[Chapter 349: Media Frenzy, Conspiracy Resurfaces]
On this day, Linton was comfortably playing Tomb Raider in his luxurious office.
After a year of development, Fire Elf Games finally succeeded in creating the Tomb Raider game, which was launched to market in mid-last month. To boost sales, Linton even persuaded Nicole Kidman to endorse the game for an unbelievably low price of $500,000.
There was no other choice; the game company was still in its infancy and couldn't afford high-priced celebrity endorsements.
Initially, Nicole Kidman was a bit reluctant. Her management team strongly opposed the deal, arguing that such a low price would greatly diminish her star status. However, Linton explained to her that the endorsement itself wasn't important. What mattered was that once the game became a hit, it would be adapted into a female-led blockbuster movie. By endorsing it early on, Nicole would be locked in as the natural leading actress for the film.
After learning that Linton personally planned the game and having played it herself, Nicole decisively convinced her management and happily took the endorsement at $500,000.
This was the first time a Hollywood star had ever endorsed a computer game.
As soon as the game's promotional ads aired, it immediately sparked huge hype.
With Nicole Kidman as the face and the game's extremely high playability -- especially as the hottest action-adventure treasure-hunt game of the moment -- Tomb Raider sales exploded. In less than a month, sales exceeded 400,000 copies, each priced at $29.90, meaning revenue had already surpassed $10 million.
This was a remarkable achievement and stirred the Resident Evil project team, still in testing, to loud protests. Resident Evil, which required building an apocalyptic world model, was more challenging and in late-stage testing and optimization, expected to launch in Q2.
Honestly, compared to future online games, both graphics quality and playability of Tomb Raider were limited. But given the technological restrictions of the era, the game was a dominating force.
Linton was engrossed in playing and about to win the treasure when his phone call shattered his good mood, making him furious.
By mid-January, Madonna was four months pregnant. All early pregnancy symptoms had subsided. According to maternity guides, she had safely passed the miscarriage risk period and could engage in light work.
Avoiding strenuous stage performances, she could handle company management, review financial reports, or shoot some glamorous commercials without any problem.
She had accumulated over three months' worth of work, and though professional managers ran her company, she couldn't just be a figurehead indefinitely; her onsite supervision was still needed.
Since she wanted to work and it wouldn't affect her health, Linton let her be but significantly enhanced her security.
Four female bodyguards were assigned in two shifts for round-the-clock personal protection. Additionally, he had Danny lead another security team hidden in the shadows to handle any emergencies.
At four months pregnant, her baby bump was visible, making it impossible to conceal her condition. She didn't try to hide it and openly appeared at the company.
Knowing the news would eventually leak, Linton arranged for Hollywood Gossip Daily to break the story first with a shocking headline,
"Shocking News: Who Made Pop Queen Madonna Pregnant?"
Madonna's pregnancy was explosive news; as a media darling, it sparked wide coverage, attracting intense paparazzi attention.
However, more than the pregnancy itself, reporters and paparazzi were obsessively focused on who the father was -- whether they were secretly dating or if it was just a one-time fling resulting in a child.
Madonna and Linton had discussed this before and agreed on a unified approach: be open about their relationship in private, even spending nights at Linton's estate, but publicly neither would acknowledge or admit to their relationship. Follow current novᴇls on novel⸺fire.net
Madonna had hoped to make their romance public but, seeing a dozen other women close to Linton, she gave up on that fantasy.
So the next day, Hollywood Gossip Daily released another more sensational headline:
"Hollywood Playboy Linton: The Man Behind Pop Queen Madonna?"
Overnight, paparazzi unleashed all tricks; Linton's estate was nearly besieged. Some camped outside Madonna's company, others tried to sneak into Universal Studios.
All efforts were in vain. The two parties were honest but refused to discuss the matter.
Paparazzi had their own methods. Since the subjects wouldn't talk, they spun stories from scratch, leveraging Madonna's clearly visible pregnancy photos.
To outsiders, it seemed editor Sharon disregarded the boss's reputation just for hits and sales. But in truth, Sharon wouldn't dare act alone; Linton had approved the approach beforehand.
From Linton's point of view, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy couldn't harm him or Madonna. Instead, it would boost their popularity.
Luckily, every big news story has an expiration date. After over a week of intense media frenzy, the story cooled off, especially as Oscar publicity period hit. Madonna happily returned to her role, commanding orders at her company.
That day, she was in her office reviewing financials. The company's performance had been affected during the earlier months as she stayed secluded to protect her pregnancy.
However, once news broke, companies providing maternity services and baby products flocked in, offering sincere endorsement deals.
Her agents and assistants roughly calculated that even a few of the biggest endorsements brought in tens of millions of dollars. If she took on more, earning over one hundred million would be easy.
Suddenly feeling the baby kick, she happily thought about how she would joy with Linton that night when she received a call from Dr. Sandra Field at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Dr. Field warmly inquired about her health and enthusiastically suggested another prenatal checkup to ensure the fetus was developing healthily.
Without suspicion, she agreed.
When Dr. Field asked whether she was free immediately, she readily informed her assistant and bodyguards to hurry to the hospital.
Unbeknownst to her, after ending the call, Dr. Field immediately dialed another number. "Director, Madonna is coming in now."
"Good, Cornell will join you shortly. Execute Plan A," came the reply.
https://www..com/Sayonara816.