A small-town gas station.
"You're going to give yourself away for free???"
Angela looked at her daughter with frustrated disappointment. "Have all these years of my teaching gone to waste?"
"They haven't."
Beautiful Paige took out some gum from her bag and adjusted her appearance in the mirror, making herself look especially more fierce. "You're the one who gave me confidence."
"Don't get cocky."
Angela sneered. "A man like him is completely beyond your control. Throwing yourself at him won't help.
"And I've told you countless times: in our line of work, the biggest taboo is falling for someone.
"Because once you fall for someone, it means you've failed.
"And the reality is that love doesn't exist. Only American dollars are real..."
"That's enough, Mom."
Beautiful Paige cut her off impatiently.
She had been running scams with her mother since childhood. As she grew older, she had long since grown sick of listening to her mother about everything.
Even if she was going to con people, she wanted to go solo and fly on her own.
She refused to believe that, with her youth, beauty, and ruthless charm, she couldn't carve out a whole new world for herself without her mother.
Everyone was just playing through life. Why couldn't she be the one holding the controller?
Who was she supposed to be afraid of?
"Your way is outdated."
Beautiful Paige retorted, "Constantly scamming people and constantly running—haven't you gotten tired of it after all these years?
"You know, the most effective scam is finding a man like Adam Duncan, someone with looks, talent, wealth, and a body that are all first-rate.
"Then you fall into it yourself and pull him in too.
"By then, there'll be no need to keep running or conning other people. You'll have everything."
"How naive."