Chapter 105
I saw helplessness and terror in Jeremy's eyes. He knew what was coming next.
I smiled and picked up my purse, then turned to Zach, who had invited me over, with a smile: "Zach, didn't you say Jeremy was mine for today? So I can take him with me, right?"
Zach said half-jokingly: "Jeremy's really got the charm, but... you just said Mr. Lopez is coming to pick you up. Taking him along might be a bit awkward, don't you think?"
He gave Jeremy a meaningful look, as if waiting for me to give him a good reason.
"Why don't you do it next time instead?" Benjamin suddenly spoke up. His eyes briefly swept over Jeremy, whose expression had relaxed, then he looked at me with a smile. "I still need to talk to Jeremy about some upcoming work."
Jeremy instinctively looked at me, then turned back to Benjamin with a forced smile: "Mr. White, Emily's had quite a bit to drink. Let me walk her downstairs, and we can talk about work another day?"
Benjamin looked at him with a teasing expression: "You just don't get it, do you? Now that Mr. Lopez is here, you can't get in the way of their relationship. Besides, this second half might just determine your future."
Jeremy unconsciously grabbed the corner of his shirt, smiling awkwardly: "Mr. White is right."
I was also confused. As a top-tier celebrity, shouldn't he have plenty of opportunities coming his way? Why was he still worrying about these so-called resources?
Benjamin raised an eyebrow at me: "Let me have someone escort Ms. Wilson downstairs instead. We don't want Mr. Lopez to see this and get upset."
Given what had been said up to this point, I had nothing to say, but I still looked at Jeremy and asked, "Do you want to stay or come with me?"
Jeremy hesitated. His foot had just moved one step toward me when we heard Benjamin slam his wine glass heavily on the table.
"Emily, since Mr. White has work to arrange for me, let's meet up another time." Jeremy smiled bitterly and pulled back the step he had taken.
I had no right to interfere with his choice. I just smiled at them: "Then you guys chat. We'll meet up another day."
When I got downstairs, Oscar had just arrived with the car. I quickly got in.
"I told you I could get back on my own. Your injury hasn't even fully healed yet. There's no need to drive all the way here to pick me up." I fastened my seatbelt and smiled at Oscar.
Oscar reached over and ruffled my hair: "I feel better picking you up myself. His background is complicated. I need to make sure you're safe."
The smile on Oscar's face was like warm sunshine, making me feel incredibly comforted: "I'm not a child. Besides, they're not just wary of you—they also want to connect with my backer, Michael, so they wouldn't dare do anything to me. See? I came down just fine, didn't I?"
Oscar stepped on the gas and drove off: "They're not good people. Better to be careful."
I didn't dare argue anymore. I relaxed against the seat back, pressed a button to crack the window open slightly, closed my eyes, and felt the night breeze blowing on my face through the gap.
As it turned out, Oscar was right.
Because the next day, scrolling through trending topics, I saw it blazing right there at the top—a notification that had blown up:
#Rising Star Jeremy Takes His Own Life
The cover showed Jeremy's cool and handsome face. The report below shocked me.
[Fell from high-rise building after drinking, homicide ruled out...]
I frowned deeply, a wave of guilt rising in my heart. If only I had insisted on taking him away yesterday, this wouldn't have... I didn't dare imagine what he had gone through after I left.
"Emily, what's wrong?" Seeing me sitting on the bed in a daze, Oscar came over with concern.
I looked up at him: "Jeremy was at last night's dinner."
I turned my phone toward him and said with some sadness, "But now, he's dead. When he warned me not to drink the water yesterday, I shouldn't have left him there alone. Did I indirectly cause his death?"
When I came back yesterday, I hadn't told Oscar about Jeremy. I only mentioned there were a few other celebrities at the dinner and lamented that no profession was easy.
Oscar's expression shifted. He reached out and held my cold hands in his: "No one wanted this to happen. Don't overthink it."
I still frowned deeply. How could I not overthink it?
My heart was full of guilt. Such a vibrant person, a clean-cut and handsome young man—he probably died in a very undignified way.
Oscar gently patted my head: "Don't take all the responsibility on yourself. Maybe this was just his fate."
But those words couldn't put me at ease.
Everyone has their own destiny, but because of me, someone's fate had changed. The guilt lingered in my heart, impossible to shake off.
Voices of doubt began appearing online. Fans dug up evidence that since Jeremy suddenly became famous, the company hadn't given him appropriate resources and had even suppressed him behind the scenes. This didn't follow normal logic. The entertainment company's public account had been overrun by fans.
The police quickly issued an official statement, confirming that Jeremy had mistaken a window for a door after drinking with friends at the club upstairs and had fallen out. It was classified as an accidental fall while intoxicated, with no possibility of murder.
Internet users began searching for evidence and recreating the scene, proving that the window's height wouldn't cause someone to fall out without first climbing up.
Soon, someone posted a video online in which the faces weren't clear. The video was shot from a hidden angle, but you could clearly hear heart-wrenching pleas for mercy, accompanied by increasingly loud cries, as a figure by the window was pushed down.
With so much evidence pointing in a clear direction, I looked at the police hotline on my phone and finally pressed the call button. If I couldn't save him from death, at least I could give him the truth. I couldn't let him die so unjustly.