Yet instead of losing his patience, he pulled her into his arms and pacified her even more. “Okay, okay. It’s my fault. How about I make it up to you with the Best Actress award this weekend?”
Her expression instantly softened at that.
But my fists clenched tight.
Then, one of his men hesitated. “Boss, wasn’t that award meant for your wife?”
“Marina’s not bad either,” Dominic replied, then sat her on his lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “She works hard, her acting’s solid. Besides, the list hasn’t been made public yet. So, go and change it.”
Before his people could move, I kicked the door open with my foot.
Startled, Dominic had pushed Marina aside fast and muttered, “Isla?”
Ignoring the dull ache in my waist, I fixed my eyes on him and asked, “Who are you giving that award to?”
He looked down, avoiding my gaze.
He knew. He was there when I fell during a high-wire scene, refusing a stunt double just to give my best on camera. He also watched as I was pinned together with eighteen steel screws right after my fall. Despite all that, he saw me drag myself back to set the same night. He even held me as I shook and cried through the pain, drenched in cold sweat.
He wasn’t ignorant of any of it.
But he still looked away, reasoning, “Marina’s new, yet she’s made it this far on her own. It hasn’t been easy. Besides, you’re her senior. Just give this to her.”
“No way!” I shouted. Then, jabbing my finger at Marina, I retorted, “If she were better than me, fine, I’d accept it. But when I memorize my lines, she just mouths ‘one-two-three-four-five-six-seven.’ When I do my own stunts, she hides behind eight doubles for a single scene. And you want to hand her an award that takes an actor eight years of blood and sweat to earn? Just to a pretty face?!”
Isla's POV
“Isla!” Dominic suddenly raised his voice, his gaze cutting through me with a coldness I’d never seen before. “Know your place!”
The words had barely left his mouth before even he looked startled, as if he hadn’t meant to say them.
I stared at him in disbelief. “My place? You mean as a senior actress who hasn’t ‘stayed in her lane’? Or as the girlfriend who’s stood by you for ten years?”
“Isla, I…”
For once, Dominic seemed lost for words. But slips of the tongue cut the deepest because that was when the truth leaked out.