Chapter 37
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Emily had always maintained a delicate and soft-spoken image in public, and after her real identity was revealed, she took on a full humble persona. She was polite to everyone now, even to those barely-known actors she used to ignore. This new attitude made people quickly forget the scandal she'd orchestrated not long ago.
"You haven't heard that? The recent reality show is blowing up right now, a designer competition, and somehow Sharon got lucky as hell to be paired with a professional designer. Every outfit and look for Sharon is praised to the skies," the actress explained. "Yeah, and apparently she's got some movie coming out soon. It wasn't getting much attention at first, but now, every screening is sold out. Ugh, I'm so jealous," another girl added.
Emily had been so caught up with her current project that she hadn't been paying attention to any of this. "What's Nathan even doing? Wasn't he supposed to deliver a fatal blow to Sharon and end her career once and for all? Now the movie is just two days away from release, and Sharon has so much screen time. What about my movie? Emily thought.
Frustrated, she grabbed her phone from her assistant and decided to check out the show herself. She hadn't even heard of it before. As she scrolled, suddenly, a familiar face caught her eye. Ophelia? What's she doing here?' she wondered.
She clicked-on the video and found out that Ophelia was one of the designers, and Sharon was her partner
No way. Ophelia has knacks for designing? Could it be that she's not just working at La Reverie, but is one of their actual designers? The more Emily thought about it, the more possible it seemed. Seeing how well they were doing, compared to her own situation, Emily's blood boiled. She knew she needed to figure something out-and fast.
The next day. Ophelia got a call from the show's production team. "Ophelia, how's the final design coming along?" Cameron's tone was unusually calm, even a bit fawning, which caught Ophelia off guard.
"We still have a week left, don't we?" Ophelia asked.
"Yes, no rush at all. I was just checking. Hope you don't feel pressure for the finals. You know I'm only tough on you because I have such high hopes for you," Cameron explained. ng out o
of your own mouth?' Ophelia scoffed in her mind. She said in a 'Oh, come one. Do you even believe the words coming calm tone, "Mr. Bishop, why don't you just come to the point?"
Cameron let out an awkward chuckle, "Not only are you serious about your work, but you don't mince words either. You know what, I was just like that when I was younger. I really admire your personality. It's good for young people to have some fire. By the way, I've arranged for a better model for you in the finals, so..."
"You're swapping my model?" Ophelia cut him off.
Cameron cleared his throat and replied, "Yeah, that's right. You know her-your sister, Emily."
Now, it made sense why Cameron was being so nice to her. He must've found out about her connection to the Hastings family. Emily was trying to make things difficult for her, no doubt.
"If it's not Sharon, I won't use anyone else," Ophelia said firmly, leaving no room to negotiate.
"But Sharon's caught up in a bunch of scandals right now. I don't want her to negatively affect the show's finale. And you don't want her drama dragging down your votes, do you?" he tried to reason.
'Scandals? What scandals? Ophelia was confused. She didn't respond to Cameron right away. Instead, she hung up and opened Twitter. Right there in the trending topics, she saw it: Sharon breaks contract with the agency that made her famous 14:45 Mon, Nov 11 U
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Sharon had won Best Supporting Actress when she first started out. But, being young and headstrong, she refused to play by the unspoken rules of the industry and turned down offers from some major directors. That ruffled a lot of feathers, and in the end, her agency basically shelved her.
Ophelia had already heard that Sharon's contract with Starry Media was about to expire. Back when Sharon wasn't making waves, no one cared, but now, with over a million new followers and her movie gaining major buzz, there was no way Starry Media was letting her go that easily.
Once a celebrity got labeled as "ungrateful" or "disloyal", it was nearly impossible to shake it off. No matter how hard they try to move forward, that stain would stick. And now, Sharon was being painted with that very brush.
Soon after that, Sharon's ex-agent Kelly Hans was throwing more fuel on the fire, accusing Sharon of defying the agency, taking private gigs behind their back, getting involved with a married director, and living a messy personal life.
It wasn't exactly the same as last time, but these types of scandals were career killers for an actress like Sharon. And right now, her chances of bouncing back seemed slim to none.
Ophelia tried calling Sharon, but the phone went straight to voicemail. The online hate was massive, and it was clear that someone was stirring the pot. It wouldn't be surprising if Sungate Entertainment had a hand in all of this. Sharon's Twitter followers had shot past 10 million, but over half of them were anti-fans. Under every post, comments were full of insules and trolling, and people were even flooding her movie promos with nasty remarks Meanwhile, Emily posted glossy photos from her new movie. To say she wasn't involved in this mess? Only a fool would
believe that.
Ophelia closed her eyes to recall carefully. She vaguely remembered that in her last life, after Sharon's suicide, a male artist from Starry Media had exposed some dark secrets about the company, but no one paid attention at the time. That guy eventually faded from the public eye as well. "Chloe, I need a favor," Ophelia suddenly said.
Chloe turned her laptop around to show Ophelia the screen. From the moment Ophelia got that call from the director about switching models, Chloe had already tracked down Kelly's IP address, hacked her device, and pulled four screenshots of chat logs and a video. She knew Ophelia always said she didn't like meddling in other people's business, but deep down, there was this righteous streak she couldn't ignore. Chloe was used to it by now.
Ophelia scratched her ear and said, "I'm just helping myself. I don't want Emily to work with me; that would make me sick"
Chloe's face seemed to say, "Sure, whatever you say. As long as you believe it.
Ophelia added, "By the way, can you also help me find..."
"Sharon's address? Unit 1603 of Dreamscape Apartments, 78 Horizon Avenue."
'Amazing, she's always one step ahead of what I want, thought Ophelia.
A few hours later, at Dreamscape Apartments, Ophelia rang the doorbell of Unit 1605. It buzzed a few times with no response. She tried Sharon's phone again, but it was still off.
Ophelia knew Chloe's information couldn't be wrong. She knocked hard on the door, and the sound echoed through the hallway. Finally, the door creaked open. Sharon appeared in the doorway with a black camisole and looked a mess, with her hair all tangled up. Her face, which had been full of irritation, softened into surprise when she saw who it was. "Ophelia? What are here? How do you even know where I live?"
you doing
14:45 Mon. Nov 11 U.
Til explain inside," Ophelia said while walking into the house.
Sharon stepped aside to let her in and glanced around the hallway before shutting the door.
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The apartment was small but tidy enough-a one-bedroom, one-bath setup. The coffee table was littered with takeout containers from what looked like leftover crawfish, and the trash was full of empty beer cans. Sharon clearly wasn't in the best place right now. "Take a seat," Sharon said with a yawn while scratching her head
Ophelia picked up a bra that had been tossed on the sofa with her finger and flung it to the side before sitting down. She then came to the point. "Cameron called me today, saying they're planning to replace my model for the finals. What's your take on that?"Content rights belong to NôvelDrama.Org.