As soon as she was able, Kylie paid a visit to Garcia Entertainment. Upon arrival, she saw right away that their employees were on tenterhooks. She hadn't realized that her absence caused them so much stress. As soon as she was seen, someone rushed up to her and said, "Thank God! You're finally here. "The stocks are not going up. If they continue to drop, I'm afraid that our company could go bankrupt at any moment."

"What is your biggest fear?" Kylie wondered.

​​

"Someone has told me that I should begin looking for a new job," she replied, "but I'm not young, and I still have responsibilities…. Furthermore, when I started here, I encouraged all of my relatives to buy our stocks. Now that the stocks are falling, everyone is angry with me. My grandmother could even lose her house. If that happened, she would have to come and live with me!"

"I don't know what to say," Kylie replied. "I am in the same boat as you. At this point, all we can do is hope and pray."

"Hope and pray," the woman laughed as she walked away. Once she was out of sight, Kylie walked towards her office, and as she went, she noticed that people were sluggish. Likely, the sensed impending doom, and it sat heavily on their hearts. If the company were to survive, though, she needed everyone to bring their A-Game every day. That being said, she did not know how to light a fire under their asses.

As she passed the water fountain, she was accosted by two other employees. They reminded her that it was nearly the end of the month, and they wanted to know if she would keep her promise to them. Before Kylie could answer, Lily, Fannie, and a number of artists, including Elizabeth Wilson, joined the conversation. They, too, were interested in the answer.

"I am doing my best," Kylie replied sadly. "Don't panic, though. There are still ten days left until the end of the month. I'll try my best to keep my promise."

Fannie looked at Kylie and said, "What can I do to help? We are like family here. If the company goes down, we all go down with it!"

Kylie smiled and said, "Just keep up the good work. If I need help in any area, I will call on one of you. As for now, we will be promoting a single artist. If we can show that we can bring an actor or actress from obscurity and raise her up like a star in the sky, our stocks' values are sure to rise."

All of the artists present wanted to hit it big, so they paid careful attention to see if Kylie would announce who she'd chosen to be the next rising star.

After a moment of suspense, Kylie pointed to Elizabeth Wilson and said, "I have made my choice."

Seeing who had been chosen, everyone, including Lily, was taken aback. Elizabeth had only ever posed for print ads as a model. She also played the violin, but she never considered it an advantage in her career as an actress. After a moment, she looked at Kylie and said, "I am nobody. Are you sure that you want to take a chance on me?"

"I have faith in you," Kylie replied. "Give this your all, and if you succeed, your star will rise, and you will be our savior. Don't worry about the risk. The risk is mine to take, and in order for this to work, we have to prove ourselves to the industry with an unknown artist. If you need to improve your acting skills, don't panic; I will provide you with an acting coach."

Kylie turned to Fannie and said, "I'd like you to start promoting Wilson on Social Media. The sooner people see her face, the sooner she will become a household name. Never forget: this industry is built on hype."

Kylie turned to Elizabeth and said, "After today, you will be under a kind of scrutiny that you have never previously faced. Until you are comfortable with the paparazzi, if they ask you any questions, I want you to smile and say, "I have no comment at this time," until they leave you alone.

Elizabeth nodded and said, "I can do that," and, "Thank you for this opportunity. I hope that I don't let you down."

***

Later that day, Fannie and Nina approached Kylie in her office to give her a progress report. "It is not going to be easy to promote Elizabeth," they explained, "because she has nothing to promote. That being said, we could get you back on Harmonia TV. If you agree, they are willing to allow Elizabeth to join you."

Kylie sighed. She was busy, and she had no desire to be back on the set of Harmonia TV, but she saw the wisdom in their suggestion. Harmonia had done a lot of good for her own career when she'd just started out, and she could see how it could help launch Elizabeth's.

Kylie looked up and asked where Faith was.

"She said she had an important date," Fannie replied.

Kylie's heart sank, and she hoped that Faith wasn't out with Ken before. Just to be safe, she phoned Ken's cell phone. As soon as he answered, she snapped, "Where are you?"

"Why?" Ken laughed. "Do you miss me? Did you want to invite me to dinner?"

Kylie ignored him and asked if he was alone. Once he had assured her that he was, she hung up. As long as Faith wasn't with Ken, she was confident that she was safe.

As Ken hung up the phone, he felt someone touch him on the shoulder. He turned and laughed. It was from Faith. "Oh, Faith," he sighed. "As beautiful as ever."

Faith smiled and showed him the papers in her hands. They were printouts of the stock exchange.

Ken laughed. "If you skip work," he wondered, "aren't you afraid that Kylie will get mad?"

She shrugged. She cared so much about Ken that her feelings over-rode her good sense. Ken continued to laugh and, the deeper his laugh became, the more she wanted him.

Ken took her hand and led her down the street. "Your hands are cold," he said, "I want to buy you a hot drink."

Faith looked at him, smiled, but said nothing. In the past, he had been mean to her. Now though, he was a complete gentleman. She knew that it had a lot to do with her looks, and that made her sad. That being said, she was still very happy to have the attention of such a handsome man.

They stopped at a café, and Ken bought them each a milk tea. As she drank her tea, she looked at him as if he was the only man in the world, but he warned her. He said, "Don't fall in love with me. I will only break your heart."

– But his words went in one ear and out the other. Over the course of things, though, he asked her a lot of questions about Kylie, which worried her. She prayed to God that he wasn't using her to get to Kylie. It always seemed to her that everyone wanted Kylie, but nobody even noticed her, not even now, since she'd lost so much weight.

Acting on bravery she didn't know was there, she looked at Ken and asked him if Kylie was the one person that he actually liked. Hearing this question, Ken's ears turned red. He sighed and said, "I have always had a thing for Kylie. I have had a thing for her for a very long time. I admit that, readily. That doesn't mean anything, though. Does it? She is taken, and I am single – and we are here, now, and together!"

In an attempt to change the subject, Ken asked her why she was so quiet and why she had to keep bringing Kylie into the conversation. "Aren't we having a good time?" he wondered.

In a whisper, Faith explained that she had had minor surgery on her throat, and it wouldn't be fully recovered for a few more days.

"That sounds terrible," Ken replied. "I would hate that. I love to talk about it."

As the stock market picked up in the afternoon, Ken kept his eyes fixed on Garcia Entertainment and was in constant communication with his broker. It was rumored that the price was about to double but, before that happened, the company was likely to take one more hit, and Ken wanted to get the shares at a rock bottom price.

Once he'd gotten his inside lead, he'd shared it with Kylie who, in turn, had shared it with Laurence. As he received the information, though, he felt guilty. After everything that had happened, Kylie still cared about him. As for himself, he had never cared about anyone's interests but his own.

At the moment, Laurence had no money, but he still had connections, and his credit was good. Then, when the stocks turned a profit, he figured, he could pay his debts with interest and still have enough to live out the remainder of his life in luxury.

As soon as the tide began to turn in their favor, Ethan asked Kylie to go out for dinner and talk about the stock. He wanted to know what she'd been up to in regards to the stock market. He seemed to be very suspicious of her. "I'm helping you," he said, "but every time I go to buy a stock, someone swoops in and steals it out from under my feet. Do you know anything about this?"

Of course, Kylie had done what she could to help her family, but she couldn't tell Ethan that or he'd pitch a fit. He would think that she was taking their side over his, but that was not the truth. She loved Ethan and was loyal to him, but that didn't mean that she'd turned her back on her family. Furthermore, her family needed this more than Ethan did. Ethan was already wealthy, but her family was nearly bankrupt.

"I don't know anything about anything," Kylie sighed. "Can't we talk about something different…?"