Taking Down Arielle
By instinct, Arielle snuck a glance at Vinson who was behind her. She was worried that he would lose
his temper, take off his mask, and reveal their identity to threaten Annabelle.
Unexpectedly, Vinson didn’t bat an eyelid. With his baseball cap covering half his face, she was unable
to see his expression at all.
Vinson clearly looked as if he didn’t hear what Annabelle said.
Looks like my concern was unnecessary.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Arielle felt an unexplained sense of anger well up within her.
However, she was quickly embarrassed by it.
What’s wrong with me? I’m no longer a teenage girl who has just fallen in love. Why am I peeved over
something as trivial as this?
After taking a deep breath, Arielle ignored Annabelle’s insinuations and asked Sam, “Mr. Sleight, since
we have not started filming, can you walk me through my scene?”
“Sure!” Sam readily agreed with an embarrassed expression. In the meantime, he gave Annabelle the
side-eye.
Even though Annabelle viewed Arielle with scorn, she didn’t say anything further in front of the latter,
for Arielle was still the chairman of Sann Group. Squirming her lips, she lay on her chair and rested
instead.
Sam didn’t bring up the matter too. After all, it was common to have minor conflicts among the film
crew.
Nevertheless, he still felt bad because Arielle was someone he invited through painstaking effort. After
leading her to someplace where they could speak in private, he apologized, “I’m really sorry, Ms.
Moore. That actress-”
“Don’t worry about it!” Arielle interrupted Sam. She knew what Sam had wanted to say, but she truly
wasn’t bothered by the matter at all.
Only when Sam was certain that Arielle wasn’t angry did he feel a sense of relief.
At the same time, he also noticed the person behind Arielle.
“And this is?” he asked curiously.
Arielle responded with a gasp before asking self-consciously, “My assistant, can I let him join the
crew?”
“Of course!” Sam nodded in approval.
After all, it would be weird for the chairman of Sann Group to be moving around alone. That aside, the
assistant does look quite familiar.
Just when Sam tilted his head to get a better look at the face hiding underneath the baseball cap,
Arielle stepped aside and whipped out her script. “There’s something I would like to ask about this
scene.”
The moment Sam heard that it was about work, he set aside his curiosity and began his discussion
with Arielle.”
In truth, that particular scene wasn’t hard to understand. The challenge lay in choosing the appropriate
body language to express it.
Sam was extremely experienced despite his youth. Hence, he explained, “There’s no need for you to
plan your actions ahead of time. Instead, just imagine that the residents of the building are still intent on
covering up the appearance of a murderous monster just to protect the price of their property. By doing
so, you will instinctively know what sort of emotions and body language to use when you read out your
lines.”
In that scene, Arielle, in her role as a policewoman, had just subdued the monster and wanted to call
the police. However, the building’s residents locked her in the gym to stop her from doing so, just to
protect the value of their property.
Today, Arielle was also supposed to film how she defeated the monster which wasn’t considered a
difficult scene. All she had to do was to practice her fighting moves with the stunt coordinator. Instead,
the challenge lay in expressing the human emotions of the scene, where she had to show it without
being overly dramatic.
In a nutshell, Arielle’s reshoots for the day involved the battle with the monster, the conflict with the
building residents, and the part where she was locked up by them.
Given that she had to be at the Mill residence by ten, she was running short of time and needed to
complete the scenes within three takes.
Therefore, Arielle spoke to Sam earnestly. Furthermore, she would also nod and jot down notes
intermittently.
When the resting Annabelle saw what she was doing, she remarked to her assistant with a snort,
“Look, someone is pretending to be hardworking after hearing my criticism. Since the media aren’t
allowed in here, who is she putting up a show for?”
Her assistant, Lara Donan, added fuel to fire. “Exactly, look at that slutty expression of hers. I wonder if
she had seduced Mr. Sleight, causing him to go against public opinion and choose her as the female
lead despite her lack of experience.
“Against public opinion?” Annabelle tilted her head and asked, “What do you mean?”
Lara replied enthusiastically, “I heard some gossip today that Arielle wasn’t the female lead in the
beginning. In fact, the original actress seemed to be Arielle’s younger sister. It wasn’t until Mr. Sleight
met Arielle for the first time that he went to see our film’s investor.”
“Vinson Nightshire?”
“Exactly! Perhaps, Mr. Sleight strongly recommended Arielle, hence the decision to choose her as the
female lead.”
After hearing Lara’s words, the indignance Annabelle felt grew stronger.
How can I be a supporting actress to a female lead who slept her way into the role? This is nothing but
a joke.
Just as anger swelled within her, Annabelle’s eyes lit up.
“I have an idea on how to deal with her!”
Stunned, Lara advised rationally, “Please don’t be impulsive, Arielle is the chairman of Sann Group. If
you offend her, we might have to suffer the consequences.”
“Don’t worry!” Annabelle declared confidently, “I will make it look like an accident, and no one will be
the wiser!”
Despite nodding in acknowledgment, Lara was still unnerved and felt her right eyelid twitch.
Given that it was an ominous sign, she wondered if something terrible was about to happen.
Holding that thought, she continued to dissuade Annabelle against it. Unfortunately, the latter refused
to listen and ordered Lara to shut up, to which she had no choice but to comply.
Soon, with the crew gathered, the cameramen were ready to start filming.
Just when Arielle was about to walk on set, a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist.
Turning around by reflex, she saw Jason with an apologetic expression.
“I-I’m sorry about yesterday!” Gritting his teeth, Jason murmured, “Regardless of how angry I was, I
shouldn’t have left you on the street. When I returned to look for you, you were nowhere to be found.
Also, you didn’t answer when I called. Did you manage to get home safely?”
Before Arielle could reply, a towering figure stepped in right in front of her.
When she raised her gaze, she recognized the back of Vinson’s head.
“Who are you?” Jason scowled as he look curiously at Vinson but was unable to see his face.
Not only was Vinson taller, but he also emanated an intimidating aura.
Who is this man?
“I’m sorry. He’s my assistant.” Arielle pulled Vinson aside and smiled apologetically. “Let’s just forget
about yesterday. We should instead get ready, as filming is about to start.”
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