She Outshines Them All

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It felt like a thunderstrike. Lindsay realized she had crossed a line with Brandon, and her mind went blank. She had no idea how to fix this. "Brandon," she finally said, her voice shaky. "Even if I have a foreign passport, I'm still Osceitonian, okay? You don't need to question my-" But before she could say anything else, a staff member came over, saying the party had started and inviting them to take a seat.

Brandon took a slow breath and said calmly, "Let's eat first. We will talk after."

He turned and walked away. However, the calmer he was, the more nervous Lindsay got.

She walked slowly, her mind racing. "What do I do now?"

This was serious. There was no way to smooth this over with a simple conversation.

Lindsay knew Brandon too well. She couldn't keep playing this game-she had to make a choice: either move forward with the immigration or stay with him.

She didn't hesitate. As she sat next to him, she whispered in his ear, "I want to move, but I love this country-and I love you. Since I can't have both, I choose you.

"I'm withdrawing my application tomorrow."

Brandon was quiet for a moment, surprised. He studied her carefully before asking, "Are you sure about this? You won't regret it?"

Lindsay nodded, her voice steady. "I'm sure. I've never regretted anything more than not choosing you sooner."

He looked at her for another beat before nodding. "Alright."

Lindsay let out a quiet sigh of relief. 'People change,' she thought. 'Maybe one day, Brandon will change his mind, too.'

Since Lindsay and Brandon were always so busy and she didn't visit the Donovan family much, no one really knew what was going on between them, or about the conversation they had just had

In early August, Zayn, who had been filming overseas, came back home after getting injured on set.

He had broken two ribs and couldn't continue filming, so he decided to rest at home while the production team filmed other scenes in the meantime. When Athena heard about it, she insisted he come to her medical research institute for a checkup as soon as he got to Kitmore City.

The results showed his fracture wasn't too serious, but he would still need about two months to recover.

Athena shrugged. "I've got some special meds here. If you follow the diet, rest up, and take it easy, you'll be back on your feet in a month."

She gave Zayn an injection, prescribed some medication, and then took him home.

Zayn's assistant drove, and Athena sat in the back with him. Zayn, as always, was restless. He picked up a script from the side, studying it intently and memorizing his lines.

Athena noticed a novel with a fancy cover hidden among the scripts. She picked it up and saw the title: "Beauty and the Boss".

She raised an eyebrow. "Zayn, you're into CEO novels? Never would've guessed."

Zayn glanced at the book, then quickly shook his head. "I don't like it! I've never read this. Someone just shoved it in my car and insisted I play the lead. I turned them down, though."

Athena's eyes widened. "Wait, are you telling me someone actually wants you to play Victor Dean?"

She sized him up, her hand on her chin. "Hmm, yeah, I can see it. If you put on a suit and cleaned up a bit, you would totally look like him." "I'm not playing a vile man, and no way I'm doing love scenes," Zayn insisted. Then, he asked, "Have you actually read this book?" Athena grinned. "Yeah, I've read it. I'm not really into romance novels, but this one is actually pretty fun. I can see why it's popular." Zayn just muttered, "Oh, okay," while thinking to himself, 'I didn't expect Athena to be into these kinds of books. What's so special about them, anyway?'

Athena shrugged. "I've got nothing else to do. Want me to read or even just tell you the story to pass the time?"

Zayn shook his head. "Nah, I'm not interested, not reading, not listening."

"Okay, no pressure," Athena said, not pushing it, but she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

After Zayn got back home, even

though he couldn't do anything too

strenuous, he still stuck to his

1

routine two hours of walking, morning and night. Funny enough, Tina Tate also liked to go for a walk at night. Content belongs to NovelDrama.Org

Coincidentally, Tina Tate also liked going for walks at night.

But every time Zayn went out, he either wore a wig and sunglasses or waited until it was dark enough. So, even when Tina crossed paths with him, she never realized it was him.

One day, the heat got so unbearable that Zayn just couldn't take it anymore. In a split second, he yanked the wig off, done with the damn thing. Tina spotted him right away and practically ran over. "Zayn!" she shouted. "I'm Tina Tate, the author of "Beauty and the Boss". Have you finished the book yet?"

She paused, her excitement bubbling over. "Do you think you'd make a good Victor Dean? Are you tempted to play him?"

Zayn quickly grabbed the wig and put it back on. "I haven't read it, and I'm not planning to act in it."

Tina couldn't believe it. "Wait, what? You haven't even given it a shot, how do you know if it's not a good fit for you?"

"Even if it is, I'm still not doing it," Zayn said. "I don't let anyone force me into stuff I don't want to do."

With that, he started walking off. Tina, trying to keep up with his long strides, jogged behind him.

"Fine, I won't push you," she said, catching her breath. "But I'm not giving up. I'll keep being persistent, and maybe, just maybe, you'll read the book properly one day."

Zayn shook his head with a grin. "No chance. No one can change my mind."

Tina puffed out her cheeks. "Well, what do you know? I'm the same way. From now on, I'm going to hang around your door every day, follow you around like a shadow, until you agree to it."

Zayn couldn't help but think she looked a lot like Josie when she did that. Her messy hair reminded him of Dolli, his cat.

He looked at her again, trying to keep a straight face. "You won't last. If you put in all that effort and still don't get what you want, I hope you won't hold it against me."

Tina pressed her lips together, clearly not bothered. "What? You think I can't do it? I'm not that easy to give up.

"Let me tell you, one of my life

mottos is We make effort, fate

decides. So, whether you say yes or

not is your business, but whether I

keep trying is mine. I'm not going down that easily." Content belongs to NovelDrama.Org

She took a breath, still catching her wind. "And my second motto? 'We'll never know if we can do it until we give it all.' I haven't even tried my best yet. So it's way too early for either of us to say I can't." Content

belongs to NovelDrama.Org

Zayn watched her serious expression, a small smile tugging at his lips. She was persistent, just like him.

However, he couldn't help but notice how poor her stamina was. She had only walked a thousand feet and was already panting like she had run a marathon.

Even his cat had better endurance.