Weston suddenly pulled her into his arms and gently patted her back “I know what you’re thinking,
Stella. Please just give me a little more time.” Stella closed her eyes. She no longer had any trust in
him.
The shooting had finally progressed up to the original schedule. Bradley too had been in a good mood
lately. He feared that because of the rush, they might have to sacrifice the quality of the work. But after
a short overtime stint, everything turned out surprisingly well, and they were even on schedule now.
Guinevere had been uncharacteristically quiet these couple of days. She did not trouble Stella even
once. That was because her mind was occupied by the fear that her connection to the kidnapper might
be exposed. But so far, there was still no news of Weston taking any action since the kidnapper died.
Everything was quickly dealt with, and with news of the man’s death being hushed, no one else caught
wind of it. Seeing this, Guinevere could finally feel at ease. She did not raise their suspicion after all.
Today Guinevere and Stella would be acting in the same scene. They’d done that before, but this time
their characters would be directly confronting each other head-on for the first time.
Bradley had come and talked to Stella earlier, so she was mentally prepared. But even so, she could
never help losing control of her emotions every time she faced Guinevere. She took a deep breath,
steadied herself, and walked slowly towards Guinevere. “I hope you will guide me if I make a mistake,”
she told her flatly. The disdain on Ella’s face was clear to Guinevere. From the start, Ella had never
cared to keep up appearances with her. Everyone else would do anything to try to please her and get
on her good side, yet Ella had always treated her with cold civility.
“Guide you?” Guinevere retorted. “Oh, I wouldn’t dare! Everyone on set loves you!”
She looked almost convincingly humble and friendly when she said that, but her voice was
unmistakably laced with derision.
The first scene they would be shooting was when their master had just brought back Dahlia, the
heroine of the movie played by Guinevere, after having gone missing for many years.
Sophie, a junior disciple played by Stella, hadn’t yet harbored any resentment towards Dahlia at this
point in fact, she even wholeheartedly welcomed her senior
But soon enough, Sophie noticed that Dahlia was hogging everyone’s attention. For the first Lime in
her life, bitterness rose in her heart. As time went on, that bitterness grew like vines that overcame her
and eventually turned her to the dark side.
In the next scene, Dahlia found out in the middle of her crucial training that the one who had
been trying to harm her all this time… was the harmless and innocent Sophie!
Trapped in a water prison, Dahlia stared wide-eyed at the slowly approaching Sophie. “So it’s you!”
Dahlia hissed, coughing out a mouthful of blood.
Stella was now completely in character as Sophie. Her makeup and costume were roughly unchanged
from the scene when Sophie was still an innocent young disciple, but her expressions and her eyes
glimmered with a terrifying aura.
Even Bradley, who was behind the camera, was taken aback by the subtle change on Stella’s face. He
held his breath. Stella had managed to pull him straight into the story.
“Are you surprised to see me, Dahlia?”
Sophie was now standing over Dahlia, looking down condescendingly at her.
Dahlia was at the critical point of gruesome training, but now she was helplessly trapped by her own
junior disciple. Her eyes were red. She was desolate and utterly humiliated. “How could you?!” she
spat, glaring at Sophie with fiery eyes. “I’m your senior! Let me go right now before it’s too late to-”
“Even now, you’re still speaking of all this nonsense!” Sophie bluntly cut her off. Then Sophie suddenly
erupted into a peal of wild and maniacal laughter. “Oh, Dahlia! How I pity you! Things have gotten this
bad, yet you’re still so naive!”
Stella lifted Guinevere’s chin and was about to say the rest of her lines when Guinevere’s expression
changed. “Wait!” she shouted, pushing Stella away. “Stop! Stop!”
“I think the acting was a little off just now!” Guinevere complained.
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