Insta Empire

"A beautiful woman deserves a beautiful necklace. Ain't that right Kevin?" Bradley smirked.

Kevin leaned forward and pursed his lips as he saw the necklace that Bradley had gifted his wife, Lily. The entire necklace was inlaid with countless dazzling crystals. Kevin couldn't take his eyes off the big diamond core pendant that weighed at least three carats in the center of it.

"The Dream Lover necklace," Kevin whispered to himself.

"What was that?" Bradley asked.

"That's impossible. There's no way that that's real. The Dream Lover necklace was made by the famous French jewelry designer, Dianne. It was made up of 180 crystals and a three-carat diamond. There are only ten versions of the necklace in the world. That has be a knock off."

"It's not a knock off, it's a top-of-the-line copy of one. Lily, I remember how you much you love the Dream Lover 'necklace. And since it's impossible to buy a real one, I spent $100,000 to have a jeweler create a copy of it for you. And if you give me some more time. I will one day find the real Dream Lover for you! "

Lily closed the gift box and said with a somewhat regretful expression," It's normal that you can't buy it. After all, there are only ten real 'Dream Lover' in the world. Two years ago, I heard that in an auction, a Dream Lover was sold at a high price of $2.8 million. So, you don't have to worry about finding the real one. Plus, this is a really good copy. I love it. Thank you."

When he heard Lily's words, Bradley's heart stopped as he thought to himself, "2.8 million! My entire net worth was only around three million. There is no way that I will ever be able to buy it for her."

With an awkward smile, Bradley replied, "Sounds like this Dream Lover is very popular." Kevin reached forward, "Here Lily, why don't you let me bring the necklace home for you. After all, I'm your husband, it's the least I can do."

"Thank you, Kevin. That would be really helpful." Kevin reached for the necklace, but as soon as his hand grasped it, he felt it accidentally slip through his fingers onto the ground.

With a fake shocked look on his face, Bradley gasped, "Kevin – how could you? You threw it on the ground on purpose! That necklace was for Lily. Why would you do that to her?"

At that moment, Kevin turned around to see several of Lily's coworkers crowding around them. One women whispered to the other, "I know, I don't know why she married him. She could do so much better."

Lily took a deep breath, "I'm sure that it was an accident. Wasn't it Kevin?"

Feeling his face turn red in anger, Kevin snapped, "I'm not sorry that it happened. Lily, you deserve the real thing not just some fake copy of it from a douche like Bradley."

Seeing the employees gossiping to one another, Lily stepped forward and whispered into Kevin's ear, "Kevin, please apologize to Bradley. We're at my job. And I have a lot going on today, even if it was an accident, you need to apologize to Bradley because this is my work. It's important to me – I can't have drama like this happen. Especially not this week."

Kevin slowly nodded and turned to Bradley, "I'm sorry that I dropped the necklace that you got for my wife."

"Thank you," Lily mouthed to Kevin.

Turning to both Kevin and Bradley, Lily continued, "I'm already running so late. I have to go. But thank you both. I'll talk to you soon." After walking Lily got into the elevator, Kevin bent down, picked the necklace up, and tossed it to Bradley.

In shock, Bradley reached for the necklace but missed. This time when it fell, a fake diamond popped out onto the ground. Kevin turned around and began walking towards his motor bike as he heard Bradley's angry roar from behind him. "Stop!". "I know you can hear me! I command you to stop!" Bradley screamed as he chased Kevin.

Kevin continued, "This necklace is worth more money than you could ever imagine. And you broke it, how do you expect to fix the damage? Poor Lily, you just won't let her have anything nice, will you?"

Kevin turned around and looked at Bradley with an expressionless face, "One, Lily is my wife! You better stay away from her."

Kevin calmly climbed onto his motorbike and continued, "Two, it's my job to give gifts to my wife – so, tonight, I'll give her the real Dream Lover! She deserves more than a knockoff and she deserves it from her husband, not you."

After a pause, Kevin looked at Bradley and smirked, "Third, move, you're blocking the exit." Bradley furiously watched Kevin drive away as he yelled, "Nice try, idiot! You can't even afford a car; how do you expect to but the Dream Lover? You're such a loser!"

Bradley bent over and picked a rock off the ground. He threw it with all of his might and hit the back of Kevin's motorbike. Bradley gave himself a self-satisfied as Kevin drove away – unaware that his light was smashed. A couple of Lily's coworkers took out their cell phones and snuck photos of Kevin's broken motorbike as he drove away.

On the top floor of the skyrise, Lily sat behind her desk. Her eyes were filled with anger as she looked out the window and thought to herself, "Kevin knew how important today is for me and yet, he still picked a fight with Bradley. I know that Bradley was out of line, but that's just who Bradley is. Besides Bradley is the best shot that I have to finding an investor – I can't risk upsetting him now. The company depends on it. And now that Kevin offended him, how am I going to get Bradley to get his boss at the Williams Company to invest four million into my company to save it?"

Seeing Kevin's name on her phone, Lily bit her bottom lip and answered, "I can't talk right now."

"Lily, I'm sorry about earlier. I know how stressed you are, and I shouldn't have taken Bradley's bait. It's just that that guy gets under my skin."

Lily shook her head, "That guy is the best chance that I have for saving my company. He directly reports to the Williams family and I don't know if you know who they are, but they are the richest family in Chicago. They could save my company."

Kevin laughed to himself, "It still amazes me how after all of these years, Lily still hasn't connected the fact that my last name is the same last name as the Williams company. She must think that it's just a coincidence. Well, she is right about one thing: even though the Williams Family is secretly bankrupt, there is a Williams family member who is now officially the richest man in Chicago and I am going to save her company. I just can't tell her the truth just yet though. I mean, I've lied to her for too long about my true family, I need to pick the right moment to be honest with her or else I could risk losing her forever."

"I promise that things are going to be ok. Now, I'll let you go because I know you're busy, but I just wanted to say that I love you, Lily."

Lily felt her eyes well with tears, "I know you do." Hanging up, Kevin declared to himself, "I am going to make Lily love me again. It's not her fault, it's mine. I let myself disappear after the money went away. But I'm going to make things better. I'm finally feeling like myself again and that means that I can finally be the man that Lily deserves."

Taking a deep breath, Kevin looked at his phone and pressed the name of the person who had exiled him and left him with nothing only two years ago. SFX: Phone ring "I knew you would call," an old, rough voice answered.

"Hello Grandpa. Let's not waste any time with fake formalities. I'm calling to let you know that I can help solve the crisis of Williams Family with my money. But in exchange for that, I have two conditions. One, before six o'clock tonight, you will give me a 'Dream Lover' necklace. Second, at the downtown family branch, there is a person named Bradley. I want him removed from the building immediately."