Chapter 445 Rick’s a B*stard
“You don’t have to worry about us.” After saying that, Shane leaned back into his seat and closed his eyes to rest.
Charlotte had wanted to discuss the issue with him properly. However, she caught the double meaning in Shane’s words. What did he mean when he said ‘us’? Was he talking about his relationship with her, or was he talking about his relationship with Christopher? If he had meant the latter, wouldn’t that mean…
Charlotte stopped herself from overthinking it. She hoped that it was just her overactive imagination messing with her. Once they got to a restaurant, the couple did not have much of an appetite to enjoy the food properly. They ate in silence.
Soon enough, night came. Charlotte sent Shane back to the villa, but did not get out of the car with Shane.
“Are you going somewhere else?” Shane frowned as he looked at her.
“I’m going to meet a friend.” Charlotte shook the phone in her hand. “Call me if you need anything.”
Shane watched her leave.
Charlotte hadn’t been lying to Shane. She had received a phone call from Cassius, the new celebrity in the entertainment circle she had previously worked with. He hadn’t been doing well lately. Although he had proven himself recently, many companies were still not optimistic about his future prospects. In other words, although he was well-known, his fandom was declining in numbers.
This was not anything unusual. In the entertainment industry, if a star encountered this kind of situation, they would get people to work on fixing the matter. However, Cassius was not one to ask other people for help, so he had a mental breakdown when he found out he couldn’t fix it himself.
After he got rejected from several famous companies in the industry, his heart couldn’t take it anymore…
Charlotte could only sigh as she thought about his situation. Young people these days were getting more and more erratic. In the past, all great actors had to work their fingers to the bone to get to where they were today. They had borne countless gossip about them and stood tall.
“Creak!”
Charlotte pushed a door open.
“Miss Charlotte!” Cassius raised his head and looked at her with red eyes. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I called you. Can you please help me?”
“Is this about business?”
“Not exactly.”
Charlotte raised her eyebrows. She hoped that Cassius had really called her over for a personal issue. If it was something about business, she would have been disappointed in him.
After all, Cassius was one of her successes. As he was now a brand ambassador, and she was his spokesperson, it was necessary for her to help him.
“What’s the matter?” Charlotte poured a glass of lemon water for herself.
“I have a friend suffering from a very detrimental disease. He will die if he does not get treated soon. It was supposed to be his turn to receive surgery, but some rich fellow went and bribed him with a large sum of money. He’ll have to wait for ages now, and he doesn’t have long! My friend’s just an amateur singer…”
Singers were not like actors.
It was usually very difficult for amateur singers to stand out because they were not given many opportunities to do so. Additionally, although there were some good-looking singers in the entertainment circle, most of them were very nice to look at.
If one could easily become an idol without any artistic talents, then who would want to invest more money than they had to in a talented singer?
In recent years, many entertainment companies have not acknowledged singers as much as they used to. Even if one did sing really well, they would still need an agency to help promote them.
If an amateur singer like Cassis’s friend encountered such a costly problem, all he could do was ask the people around him for help.
“How did that happen?” Charlotte frowned.
“I don’t know, but I’ve heard that the other person was very domineering. They gave my friend an ultimatum. My friend either had to take the money and give up his place, or he could not take the money and live in debt for the rest of his life. My friend had no choice but to take the money! And this surgery is very urgent as well. They need to wait for the right organs to be available in the hospitals. Even though the hospital does not take kindly to such bribery, it doesn’t mean that his family wouldn’t take it. After all, my friend’s parents are from the countryside, so they can’t come up here to support him at all.”NôvelDrama.Org holds text © rights.
If his friend’s family members were here, Cassius suspected that they would probably take the money anyway.
When Charlotte noticed that Cassius had not mentioned how much money had been offered, she guessed that the sum must be alarmingly large. “How much was on offer?”
“1. 2 million dollars.”
Charlotte rubbed her temples and asked, “What surgery does your friend need?”
“A kidney transplant.”
Charlotte’s head hurt even more. She took out her phone and asked Avery to look up which rich person had kidney problems. Avery was very efficient. In less than ten minutes, he had already found something. “I’m not sure if it’s the person you’re looking for, but I found an interesting one. He’s a distant relative of Rick’s. He’s a good person, but after he made big bucks and got rich in recent years, he’s notoriously known to use money to solve all his problems.”
Alright.
It was someone related to Rick.
“I have a friend here who needs the same surgery. Any thoughts?”
“The surgery itself is not a problem, but is there a kidney available?”
“Can you get a hold of that?”
“It’s against the law!”
Charlotte let out a long sigh. Just as she was about to tell Cassius that she might not be able to help him, Avery spoke up again, “However, I do know that there are some people who want to sell their kidneys in the black market. They’re all in urgent need of money and I might be able to get a hold of them. I could bring Skylar to meet up with a willing party and check out their compatibility.”
“That would be great.”
“I’d like to meet your friend’s friend.”
“Cassius, is your friend free now?”
Cassius nodded fervently. “Yeah, he is. He’s been waiting to hear from me in the hospital. He’s dying, If it hadn’t been urgent, I wouldn’t have come to you. I know how much you hate trouble…”
Charlotte stretched out her hand and patted him on the shoulder. “It’s alright. You’ve helped me make a lot of money, so helping you with this is nothing. Send me the address. We’ll get going right away.”
“Alright.”
Cassius choked up with sobs as he sent the address to Charlotte. He cried all the way to the hospital. Charlotte couldn’t bear to see him in tears, so she elected to look away.
Meanwhile, Avery was still on the phone with Charlotte. They had not hung up yet. The man joked from the other side, “Is that your boy toy?”
“Stop spouting nonsense.”
“I think it’s a pretty good idea. Developing a relationship with him must be much better than always hurting whenever you’re with Shane.”
“Don’t make trouble.”
“I’m serious! The help you’re offering him is too much. Don’t you think it’s fair for you to ask for something in return?”
Charlotte simply ignored Avery.
Seeing that he wasn’t going to get any more interesting reactions from Charlotte, Avery asked for the address and brought Skylar with him.
…
Half an hour later, everyone arrived at the hospital.
Charlotte didn’t expect that the friend that Cassius talked about was Westin Ferrell.
She stared at the star who had once stood on stage with pride. Now, he looked devastatingly pale, and could only lie on his sickbed as he waited for death to claim him. She felt her heart ache for him.
“Why didn’t you tell me it was Westin earlier? He’s not an amateur singer at all! He used to hold concerts all the time, and he has a huge fanbase!” Charlotte exclaimed.
“Westin told me to lie about that part,” Cassius answered obediently.
Forget it.
Charlotte was not willing to scold Cassius, who looked adorable at the moment. She patted him on the shoulder and walked up to Westin.
Westin had told Cassius that if whoever wanted to help him was willing to do it even though they knew he was a nobody, he would do his best to repay them. On the contrary, if no one ended up helping him, he could only succumb to his fate.
“You’re pretty lucky.” Avery handed the report to him. “It says here that you have at least two months. I’m sure these two months will be enough for us to find a compatible kidney for you. However, you should know that the surgery itself is not the major issue you have to account for. You have to understand that the surgery aftercare is a huge problem in itself as well.”
“I can deal with that,” Westin said. “My biggest issue now is that I have no way of leaving the hospital. That’s why I had to bother Cassius to help me.”
“Don’t worry. As long as you know how to take care of yourself, we’ll do our best to help you. You only need to lie in your ward and relax. As for the ‘rich man’ who gave you the money, it’s unfortunate that he’s someone we know. Just treat this as an apology on our part.” Avery added through gritted teeth, “I have to say, Rick owed me a big one!”
Charlotte couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head.
He could’ve just straight up called Rick a b*stard if he wanted to.