Billionaire’s Trust(23)

I paused for a moment to let my opening statement sink in before I started to appeal to his ego. Satisfied he’d heard me, I continued, “You told me you believed in me when you gave me the part Trevor. Was that a lie?"

Trevor remained motionless for a second or two. It was as if he were waiting for me to slip up and reveal my true intentions by accident. Yet, as his gaze lingered on me, I remained steady.

“Hmm, no,” he said as he shook his head, breaking eye contact me for a moment. His voice took on a tone of authority. “You’ve got some real talent as an actress, Maddie. It’s the way you conduct yourself that’s holding you back. Like they say, actions speak. Over the past few months, yours haven’t said many good things about you. You do understand that don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, well. I’m not doing this to just punish you or something. I don’t trust you right now. I mean, put yourself in my position for a minute. How can I be expected to run a production where the lead actress behaves like you have been?”

Nodding as he spoke, I agreed. “I understand, Trevor. I can’t undo the way I’ve behaved. All I can do is apologize for it and tell you it won’t happen again.”

Trevor chewed his lip as he looked up at me. He sat there in silence for several moments tapping his pen on his desk as he considered what he’d say next. But before he could speak, I decided to lay my case out in a logical way and appeal to his business sense.

As I began, I took a seat in the chair across from his desk. “Trevor, look. The studio already has several million invested in the project. I’m no fool. There’s next to no chance it won’t be finished. And why shouldn’t it? It’s a wonderful script and Susan is a fabulous director. Not to mention everyone else involved, yourself included."

Trevor nodded and pursed his lips.

“So, if this is your way of punishing me or getting revenge against me by being obstinate, then well, I’m afraid you leave me with no choice. I’ll have to go over your head, Trevor. I don’t want to do that. I want to work it out between us, right now. But, if you force me to, I will.”

“Uh huh,” he replied. He appeared underwhelmed with my offer, to say the least. Continuing, he added, “No, I think you’ve learned your lesson at this point.”

Leaning away from him, I wrinkled my brow. “Lesson? What are you talking about?”

Trevor waved off my question with a flick of his hand.

“You’ve gotten a little too high and mighty for my liking,” he began, as he glared at me. “So, I stopped filming on purpose. I had the discretion to keep things going, of course. But, after seeing you come begging like this, it’s clear you’ve gotten the message.”

As he finished, he leaned forward. Narrowing his eyes like a serpent, he hissed his insult.

“I would do it all over again if I had the chance. Watching you squirm like this makes it all worthwhile.”

It took every bit of self-control I had not to leap across his desk and wring his neck! I couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. Of all the rotten, low-down, dirty tricks he could have picked, this was by far the worst.

All those people who worked on the film were laid off because of his childish behavior. As I looked across the desk at Trevor, I wondered what the hell I’d ever seen in him. Grey might be a lot of things but he would never, ever do something like this to his employees. I had a good mind to go straight to him and tell him exactly why Trevor had put a halt to the production.

But, if I did, I’d be no better off and still relying on him to fight my battles for me. Like it or not, I was going to have to let Trevor win this battle so I wouldn’t lose the war. So instead, I reined in my disgust and let out a long, slow exhale through my nose. The heat escaped from my nostrils like an enraged bull staring down a matador.

“Okay, Trevor,” I began, as I nodded in surrender. “I’ve gotten your message, loud and clear. So it’s a go then? Filming will get back underway?”

He shook his head. “Nope. Not so fast.”

I drew my lips inward, pinching them together in disgust.

“What…” I muttered.

“Well I’m not doing anything until you apologize to me first.”

I felt my eyelid twitch as I looked at him. “Apologize?”

“Yep,” he said as an evil grin spread to his lips. “And you better make it good.”

I’d reached my limit. If he pushed me even the tiniest bit further, I’d bring the wrath of Grey down on his ass. I swallowed hard and without asking what I’d done or why I had to be sorry for it all of a sudden, I got on with it. For emphasis, I draped my hand across my chest as I began the greatest acting performance of my life.