Chapter 8 You Can’t Get the Role You Want

"Eliana, you bitch, who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?"

Charlotte was stunned by Eliana's words. When she came back to her senses, she instinctively wanted to scream back at Eliana.

But halfway through, she suddenly remembered something.

They were in a public place. If she let her anger loose and snapped at Eliana, the fragile, gentle image she'd worked so hard to maintain would be shattered.

So she took a deep breath, forced her anger down, lowered her head, and put on a hurt expression.

"Fine, Eliana. You've always had a bad temper, so I'm not going to bother arguing with you. But I still hope you'll apologize to me and Ms. Scott. After all... I apologized to Ms. Scott on your behalf because I was trying to help you."

"Help me?" Eliana glanced around the room and let out a cool laugh. "I never provoked Ms. Scott. She was the one who forced me to go buy her coffee. Charlotte, if you really cared about me like you say you do, why would you push me to apologize to Ms. Scott without even finding out what actually happened?"

Eliana wasn't speaking quietly. The actors in the waiting room who were there for the audition all turned to look at Charlotte and Sophia, and the looks on their faces weren't exactly friendly.

Charlotte squirmed under all those stares and instinctively growled under her breath.

"You're a nobody in this industry. Ms. Scott is a top star right now. No matter what she does to you, you should just put up with it and keep your mouth shut."

"So because someone's more famous, you just bow down to them no matter what. See, Charlotte? I said you love acting like a dog, and I was right. But let me be clear — I'm a person, and I refuse to be anyone's dog."

Eliana smiled, her voice calm and steady throughout.

Someone let out a quiet laugh.

Then the whole waiting room filled with laughter laced with mockery.

"Ms. Scott, I asked you for an autograph and pushed Eliana to apologize to you because I'm your fan! It's one thing that Eliana doesn't get that, but why does she have to humiliate me like this?"

Charlotte was completely helpless against Eliana and could only look over at Sophia with a pitiful expression.

Sophia was no smarter. With one little nudge from Charlotte, she turned on Eliana.

"Eliana, I'm ordering you to apologize to Charlotte right now, or else—"

"Or else what? Ms. Scott, are you going to sick your fans on me, or get your rich-boy boyfriend to come after me?"

Sophia hadn't even finished her sentence before Eliana cut her off.

Eliana pulled her phone out of her breast pocket, a smirk playing on her lips.

"I'll be straight with you — I've recorded every threat you've made. If you come after me, I'll post it all online."

"Sophia, I'm a nobody in this industry. If people come after me, I can just walk away. But you? If your reputation gets destroyed, can you really just walk away clean?"

A recording?

Damn her. She actually had the nerve to record evidence of them bullying her?

Charlotte and Sophia stared at the phone in Eliana's hand, their eyes burning red, but neither of them dared to say another word.

Eliana was right. They were more famous than her. If what just happened got out online, the fallout for them would be far worse than anything Eliana would face.

But they weren't about to just let this go.

"Eliana, you're going to regret this!"

After a long silence, Sophia forced the words out through gritted teeth.

"I'm going to land the lead role in After the End today. Once EverBlaze Media starts pushing me as their top artist, I'll have the best PR team in the business. And when that happens, that little recording of yours won't be able to touch me."

"You're not getting that role."

Eliana thought back to what had happened in her past life, then considered Sophia's actual talent. She smiled calmly.

"Ms. Scott, haven't you noticed? Since EverBlaze Media launched, they've only signed two kinds of artists — established stars with real talent, and promising newcomers with potential."

"Sure, you're popular right now, I'll give you that. But the girl group you're in is a limited-run project, and in three months, it's going to disband. Once that happens, you lose your main platform. Your popularity will take a nosedive."

"But that's not even the real issue. The real issue is that you have no acting ability. I've seen the drama you were in before. All you do is shout and yell. You can't play anything subtle or restrained."

"So Theodore isn't interested in you."

Sophia was so worked up by Eliana's words that she was nearly losing her mind.

She was on the rise right now!

Her popularity wasn't going anywhere, and she was absolutely going to get into EverBlaze Media!

At this point, Sophia didn't even care that Eliana had recordings of her. She raised her hand to slap Eliana.

But just then, a low laugh came from behind her.

"Quite a scene going on here. Anyone walking by without knowing the situation would probably think they'd stumbled into a street market. What exactly do you all think today's audition is?"

"Mr. Marshall?"

Sophia spun toward the voice, and the moment she saw who had spoken, the color drained from her face.

Mr. Marshall?

Theodore?

Eliana raised an eyebrow and glanced discreetly at the man standing behind Sophia.

He was wearing a well-tailored suit with gold-rimmed glasses — elegant, mysterious, powerful, and strikingly handsome.

It seemed like every good word in the world had been made just for him.

So... how was Theodore going to handle what had just happened?

In terms of usefulness, she was probably no match for Sophia and Charlotte at this point.

If Theodore decided to revoke her audition opportunity for their sake, what would she do?

No. She couldn't lose her shot at joining EverBlaze Media.

EverBlaze Media was her only way out from under the Sullivan family's control.

Eliana closed her eyes for a moment, then gathered her courage and stepped forward.

She was ready to tell Theodore that she was "Summer Night Breeze." If he was willing to let her continue with the audition, she would write the theme song for After the End — whether she passed the audition or not.

"Summer Night Breeze" was the most valuable card she had left to play.

"Ms. Scott, from the way you were talking just now, it sounds like you're pretty confident about today's audition."

Before Eliana could get a word out, Theodore spoke again.

"Since you're so sure you're going to be the lead in my new film, why don't you go first?"

Theodore's gaze drifted slowly from Eliana to Sophia, a faint smile on his face.

"I'm curious to find out whether Ms. Eliana's assessment of you is accurate."