Chapter 258: She Played the Pity Card
Lucas suddenly remembered that the phone in his hand wasn’t his.
He had been watching the entire stream on Mia’s phone, still boxed in by the three girls on the couch. He shifted slightly, reached into his pocket, and pulled out his own phone. After unlocking it, he searched for Gracie’s livestream and joined from his account.
The stream loaded quickly. The viewer count was still climbing, and the chat remained chaotic from the videos she had just shown. But the energy of the live had started to shift. Gracie was no longer only playing old clips. She had begun accepting a few people into the stream to talk.
Not everyone.
Only a small number.
Lucas noticed it almost immediately. She wasn’t letting random viewers speak. She was selecting names carefully, focusing on accounts that looked high-level, active, or financially useful. It was subtle, but deliberate.
Gracie had always lived above her actual means.
Her lifestyle was expensive. The kind of expensive that required constant money coming in.
She maintained a heavy BBL, regular body treatments, skin procedures, designer pieces, luxury stays, and the overall image of a woman who never struggled.
That image was part of her brand. Soft lighting, carefully chosen angles, and a body that looked high-maintenance were all part of what kept attention on her.
For a long time, the money had come easily.
There were always men willing to send funds just to stay in her inbox. Some wanted conversation. Some wanted attention. Some wanted the fantasy of being close to her. As long as the transfers continued, she kept them around.
The moment they started demanding to meet in person, she usually slowed down or disappeared.
Recently, though, things had changed.
More of them had gotten smarter. Fewer were satisfied with only sending money. More of them wanted real access. Meetups. Private dinners. Something physical in return. The easy transfers had slowed down, and the pressure of her lifestyle had not. Maintaining her body alone required consistent spending, and that did not include the rest of her habits.
That was the real reason she had accepted Durnik’s offer in the first place.
It was not loyalty. It was not interest. It was need.
Now, with the deal collapsed and the payment gone, she was using the livestream to recover in a different way. She was not asking for money directly. She was creating a mood where people felt the urge to offer it.
Lucas could already see the pattern.
On the stream, Gracie accepted the first guest.
A man with a high-level account joined, his voice slightly nervous.
“Gracie, are you okay?” he asked. “That whole thing was crazy. Nobody should treat you like that.”
Gracie gave a soft smile, still keeping her voice low.
“I’m managing,” she said. “It’s just been a lot. I didn’t expect things to go this far.”
“You don’t have to go through it alone,” the man continued. “If you need anything, even just support, I can help. Seriously.”
Gracie shook her head lightly.
“You don’t have to do that. I’m not asking for anything.”
“I know,” he replied. “But I want to. Just send me your details. Call it emotional support if you want.”
There was a short pause. Then Gracie nodded slowly, as if the offer had caught her off guard.
“Alright,” she said softly. “If it’s just support… okay.”
The chat reacted immediately with encouragement.
Soon after, she accepted another guest.
This one was more direct.
“I saw everything,” he said. “You handled that better than most people would. If you need help covering anything right now, I’ve got you.”
Gracie gave a small tired laugh.
“I really don’t want people thinking I came live just for that.”
“No one thinks that,” he answered. “You went through something messy. Let people support you.”
Again, she hesitated just long enough to make it look natural.
“Only if you’re sure,” she said.
“I’m sure.”
A third guest joined a few minutes later with the same energy, offering help, repeating how strong she was, and insisting she should not have to deal with everything alone. Each time, Gracie kept the same tone. She never asked. She only accepted.
Lucas watched all of it quietly.
He understood exactly what she was doing.
She needed money. That much was obvious. But she was too careful to demand it openly on a stream this large. Instead, she was shaping the conversation so that others offered first. It made her look reluctant. It made the senders feel generous. And it kept her image intact.
He listened for a while longer as she continued speaking with that same soft, controlled voice. Then he made his decision.
Lucas sent a request to join.
The first attempt disappeared into the flood of incoming requests. With millions of people watching, the queue was constant. Names flashed by too quickly to track.
Gracie was clearly scanning for accounts that looked useful, but the volume was overwhelming.
She continued talking, responding to comments, accepting only a few carefully chosen people. From the outside, it looked like she was simply managing a large stream. From Lucas’s perspective, she was filtering.
Meanwhile, the chat began to shift.
A few people noticed his name.
Then a few more.
Chat:
– “wait is that Lookas”
– “Lookas is here?”
– “the same Lookas from the game??”
– “no way”
– “Lookas just requested”
The messages multiplied quickly. People began repeating his name, asking if it was really him, and pushing for Gracie to notice. The chat speed increased as more viewers joined the speculation.
Gracie kept her composure. She did not immediately react to the name, still focused on maintaining the emotional tone of the stream. But eventually her eyes moved across the request list again.
This time she stopped.
The name sat there, clean and high-level.
Lookas.
For half a second her pity-face stayed on, the soft eyes and slight tremble she had been performing for the last twenty minutes. Then it cracked. A tiny, almost invisible smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth like she’d just spotted fresh meat after a long dry spell.
She accepted the request so fast the button barely had time to light up.