Rina felt exposed, standing in front of Albert, her hands clasped in front of her. But if she was going to make those work, make her plans come to light, she was going to have to do this. She had come to a point where she didn’t mind going down on her knees to plead for the chance to star in any production, no matter how insignificant it was. Zayn might probably have a fit about it, but Rina didn’t care as long as it got her what she wanted.
But Albert on the other hand, seemed not to have even considered that. He stared at her with an interesting gaze, his hands on the documents he’d been going through. The silence was loud and killing. It made Rina so nervous that she began hopping from one foot to the other, grateful she could stay on her pair of heels for as long as possible. She’d learned endurance early in life, but that hadn’t come with a manual where silence was involved.
“Rina Powers,” Albert finally said, piercing through the silence. “You have some guts, I’d like to admit. I never thought, even for the slightest second, that you would have it in you to come in here on a day like this when anyone could identify you.”
Rina was surprised he’d recognized her even with the huge hat. It made her wonder if all of this had been a waste of time, and if someone else had been able to do just that. She could imagine word getting to Kayla about her presence, and her former best friend walking briskly up here just to do what she did best – embarrass her.
She needed to be done with this as soon as possible.
“I thought about that,” Rina sighed, pulling her hat a little upwards so Albert could see her pleading eyes. “But I guess my desperation was stronger than my fear of getting seen. I need my position back in the entertainment industry, Alberto, and I don’t mind starting from the very beginning.”
“Why are you telling me that? I’m not a producer, Rina.”
“I know. But I also know that your daughter is and you can help me put a good word to her.”
Albert scoffed, his chest rising from the abrupt action. “You want me to talk to my daughter for you? Rina, how exactly do you want me to do that? It would mean I do not love my daughter.”
“Albert…”
“It would be a great mistake for any producer to cast you in their movies for now,” he muttered. “Their ratings are just going to plummet like a sinking ship and because of the contract they would sign with every cast, the company would have to bear the loss while you go away scott-free. Would you be willing to take that risk if you were in their shoes?”
Rina was about to blurt a resounding yes, but she bit her bottom lip to stop herself from talking. But Albert took it the other way around.
“You can’t seduce me like you did the young men, Rina,” he said suddenly, his eyes lingering on her full lips before pulling themselves up to her exposed eyes. “I have a reputation to uphold, and unlike you, it matters a lot to me”
“That wasn’t … I wasn’t… Albert…” She was dumbfounded. Did everyone now see a seductress in her rather than a wrongly accused woman who needed help to get her restored? Was that why Zayn wanted to marry her? Did he think she would be great to warm his sheets, as half the men in the industry probably thought?
“I’m busy, Rina Powers, so if you don’t have something else to say, you should take your leave before anyone else recognizes you. The paparazzi would go wild the minute they learn you are in here, but you can rest assured they wouldn’t hear it from me.”
Rina couldn’t move an inch even though she wanted to. She stood there motionless, gazing at her last hope fizzling away. She tried to hold on to the scattering dust, hoping that one pinch would at least land on her lap. The world couldn’t be so bad that everyone would be against her, would it? Didn’t nature think she’d suffered enough already? What more did it want from her?
“Albert,” Rina breathed, attempting one last time. “Please. This is me begging you.”
“You see, Rina,” Albert looked up from the document he had returned to. “I know my daughter wouldn’t have gotten to where she currently is without you. You stood by her when the industry didn’t believe she could make any good movie simply because she was a woman. You volunteered to be her first-ever lead and she was so grateful to you for that. But, Rina, that’s how life is. You were meant to help her, but her hard work has brought her this far too.”
“I’m not disputing that,” Rina replied. She hadn’t even planned on bringing up the past. She’d helped more people than she bothered to keep count of, so it didn’t matter to Rina. She never went back to those moments, because she had counted herself fortunate to be in a position to offer help to people who had needed it. “I just want to be cast for a role again. Any role at all.”
“I told you. Take a break for now. Start something else. I’ve heard grocery shop attendants really make good money these days, especially if you have an extensive qualification. Imagine what attention your face would drag to a grocery shop.”
Rina felt so disgusted by those words. She realized that she shouldn’t have bothered with Albert. It had been a waste of her time as well as the risk involved in coming in there.
She turned to leave but halted abruptly when she came face to face with her mortal enemy, Kayla. She climbed up the stairs to the stage, a gruesome smile playing on her lips.
“I heard the great Rina Powers was here, so I decided to see for myself.”