Rina thought she was running late by the time she arrived at the building. She was so bothered about her planned impression getting ruined that she barely bothered to pay attention to the stares the taxi driver gave her. All that was on her mind was getting up to the third floor before she lost this chance.
She raced through the glass doors, navigating through the sparse crowd of actresses, their teams, and producers. Some of them cast her dumbfounding looks as she glided by, and even though Rina was stung by them, she didn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing it on her face.
Her heels clicked on the tiled ground as she hurried along, her head focused and her back straight, maintaining the little that was left of her dignity. When she got into the lift, she allowed the weight of everything that was tossed at her to bring her under. She used to walk through those same halls with respectful glances cast her way, and hushed whispers about how phenomenal she was.
Now, the opposite was the case.
The elevators dinged open and brought an abrupt end to Rina’s wallowing. She resumed her posture and sauntered out, easily locating the room since she’d been there a million times. Pushing the door open, she swayed in, preparing a fake heartfelt apology.
But the room was empty, much to her dismay. Rina glanced at her watch to check if she’d gotten the time wrong. But she hadn’t. It was ten minutes past ten. She was ten minutes late.
Not knowing what else to do, Rina decided to wait. Pulling out a chair, she plopped into it and crossed her legs, retrieving her phone from her purse. She smiled when her wallpaper appeared. It was a picture of the tulips Zayn had sent. After she had ended the call with him, Rina had spent a few minutes getting the bouquet inside, trimming the roots, and placing it inside a vase half filled with water. It was the most beautiful thing ever and she hadn’t been able to resist taking a picture.
The image becoming her wallpaper was a decision she’d made on her way here. If she was insistent on starting all over, she needed to start from her phone. Rina hadn’t changed her wallpaper since she got married. It was a picture of her and Finn, looking into each other’s eyes with so much passion, the waves from the ocean behind them.
They’d done a beach wedding, and Rina had thought it was the most thoughtful and beautiful thing anyone had ever done for her. She had no clue about the trajectory she had just signed off on for her life to take.
The door pushed open suddenly, and Rina looked up. A middle-aged man appeared and she got on her feet, looking him in the eye as he walked to the edge of the table. He didn’t say a word as he settled in, just scrolling through his phone and acting like she wasn’t there.
But after a few minutes, more people had strolled in with the same demeanor. The conference room was almost filled up and it was beginning to look more like a disciplinary session. But Rina tried to be positive. Her case was very peculiar so maybe every member of the board wanted to have a say in this.
However, they were already complete, as far as Rina could remember. Yet, it seemed they were waiting for someone else. As if on cue, the door opened again, and a pair of nude heels, strapped in long legs, appeared. It played out in slow motion, every second pivotal to Rina because of what came next.
Kayla.
A wide grin stretched on her face as she sauntered in, greeting the members of the board so respectfully that Rina thought she looked like a different person. Kayla had never been that respectful. She took the seat opposite Rina and brought a tablet out of her Chanel handbag.
Rina wanted to ask what this was about. Kayla wasn’t a member of the board, and as such, she had no right to be in there with the rest of them. But instead, she said, “I’m so grateful you all decided to give me this opportunity. I promise you won’t regret it.”
“Don’t go too fast,” the first person that came muttered. “We are yet to make any decision. We’ll see how this session goes. Great dress, by the way.”
Rina didn’t know how to respond to that, so she kept quiet instead, staring up ahead. Her eyes met Kayla, and she could have sworn her former best friend scowled at her. But the look was gone in a second, too fast that Rina began to doubt what she had actually seen.
“Rina Powers,” the director began. “Blogs have been going crazy about your scandals, and honestly, it did no good for us at the time. It was causing our ratings to plummet since you were still in our good graces. We had to let you go. I hope you understand that. You do, don’t you?”
Rina didn’t. In fact, it was one of those things she would question forever. She’d been with the agency since her debut in the industry, yet they didn’t even ask for her own side of the story before tossing her out into the streets.
But of course, she couldn’t tell them that when she was the one who desperately needed their help. So, against herself, Rina nodded.
“Now that we have that out of the way,” the director continued. “We can move on to the reason we are all here. It has come to our notice that you’ve been looking for a way to return to your former position. You of all people should know how daunting that task is since you’ve seen other failed actresses make that same attempt after their scandals. However, we’ve found a way you’d be useful both to yourself and us. It is a win-win situation.”
Rina would have been fine with that but for the look in Kayla’s eyes. This couldn’t be good.