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Yet there I was, waiting in his office, trying to pretend I wasn’t anxious about his response to my demand. But you know what they say—“No good deed goes unpunished.”
It was time to pay the piper.
I eyed the wall art in his office as I waited for him. A one-of-a-kind canvas stared back at me, reminding me so much of my father’s office. There was something about men in power and art. The more exquisite the piece, the more you had to kiss their asses.
It wasn’t until I heard the clicking of Elias’s dress shoes and then him stopping dead in his tracks that I turned around to face him.
The second we locked eyes, he cocked his head to the side. “Aires?” he announced, fully aware of why I was there in the first place.
With my hands in the pockets of my suit jacket, I didn’t hesitate to speak with conviction…
“I’m here to call in my favor.”
chapterone
Bailey
4 Months Ago
“James keeps staringover here at you,” I told my best friend Alexis.
They just broke up not even a week ago, and it was the talk of the Hollywood town, but that wasn’t surprising, given who they were.
Alexis was a top supermodel. James was the son of a music icon, similar to my dad, who was the singer and lead guitarist for the legendary rock band Life of Debauchery.
Alexis and James had been together for almost a year, and in celebrity time, that meant at least a decade. Relationships didn’t last in this town. There was too much temptation—both on- and off-screen.
Of course, that didn’t apply to me. I wasn’t allowed to be human and make a mistake. I basically grew up in front of the public eye, and fans from all over the world felt as if they had raised me. On top of the fact that I was a Jameson and my mom’s side of the family used to be 1 percent outlaw bikers until my granddaddy stole it out from under his old man’s thumb, changing the path of our lives.
My mother married into money, though. My stepdad was the NFL quarterback of his time, and if my rock star father wasn’t pressure enough, I was raised by my stepdad and mom until I was nine years old when all of a sudden, my world was turned upside down and inside out. My biological father unexpectedly entered my life. I had been a fan of his music way before I learned the truth about who he was to me.
Ever since then, the press had known everything about my life professionally and personally. My first audition was when I was ten years old, and right from the start of my career, I was lucky to be chosen as one of the kids of a new show catering to other adolescents calledThe Kids Club. Along with a group of ten other people from the ages of ten to fourteen, I was thrown into the spotlight, and all eyes were immediately on us from the second we stepped onto that live audience stage.
The show blew up internationally overnight, and our faces were everywhere. From that point forward, my life was never the same. Some said I grew up too fast, while others said I didn’t grow up fast enough. I tried my best to be the good girl the world expected me to be. Instantly, I was labeled as a role model for my peers without me having one say about it. My management team rode my ass, and truth be told, I put food on the table for a bunch of people, and it was one of the things that kept me up at night.
It wasn’t just my career that I provided for, and I took that very seriously.
The only time I could let loose and try to act like a normal twenty-five-year-old was exclusive, low-key parties like the one we were currently attending. Phones were taken at the door, and thank goodness for that.
I didn’t have to worry about someone snapping a picture or video of me that would go viral on social media or be sold to the press for a shit ton of money. I couldn’t tell you which one was worse. Both included me as front-page news, which was why I had to protect my image at all costs.
“Good.” Alexis smiled, bringing me back to the present. “I hope he’s regretting letting the best thing that ever happened to him go.”
I smirked, shaking my head. “You broke up with him.”
“Yeah,” she confidently admitted. “And he didn’t fight for me.”
I loved her certainty on who she was and what she deserved. Alexis didn’t give a shit about what anyone thought about her, but she didn’t have to. She was a high-end model, living in the fast lane lifestyle expected with that title. The woman constantly traveled for runway shows and campaigns from LA to Timbuktu. Her schedule was packed with jobs, and her socializing at events was what she did best and how she found endless work.
This town was also nothing but connections. It was all about who you knew and, in some cases, who you blew. The casting couch wasn’t a thing of the past. They were just better at hiding it now. Everyone wanted a piece of you, and it was hard to distinguish the good from the bad.
One of the best things about Alexis was that she wasn’t a cunt, and yes, I used that word. Finding a friend like her was extremely hard to come across in this industry. Along with being used and everyone seeing you as a threat or competition to their own careers, it was rare to have a friendship like ours.
I’d been sitting in that number-one spot of highest-paid and in-demand actress for years. It was only a matter of time before I was knocked off that pedestal, and I wasn’t dumb enough to believe anything different.
Everyone had an expiration date in this town, and sadly, it was run on youth. Some had been able to gracefully age into the industry, and all I could do was hope that my IMBd would eventually speak for itself. Every step I took was precise and calculated by my team and me to maintain at the top. I wouldn’t go down without a fight. I worked too hard to get there and had no plans of dropping the ball anytime soon.
My circle was small, and I preferred it that way.
