Filed to story: Mia Bowen and Timothy Barrett Novel
Dominic and the others would probably flip if they saw Mia wearing something so revealing. It’d be better to have her wear something more conservative.
Mia was given several more dresses to try. With each one that she put on, she could sense Timothy’s eyes on her. She felt a little awkward. It was as if she was trying the dresses on for him to see.
When it was finally time to decide, Mia was in a dilemma. Eva asked, “Which one is your favorite?”
“They’re all fine, actually.” Mia was a little absent-minded. It was mainly because Timothy was still watching her. Two hours had passed, yet he hadn’t left!
Timothy pointed at a champagne-colored dress. “This one.”
It only revealed Mia’s shoulders. Her back would be covered in it, and there weren’t any high slits to reveal her legs. It was very conservative and was perfect.
For an inexplicable reason, Mia didn’t want to go with the dress Timothy had picked.
She reached out for the first dress that she’d tried on. “I like this one.”
Timothy frowned, looking a little displeased.
As a pregnant woman, Eva was getting tired. She said, “It’s fine as long as you like it,
Mia. Let’s pay for it, then.”
Shelly was the first to walk over to them. She said, “This is a new launch, and there are only limited quantities. We can only sell this to you if you buy it with something else, I’m sure you know what that means, right? This is the rule at all of Barrett Group’s malls.”
“Buy this one along with it.” Timothy brought the champagne-colored dress over.
Take this one too.”
Shelly wasn’t too happy about that. She looked at Mia. “They’re 20 thousand dollars in total. Will you be paying in cash or card?”
20 thousand dollars? Mia looked at the dresses. She hadn’t expected them to be so expensive. In fact, she hadn’t wanted to come to this store in the first place. Mia had only agreed to come after Eva had promised her that they’d get discounts.
It had truly been a surprise to run into Shelly here and get into so much trouble.
“Swipe my card.”
“Swipe my card.”
Two voices rang out at the same time. Mia looked at Eva, then at Timothy. She wasn’t surprised by Eva wanting to pay for the dresses, but what was Timothy trying to pull?
Mia didn’t want Eva to know about her and Timothy’s relationship. She put a hand over Eva’s. “Forget it. Let’s go.”
Timothy said, “Don’t get me wrong. We believe that customers are always right-
since the Barrett family is the one who caused the situation to end up like this, it’s only right for us to make things up to our customers by paying for the dresses.
“Because of the mall’s policy, I can only pay for them with my personal credit card. Take it as the Barrett family apologizing to you for the inconveniences caused.”
Mia stopped short. She couldn’t help feeling that something had gotten into
Timothy. He was acting weirdly.
Meanwhile, Eva found that it made perfect sense. “Alright, then. Since you’re sincere in apologizing to us, we’ll accept it. Let’s go, Mia.”
Mia watched as Eva took the dresses from the salesperson. Then, she glanced at
Timothy. Shelly, who stood beside Timothy, looked like she wanted to murder Mia.
Mia didn’t say anything. She followed Eva out of the mall.
Timothy watched as she left, wondering which dress she would wear for the awards ceremony. Still, the fact that she’d deliberately chosen the revealing dress after he’d recommended the champagne-colored one made one thing clear-Mia was going against him on purpose.
“Timothy, how could you stand up for Mia? I was so humiliated,” Shelly complained.
Timothy retracted his gaze and said coldly, “If I catch you doing this again, don’t even think of setting foot in any of the Barrett Group’s malls in the future. I’m a man of my word.”
“How can you do this to me, Timothy? I have shares in the company, too.”
“Because I’m the one calling the shots now. It’s bad enough that you don’t contribute to the company at all. There’s no way I’ll allow you to drag the company down.” With that, Timothy turned and left.
Shelly was left behind. She stomped her foot angrily but didn’t dare to rebuke
Timothy. After storming out of the store, she called Maya. “I need to tell you something, Maya. Mia actually got into the finals of the competition.”
“Really?” Maya had been too busy with her work to pay attention. She only checked the list of finalists that had been sent to her through WhatsApp. Sure enough, she saw Mia’s name on the list.
Her expression turned cold. “I didn’t expect her to be this lucky.”
Getting to the finals of the Fleur International Design Competition wasn’t easy. One had to have some actual skill to achieve this.
“That’s not all. She was here at the mall to buy an evening gown. I wanted to teach her a lesson, but I didn’t expect Timothy to be making his rounds today. He helped her out and even bought the evening gown she picked out for the awards ceremony!
“Shelly said.
“What?” Maya scowled. There was no way she could allow Mia to use this competition as a way for her to shine. It would only attract all of Timothy’s attention.
“What should we do, Maya? Mia’s pretending to back off as a way to make Timothy see her in a different light. He’s already less biased against her.”
“Don’t worry about that. I have my ways of dealing with her,” Maya said.
As she hung up, her eyes darkened. She wouldn’t allow anyone to take Timothy from her. He was an outstanding man, and he would belong to only her!
She looked at the list of finalists and smirked coldly. This time, she would show Mia who was boss.
Mia and Eva left the mall. Eva asked, “What do you think of Barrett Group’s president, Mia?”
Mia’s steps faltered at this. “Why do you ask?”
Did Eva suspect something?
“Nah, it’s nothing. I was just asking. I think he’s pretty principled, actually. He made that fussy bully apologize to us as a way of protecting his customers.”
Mia knew Timothy had always been like that when it came to work. He wouldn’t let anyone off the hook, no matter who they were. It was why Barrett Group had expanded so rapidly.
Before today, Eva had been biased against the Barrett family. It had started three years ago after Timothy had had his accident. Before the accident, he’d been madly in love with Maya. Yet he’d married a different woman after the accident.
To make matters worse, Maya was still shamelessly insisting on marrying Timothy.
She acted like she couldn’t live without him.
Eva didn’t say anything about this to Timothy, though. He probably didn’t know who she was. After all, she’d always lived in Nord City and had never come to Bern City before this.
Mia and Eva stopped talking about Timothy.
After arriving home, Mia looked at the two dresses. Her gaze landed on the one
Timothy had picked out. To tell the truth, she liked it more than the revealing dress.
The color was nice, and it didn’t reveal too much skin. It was just that Mia didn’t want to go along with Timothy’s choice. Still, she couldn’t help wanting to laugh as she thought about how Timothy had taught Shelly a lesson at the mall.
That weekend, Liam brought Mia to a salon to get her hair done. When it was finally time to select the dress, Liam suggested she wear the champagne-colored one. The reason was simple-it was more conservative than the other one.
In truth, Mia wasn’t used to wearing revealing clothes. In the end, she put on the dress that Timothy had picked out.
She and Liam went to the venue for the awards ceremony. There were many cars parked outside. Several paparazzi waited outside.
Mia was about to get out of the car when she saw Timothy’s car. Her breathing hitched. She hadn’t expected him to be present as well!
Timothy’s car had pulled up by the road. The paparazzi had their cameras aimed at
1. it.
The door opened, and Timothy got out. He wore a dark suit, and it made him look mature and handsome. As soon as he got out, a pair of heels followed closely behind. A woman in a white gown got out after him.
Mia watched as Maya got out of Timothy’s car. Obviously, they’d come together.
Her pupils constricted, and she felt a little gloomy. Still, she quickly composed herself. It was only normal for them to come together. After all, they were supposed to be a match made in heaven.
Liam opened the door. When he made his appearance, one of the paparazzi cried, “
Linden Lane is here!”
The other paparazzi swarmed the car when they heard this. Liam kept a low profile and rarely made public appearances when he wasn’t filming. He didn’t even shoot many commercials, let alone accept interviews.
The paparazzi surrounded the car.
“Mr. Lane, why are you at the Fleur International Design Competition?”
“Mr. Lane, are you here for work or personal reasons?”
Liam stood by the door, looking calm. “This is a personal matter. Sorry, but could you guys move back? Someone else needs to get out of the car. I don’t want you to cramp her.”
The paparazzi shuffled backward and peered into the car curiously. Was there someone else in there? Was it a woman? Was Liam going to announce his new relationship?
At this moment, Mia cowered in the car. She didn’t dare to get out at all. She was caught off guard by the sheer number of paparazzi surrounding the car.