The Dancing Girl in The Painting ** (Camren)

Chapter 90: Be Your Best

Camila's POV

Lauren always loved me. I knew it. She made a mistake. I saw it. She regretted it. I felt it. I was hurt when I saw her kissing Selena. It was even more heart-wrenching when I heard it from her. She admitted, but I appreciated her honesty. She might always keep things from me, but she never meant to lie to me. It was one thing I should discuss with her if we wanted our relationship to last longer or forever.

I had been suspicious that there was something wrong when Lauren started telling me that she would always love me whenever she got a chance. It was after she was attacked by those two men after she left the rally, and it got intense when I got shot. She might be good at keeping secrets, but I was too good at reading between the lines. The way she told me that she would always love me was a bit too much. Every time she said it, I saw worries in her eyes. It was like she was going to leave me or die anytime soon.

I understood that she did not want to worry me. Since she kept her things that way, I did my things my way. I started to push Jason and the team to work harder. We had found out those guys who attacked Lauren twice were under the same command. Jason did find out about the shooter and the man behind him within a month, but we did not tell Lauren. If I told her, she would consider ending our relationship, not for her own sake, but mine. Not to mention, she sometimes still thought she was not good enough for me.

Lauren had a heart of gold. She would not kill Javier even he wanted to kill her. She would choose to break her own heart and our relationship, to see me alive, and forgive Javier just like my father did. I would not kill him by myself, but I would take his freedom and power away. I would put him where he should belong. I could not run my plan precisely and meticulously if Lauren knew about it, so I did not tell her that I was working on Javier's case.

My secret team at the company had started to work on it since Javier rejected the Stone Group and attacked Lauren in my office. I did not know much about Javier at that time, but I saw something was not right. I trusted my intuition. I expanded the investigation and asked Jason to lead his team to investigate further when I got shot. His team was responsible for things that were unrelated to work and company.

First, I thought he was targeting Lauren because of work. He was not happy when Lauren became my mentor, and I did well. Javier wanted to get rid of Lauren as he knew Lauren could continue my father's success. It did not go well with his plan to see me fail and take over our company. He would not kill me, or Sofia because the company would not be handed to him on a silver platter. Lauren was a threat to Javier since he knew she was the one who was written in my father's will, not him. Lauren had won both my father and my heart. Javier was more determined when he knew about our relationship.

One crime led to other crimes. I decided to expose all Javier's crimes when I knew he was the one who killed my parents. It was after my birthday before Lauren left me. When Lauren left, and Jason finally told me about the main reason she left a month later, I could not get more furious. I determined to take Javier down. I was persistent to expose every single crime he did.

I let Lauren leave. I did not want to find her. If she loved me, as she said she would always love me, she would not go anywhere. She would come back to me one day. I believed so, and I was right. I was hurt when Lauren cheated on me, but she did not break my heart as I knew she loved me, and I loved her. That was why I was not lost in sadness when Lauren left. I seemed to move on fast and did well after she left because I knew she would come back to me, and I needed her to stay away from the case. If Lauren convinced Javier that she had left me by leaving New York and selling the painting, I got my way. I let Lauren go and dated Harry publicly.

I dated Harry for a show. He was looking for a PR relationship so did I. We were friends since we were toddlers. We were like siblings. We would never be in a romantic relationship. Harry was a great singer and good actor. It made us easier to fake our relationship in public. People and the media bought it even Lauren believed it. I was certain Javier as well. It was only Dinah, Timothée, Harry's manager, who knew that our relationship was not real. It was for publication.  It was the way to keep Javier away from Lauren, to keep Lauren safe.