Thankfully, the Special Missions Unit, or SMU, was full of talent, and one such person had just reached out to him. Drake Huntington was visibly elated, and few things made him this happy these days. Having majored in criminal psychology, Drake was usually a stoic man, and his grin shocked Holly Bush, his secretary. Aria said casually, not distantly polite at all, "I need to be reinstated to my position, Mr. Huntington. Please inform everyone below us that No. 1 is back.""I'll inform them right away!" Drake laughed heartily. "You're finally willing to come back! Where are you? I'll have Holly pick you up right now."Aria looked outside the window. "I just left Janovin, about an hour into the mountains. No need to send Holly to pick me up; I'm heading to the crime scene to investigate." "You're going to a crime scene?" Drake's first reaction was to open a report he had about a series of murders. Aria said candidly, "Someone in my family is involved, so I have to get to the bo
When Aria finally found a photo of Elara's face, one of the forum posts suddenly blew up. "I can't believe you guys are still having fun here when 'Empty Fort' won't be in cinemas anymore. Something serious happened!""What could happen? Was someone sleepwalking again?""Not something so insignificant.""Did Elara's rivals report the movie because they didn't want it to be shown in cinemas? How despicable!""Not that too. It's something way more serious. I don't know the specifics, but a lot of people were summoned for questioning. I'm really panicking here.""What sort of questioning? Be more specific, OP.""Just get ready. Someone's reputation is about to take a huge hit tonight."Aria knew what the OP said was true, while the forum members dismissed it as fake. The OP's vague posts and refusal to answer questions made them seem unreliable. Still, everyone stayed glued to the thread, eager to dig into the gossip. The more they discussed, the wilder the theories became, fue
Would it be Elara? Could she be connected to the sleepwalking incidents?Aria scrolled through her phone in the car, her thoughts racing. If it was related to Elara, her assistant was sure to know something. Aria's next course of action hinged on Percy securing the police reports and confessions. Meanwhile, Aria sent screenshots of the post to Sam. "Look into who posted this as well as their whereabouts."When Sam received the message, his eyes lit up, and he grabbed his black bag and left, biting on a piece of bread. Finding the identity of a forum member was easy for hacker L. Less than five minutes later, the requested information was sent to Aria, followed by a message saying, "I'm coming too."Aria didn't stop Sam. She read the information sent to her, and as expected, OP was someone on the crew. More specifically, she was one of the background actors; her name was Fanny Allen. The boxing-related profile pictures had led many to assume the user was male until Sam uncovere
Aria pressed on her amethyst pendant. She wondered if something like this had also happened to Elijah's crew. "Cut!" The director looked at Belle. She checked the footage and made sure that nothing was wrong with it before asking for the water to be changed into warm water. She entered the pool with her makeup flawlessly intact, paying no attention to the state of her body double. She found Fanny to be poor and filthy, and she pinched her nose when they passed by each other—how incredibly humiliating. Fanny had a blanket around her shoulders, but she was still cold. The crew had no time to provide her with any care, and they merely told her to head to the dressing rooms which had heating. Fanny headed to the dressing room. Alone in front of the mirror, Fanny clutched her phone tightly, her expression unreadable, her gaze dark. She tossed her cup of tea into the trash, the gesture brimming with resentment for Belle, who was good at nothing but putting up appearances. Yet, Fann
"Slander?" Fanny sneered coldly. "They don't need me to do that. None of those people are decent to start with."Aria pushed Fanny's arm down. "You lied during the police interrogation and posted those slanderous comments online. Do you want to guess at how you'd end up?"Fanny froze. Tears streamed down her face as she protested indignantly, "Am I in the wrong? I was just venting online. "I'm taking this acting job seriously, not them! I'm the one filming all those dangerous stunts, not them! They do nothing but take the credit for everything!"Aria studied Fanny. "You get paid for it, and you agreed to work as their body double. You're also paid handsomely for performing dangerous stunts."You should fulfill your obligations after being paid. What you're doing is considered backstabbing your employers."Not all the credit is yours, too. Some of the audience like to watch action scenes, while some others are just here for the pretty faces."Aria was someone who liked pretty fa
"Why would you think that?" Aria didn't let that piece of information slip. Fanny said nonchalantly, "Not just her, but many others in the industry. It was especially obvious in Elara's case. She was meticulous about things like when filming would start and the direction she faced during prayers."I heard she even got a protective charm from overseas. I don't have concrete proof, though."A protective charm, and from overseas?Aria pressed on her Charm Coin, her gaze darkening. "You mentioned in the post that she was sleepwalking frequently.""I saw her five times," Fanny said. "I guess I'm the only one who saw her, though. I slept there secretly during those days, but I no longer dared to do so after seeing her sleepwalking. I was afraid that something would happen to her and that the film crew would blame me."Aria raised a brow. "Didn't her management company notice such a serious issue? What about her assistant?""Maybe they didn't notice. I don't know." Fanny's gaze wander
The person reporting to Lyla lowered his voice as he said, "Ms. Mobbs, she said that she found a protective charm on the floor and wanted to ask if you recognized it." Lyla's expression shifted. She snapped, "Tell her to come in."Aria didn't have any protective charms with her; that was merely an excuse for her to meet Lyla.Lyla was a very overbearing woman, but her eyes lit up as soon as she saw Aria. "Ah, Ken, why didn't you tell me that the visitor is this beautiful?"Lyla stood up. The longer she looked at Aria, the more satisfied she was. Compared to Aria, Elara, whose image she had spent a lot of effort cultivating, fell short. If she could sign a management contract with Aria, she would be able to create a new trend that would take the industry by storm."Hello. You have such a striking face, it's a waste if you don't begin a career in acting," Lyla said. She fished out her business card immediately. "We have an elite team which will assist you on your way to stardom.
Lyla's face had gone ashen in contrast to Aria's calm demeanor. Her voice trembled as she said, "You had him—""Yeah." Aria raised a brow. "So if you don't want to be sent to prison too, you better tell me everything about Elara's protective charm and the unusual behavior she displayed in detail."Lyla said, "I'll tell you everything, Ms. Carver! I'll tell you everything you want to know! Her death really has nothing to do with the company at all! I don't know how she died just like this without any warning." Lyla was telling the truth. "The protective charm never left her side. I disagreed when she bought the charm."Lyla deliberately avoided being in the vicinity of everyone else when she talked about this. "The police interrogated me, and there are some weird occurrences that I can't really tell anyone else about. I'm worried that they might think that I'm responsible for it.""What would they think you're responsible for?" Aria asked sharply.Lyla wanted to keep a low profil