Not long after Miguel gave out his instructions, Elise received a call. After all these years in the entertainment industry, it would be rare to see celebrities not have someone wealthy and powerful backing them.
Even a chaste woman like Katherine also had the backing of a mysterious and powerful man. It was a norm to Elise ever since she entered the industry. Hence, she knew exactly what to expect from the breakup.
A month ago, a rookie, who had been trying to steal Elise’s limelight, was dumped by her backer with a car as a breakup gift. Elise was still mercilessly mocking her about it, but never did she expect herself to end up in the same situation.
For the past five years with Miguel, he had been treating her pretty well. Although he may not be pliant, he would still give her whatever she requested. Truth be told, her current self could no longer find a better backer than Miguel.
Back then, when she was still feeling ambitious, she had planned to use Miguel as a stepping stone. Then, if she had wanted to elevate her status in the industry and she was unable to get close to Charles or Samuel, she could still try her luck with either Alexander or Justin.
However, as she got older, she gave up on such thoughts and was not as ambitious anymore. Everyone in the entertainment industry depended on their youth and appearance to earn money. However, Elise had already reached the age of twenty-nine years old and was no longer the young rookie who debuted ten years ago.
She was well aware that there would constantly be girls between eighteen and twenty-three joining the industry to compete with her.
Therefore, she knew the importance of ensuring Miguel would not leave her. For the past two years, Elise had put in a lot of effort to please him and dared not appear in front of Miguel’s wife.
Initially, she thought Miguel would stay with her until she turned thirty-five, but when Elise received a phone call from Miguel’s secretary asking her to choose a car and a house, she knew it was all over. She had lost her backing.
“Mr. Woolf, is Mr. Johnson available now? Can I give him a call?” Elise’s voice trembled as she felt a stifling wave of fear sweep over her. All these years, she had been acting atrociously in the entertainment industry because she had Miguel’s backing and protection. Now that she no longer had anyone to back her up, she dared not imagine how she would be treated by those who were mistreated by her previously.
Not to mention, she would turn thirty next year, and the only achievements she had were the short scenes from the few movies she starred in when she first debuted. After that, she only received negative reviews from the films and dramas she starred in.
Even the best female actress award she received last year was all thanks to Miguel’s influence.
Elise could not imagine her life without Miguel. After years of competing with Katherine, it may appear that both of their performances were of a comparable level, but Elise was well aware that she was no match for Katherine.
All of the variety shows, movies, and drama series she was involved in were hyped up by ghostwriters, but in reality, the actual reviews from the audiences were very negative.
On the other hand, things were different for Katherine. All of her haters had slowly turned into her fans over the years. On the other hand, things were different for Katherine. All of her haters had slowly turned into her fans over the years.
Hence, even if Katherine lost her backing, she could still depend on her talent to survive in the entertainment industry. As for Elise, without Miguel’s backing, she had nothing but a pretty face.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Gardner. I would advise that you do not contact Mr. Johnson anymore. This is his way of preserving your pride for the sake of your company for the past five years,” Caiden rejected mercilessly on the other end of the line.
“Mr. Woolf, what did I do wrong?”
Caiden had no idea what she had done wrong, but as an outsider, it did not look like it was because she had treated Miguel as a stepping stone.
Since he could not come up with any other answers, he decided to quote what Sophia had said earlier in the morning. “Ms. Gardner, it seems you’ve offended someone you shouldn’t mess with. Unfortunately, Mr. Johnson is unable to help you this time, so you’re on your own now.”
Beep, Beep, Beep.
With that, Caiden hung up the call. Panic struck Elise immediately, causing her to tremble so hard that her phone fell out of her shivering hand.
“H-How could I have offended someone I shouldn’t mess with?”
It was true that she had been acting atrociously in the entertainment industry for the past few years. However, she knew her limit and would never overdo it in front of Miguel. She had never made impossible requests because she knew she should not make things difficult for Miguel.
No matter how foolish Elise might be, her ten years of experience in the industry taught her how money and power could ruin someone’s career. That was why she never dared to offend someone she could not afford to mess with.
Elise was at a loss for what to do next. Meanwhile, Sophia was in a good mood.
Yvonne managed to send her the information she wanted in less than three hours.
As she casually browsed through the email, Sophia was impressed with all the wicked things Elise had done over the years.
There were too many incidents, and Sophia was too lazy to go through all of them. Without bothering to read the rest, she sent the entire file to Katherine’s email.
Since Katherine had been busy on set these days, Sophia knew she had to put more effort into monitoring the company’s performance. After sending the email, she began studying Specter Entertainment’s meeting minutes from the previous day.
At around ten o’clock at night, when Sophia was about to sleep, she received a call from Katherine.
Sophia raised her eyebrow and picked up the call. “You’re done shooting for the day?”
“Not yet. The shoot will end after three o’clock in the morning.”
“Thanks for your hard work, Ms. Famous.”
“I’m only doing this because I’m poor!”
If I were half as wealthy as Sophia, I wouldn’t have to be up in the mountains filming in the wee hours!
Sophia’s lips curled. “Have you read the email?”
“Yes, I have! That’s why I’m calling to ask what great plans do you have in mind, Soph? Why did you dig up so much of Elise’s dark history?”
“Aren’t you tempted to deal a blow on a pathetic dog like her?” Sophia laughed.
Katherine began to grit her teeth out of frustration as soon as she started talking about the incident. “It’s such a pity that the role was given to an actress with no acting range like her! She only has one expression for all the roles she cast. The director was planning to let Natasha Hopkins from our company take the role, but Elise suddenly came into the picture and shamelessly snatched the role!”
How can the director reject her when she brings funds to the production team?
Upon hearing Katherine’s words, Sophia was surprised. She had never heard about this incident. “Why didn’t you tell me about it?”
“Well, if we wanted to fight for the role, we had to see who could bring the most funds to the production team. It’s not worth it! Even though the script was good, based on my years of experience, it might not do well in ticket sales. But honestly, Natasha is really talented at acting. The director almost gave her the role on the spot during the audition!”
Katherine could not believe that Elise, a woman hitting her thirties, would snatch a role from a young girl. If it were not for her, Natasha would have gotten the role.
Sophia pursed her lips together. “Don’t be mad. You’ll have the chance to get back at her soon.”
“So what’s your great plan?” Katherine asked.
“You’ve heard of Rhapsody, the company Miguel and Richard founded, right? It seems that their market shares have decreased over the past two years, so they met with me to discuss their company’s acquisition.”
“Oh? Then what does this have anything to do with Elise?”
“That’s because I told Miguel that Elise had offended Ms. Suny, so he had to break up with her if he wanted to sign the deal.” Sophia chuckled.
“That’s amazing, Soph! How did you even come up with the idea of serving her an indirect blow like that? Now that Elise has lost her backing, I bet she won’t dare to behave so arrogantly anymore. Soph, how does your mind work? Why are you so smart?”
“I admit I do have pretty high intelligence.” Sophia accepted her praise without a single hint of modesty.
“I think you’re mocking me for being dumb.”
“I can confirm that I am mocking you for being dumb.”
Feeling embarrassed, Katherine decided to change the topic. “So I guess even if we were to take a piss or dump on Elise, she wouldn’t be able to fight back since her backing had abandoned her?”
Sophia paused for a moment before she responded, “Theoretically, that is right. But we’re civilized people so let’s not bring our toilet businesses out in public. All right?”
Realizing that she was being mocked again, Katherine instantly tried to clarify herself. “It was a metaphor!”
“Hmm. That’s an interesting metaphor.”
Katherine was speechless. She was tempted to end their friendship, but for the sake of money, she could only bear Sophia’s constant teasing.
