To her surprise, it was fine after breaking up with him.
It turned out that time and indifference could really exhaust a woman’s deepest obsession and love. She thought that her feelings were like the sea and would never dry up, but only after thirteen years, her love for him had slowly vanished.
Letting go wasn’t hard at all. It was just that she had never given it a go.
***
The photos were taken early this morning.
Judson and Lillian stood side by side in front of the clubhouse. Under the street lamp and the night wind, he tenderly put his coat on her.
It was right after Rose went to the clubhouse, crying to see him.
Judson refused to see Rose, so she had to go to the airport to stop the surgeon herself.
She didn’t expect that the second she left, he left together with Lillian.
One more second of his time on her would be a waste, but he offered his unlimited time to the woman he loved.
Lillian was the daughter of the Stewart family, and she also graduated from Rayvale Communication University, but she majored in performing arts. With the Stewart family and Judson’s support, she developed very well after entering showbiz.
Lillian and Judson were indeed a perfect match.
***
Rose was so caught up in work. When she received Judson’s call, her mind was a mess.
She picked the phone up as a matter of habit.
“You’re not at home. Where are you?”
On the phone, Judson’s voice was somber.
“I…” Rose was still in a daze and didn’t know what to say at once.
“You have half an hour to come back.”
Before she could answer, he had hung up.
Rose froze for at least half a minute.
Then she laughed out of anger.
Right in front of her was the tidbit of progress she was making about his affair with Lillian.
If she hadn’t gone back to her career, she wouldn’t have had access to such first-hand information, nor would she have known that their relationship started so early.
She checked the time. It was 1:30 a.m.
Judson often stayed out all night and often came back late at night, but he demanded that she ought to keep her place at all times.
She figured that from now on, someone else could feel free to keep their places.
Not her.
She continued to work on her draft.
Lillian’s announcement about their relationship was actually just an ambiguous sentence. She posted, “From today on, we officially belong to each other.”
Attached was a selfie of her hand with a diamond ring on her finger.
If she wasn’t playing mysterious, then she was announcing that she was engaged to the right man.
And her right man, given all proof, was Judson.
The whole team was expected to stay up all night to get the story published before their competitors.
“I got it!” Tommie suddenly jumped up excitedly. “I got the video of Judson and Lillian picking the diamond ring!”
The whole team surrounded him at once.
“They went to True Love this afternoon picking out jewelry all afternoon!” Tommie said proudly. “This is the video from the store’s surveillance camera. I have contacts inside the company. They got me the video.”
Amid the praise, Rose tilted her head to observe the video.
It was Judson and Lillian indeed.
Almost head to head, they picked a large plate of jewelry placed in front of them.
Next to them, several shop assistants continued to bring lots of jewelry.
What an envious scene.
She could still hear Judson’s warning from this morning.
“I have some business to attend to later. Don’t waste my time.”
Now she knew that his so-called business was to pick the diamond ring together with Lillian.
