Chapter 17 Twists and Turns
Graciela walked over, bent down, and whispered in Leanna’s
voice, “You have no idea how good Lamar is in bed. He wouldn’t
even let me sleep at night and kept trying new positions with
- me. I could hardly get out of bed the next day, and he even
massaged my waist.”
Leanna immediately widened her eyes, her face turning pale as
her smile vanished. Seeing her like this, Graciela felt great.
She straightened up with a smile and went back to her seat.
Sure enough, payback was a dish best served eye–for–eye.
Rita had stepped aside when Graciela came over. Seeing Graciela
gone, she continued to do makeup for Leanna.
When she held a strand of Leanna’s hair, the latter suddenly
stood up, screaming in pain.
Greatly startled, Rita hastily apologized, “I’m so sorry, Ms.
McLean. I didn’t mean to…”
Leanna’s face twisted horrifyingly. She immediately slapped
Rita across the face and cursed, “You bitch!”
Still angry, she slapped again, leaving Rita’s cheeks red.
“That’s enough!” Graciela couldn’t stand it anymore. Furious, she strode forward and grabbed Leanna’s hand. “Stop taking it out on others! Come at me if you dare!”
Leanna wanted to break free from her grasp, but she had been learning dancing since childhood, and her brothers had forced her to learn to fight. She was as strong as men, and of course, Leanna wasn’t her match at all.
“Graciela! Let go of me!” Leanna winced in pain.
The commotion was so loud that onlookers outside the door
could no longer play dumb. They hurriedly pushed open the
door to rush inside and separate the two.
“Graciela, what did you do to Ms. McLean?” Leanna’s assistant
supported Leanna and snapped at Graciela as she spotted
Leanna’s red wrist.
Meanwhile, Nora ran over and stood in front of Graciela.
Graciela couldn’t be bothered to respond to Leanna’s assistant–a
lackey didn’t deserve her time.
She said to Nora, “Take Rita to the doctor.”
“But…” Though Nora was worried about leaving Graciela here
alone, seeing how determined Graciela was, she could only
leave with Rita.
Someone was sensible enough to fetch Bryant and the assistant
director.
They rushed over at once.
Bryant felt a headache coming on as he looked at Graciela and
Leanna.
He immediately had them separate in two rooms.
After learning what had happened, he felt even more torn. He
would have sided with Leanna if it were in the past, but now,
since Graciela had someone backing her, too, he had no idea
what he should do.
Finally, he resorted to letting Rita take the blame. He paid her
upfront for the gig as well as hush money three times higher
than that.
Rita had no connections and couldn’t afford to do anything that
jeopardized her career. She could only take it lying down and
left with the money.
Graciela sneered as she saw how Bryant dealt with it.
Bryant, knowing how unfair his decision was, treated her more nicely than ever.
She still remembered what Helena had said before leaving, so she didn’t argue much and just cooperated fully to complete the shoot for the day. Late at night, after wrapping up, she came over to Nora. “Are you close to Rita?”
Nora nodded and said, feeling bad for Rita, “Rita is a single mom. Her husband died when their daughter was a little over one. Then her mother–in–law kicked them out, and she’s been doing makeup gigs to make ends meet at home. Who knows how long she’ll have to wait for the next job?”
Graciela’s heart ached for Rita’s predicament.
She felt bad for dragging Rita into this mess and was planning
on giving Rita a sum of money.
But she changed her mind after hearing Nora’s words.
“Nora, could you ask her whether she wants to be my personal
makeup artist?”
Nora’s eyes widened as she beamed. “That’s great! I’m sure she’d
love to! I’m gonna go tell her this great news now!”
She immediately ran off and came back a few seconds later.
Looking at Graciela with her sparkling eyes, she said earnestly,
“Grace, you’re so nice. Do you know that?”
She then ran away again before Graciela could say anything.
It was such a long day. As Graciela lay in bed, she suddenly
remembered she had to call Ambrose.
Glancing at the time, she realized it was pretty late. Feeling a bit
relieved, she put away her phone and drifted off to sleep, not
feeling guilty at all.
Little did she know that she had become a trending topic again.
When she woke up, she saw that her phone had been
bombarded with messages again. But this time, she was very
calm about it.
She opened WhatsApp. Sure enough, Nora had already told her
every detail.
Leanna’s assistant posted something on Instagram.
It was a photo, showing the red marks on Leanna’s wrist.
And the caption was, “Doing something like this, Ms. Ferguson
surely is pure and good. Ms. McLean didn’t deserve this!”
Graciela sneered.
Leanna’s assistant wasted no time in smearing her.
Willa called her. “Grace, I’ve already asked the trolls to flood the
comments. What happened yesterday? Tell me. I’ll help you
think of something.”
She curved her lips. “Don’t worry, Willa. I got this. Just be
patient.”
After saying this, she scoffed, thinking, “I wanted to cut Leanna
and her assistant some slack.
“But they just wouldn’t stop riling me up.
“I’m so fed up with them and must do something to make them
pay.“”
Alerted by backend data that Graciela had come online, the
media reporters kept refreshing her Twitter page, all wanting a
fresh scoop.
A few minutes later, she posted a video and pinned it to the top
of her Twitter feed.
The video captured everything, including Leanna’s ferocious
face, Rita’s reddened cheeks, and the scene where Graciela
strode forward to grasp Leanna’s wrist.
There was no word attached to the video, but Graciela’s silent counterattack was already a loud slap in Leanna’s face.
The media reporters were so thrilled that they almost wanted to
shed tears.
What a spicy tea with so many twists and turns!
Thanks to Leanna, Graciela, and Ambrose, they’d receive a big
bonus this month.
The video was retweeted thousands of times within minutes,
and netizens flooded Graciela’s comment section.
Netizen A: “You confronted them head–on? That’s so badass,
Graciela.”
Netizen B: “Shove the evidence right in their faces–just the way
I like it!”
Netizen C: “Those who play the victims should all learn from
you!”
Netizen D: “It’s official, I’m not Graciela’s fan. She’s the whole
package, being pretty, kind, and sassy. Now I finally know why
Mr. Morrison has fallen for her. She’s making me a lesbian.”
Netizen E: “Mr. Morrison has great taste indeed. Graciela’s
perfect. I promise I’ll start to save up now so that I can buy a piece of Morrison Jewelry in this lifetime.”
Netizen F: “Get real. You might wanna start with supporting her film.”
Netizen G: “Speaking of which, she and Leanna are working on the same movie, right?”
Netizen H: “I weep for her. She’s so unlucky, having to work with someone like Leanna. I gotta level with you–it never occurred to me Leanna is such a phony. Those complaining about her all deleted their comments, so I thought they were just trolls or haters. But now, it seems they were telling the truth! Gosh. This is so annoying. I’m gonna go flame her in her Twitter comments!”
