Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
ROMAN
Red is all I see long after my leggy new co-star leaves.
My nostrils flare as I try to pull in breath after breath.
This was not how that was supposed to go.
I jokingly poked her a few times, and that’s what happened?
Calling me a nepo baby and saying it’s the only reason I’ve gotten to where I am? She can go to hell.
Admittedly, it isn’t great that she overheard me before the chemistry read. I was in a mood and acted like a dick. But this is how she chose to handle it? She was out of line. Unacceptably so.
Everything in me is screaming to go home and light up a cigarette, or head out to the nearest bar and pound back a few drinks.
Unfortunately, I’m stuck at the studio for another hour before my next meeting, where I’m supposed to sign the Darkness Rising franchise casting agreement.
Something about starring in two additional sequels.
In any case, it’s a good thing I’ve got some time to cool down before I go in there.
Except I don’t cool down. I can’t. Hearing what I fear people think about me come out of the mouth of my gorgeous new co-star?
It fucking burns. I want people to see me for myself.
Not my fucking name. Swallowing down the acid that claws its way up my throat, I stare at the waves softly spilling over the edge of the fountain.
Stupidly, my nose starts to burn, and my vision blurs for a fraction of a second before I blink it away.
Maybe that’s all I’ll ever be seen as. A nepo baby.
The sadness I was feeling a moment ago is chased away by something more comfortable and familiar. She wants to call me a nepo baby? That’s fucking fine. I’ll show her how big of a nepo baby I can be.
In a haze of anger, I pull out my phone and hit dial on the contact.
“Mahdi. It’s Roman.”
“What can I do for you?” he asks, agreeable as ever.
“The franchise agreement I’m supposed to sign this afternoon.”
“What about it?”
“I need a clause added before I sign.”
He pauses. “What is it?”
It’s vindictive, and cruel, but my pride demands that I get some retribution. “I want it written that Clover Daly will be pulled from any future Darkness Rising films.”