Filed to story: Seventeen Heartbreaks: When Love Has No Voice
Leila raised an eyebrow, Landon? How could that be? Confusion clouded Leila’s thoughts. Given Landon’s personality and his current circumstances, why would he agree to a media interview? Was something wrong?.
Without a word, Leila took the iPad from Sophie’s hands for a closer examination and let out a relieved sigh. It wasn’t a TV interview, but rather a live broadcast from a sneaky candid camera angle.
Someone had positioned themselves at the doorway, covertly filming Landon in his study. Excited comments flooded the live stream.
“Oh my God! He looks tall and strong, and he must be handsome. Unfortunately, he is wearing a mask.”
“I recognize the clothes he’s wearing. They’re high-end custom-tailored. Each button must be worth thousands.”
“He carries himself well.”
The more Leila read, the more baffled she grew. It was indeed Landon. But how could he possibly let someone broadcast live in his place?
With bewilderment etched on her face, Leila kept watching. Soon, a familiar name popped up in the comment section.
“Jenny, don’t be shy. Go and talk to him. Seize the chance to pull his mask. He rescued you by the roadside. He must have taken an interest in you.”
“I bet he fell for Jenny the moment he saw her.”
Reading these comments, Leila blinked, wondering if she saw it right. Landon fell for Jenny at first sight?
Before long, Jenny’s voice emerged. “‘Please, don’t stir things up. I’m just going in for a chat. We are just friends.”
Leila was totally lost on how Jenny and Landon knew each other. But a quick scroll through the comments soon gave her the answers she needed. So, Landon rescued Jenny. Leila sensed that the situation was far from simple.
At that moment, Landon shifted, lifting his head. Despite the mask concealing his face, his eyes peered out, cold and unsettling, as if piercing through one’s soul. Jenny seemed frightened, her hands shaking visibly. The netizens had yet to grasp the gravity of the situation; their comments were still light and teasing.
“Jenny, he’s spotted you! Go say hi.”
“Exactly! He’s probably aware of Jenny’s presence and is just silently waiting for her to break the silence. How romantic?”
Leila found these comments amusing. She offered Jenny a cautious warning. “He looks upset. If you linger, you might just set him off, and that won’t end well for you.”
No sooner had Leila offered her caution than she found herself the target of attacks from Jenny’s blind followers.
Confronted with a barrage of vile insults, Leila scoffed. She had no desire to waste her breath on someone so ungrateful; she simply resumed her observation of the unfolding drama.
At this point, Landon had risen to his feet. He began advancing toward Jenny, one deliberate step at a time.
Jenny hadn’t shown fear in her live broadcast yet, but she responded to Leila’s caution. “To the person who commented, I’m not sure what you’re aiming at. I know him better than anyone, and I’d appreciate it if you’d stop making malicious assumptions like this anymore.” Jenny’s voice shook as she spoke.
Leila sensed that Jenny wasn’t scared; Jenny was actually thrilled. Noticing the chill in Landon’s eyes through the screen, Leila merely curled her lips. What more was there to say? She simply wished Jenny “good luck.”
Landon stopped before Jenny.
Jenny looked up eagerly, her voice soft and flirtatious. “Sir… Is something the matter?”
But suddenly, her phone clattered to the floor. A muffled groan followed.
The netizens had anticipated a display of closeness between Jenny and Landon, the handsome rescuer. Instead, they watched in shock as Landon grasped Jenny’s throat, his voice icy. “Did you forget what I told you earlier today?”
Netizens of the live streaming went silent for a beat, and then the comments section exploded again. Some people were ripping Jenny a new one while others were freaking out and asking if they should call the cops.
Right then, Landon let go of Jenny.
Jenny slumped to the floor, still reeling from the shock. Landon’s voice cut through the chaos, cold and unforgiving. “Edgar, get her the hell out of here. She’s driving me nuts.”
And just like that, Landon’s men tossed Jenny out, witnessed by everyone in her live stream. The netizens who had shipped Jenny and Landon just moments earlier realized their wild imagination had carried them away.
The air hung heavy with awkward silence, except for the critics who seized the opportunity to pile on. Despite their harsh words, the truth in them shone through. “Hilarious! She thinks she’s some cheesy romance novel trying to snag a rich guy? He probably thought she was useful at first, but damn, she’s annoying.”
“Is it just me, or is Jenny fake as hell? She’s got a different persona for every occasion.”
“Totally. And her fans are crazy. They’ll attack anyone who criticizes her.”
Jenny scrambled to her feet, a mix of anger and humiliation burning in her cheeks. Landon had shown her zero gentleness. She comforted herself that he definitely didn’t know she was live streaming. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been this harsh to her.
Jenny wanted to shut down the live stream, but the humiliation was too much. After a long silence, she finally spoke.
“Okay, I realize I have offended him. Please don’t act like me, guys. I just wanted to be friends with him. He’s rich and has a good heart. I thought maybe he could help sponsor the kids and elderly people I take care of, but I didn’t expect his reaction to be…” Jenny burst into tears. “It’s all my fault. My actions were too offensive.”
The critics stopped being judgmental right away. Even though Jenny might have been pretending to be someone nice, her charity work was genuine. She had done something good, in the end.
As the comments turned positive, Jenny’s expression relaxed. She quickly said a few things before ending the live stream.
Staring at her phone, Leila couldn’t stop thinking about how Landon and Jenny knew each other. Lost in thought, she found herself opening her contacts.
Her fingers hovered over Landon’s number, yet in the end, she didn’t call him. After all, she had declared his business had nothing to do with her. Plus, she was in no position to ask him about it.
Meanwhile, Anna had a hard time tracking down Landon’s current residence. She rushed to the door just as a dejected-looking Jenny was leaving.
Anna frowned. “Who was that? What was she doing?”
Anna gave Lenny a meaningful look.
Lenny got the message and hurried after Jenny.
Lenny returned a few minutes later, clearly annoyed. “That woman was a real piece of work,” he grumbled. “Rude and impatient. But I did overhear something juicy. She was cursing out Leila, but I caught the whole story.”
“Really?” Anna perked up, leaning in to whisper in his ear.
Lenny looked taken aback. “But Miss, I saw her leaving Mr. Lando’s house with my own eyes. Shouldn’t we be suspicious?”
This was a fancy neighborhood, all big houses and privacy fences. Landon’s house was the only one around for miles.
Anna watched Jenny’s retreating figure and couldn’t help but sneer. “Looks like she can’t even hold a candle to Leila. Someone like that isn’t even worth my time. But she clearly has a beef with Leila. Though we don’t know the specifics, we can definitely use that to our advantage.”
“Got it. I’ll get on that right away,” Lenny nodded, already plotting.
Elsewhere, Leila talked it over with the director and decided to pay a visit to the designer who was caught up in the plagiarism scandal.
She’d heard the designer was the same age as Jenny and, even more coincidentally, they’d gone to the same university, the same department, even the same classes.
Back then, the designer was considered a prodigy. Despite coming from a modest family, she was driven and gifted. Before she graduated, the Turner Group recognized her talent and immediately hired her. The company dangled the carrot of the chief designer position, waiting for her after she graduated.
It should’ve been a win-win, but it blew up in everyone’s faces as a terrible scandal.
When the plagiarism incident gained a lot of attention, the designer swore up and down she didn’t copy anyone’s work, but she couldn’t prove it. She had no drafts or other designs, nothing. Ultimately, she threw in the towel, apologized, and walked away from the design world altogether.
Word on the street was that she wasn’t doing so well these days.
Leila didn’t realize how bad things were until she saw the designer’s current living situation. The director hadn’t been exaggerating one bit.
It took Leila three hours to drive to a tiny town on the outskirts of Halstead. Then, after another hour of walking, she finally reached a rundown shack. The place looked like it was about to fall apart any second.
Leila couldn’t believe her eyes. Sure, there had been that plagiarism scandal, but the designer was a college graduate, a talented young woman. How had she ended up in such a dump?
The answer wasn’t long in coming. An elderly woman with snow-white hair shuffled past Leila. The woman appeared to be in her eighties, hunched over and barely able to walk straight. She paused at the door, gasping for air, indicating her failing condition.
Just then, the yard’s rickety gate creaked open. A strikingly beautiful, yet painfully thin girl emerged, her gait uneven. Her hair, half-loose, framed a face that was both delicate and hauntingly lovely.
Leila was taken aback. She hadn’t expected the girl to have a disability.
The girl, sensing Leila’s stare, lifted her head. Confusion flickered across her face, quickly replaced by a mix of anger and fear. She hurried the elderly woman inside and slammed the door shut.