Trapped Belle(7)

15

Belle returned to the hotel. Before she finished washing up, she received a picture from her company's Public Relations department.

When she clicked on it, her heart sank.

"Damn it. He still got caught," she thought.

In the photo, Brandan was holding several attractive women intimately.

The Public Relations department staff told her that a Twitter influencer sent the pictures to them.

They were aware that the influencer's purpose was money.

The influencer was so greedy that he asked them to trade 1.5 million dollars for those photos.

Belle fiddled with her cell phone absentmindedly. She got to think up a plan. Once the photos got out and went viral online, there would be serious consequences.

She lit a cigarette, and as the smoke blurred her vision, she felt a headache.

After she finished a cigarette, she sent several photos taken by the propagandists to the Public Relations department.

She texted: "Tell them that we'll trade more explosive news for it."

A few minutes later, she got a reply that the influencer agreed.

Although things went well, Belle didn't get relieved. Half an hour later, the photos she sent became the top search that day.

The pictures were taken when Louis kissed Brandan.

The title was, "A celebrity with a huge fan base develops affection in filming, friends become lovers".

She had no choice but to do so. She could use it to cover up the scandal and increase the drama's popularity.

She would play it by ear tomorrow. Now she was exhausted.

After having her phone on silent, she finally went to bed.

The next day, Brandan banged on her door. He made her a lot of calls but no one answered. So he came to her directly. She opened up and let him in.

She patiently analyzed the pros and cons of her plan with him. He was so mad at her that he refused to talk to her no matter what she said.

"Forget it," she thought.

She decided not to explain it to anyone else.

Just then, she got a call from Charles. He invited her to dinner.

She couldn't refuse his invitation again because she owed him a reasonable explanation. After all, she used Louis to help the television drama gain more popularity.

Before she set off, Belle had readied herself for being questioned. Even so, she still felt nervous the instant she stepped into the private room of the restaurant.

But to her surprise, Louis was there too.

Belle knew that sometimes she had to take advantage of her appearance if she wanted to solve some tricky issues. Hence, she had selected a black slip dress and put on some make-up just to suck up to Charles. But Louis' presence made her feel a bit awkward.

Although Louis had memory loss, she didn't.

At the thought of what he had done to her, she felt unsafe with him when she was scantily clad.

Besides, Charles was not easy to deal with. As a result, she was nervous.

"This is Belle Murphy. Do you know her? She tutored you before," Charles introduced Bell to Louis with a smile.

Belle pursed her lips, and the smile on her face disappeared.

Louis looked as usual.

"Yes, I do. I met her on set," he said with a polite smile.

"Oh. I almost forgot that you lost your memories six years ago. You must have forgotten Belle." Charles patted his head, looked apologetic and turned to look at Belle.

"Even Belle pretends that she doesn't know you. This is her fault. She got you labeled as gay. Now it's difficult for you to date someone," he continued.

His words were a punch, which made Belle exceedingly embarrassed.

"Don't get me wrong, Mr. Reed. I saw the trending topic this morning. If you're unhappy with it, you can pay to make it disappear. We're just a small company. We can't afford that money," she said.

She put all the blame on others.

"I can make it disappear as long as you want. What about you, Louis? Do you think it's necessary to do that?" Charles said.

While speaking, he put his hand on Belle's hand.

Belle wanted to pull her hand away, but he grabbed it.

She put on a sullen look on her face, but Charles stared at her warning her not to move silently.

It had crossed her mind that Charles would take advantage of her. She convinced herself not to take it seriously. After all, she utilized Louis, and they all knew that.

However, she could not tolerate it when he did that in front of Louis.

She had a feeling that Louis might lose his marbles and kill Charles.

But evidently, she was worrying over nothing. Louis looked at their hands and then looked away calmly.

"I'm new to such things. You have the call, Uncle," he said with a small smile.

"Alright, then leave it to me," Charles said wickedly while not letting go of her hand.

"Get along well with Ms. Murphy. She'll be your aunt soon," Charles said.

After he finished his sentence, he rubbed her hand deliberately several times.

Belle glared at Charles. She was embarrassed and exasperated, but she couldn't go against him. She had to endure it.

She somehow had a hunch that Charles did this on purpose. But she didn't know why he did all this.

There was one thing for sure. She truly was sick of Charles.

She was in a bad mood while dining with them.

While Louis went to the restroom, Belle glowed at Charles to express her anger.

"What are you doing, Mr. Reed?" she asked.

"I thought you know," Charles said.

"Don't you have another choice for your wife-to-be? Why me?" she said with a derisive smile.

"You should ask yourself if you have a choice now," he said confidently. "As far as I know, that file in your father's company is going public. Do you think there is anyone else who can help you turn the tables except me?"

At the thought of that file, Belle went ballistic. But she didn't want to get carried away in front of other people, so she tried to cool down. She retorted, "It's my family matters. That's not your concern."

"Of course, it has something to do with me. You'll be my wife. As for that celebrity with a high fan following. If you don't want to see his career ruined, I advise you to drop the act in front of me. If you always play hard to get, you'll be less attractive," he said.

"You!" Belle was so pissed that she almost snapped at him. But she controlled herself. Although he was such a pain in the ass, everything he said made sense.

She was not a good person. If she were, she would not have gone to great lengths to seduce him six years ago. But in the end, she didn't get what she wanted and even got herself into big trouble.

Later on, she tried to date others and most of them were rich. She needed to have some wealthy figure on her side. She knew what she wanted.

However, every time she needed to make out with them, she flinched.

The trauma left on her six years ago made it impossible for her to have a sexual relationship with others. That led to her failing to land a good husband.

He was right. He was indeed her best choice now.

She didn't even know what was wrong with her.

After dinner, Belle returned to the hotel. After thinking for a long time, she sent a message to Charles.

She accepted his offer provided that he didn't stick his nose in her private life and that he didn't make her have sex with him.

Charles agreed readily.

She traded herself for what she wanted after a meal.

16

When he returned to the hotel, Louis took off his coat and lit a cigarette. He stood in front of the French window, staring into the distance outside it.

He raised his head, exhaled smoke, and suddenly chuckled.

"She's going to be my aunt?" he murmured. "Things get more interesting."

Soon, the smile was replaced with indifference.

He lowered his head and gave a sigh.

As he pulled out his phone, the woman on the screen saver caught his attention.

"You always make trouble for me," he whispered.

Without hesitation, he opened the contacts and dialed a number.

A couple of minutes later, he ended the call. He dropped his phone on the couch, took off his tie and got into the bathroom.

Belle woke up a bit late the next day.

There were too many things bothering her so she went to bed at midnight.

When she heard from the staff that Brandan had gone to shoot the scene, her mind was set at ease.

Then, she thought of yesterday's trending topic search. It was obvious that Brandan was unhappy that she made the public think that he was seeing Louis. Worried that Brandan might act on impulse, she washed up and rushed to the filming location.

On the way there, her assistant told her that Brandan and Louis had an important emotional scene to shoot today.

It was a plot twist, which required the two of them to make up a good team.

Their performance today decided whether the drama would be popular.

However, Brandan performed worse than he did a few days ago. The director had reminded him to be more lost in his role so many times that his patience wore thin.

Brandan gave the director a headache.

When Belle got there, the director said "NG" again.

He asked Louis and Brandan to rest for half an hour before continuing shooting scenes.

Belle walked up to Brandan, and the latter turned his head to one side refusing to speak with her.

He still felt uncomfortable with the love affair.

"Are you planning to keep wasting everyone's time like this?" Belle said seriously as she shook her head.

Silence succeeded.

After a while, she went on, "This is how the showbiz works. Viewership is everything, and exposure decides how popular you will get. Why did you get into this business? It's all about being famous, isn't it?"

Brandan didn't feel comfortable with her words, but he didn't know how to explain. He knew that she was right, and he couldn't refute. He uttered, "I want to get famous, but I don't to get famous in this way."

"What's wrong with this method? If you don't let others discuss you and don't get exposed, how can you show others what you can do? In fast-moving era, do you expect others to find that you're a resource? Do you think this world lack resources like you? Why would others pay attention to you?" she said with a sigh.

"Belle... I..." Brandan was at a loss for words when he heard her words.

"That's it. Focus on your work. When you get famous, you can choose whatever you want. Now you have no say in anything. You got it?" Belle said, patting his shoulder?"

Having been in show business for six years, she had seen many people do whatever they could to get famous but to no avail. They worked very hard, but they were still less popular than those who got famous overnight after struggling in this showbiz over ten years. It was common in show business. Whether one could get their big break depended were written in the stars.

As a manager, she could only try her best to put their name on the map. She couldn't swear that she could help them succeed, but at least, there was some hope.

For example, although the news only existed there for half a day yesterday, at least more people got to know Louis and Brandan.

It worked well.

That was an opportunity for them.

"Belle, I know, and I want to do my job well. But he didn't work with me," Brandan said, helpless.

He could easily get along with the other guys, but he didn't even have the guts to look at Louis frequently.

The reason was simple. He was afraid of Louis.

Seeing his expression, Belle shook her head.

"I'll have a word with him," she said.

After that, she turned around and made her way toward Louis' nanny car.

At this time, Louis was sitting in the car, looking in her direction outside the window. He had been expecting her for quite a while.