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Annie was very happy recently.
Because her boyfriend became the CEO of Vought, her work within The Seven also became extremely easy.
Aside from the movie currently in production, which she had to attend, the Group basically wouldn't assign her to other less important tasks.
Annie no longer had to deal with the various announcements, commercial performances, model photoshoots, and even some messy affairs that used to bother her.
She only needed to make a brief public appearance while completing the work Vought assigned her.
The rest of the time, Annie was free to do whatever she wanted.
And what she wanted to do most right now was to go around fighting criminals.
Annie believed this was the inherent duty of a Superhero; she had always done it, done it well, and wanted to continue doing it.
This was the reason for her recent happiness.
Compared to truly being a hero, the troubling matters within The Seven seemed insignificant to her.
Annie was originally very happy.
Until… she was having lunch on set and saw her mother, Donna, and Stormfront sitting with Donna in the set's restaurant.
Upon seeing her mother, Annie's mood instantly turned very bad.
She couldn't remember how long it had been since she last saw her mother.
It seemed that ever since the Compound V incident, her relationship with her mother had become very strained, and she hadn't contacted her since.
Although Annie later understood that she perhaps shouldn't blame her mother, after such a long time, Annie had grown accustomed to her current life and didn't really want to face the mother who had once deceived her.
Or rather, Annie needed more time to mentally prepare herself.
Annie had originally thought that she would take Kevin to see Donna after some time, but she never expected Donna to show up here.
And right in the restaurant on The Seven's set, chatting with Stormfront.
Annie knew what kind of person Stormfront was, so when she saw Stormfront sitting with her mother, Donna, her initial resentment towards her mother disappeared, replaced by worry for her mother.
"Mom? Why are you here?"
Out of concern for her mother, Annie quickly walked over to Donna and asked.
Donna looked at Annie, at the daughter she had regarded as her pride since childhood, with a mix of worry, fear, and an indescribable pride in her eyes.
Donna looked at Annie with complicated eyes for a long time, scrutinizing her from head to toe, before finally saying:
"Annie... you're really beautiful now..."
"Mom, answer my question first, why are you here?"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I texted you, but... you seem to have blocked me..."
Donna sounded a bit wronged as she said this.
Seeing this, Annie's heart softened instantly; her tone softened a bit, and she sat down to talk to her mother, Donna:
"I... I didn't mean to block you, it's just that I felt... we both needed time, time to cool down."
"I know, but, I missed you, Annie."
Donna reached out and held Annie's hand.
For such a long time, Donna had been alone; with her daughter not by her side, she felt as if everything in the world had lost its color.
Donna also knew that her actions had deeply hurt her daughter, and she could understand Annie wanting to be alone for a while.
But... whenever Donna saw Annie's commercials on TV or heard her voice, she always felt lonely.
Her husband had left her because of her past actions.
Her life now only had her daughter, Annie, and Donna did not want her daughter to hate her and never contact her again.
So, even though Donna knew her actions might annoy her daughter, she still came to the set, just to meet Annie in person.
Now, Donna had achieved her wish.
"Your mother is very good to you, Starlight. Although I think this is your family's business, as an outsider, I still want to say that there shouldn't be such a big gap between a mother and daughter..."
Next to the dining table, Stormfront spoke to Annie like a sympathetic older sister.
Donna heard Stormfront say this and also began to speak well of Stormfront, telling Annie:
"Before you came, it was... Ms. Stormfront who was with me; she talked with me a lot."
"...Now is not the time to talk about these things, Mom."
Annie wanted Donna to wait until they went back to discuss these matters, but just then, Stormfront interjected:
"Donna, can I speak to her?"
"Of course."
Without waiting for Annie to reply, Donna agreed to Stormfront's interruption.
Stormfront turned to Annie and said:
"I already know about the situation between your mother and you, because of Compound V, right? Your mother is very sorry for having kept this from you. She just wants to apologize to you."
After Stormfront finished speaking, Donna immediately chimed in. She held Annie's hand and said sincerely:
"I know what I did to you before was very excessive. I treated you like a commodity, a trophy that could be put on display. This is the most outrageous thing I've ever done in my life, and I can understand if you resent me forever.
"But..."
"Mom!" Before Donna could finish, Annie stood up and interrupted her: "Now is neither the time nor the place to discuss this. I don't want to upset you, Mom, but you need to go now, and I need to get back to work."
"Annie..."
Donna looked at Annie with eyes full of grievance. She was about to say something more, but Annie had no intention of listening further.
Stormfront then stood up and said:
"You're leaving already? Don't you know Donna loves you very much?"
"Of course I know my mother loves me very much!"
Annie turned her head and shouted at Stormfront.
Perhaps her voice was a bit loud, and the other people in the restaurant also turned their gazes towards them.
Upon noticing the gazes of those around her, Annie's voice softened considerably, and she said to Stormfront:
"But this has nothing to do with you! I don't care what you want to do, or what you're thinking, but please stay away from my mother, okay?"
"Annie!"
Annie's very cold attitude towards Stormfront surprised Donna.
She seemed very confused as to why her obedient daughter, who was kind to everyone, had such a strained relationship with her teammates in The Seven.
But Stormfront seemed to understand something.
"...Did Kevin tell you something?"
Stormfront's smile receded somewhat as she asked Annie.
Annie took a deep breath:
"He didn't tell me too much, but he did tell me to stay away from you."
"Wow, then it seems he really loves you, to think of protecting you in this way..."
Stormfront said meaningfully.
Donna didn't understand what they were talking about, but she heard the name Annie mentioned.
Kevin.
She also remembered another purpose for coming to see Annie today:
"Oh, by the way, Annie, why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend? The Deep... right? He's a very good man, I'm happy for you to find such a boyfriend..."
"Mom! I'll reiterate, now is not the time to talk about these things! If you really want to chat with me, please wait until after my work is finished!"
Annie once again rudely interrupted her mother.
She actually didn't want to do this, nor did she want to upset her mother.
However, when Annie noticed the sparkle in her mother's eyes when she mentioned Kevin, Annie suddenly recalled the times her mother used to take her to various events.
At this moment, Annie realized that Donna didn't actually care who Annie's boyfriend was.
It was only because Annie's current boyfriend was Kevin, The Deep from The Seven, now the CEO of Vought, one of the wealthiest and most charming men in the world, that Donna showed such an expression.
Annie thought that this period of cooling off might have changed her mother.
But clearly, Annie was wrong; Donna might have changed somewhat, but fundamentally, she was still that woman who worshipped money and material things.
Out of affection for her mother, Annie didn't want to think about it any further.
She hastily ended the conversation and quickly left the restaurant, running back to her resting RV.
The work on set would still take a long time; Annie's claim that she needed to continue working on set was a lie.
Annie just wanted to find a place to calm down properly.
Entering the RV, Annie sat on the bed inside, rubbing her forehead irritably.
Her mother's visit had thrown her thoughts into disarray, and she simply couldn't muster the energy to do the work she was supposed to do.
After thinking for a long time, Annie, feeling that this couldn't go on, took out her phone and dialed Kevin's number.
The call was answered quickly.
"Annie? What's wrong? Calling me at this time?"
In the call, Kevin's tone was full of concern for Annie.
Because he knew very well that it was still work hours, and Annie, in order to better perform her hero duties, would focus diligently on her tasks during work.
She wouldn't get distracted, nor would she proactively call Kevin.
Unless she really had something important.
"Kevin..." Annie sighed tiredly, "...My mom came to find me."
"...Ms. ...Donna? What did she say to you?"
"Nothing much, just... some private matters, but the problem is she met Stormfront, and I'm worried Stormfront might... hurt her."
"Don't worry, I'll arrange for someone to protect Donna Ms. How are things on your end? Do you want me to come over and keep you company?"
"No need, you just focus on your own things. I'm... everything's fine here."
Kevin's concern poured a few drops of clear, sweet dew onto Annie's slightly agitated heart, making her feel much better.
After chatting with Kevin for a while longer, Annie hung up the phone and went to the mirror to touch up her makeup.
The afternoon's work was still very busy, and she had a lot of filming to do, so her makeup couldn't smudge.
Although there were makeup artists to help touch up, sometimes, there was no need to bother these workers for small things.
The members of The Seven were difficult to deal with, and Annie thought that if she could reduce some workload for these makeup artists, she would.
To cause them less trouble.
Sitting in front of the mirror, Annie thought to herself while picking up the cosmetics nearby to touch up her facial makeup.
However, when she looked up at herself in the mirror, she suddenly froze.
The person in the mirror was Annie herself, but it also seemed not to be her.
Because of Kevin's existence, Annie's combat suit was designed by herself, a very pure and girlish uniform.
But the Annie opposite in the mirror was dressed very revealingly, almost like an escort preparing to go to some indescribable place.
Annie looked at herself in the mirror, and the reflection in the mirror also looked back at her.
They both froze simultaneously, and almost at the same time, they raised their hands to touch the other self in the mirror.
But just then, Annie's RV door was knocked upon.
From outside the door, Ashley's voice came.
"Starlight? Not ready yet? The afternoon shoot is about to begin!"
"I'm coming!"
Annie instinctively turned her head and replied to the door.
Then she quickly turned her head back to look at the mirror.
But sure enough, the reflection in the mirror, looking like an escort, had disappeared, and it was still Annie herself reflected.
"What the..."
The strange and eerie phenomenon almost made Annie curse out loud.
For a moment, she couldn't tell if what she had just seen was her own hallucination or something else entirely.
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