Chapter 3

FOUR YEARS LATER

      “We are having some scenes shot in America”. Her manager says. 

   She abruptly stands up in shock at his statement. 

   “America why? I didn’t see that in the script you gave me”. She rushes to him with the script in her hands.

    Ava starts flipping crazily trying to prove to him that there is no mention of any scenes being shot in America.

   Her manager, on the other hand, looks her at weirdly. He collects the script from her. 

    She looks at him, shocked, as he waves the script high above her head. Defeatedly, she sighs.

   “Take a deep breath sista! What’s all the fuss for? The director changed the location at the last minute, claiming that it would give the scene more depth,whatever that means.” Ava stalks to a chair and sits down in a plop with an upset look on her face.

    “It’s not that.” She releases a breath. Chris comes to stand in front of her, resting his behind on the edge of the table with his hands crossed in front of him.

   “Then what is it?”. He asks her worried.

“I don’t want to run into him”. She finally admits.

   “Who? Oh, your ex-husband. I forgot he lives there”.

Ava gives him the side eye.

   “What? It’s not my fault I don’t keep useless men in my mind “. He says with a pout which makes a chuckle escape from Ava.

   “But seriously, I don’t want to run into him, and you know I can’t leave my daughter behind in Canada, so that is another risk.” Her laughter dies down.

   “Well, on the good side, the shoot for that scene will take a month at most. You can keep away from his area until then”. 

    “You, that will almost be impossible. The shoot will draw attention, and it is only a matter of time before he knows I’m in the city”. She puts her hand under her chin.

    “Girl, what are so afraid of? He was the one who treated you badly. You have left him for three years now. It’s about time to use this shoot to get closure from that chapter”. He puts a hand on her shoulder.

   She nods and pats his hand gratefully. She can remember how he got her to where she is today. 

    When she relocated to Canada four years ago, she went to live with one of her friends, Marianna, who is based in Canada till she gave birth to her daughter, Aurora. 

   Although she had more than enough money to take care of them comfortably for more than three years, she knew she had to do something profitable with the money or she would lose all of it.

   So, with the help of her friend, Marianna, she opened a boutique where she sold stylish clothing when Aurora was 6 months old. When she noticed that she wasn’t getting many customers, she was advised to start using social media to advertise her goods.

      After getting the hang of the gram, she started posting her clothing. She started enjoying the thrill and trends and decided to try one of the acting challenges. 

   With the universe’s sense of humor, she tried acting a scene from a famous trend, and the next morning, her video had blown up.

   Ava had woken up the next morning to Marianna’s excited squeals. Groggily, she asked her what happened. Instead of an actual answer, Marianna shoved the phone in her face. 

    Ava’s business account which had a measly 100 followers, was now spotting 10k followers. Her acting video was now at 1 million views. 

   Her eyes widened as she saw the various comments. With a huge smile on her face, she prepared for the day with her daughter and headed to her boutique. 

   She had barely opened her boutique that morning when ten women entered. They started complimenting her and her dresses. That was how her business started booming. She took it as sheer luck and decided to make the best of it by continuing to put out acting videos with the different dresses she was selling. 

     Barely a month later, she was seriously contemplating an expansion. She had even employed ten sales representatives and was now shipping to other countries.

   Her boutique, Aurora’s, which she named after her daughter, was fast becoming very popular in Canada. 

   It was on one of the days she was in the store looking at the new inventory that Chris Stone walked in, in all his handsome glory. 

   He walked up to her directly and told her that he wanted to manage her. Initially, she had turned him down, but after his fifth attempt and showing her that she had real talent for acting, she accepted. 

    She started it off as a side gig because she didn’t need any more money than her boutique was already bringing for her. 

   After two months of being managed by Chris, her fame had grown twofold from what it was before.

   After her first supporting role in a Hollywood series, she bagged an award at the end of her first year as an actress. Two years in, she finally got her first lead role, which skyrocketed her fame.

   Her daughter even had to grow up on set because most times, when Marianna was not available, she had to take her along. Thankfully, Aurora was already attached to Chris by the time she turned two.

   She had even picked up his bossy attitude. Chris never let her out of his sight and Aurora barely ever wanted to come down from his arms. They have a bond that even Ava envies.

    Aurora is not in the office today because she wanted to go and play at the amusement park with Marianna’s cousins who are in town.

    “I don’t know what to do. I will have to take Aurora along for the shoot and I don’t want him to find out about her. I have to protect my kid from both of them”. She puts her face into her hands.