Trapped Belle(6)

12

When they shoot scenes the next day, Howard threw a fit.

Brandan somehow performed poorly. He even had to shoot a simple scene many times.

The director called for a break, the look in his eyes showing how mad he was at Brandan.

Due to his poor performance, the staff's workload increased. They were exhausted and complained.

Brandan felt frustrated when they looked at him reproachfully. He stayed in the nanny car sulking, refusing to shoot scenes.

The assistant tried to persuade him many times, but it was to no avail. He had no choice but to call Belle for help.

When her phone rang out, Belle was in her father's office. The atmosphere was intense.

She and her father had a big fight. Her father thundered and said she hadn't come home in the past few years and now she come to him for properties.

"You're not my daughter," he shouted at her.

Belle had thought that he had no longer treated her like his own these years. Instead, he doted on her half-sister. Despite that, his words still gave her a blow.

After a pause, she looked up at him. She was so desperate that she couldn't cry.

"Of course, you don't see me as your daughter. You only care about Isabella Murphy. Who am I to you? I'm just a mistake you made!" she said with sarcasm.

Her sarcastic speech ticked her father off. In a rage, he picked up an ashtray and threw it at her.

But in the next second, he regretted it.

He didn't expect that she would stand there still and didn't even try to dodge. The ashtray hit her calf.

Her calf was bleeding, and blood flowed down her calf.

She didn't even frown. She stared into his eyes with a derisive smile.

"It's okay you don't treat me as your daughter. But that woman and her daughter don't even think about getting my mother's shares!" she said.

After that, she left the office without looking back.

She got into the restroom and cleaned her wound quickly.

She didn't feel any pain. It was nothing compared to the trauma his father had brought her.

She remembered her mother's car accident many years ago. At that time, she was only 9 years old. She was expecting her mother with a cake at home. In the end, she got terrible news.

From then on, she never celebrated her birthday because she had a painful memory on her birthday.

She thought that her father would take her mother's death very hard too, but he brought her stepmother home soon.

At that time, her stepmother was pregnant.

Was her mother's car crash really an accident?

She didn't believe it!

Thinking of that, she had a splitting headache. When she saw dozens of missed calls from Brandan's assistant, she was exhausted but she had to call him back.

When she got through, she learned that Brandan refuse to shoot scenes.

She rubbed her temples, casually took out a Band-Aid and put it on her wound. Then, she drove to the filming location.

13

When she arrived at the location, it was almost midnight.

Brandan waited for her at the intersection.

At the sight of her, he threw himself into her arms with an aggrieved look on his face.

All the anger, exhaustion, and helplessness she felt had almost disappeared at this point.

The young man in her arms had so much faith in her and relied on her so much, which made her determined to do her job well and not to fail his trust.

Brandan was only 20 years old while she was 28. Although she was his manager, she was more like an elder sister to him.

It was not easy to be trusted by someone like this.

She could feel that he had a long day, just like her.

"What's wrong?" she asked while patting him on the shoulder.

"Belle, they all said that I can't play this role well," he said in exasperation.

"Then what do you think?" Belle asked.

"I... I agree with them..." His voice trailed off. "You have no idea how scary Reed's looks were. He had been sullen all morning as if I had pissed him off. I couldn't look him in the eye. I didn't mess with him. Why did he treat me like that?"

So it was Louis who got Brandan in this spot?

Belle looked in the direction of Louis who was in the crowd.

She found that he was looking at her. Their eyes met. It didn't last a second before she was too embarrassed to look away.

"Why are you so scared of him? He doesn't appear like someone who will make things difficult for others," Belle said.

In the past, even though he was possessive about Belle, he was nice to others.

He liked to smile and was very friendly to everyone.

Although he had lost his memories, he didn't look like those who would be mad at and mean to others. He gave her the impression that nothing mattered to him.

It was hard to imagine how he would give Brandan a hard time. In her opinion, Brandan had let his imagination run wild.

"Belle, I don't know why, but I always feel that he is hostile to me," Brandan said with a scowling face.

"There was a scene in the swimming pool this afternoon. When I hit on him and took advantage of him, he was supposed to get pissed and leave. But when he got annoyed, I felt that he attempted to kill me. So I freaked out," he said.

Belle got it.

She basically understood what was going on.

Everything had its natural enemy. For instance, Brandan, who got nothing to fear, became soft prey in front of Louis.

"Take it easy. I'm gonna have a conversation with him," Belle said helplessly.

She dropped her handbag, mustered up some courage and made her way towards Louis.

As she got to him, she flashed him a polite smile and stretched out her hand. "Hello, I'm Brandan Gibbson's manager, Belle..."

"What's up?" Louis interrupted her as he glanced up at her with indifference written all over his face. He just cast her a glance. It was evident that he had no intention of shaking hands with her.

Belle stared blankly at him for a moment, and then awkwardly withdrew her hand. She said, "It's about you and Brandan's shooting. I'd like to talk to you about it."

"Go ahead!" he said impassively without giving her a look.

He had memory loss. She took a deep breath.

He had become indifferent and she had to get used to it.

Speaking of which, it was a good thing for her.

She calmed herself down and said, "Brandan has a problem working with you. I guess it's because you don't know each other. You got the time tonight? You can have dinner together and get acquainted with each other."

He rubbed his temples, looking very impatient.

After a moment of silence, he said, "Do you want to hear the truth?"

"What is it?" she asked.

"If he has got some problem, he can quit. Is he the only actor in your company?" he said.

Belle's eyes widened in surprise.

She had never expected that such words would come out of his mouth.

However, what she didn't expect was that Brandan was standing behind her with two cups of bubble tea.

He heard it all.

She turned around and saw his red face.

Louis was too mean.

Brandan initially got the bubble tea for Louis and Belle. But when he heard Louis' words, he threw them in the trash and left.

This time, it was more difficult for Belle to help Louis and Brandan reconcile with each other.

"You got anything else?" Noticing that Belle fixed her eyes on Brandan, Louis lost his patience.

"We signed the agreement. It's impossible to get a replacement. Now that you work together, you should be more tolerant. In that way, everyone wins," Belle said with a frown.

She was speechless. When did he become so mean?

"That's not my concern. All I want is that you won't waste my time," he said, rising from his seat. He went straight to his nanny car and continued, "Talk to my manager if you got something."

After that, he got into the vehicle.

He was such a pain in the ass.

Belle stood still, fuming with anger.

Considering Louis' attitude, she gave up her plan. She turned around and walked up to Brandan's nanny car.

Louis was sitting in the car staring at an angry Belle outside the window.

He touched Brandan's name on the cast list.

His eyes were filled with malice.

"Belle, the first time you came to me, it was for him," he murmured.

He narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Brandan's name for quite a while. Then, he reclined on the sofa, rubbing his temple.

14

Belle thought to herself, "It's impossible to talk sense into Louis. Forget it. I'll start with Brandan."

But when she entered the vehicle, she blazed with anger.

There was no sign of Brandan.

He had powered off his phone and didn't reply to her messages on WhatsApp. In a word, he had gone off the grids.

He was just 20 years old. She shook her head. He was still too young to handle things.

She entered the car, and sat down to inquire about the places Brandan often went to. When she was waiting for the reply, she found the pain in her leg was killing her.

It was the wound that she had gotten this afternoon.

So many things had happened earlier that day that she had forgotten that she had injured her leg. When she got nothing to do, she felt the pain coming from it.

Just as she was about to look for an emergency kit, she got a call.

Someone told her that Brandan was in Night 197-the largest pub nearby.

Most of the people here were actors. They were busy shooting the scenes during the day and went to Night 197 to relax in the evening.

Belle hung up the phone, letting out a sigh. Brandan never stopped causing trouble.

There were many paparazzi lurking at Night 197, waiting to take pictures of those celebrities when they fooled around with others.

Brandan seldom behaved himself at a pub.

He had pissed off the directors and the staff. If he had a sex scandal, the investor might give up on him.

So she had to get him back from the pub.

This wasn't the first time Belle came to a pub.

All the celebrities she had worked with were regulars to pubs. She had caught more than ten celebrities in pubs.

But this time, she was still too late.

By the time she made it there, Brandan had drunk off his face.

What a troublemaker!

Belle made his assistant a call. His assistant carried the drunk Brandan.

On their way back to the hotel, Brandan grabbed her hand and whined, "Belle, they all said that I couldn't make an actor.

"But I've worked very hard...

"Do you think Louis is giving me a hard time deliberately?"

Belle shook her head in anger. He shouldn't have drunk so much alcohol.

She wished she could gag him to make him shut his mouth.

"That bastard really kissed me that day. He had lost his mind. How could he really do that to me? I'm a man. I..."

"Shut up!" Belle covered his mouth.

He began talking nonsense after getting bombed. It wasn't a big deal that Louis kissed him. After all, it was just a show. Why did he make a thing out of that?

Just then, Belle felt that someone touched her butt.

She was very sensitive!

What happened six years ago made her hate coming into contact with others. So she turned around and saw several young men walk past her.

They looked so calm as if nothing had happened.

Seeing their expressions, she even began to doubt if she had hallucinated.

Usually, she would have taught the guy a lesson. But now she hesitated. She wasn't sure if that had happened.

Perhaps he touched her accidentally. Or it was someone else.

She looked around and found that everyone around looked like paparazzi. She then set her eyes on an unconscious Brandan and gave up keeping up with the horde and teaching the one that took advantage of her a lesson.

However, due to that event, she hit rock bottom.

"It sucked," she thought.

Those young men began discussing excitedly when they walked around the corner of the street.

"That woman is hot..."

"How dare you do that? You're so bold."

...

"How did it feel?" A low voice sounded out of nowhere.

Before they could realize what was going on, one of them said, "I won't wash my hands tonight."

...

The minute he finished talking, he and his friends were all paused in their tracks.

A tall figure was leaning against the wall, blocking their way.

So it was this guy who had just talked to them.

He was in a black hoodie that covered most of his face. And he was wearing a black casquette and a face mask.

They couldn't see his face.

"If you don't want to wash them, how about I do it for you with disinfectant?" the man said in a calm voice while looking scary.

He snuffed the cigarette out with his fingers and threw the stub at the young man who had talked. Before that young man could realize what was going on, he wrapped his hand around his throat and broke his hand. With a crisp sound, the young man screamed in pain.

"You..." Seeing this, the young man's friends intended to make a move against the man, but he stood still staring at them. His look scared the hell out of them. They stepped back.

"What about you guys? Did you touch her just now?" he asked in a detached voice.

"No, we didn't..." They were so terrified that they immediately denied it.

"Congratulations... then. You saved your hands!" He kicked away the screaming man who was lying on the ground and swirled his wrist again.

They were so freaked out that they didn't dare make a sound.

"But you should have watched your mouth," the man in a hoodie said.

...

A few minutes later, several young men sat on the ground and covered their mouths. They couldn't help trembling as they watched him leave with his hands in his trouser pockets.