Your First Love is Pregnant? I'm Done Being Mrs. Hawthorne!

### Chapter 115: Seeing Her in a New Light

Thanks to her family’s intervention, the buzz around Cecilia Young’s situation was quickly, and temporarily, suppressed.

On the day of the rehearsal in the grand auditorium, Sandra Walsh walked in, her face etched with worry. She caught sight of Cecilia Young and looked like she wanted to say something but held back. In the end, she said nothing, instead telling everyone to go to the dressing rooms and change into their performance costumes.

The backstage dressing room was bustling with activity.

Cecilia Young, however, was not in high spirits. She stood off to the side, straightening her costume, her brow furrowed with worry.

Nina Wainwright emerged from the dressing room and noticed Cecilia wasn’t getting her makeup done. She walked over, tapped her on the shoulder, and asked, "Why aren’t you getting your makeup done?"

"A lot of important people are coming to watch today," Cecilia said listlessly, "and I think some of the people involved will be here too." Her eyes were filled with worry.

"Just focus on dancing for now. This is a rehearsal, so they definitely won’t allow any photos," Nina said soothingly.

Cecilia sighed. "Even so, I’m still worried I’ll drag all of you down with me."

Nina sat down beside her and reached out to smooth her hair. "Didn’t you say we’re a team? Even if something happens, we’ll all be there to support you."

"You mean we’ll face it together?" Cecilia asked.

"Mhm," Nina said. "They can’t just blacklist our entire group, can they?"

Cecilia couldn’t help but smile at her words. "You know, you’re more like the leader here. I’m just riding your coattails."

"I’m more like your strategist," Nina said with a laugh.

After all, it was Nina’s own money that had helped forge their team spirit.

"You really have a way with words," Cecilia sighed, getting to her feet. "I’m going to get my makeup done now."

After Cecilia went into the makeup room, Nina followed her.

There were quite a few groups participating in this rehearsal, and the audience included important officials and some of the industry’s biggest sponsors, so Cecilia’s worries were not unfounded.

As the lead dancer, Nina’s makeup was different from the others.

When she emerged with her makeup complete, the other girls waiting outside all gasped in amazement.

"Nina, you look gorgeous!" Cecilia rushed forward and grabbed her hands.

Nina’s hair was swept up into an intricate updo, and her makeup was done in a classical style.

"Really?" Nina couldn’t quite tell herself. She only knew that when she opened her eyes, the person in the mirror truly did look like a celestial fairy.

"What do you all think?" Cecilia exclaimed. "She looks completely different from the rest of us!" 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Gia Jennings looked on with envy. "Nina really is on another level. I wonder if we’d look this beautiful styled like that."

"That’s the combination of her face, aura, and figure," another girl said. "The makeup is just a bonus. Besides, our makeup isn’t bad either."

Sandra Walsh certainly had her reasons for choosing Nina as the lead dancer. Just by standing in the crowd, she projected an entirely different aura from everyone else.

"Nina, can you teach us how to cultivate that kind of aura? The instructor says it’s the most important thing for a dancer, but it’s so hard to develop!" The girls crowded around her, all talking at once.

Just as Nina was about to answer, Sandra Walsh came over, shouting for everyone to get into position.

The dozen or so girls jostled one another as they headed for the stage.

Nina was positioned in the very center, but she wasn’t meant to go on stage immediately.

As the music slowly began, Cecilia and the other dancers started to glide across the stage.

After they had been dancing for a short while, Nina was lowered onto the stage by a flying harness. In her magnificent costume, with a serene and gentle expression, she appeared before the audience.

The spotlight immediately focused on her.

The stage was filled with smoke from dry ice, and amidst the swirling mist, Nina danced gracefully, suspended in mid-air.

Every eye in the audience was turned up toward her.

Nina saw many familiar faces in the crowd, but her focus was unwavering. She poured every ounce of her concentration and emotion into her dance.

Down in the audience, Catherine Grant tugged on Julian Grant’s sleeve and let out a hushed squeal. "She really looks like a fairy... Oh my god, she’s breathtakingly beautiful!"

Adrian Pemberton, sitting next to Catherine, had eyes only for Nina.

On stage, the dancers moved with graceful power, each one performing with all their might. The audience, watching them, felt as if they had been transported to Elysium.

Seated in the very front row, Zachary Hawthorne tilted his head back to watch Nina. It was as if he was truly seeing her for the first time.

He would sometimes come home from work to find her practicing steps in the living room. Back then, he’d hated it when she danced and had never once bothered to watch her properly.

He’d learned a little about this performance. Apparently, she had co-choreographed it with Sandra Walsh, and they had been very particular about the music.

Now, seeing it for himself, he had to admit the dance was truly magnificent and grand—not like a typical classical piece at all.

The music, perfectly synchronized with the choreography, had a profound artistic quality, yet it also incorporated elements of electronic music popular with today’s youth.

Zachary generally disliked loud music, but sitting here, immersed in the performance, he found the electronic elements surprisingly sophisticated. It truly gave one the sense of being in Elysium.

Combined with the ink-wash animation projected on the screen behind them, the dance quickly conveyed its story: the journey of a celestial from an innocent flower bud, through the trials of love, to her final ascension as a true fairy.

While the story might be cliché, the theme of love has always been timeless.

The dance concluded.

Panting for breath, Nina exited with the rest of the troupe. Like a great celestial queen surrounded by her court of lovely fairies, she was ushered offstage.

The people sitting next to Sandra Walsh were all influential figures in the city.

After all, the whole point of staging this rehearsal for an audience was to attract investment for her dance studio. The choreography was complete, but creating the special effects needed to upload a polished version online would cost a lot of money—money that Sandra Walsh didn’t have. She was pinning all her hopes on getting a sponsorship from these people.

Once Nina and the others had left the stage, she couldn’t resist asking the official beside her, "What did you think of the dance?"

The official deferred to the man next to him.

The man appeared to be in his thirties and was strikingly handsome, but his high-ranking position at such a young age lent him the grave and somber air of a veteran official. "This dance could be featured on a satellite channel for the National Day broadcast," he said. "The public response should be excellent."

Sandra Walsh was stunned that he had brought it up himself. She had been planning to ask around after the rehearsal to see if there was any chance of getting on a national channel.

"That would be incredible, but if it’s going on television, it’ll need special effects, won’t it?" Sandra said, her expression troubled. "My studio... well, everyone knows our situation. Even the costumes were sponsored."

Hearing this, the man turned to Sandra Walsh, a gentle smile touching his lips. "Just send me the footage when you have it. I’ll have my people handle the production. All you’ll need to do is give it the final approval."

Sandra Walsh breathed a sigh of relief. "If you say so, sir, then I have nothing to worry about."

The instructors from the other dance troupes in attendance were incredibly envious that a piece she had choreographed was chosen for a television broadcast just like that.

The man showed little interest in the subsequent performances, and his eyes grew heavy with drowsiness.