If she was really determined to solve the problem by herself, he would give her his full support and he would handle the consequences.

"It's getting late. Let's go to bed," Theodore suddenly said. He put away his computer and turned off the light. Then, he lay down again and held Ariana in his arms.

It was a cold night. Ariana instinctively leaned against Theodore's warm chest. His steady heartbeat echoed clearly in her ears, keeping her wide awake.

At that moment, she couldn't help but remember what he had said in the greenhouse during the day, wondering if it was true or not.

If the misunderstanding this time wasn't cleared up, or if it tumed out that it wasn't a misunderstanding, was he really going to pull out that golden shackle and put it on her ankle?

Three days later, it was the opening ceremony of the film festival.

It was only fitting that Jayson had to go to this film festival to present their short film. Jayson still invited Ariana to go with him so if they won, they would celebrate together.

Jayson exuded such confidence that Ariana was very confident about the outcome of the festival.

By a stroke of luck, Ariana hadn't been busy recently, and Theodore was even busier after returning from the manor. Theodore and Ariana sometimes called each other at night, and they barely met.

Ariana decided to take the opportunity, and she agreed to go with Jayson.

As was tradition for the film festival, there was a red carpet walking stage. Since Jayson and Ariana weren't famous, they didn't need to go through this step.

It had been a long time since Jayson had been to such an event. As soon as he got out of the car and saw a group of journalists surrounding the venue, he felt a little uncomfortable all of a sudden.

Although the film festival was a big event, Jayson didn't particularly dress up for the occasion. His messy hair slacked over his shoulders, and he was dressed in a sweater and sneakers.

Ariana was even more casual, wearing a woolen skirt and flats. She didn't put on any makeup except lip gloss to enhance her complexion.

The duo looked more like they were going to the grocery store than to the film festival.

After finding the entrance and signing their names, Ariana and Jayson were about to enter the lobby when they saw Jasper. The latter was all glamorous tonight in his pink suit. In fact, he looked like a peacock.

Next to Jasper was a similarly flashy dressed man. The man was wearing a leather jacket and leather pants. His half-rolled-up sleeves revealed arms with flowery tattoos. He additionally wore a large gold chain and a piercing on his lower lip, nose, and eyebrows.

This man looked like the big boss of the underworld.

Ariana didn't pay much attention to the man, but she recognized at a glance that he was Edgar Benton, the new director who had risen to fame quite quickly for his excellent romance movies.

It was when she was trying to find the information about Jayson that she learned about him. Edgar and Jayson were about the same age and the themes they had covered before in their films were similar. They had even often been compared by the media.