Escape from Mr. Whitman (Emma and Theodore) novel Chapter 532

"Emma! We're with you!" The girls cheered, jumping up and down as they hugged her, nearly knocking her over.

Hugging them back, Emma couldn't help but laugh. She'd fallen for a trick like this once before; did Isla really think she'd be so careless again? This whole scheme was a carbon copy of what Sebastian had done.

Sebastian had wooed Faith with dinners and gifts, convincing her to leave and cause a scene. Isla, having grown up with him, had learned all the same tricks.

Besides, Isla had been at odds with everyone in the troupe. Her sudden friendliness was a massive red flag. Emma had been on guard from the start, and the girls had come to her privately, telling her, "Emma, let's just see what she's planning."

And so, they had orchestrated today's little performance. Isla, who had been so certain of her victory, was momentarily stunned before the full weight of her public humiliation crashed down on her.

She had been so smug, so confident, making such grand pronouncements in front of Emma, only to have reality slap her brutally across the face.

Finally losing her composure, she shrieked at the dancers, "Are you all stupid? I offered you ten times your salary!"

One of the girls, Cindra, stepped forward to face her. "We're not like you, Isla. We genuinely love to dance. This is our career, our passion. We want to explore the possibilities of our art. You just see it as a game. So what if you pay us ten times more? You might do it for a month, maybe a year. But what about two years? Three? Ten?"

"That's nothing!" Isla retorted dismissively. "My family could afford to pay you for ten or twenty years! Money is the least of our concerns!"

"This pathetic little troupe doesn't deserve me anyway!" she declared haughtily as she stormed out.

"Sebastian!" she shot back, her own anger flaring. "Your ex-girlfriend just humiliated me, and you're yelling at me?"

"Emma?" Sebastian's tone shifted instantly, becoming sharp and alert. "What did you do to her?"