Before Mia could say anything, Eva beat her to it. “For an awards ceremony, of


    course.”


    Awards ceremony? Timothy recalled the list of finalists for the Fleur International Design Competition.


    Indeed, Mia had gotten through to the finals. He hadn’t


    expected it.


    When Laura had insisted on getting Mia a spot in thepetition, Timothy hadn’t believed that she


    would get far at all. His gazended on Mia as he said in a low voice, “Congrattions.”


    Mia looked calm. “Thanks.”


    Timothy switched tacks. “But that evening gown doesn’t suit you.”


    “Why not? I think it looks pretty nice.”


    “It’s revealing too much of your back.”


    Mia was lost for words. The dress had been designed to have cutouts in the back. Of


    course, it would reveal her back.


    Eva nced at it, then said, “It does. Let’s look at some other ones.”


    Dominic and the others would probably flip if they saw Mia wearing something so


    revealing. It’d be better to have her wear something more conservative.


    Mia was given several more dresses to try. With each one that she put on, she could sense Timothy’s


    eyes on her. She felt a little awkward. It was as if she was trying the


    dresses on for him to see.


    When it was finally time to decide, Mia was in a dilemma. Eva asked, “Which one is


    your favorite?”


    “They’re all fine, actually.” Mia was a little absent-minded. It was mainly because Timothy was still


    watching her. Two hours had passed, yet he hadn’t left!


    Timothy pointed at a champagne-colored dress. “This one.”


    It only revealed Mia’s shoulders. Her back would be covered in it, and there weren’t


    any high slits to reveal her legs. It was very conservative and was perfect.


    For an inexplicable reason, Mia didn’t want to go with the dress Timothy had picked.


    She reached out for the first dress that she’d tried on. “I like this one.”


    Timothy frowned, looking a little displeased.


    As a pregnant woman, Eva was getting tired. She said, “It’s fine as long as you like it,


    Mia. Let’s pay for it, then.”


    Shelly was the first to walk over to them. She said, “This is a newunch, and there


    are only limited quantities. We can only sell this to you if you buy it with something


    else, I’m sure you know what that means, right? This is the rule at all of Barrett Group’s malls.”


    “Buy this one along with it.” Timothy brought the champagne-colored dress over.


    Take this one too.”


    Shelly wasn’t too happy about that. She looked at Mia. “They’re 20 thousand dors


    in total. Will you be paying in cash or card?”


    20 thousand dors? Mia looked at the dresses. She hadn’t expected them to be so


    expensive. In fact, she hadn’t wanted toe to this store in the first ce. Mia had only agreed to


    come after Eva had promised her that they’d get discounts.


    It had truly been a surprise to run into Shelly here and get into so much trouble.


    “Swipe my card.”


    “Swipe my card.”


    Two voices rang out at the same time. Mia looked at Eva, then at Timothy. She wasn’t surprised by Eva


    wanting to pay for the dresses, but what was Timothy trying


    to pull?


    Mia didn’t want Eva to know about her and Timothy’s rtionship. She put a hand


    over Eva’s. “Forget it. Let’s go.”


    Timothy said, “Don’t get me wrong. We believe that customers are always right-


    since the Barrett family is the one who caused the situation to end up like this, it’s


    only right for us to make things up to our customers by paying for the dresses.


    “Because of the mall’s policy, I can only pay for them with my personal credit card. Take it as the


    Barrett family apologizing to you for the inconveniences caused.”


    Mia stopped short. She couldn’t help feeling that something had gotten into


    Timothy. He was acting weirdly.


    Meanwhile, Eva found that it made perfect sense. “Alright, then. Since you’re sincere


    Ccontent ? exclusive by N?/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.


    in apologizing to us, we’ll ept it. Let’s go, Mia.”


    Mia watched as Eva took the dresses from the salesperson. Then, she nced at


    Timothy. Shelly, who stood beside Timothy, looked like she wanted to murder Mia.


    Mia didn’t say anything. She followed Eva out of the mall.


    Timothy watched as she left, wondering which dress she would wear for the awards ceremony. Still, the


    fact that she’d deliberately chosen the revealing dress after he’d


    rmended the champagne-colored one made one thing clear-Mia was going


    against him on purpose.