Chapter 421: This Is My Choice

Strolling through the banquet hall with Ivanka by his side, Duke spent most of the party doing exactly this: letting her introduce him to New York's wealthy scions and exchanging brief pleasantries. While plenty of them wore open expressions of jealousy, no one dared cause a scene in such a public setting.

Many of them might be complete bastards behind closed doors, but they knew that being a bastard had its proper time and place.

After completing a lap around the banquet hall, Ivanka took Duke's arm and led him back to Donald Trump.

"Duke, let me introduce you."

Seeing Duke return, Donald Trump immediately introduced the three people standing across from them.

"This is Richard Hilton of the Hilton Group. And these two beautiful young ladies are his daughters, Paris and Nicky..."

Duke greeted the father and daughters with polite courtesy.

"May I call you Duke? Thank you..."

As he shook hands with Paris Hilton, Duke felt her pinky drag lightly across his wrist, intentionally or otherwise. She was clearly well acquainted with Ivanka.

Taking her hand, Paris said in surprise, "So you and Duke are really dating now? Congratulations, darling..."

Releasing Ivanka, Paris Hilton shot Duke a wink from an angle the others couldn't see. Having absolutely no interest in her, Duke pretended he hadn't noticed a thing.

Besides, compared to him, Donald Trump, and Richard Hilton, the two young heiresses of the Hilton family possessed no qualifications to join the conversation anyway.

To some extent, neither did Ivanka Trump.

Ivanka, however, was incredibly smart. She simply stood close by Duke's side, rarely opening her mouth unless a topic directly involved her.

"Congratulations, Duke."

The speaker was Richard Hilton. He raised his glass to Duke and continued, "If I remember correctly, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone just pulled in another 59.6 million dollars over the past weekend. In just ten days, its North American box office has crossed the 200 million dollar mark."

Duke took a sip from his glass and replied politely, "Just good luck, that's all."

"Good luck?" Richard Hilton shook his head. "You couldn't possibly have just been lucky for the entire past decade, could you? I may be a layman, but even I can tell that the top two spots on the box office charts this year will undoubtedly belong to The Fellowship of the Ring and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

He let out a sigh. "The profit your movies bring in is downright terrifying. Sometimes I can't help but want to invest in Hollywood myself."

The remark was clearly a probing feeler. "I'm sure many companies in Hollywood would love to secure investment from the Hilton Group," Duke deflected tactfully.

Ever since the massive success of The Fellowship of the Ring, news that Duke wanted to pour additional investment into The Two Towers and The Return of the King had spread far and wide. This attracted plenty of eager investors. Countless people wanted a slice of the pie, but Duke had rejected every single one of them.

Neither he nor Warner Brothers was lacking in funds right now.

Let alone Richard Hilton, Duke had even shut the door on numerous investment offers from Wall Street.

Richard Hilton didn't seem ready to give up. "Duke, could I ask how the merchandise sales are doing for The Fellowship of the Ring and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?"

"They're doing fairly well."

Hilton was obviously fishing for hard sales figures, so Duke had deliberately offered a vague response. What he didn't expect was for Donald Trump to chime in from the side.

"I actually know a bit about that," Trump said. "Last week, North American merchandise sales for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone reached around 135 million dollars."

Duke frowned. He had casually mentioned that number to Donald Trump during a chat earlier that afternoon. Even though it wasn't strictly confidential, for Trump to just blurt it out when Duke clearly didn't want to share it...

"Oh?" Richard Hilton raised his eyebrows. "What an astonishing figure."

Even though merchandise revenue had to be split among various distributors, the profit margins were still vastly higher than box office returns.

He looked toward Donald Trump.

"I recall you played a cameo in The Fellowship of the Ring. Don't you want to continue collaborating with Duke?"

"Of course we'll collaborate," Donald Trump boasted casually. "Duke and I are the best of partners."

Duke gave a light nod to play along. "Donald is an excellent actor."

"Actually, I have an even better idea for our collaboration." Donald Trump seemed to have planned this in advance. "I've been preparing to publish a book recently. It'll cover everything that happened before and after that spectacular angel and elf super-show, the things I saw and heard while with The Lord of the Rings Crew... along with some amusing anecdotes about you, Duke. I'm going to put it all in there. It's guaranteed to hit the bestseller lists!"

Hearing this, Duke turned to look at Donald Trump, making sure it wasn't a joke.

"What do you think of the idea, Duke?" Donald Trump asked with boundless enthusiasm.

His voice was rather loud, drawing the attention of several people nearby. It wasn't just Richard Hilton and his daughters anymore; a few others had gathered around.

Tilting his neck slightly to the left, Duke was just about to speak when Ivanka Trump, who seemed to have sensed the shift in his mood, quickly stepped forward and tugged on her father's arm.

"Dad, you've had a bit too much to drink!" she said softly.

Donald Trump wasn't stupid. He immediately changed the subject, turning to discuss the stock market with Richard Hilton.

Ivanka returned to Duke's side. Seeing that the gazes of the surrounding crowd were still fixed on them, she casually found an excuse. "My shoes are a bit uncomfortable. Would you come upstairs with me to change them?"

"Sure." Duke, of course, understood her intention.

Stepping out of the banquet hall and arriving at a quiet, deserted spot, Ivanka caught hold of Duke.

"I'm so sorry, Duke." Her face carried a trace of apology. "My dad always talks like that. Sometimes he just doesn't consider other people's feelings at all."

Exhaling softly, Duke looked through the glass window at the falling snow outside. He turned back, offering Ivanka an understanding smile. "It's fine. It's just a minor thing."

"Would you like to come upstairs and see my room?" Ivanka invited.

"Sure."

Duke nodded in agreement, temporarily setting aside his grievances with Donald Trump.

As one of the hosts of the party, Ivanka couldn't be away for too long. Duke merely accompanied her to the cloakroom to change into a different pair of heels, and they soon returned to the banquet hall.

"I'm going to go help my dad entertain the guests."

Ivanka was clever. She deliberately left Duke to his own devices to prevent him from having to interact with Donald Trump directly. "I saw Aerin and her sister when we came in earlier. Why don't you go say hi to them?"

"I saw them too."

Not having to listen to Donald Trump spout nonsense was undoubtedly the ideal way to avoid further conflict. Duke's gaze swept the room, locating Aerin Lauder before striding over.

Breathing a quiet sigh of relief, Ivanka returned to Donald Trump's side. Taking advantage of a moment when no one was around to greet them, she pointedly told him, "Dad, I really don't think writing that book is a good idea."

Donald Trump turned to look at her, seemingly unable to understand her logic.

"Hollywood has an unwritten rule," said Ivanka, who had spent enough time around The Lord of the Rings Crew to gain some understanding of the industry. "No matter how sharp the internal conflicts within a crew are, or how much attention the behind-the-scenes drama might attract, they never casually leak those things to the public."

"You have a special relationship with Duke." Donald Trump clearly didn't want to change his mind. "I don't think he'll mind. He constantly steps forward to drum up publicity for himself anyway."

'He wouldn't mind?'

Ivanka fought the urge to facepalm. She pressed on, "Haven't you noticed? The things Duke uses for publicity are almost exclusively related to his movies. He absolutely despises it when people use his private life for hype."

Ivanka knew exactly what kind of person her father was. She could perfectly imagine that if that book were actually published, it would absolutely be packed with gossip about her and Duke.

Seeing Ivanka's expression, Donald Trump thought it over for a moment. "Evie, I'll give this matter some serious thought."

Hearing her father say this, Ivanka relaxed for the time being. Sweeping her gaze across the banquet hall, she easily spotted Duke sitting in a lounge area, chatting with Aerin Lauder.

She knew that Aerin Lauder was one of the women who kept in closest contact with Duke, but she wasn't particularly worried. Those two had known each other for nearly a decade. If something were going to happen between them, it would have happened a long time ago.

Ivanka was well aware that Duke's private life in the past had indeed been a bit messy, but he wasn't the kind of person who lacked a bottom line.

"I didn't expect you to find an official girlfriend so quickly."

Holding a glass of water, Aerin Lauder took a sip as she teased Duke. "I figured you wouldn't even think about changing your ways until you were at least forty."

Duke shot her a glare. "I can't just end up old and alone, can I?"

"Ivanka is a good choice." Aerin Lauder looked toward where the hosts were standing, just in time to meet Ivanka's sweeping gaze. Giving the girl a slight nod, she continued, "She's different from people like the Hilton sisters, who only know how to play around in New York's elite circles. She's incredibly driven."

At this, Aerin Lauder pointed to herself and laughed. "I know you best appreciate women who are ambitious and know how to work hard."

"Am I to understand that you're praising yourself right now?" Duke shot back playfully.

Aerin Lauder smiled even brighter. "Am I not?"

Duke took the initiative to change the subject. "How is your cosmetics brand doing?"

"Having the Estee Lauder Group as a backer makes a lot of the work much easier."

Speaking of her career, Aerin was brimming with confidence. "My goal is for the brand's sales volume to break one billion dollars by 2005."

She let out a sigh. "I can't compare to you, though. A single one of your movies can gross a billion dollars at the global box office in just a few months."