Chapter 55
In the three years since Julian Sterling's debut, his private life had been almost painfully clean.
Paparazzi had followed him plenty of times, but the most exciting photos they'd ever managed to get were Julian writing songs in coffee shops or heading into recording studios. He'd never been photographed getting particularly close to a woman.
Which made what happened next impossible to ignore.
In the middle of a crowded public event, Julian walked straight toward a young woman and leaned in to speak quietly beside her ear.
The host froze.
So did Chloe.
The livestream comments went wild.
Emma had been walking perfectly normally when Julian suddenly blocked her path.
She blinked at him after hearing what he said.
"Huh?"
Julian frowned slightly.
He assumed she didn't want to leave.
Without thinking, Julian caught her lightly by the wrist, as if to stop her from going any farther, and turned toward the audience.
"She's my—"
"Please welcome our mystery guest, Emma Carter!" the host announced, finally recovering.
Julian stopped.
Chloe went rigid.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Emma was the mystery guest?
Chloe couldn't understand it.
Why would Verve invite her?
The livestream exploded again.
Emma immediately slipped her wrist free.
She walked to the center of the stage, turned toward the crowd, and smiled.
"Hi, everyone. I'm Emma Carter."
The cameras caught her face clearly for the first time.
For a second, even the comments seemed to hesitate.
Her features were delicate and striking, but it was her eyes that drew attention first.
They curved slightly when she smiled, giving an otherwise cool-looking face an unexpected warmth.
Paired with the black cropped tank and red cargo pants, she looked completely different from the Princess Vivienne people remembered.
Then the comments caught up.
The host looked at Emma and couldn't help herself.
"You're gorgeous."
It was Emma's first time at an event like this, but she didn't look nervous at all.
She smiled naturally.
"Thank you. So are you."
It was an ordinary compliment.
The problem was the way Emma said it.
She looked directly into the host's eyes, completely sincere, as though she'd simply stated an obvious fact.
The host actually blushed.
For one embarrassing second, her heart skipped.
Julian barely noticed.
The moment Emma slipped her wrist from his hand, his fingers had gone still.
An odd emptiness settled in his chest.
He curled his fingers once and looked toward her.
Emma was standing at center stage, talking easily with the host as though Julian were barely more than another person at the event.
His earlier embarrassment disappeared beneath a much bigger question.
What was going on with her today?
And why had Verve invited her?
Maybe the brand knew she was one of his longtime fans.
Maybe they'd specifically told her to keep her distance from him during the event.
That would explain it.
The host, professional as ever, quickly recovered from Emma's face.
Then she noticed Julian.
He wasn't distracted anymore.
Now he was staring directly at Emma.
The host smiled.
"Julian, it looks like you already know Emma?"
Emma understood what had happened now.
She'd spent years supporting Julian enthusiastically enough that of course he recognized her. When she'd jumped onto the stage, he'd assumed she'd come up there looking for him.
Fair enough.
But Verve was paying her today.
And if Verve was paying her, Verve came first.
Julian returned to center stage.
"Yeah," he said without hesitation.
The host's eyebrows rose.
That was more direct than she'd expected.
For someone at Julian's level of fame, openly admitting a personal connection to a young woman in front of cameras was the kind of thing most publicists would prefer to discuss beforehand.
This question definitely hadn't been on the approved list.
Chloe was still standing onstage.
Almost no one was paying attention to her.
She wanted to disappear.
Walking off now would look strange, but continuing to stand there while everyone focused on Emma was somehow worse.
She had never been this embarrassed in public.
Offstage, the Verve marketing manager who had invited Emma could barely contain her excitement.
Originally, she'd expected Emma's recent viral moment with Leo to bring some extra attention to the event.
Apparently, they didn't even need that anymore.
Julian had just handed them another story for free.
That ten-thousand-dollar appearance fee was looking better by the minute.
The livestream audience kept climbing.
Clips of the moment were already spreading across X, TikTok, Instagram, and fan accounts.
Back onstage, the host desperately wanted to keep asking.
Then a voice came through her earpiece.
"Don't push it. Let people speculate."
A second instruction followed.
"Move on with the event."
The host resisted the urge to sigh.
Fine.
Management had spoken.
She turned back toward the audience with a professional smile.
"And we also have two more guests joining us today—actress and content creator Chloe Dawson, and beauty creator Tessa Moore."
Then she noticed Chloe standing several feet away.
"Oh! Chloe, you're already up here."
Chloe stared at her.
She had been standing there for ages.
The livestream immediately noticed.
Unfortunately for the viewers, she never returned to the subject.
That only made everyone watch Julian and Emma more closely for the rest of the event.
And they noticed something very quickly.
Julian kept looking at Emma.
Emma kept looking at the host.
She participated in every segment, answered questions enthusiastically, and spoke comfortably about Verve's history, brand identity, and new products.
In fact, she'd done so much homework that there were moments when she seemed to know the material better than the host.
The marketing manager couldn't have been happier.
Emma had initially refused the invitation until money entered the conversation, so she'd half expected her to show up, smile for the cameras, collect her fee, and leave.
Instead, Emma had prepared.
Thoroughly.
Once the event ended, the guests returned backstage to wait for the crowd to thin out.
The marketing manager immediately came over to Emma.
"Miss Carter! Thank you so much for coming today."
Emma blinked.
"You're welcome."
The manager laughed. "Seriously, you were great up there."
Emma grinned.
"I'm a professional. If I'm getting paid, I'm doing the job properly."
Not a trace of false modesty.
The manager liked her even more.
"I'm calling you again next time we have an event."
"Please do."
Julian was backstage too.
From a short distance away, he watched Emma chatting easily with a woman much older than her.
She looked confident and completely at ease.
Watching her now, Julian had the sudden thought that Emma was probably good at a lot more things than he'd ever realized.
The marketing manager noticed him staring.
He wasn't even trying to hide it.
Her curiosity finally won.
She turned toward him with a smile.
"Julian, how exactly do you and Emma know each other?"