Chapter 3

Half asleep, I felt someone wiping the sweat from my face.

When I opened my eyes, I found Richard sitting on the edge of the bed.

For a moment, I was dazed.

Owen stood beside the bed. "Ms. Lawson, Mr. Crane postponed his morning meeting just to see you. He even brought you some medicine."

The exhaustion on Richard's face made my chest ache.

Just as I tried to sit up, Richard handed me a prepared public apology statement.

As I read it, my heart went cold.

"Sign it." Richard's expression hardened. "I found out you're still using an offshore account to pay trolls to smear Daisy. Several of our upcoming shows are already facing boycotts, and investors are pulling their funding."

I denied it immediately. "You cut off every account and card I could access! I don't even have enough money for medicine. How am I supposed to pay trolls?!"

"PR traced the IP address to this building!" Richard refused to listen. "And you still won't admit it! You have to apologize to Daisy publicly. That's the only way to fix this!"

I was so furious that I laughed. Weak as I was, I pointed at the door. "Then check the building's visitor log yourself! Find out who besides Daisy's people had access to this apartment and its network over the past two days!"

Richard's expression shifted. He reached for his phone just as it rang.

It was Daisy.

"Richard... I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I don't deserve to be in Hollywood. I'll quit the business if that's what it takes to make this go away. Please don't blame Eve..."

Daisy sounded so fragile that Richard's anger flared exactly as she'd intended.

Richard hung up and shot me a look of pure disgust.

"You're beyond help. Maybe a little punishment will finally teach you who's in charge."

Richard strode to the desk.

My blood ran cold when I saw him reach for the file box.

Inside were the screenplays he'd returned to me after the party.

"Put that down!" I screamed, throwing off the covers and lunging for the box.

Richard shoved me away with one hand.

"Since you love pulling stunts so much, you don't need to keep this useless junk," he said coldly.

Right in front of me, he tore the screenplay in half.

"No!"

I screamed hysterically and collapsed to the floor.

I completely lost it and scrambled across the floor, snatching at the torn pages.

I clawed at the pages so hard that my nails bent backward, drawing blood.

I couldn't feel the pain. All I wanted was to piece the pages back together.

Richard grabbed my arm and snapped, "You'd ruin your hands over scraps of paper?!"

The sight of my bleeding fingers only made him angrier.

He yanked the other half from my hands, tore it to shreds right in front of me, and flung the pieces at my feet.

"When you learn to back down, admit you were wrong, and go back to being the Eve you used to be, I'll hand everything right back to you!

"Until then, you're staying right here. Think about what you've done!"