Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 176: Press conference (part 1)

Chapter 176: Press conference (part 1)

Mia’s fingers tightened around her phone as she continued to read the tweets and the trends on Twitter. Though a lot of people were hating on her, it wasn’t as much as they were hating on Neil and hoping he got killed. She’d never felt so determined to make something right like she felt to clear his name at this point. And despite her current condition where she still felt shaken after what had happened, she knew she had to start preparing for the press conference and get it over with, not for herself but for Neil’s sake. No matter what happened, she’d make sure to change something about his current situation.

Even though she had a lot of things she needed to worry about; things like the strange feeling she’d had last night in her storage room, where she woke up forgetting what had caused her to pass out, and also Owen who she was now determined as ever to place a restraining order on so he’d never approach her again in the future. Her manager had called to tell her the bad news of her image in the entertainment industry slowly dragging to the mud because of her involvement with Neil, but she knew her ruined image would naturally be restored if she were to succeed in her plans in the press conference.

The entire time it took for Mia to finish scrolling through her phone, Rayne had sat in front of her studying her expression as she went through the trending tweets about she and Neil.

"What happened between you and Wayner?" Rayne asked, finally understanding that Mia wasn’t referring to Owen earlier when she said she loved him despite what he’d done to her, she was referring to Neil, and it was evident by her expression as she read the tweets about him.

Mia put her phone away, her expression turned distant as she began to tell Rayne everything that had happened from the moment she’d seen Neil crouching down before her car in Novaria to the moment when he told her she was too naive and inexperienced to know the difference between love and sexual desires.

"Based on everything you’ve just shared," Rayne remarked, wrapping a comforting arm around her, "it seems like he’s in love with you but is in denial. It could also be that he’s in denial because he’s an escaped convict and believes you deserve someone better than him. I’ve seen similar situations in movies."

"I know," Mia sighed, looking down at her hands on her lap. "I had thought the same at first. But you’re mistaken. Neil is different. He refuses to love or allow himself to be vulnerable to that feeling. I also believe he’s innocent, and his involvement in this mess was because of me. I want to do everything in my power to help him even though he doesn’t want my help. And before I put him completely out of my mind tomorrow, I intend to take care of it through the press conference that would be shown worldwide this afternoon."

"How do you plan to do that?" Rayne inquired anxiously, trailing behind Mia as she rose from the bed and headed to her closet, as if she hadn’t just been crying moments before.

"I intend to make absolutely certain the rest of the world knows that I don’t think he killed my mom or anyone. Maybe if I do a good enough job at the press conference, public opinion might force the authorities to see the truth as well."

Rayne watched her peel off her robe. "You would still do that for him, even though he misused and hurt your feelings?"

Mia gave her a winsome smile and nodded emphatically. "I would do anything for him."

****

In the Galverra Enterprise in Mirage Mesa, Liam and James, who was Neil’s assistant in the company and two other men were seen seated around the conference meeting room with countless of documents scattered on the table. Liam, with a pair of reading glasses perched low on his nose, used his hand to soothe his throbbing headache. He had not slept a wink since Neil had called him the day before with their plan to clear his name, and now they were engrossed in making it happen.

While Liam delved into the investigation papers, James was overheard speaking on the phone. Once he finished the call, he informed the group, "One of our investigators just told me that Miss Harrison is discussing Xavier on TV." Standing up, James switched on the large screen in the room and navigated to the live stream of the press conference.

Liam felt uneasy at the thought of Mia talking about Neil on TV, if she were to say anything wrong about him or charge him for kidnapping, she’d be making everything a lot worst. Too tense to sit down, Liam shoved his hands into his pants pockets and watched in taut silence as the pretty young woman stepped up to the bank of microphones, wearing a simple pink wool dress with black buttons at the collar and cuffs, her long hair caught at the nape in a pleated bow.

"Heavens help him," James said, referring to Neil. "She looks like Snow White, which is going to make the whole world scream for his blood if she were to say anything bad about him." James muttered, he had never seen Mia’s face this close on camera even though she was the most talked about person in the news, and he’d never known she was this beautiful and that his big boss had taken an angel with him when escaping. No man would be able to resist such innocent beauty, and he hoped this beauty was on their side, if not he’d be force to hate her for life if she were to complicate their hard work by saying something wrong about Xavier.

The men watched in silence as Mia began to explain what had happened to her at the hands of Neil when he took her from Novaria, Liam’s worried frown began to slowly fade and then, slowly, it gave way to an astonished smile as he heard everything she was saying about his friend.