Going to New York City
There was still no hard proof that Xavier Cross was behind the car accident, but Avery Hayes wasn't in a hurry. She knew guys like him and Ronan Bowen, men who managed to get away with so much, even in a country with laws as strict as the United States, had to have serious connections.
She'd only been awake in this body for a month.
Her original plan had been to make sure Bryce Sterling got the maximum sentence within three months, and only then would she start dismantling the Sterling family.
But here they were, just one month in, and the Sterling family was already drowning in a PR nightmare.
They had no way to fix their company's reputation, and Avery had no intention of giving them the breathing room to try.
Everything was going according to plan. She couldn't afford to be impatient. If she just took her time, she could bring them all down, one by one.
By the end of November, New York had turned cold. The air was dry and sharp, the kind of chill that sinks right into your bones. The moment she stepped off the plane, a bitter wind hit her. Avery shivered, yanking the zipper of her down jacket all the way up and burying her face in the collar.
Even that didn't quite do the trick.
"Here, hold this." Shane Croft reached into his backpack and pulled out a hand warmer, already charged and radiating heat, and passed it to her.
Avery took it, the warmth instantly seeping into her palms. "When did you think of this?"
Shane zipped his bag shut. "Right after you decided to come to New York."
Avery's face broke into a bright smile. "Of course you did. You think of everything."
A minute later, Wyatt Riggs, who had gone to fetch their luggage, reappeared, pushing two large suitcases through the crowd. The three of them made for the B2 exit, and as soon as they stepped outside, they spotted Diana Marks waving at them from beside a black SUV.
Avery grinned and started toward her.
She'd barely taken a step when the screams started.
One moment the terminal exit was calm; the next, it was a mob scene.
Then came the flashbulbs, popping like a hundred tiny explosions.
Caught completely off guard, Avery was shoved by a frantic group of girls, slamming her back against a cold metal railing.
Shane reacted instantly, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the stampede.
He planted himself beside her, one long arm extended to create a barrier between Avery and the surging crowd.
They had to fight their way through the throng of screaming girls just to get out.
In the chaos, someone knocked her rhinestone hair clip crooked.
"Who was that? What is all this?" Avery asked, her voice still a little shaky as she finally reached Diana. She glanced back at the chaos at the airport exit and let out a long breath, stomping her feet a few times. She was pretty sure she'd been stepped on more than once back there.
"Raphael Valenti," Diana said, reaching out to fix the clip in Avery's hair.
Avery instinctively pulled back, taking the clip from her own hair. Under the pretense of adjusting it, she quickly checked that the tiny recording device hidden inside was still intact before carefully pinning it back in place.
Thinking Avery just didn't like being touched, Diana let her hand fall away.
She nodded toward the airport exit. "Raphael Valenti is a top-tier star, on the same level as Damian Royce. You know, the guy from that epic fantasy series? Well, Raphael is in *Bones of Mountains and Rivers*."
She gave Avery a meaningful look. "If you pass the audition, you'll have a lot of scenes with him."
Hearing the guy might be her future coworker, Avery craned her neck, her eyes fixed on the airport exit. The fans' screams were getting even louder.
Just as the noise hit its peak, Raphael Valenti finally emerged, surrounded by a wall of five or six bodyguards.
He was a tall figure in a light gray trench coat, slim-fit jeans, and white sneakers.
A black mask covered the lower half of his face, giving him an air of clean, sharp anonymity.
The coat made his already slender frame seem even taller.
When his fans saw him, their screams became a solid wall of sound. Raphael didn't even take off his mask. He just gave a small nod as his bodyguards cleared a path, and he disappeared into a waiting minivan.
The whole thing was over in a flash. Avery hadn't even seen his face.
"So that's a superstar," she sighed, a little dazed.
At that, Diana frowned. "If you get cast in *Bones of Mountains and Rivers*, try to avoid any contact with Raphael Valenti outside of filming," she warned. "His fans are insane. Every single actress who's ever worked with him has been dragged through the mud online."
She paused, then added, "Also, he's with Daybreak Media."
As she said the name, Diana's expression turned grim.
"Daybreak Media is notorious for manufacturing hype and starting media wars. They tear down other artists to build up their own. If we get tangled up with them, we'll be on the defensive. It's best not to give them any ammunition to use against you."
"Remember," she continued, and something dark flickered in her eyes, "you can't trust anyone from Shiguang Entertainment, Daybreak, or Evergreen Media. The 'Big Three.'"
Avery had been focused on Diana's industry analysis, but the shift in her tone was impossible to miss. Why did just mentioning those companies make her look so haunted? Did Stellar Media have some kind of history with them?
Diana clearly had no intention of explaining. She just repeated her warning a couple more times before telling them all to get in the car so they could head to the office. Avery respected boundaries, and seeing that Diana didn't want to say more, she didn't push it.
Once in the car, Avery didn't waste any time.
She popped in her earbuds, pulled up a legal analysis podcast, and settled in to listen.
It was the kind of complex case that might show up on the essay portion of her bar exam in a few days.
Unlike the multiple-choice section, which was all about memorization, the essays tested her ability to analyze, reason, and build a solid argument.
Listening to more cases helped sharpen her thinking and legal vocabulary.
No one bothered her. It wasn't until the car pulled up in front of the Stellar Media headquarters that Diana reached over and gave her a gentle nudge.
Avery came back to herself with a start. She glanced at the sleek, glass-walled building outside the window, put away her earbuds, and climbed out of the car. For all its energy, the streets of New York had the same cold, anonymous feel of any big city.
The headquarters was in the northern part of the city.
Since this was Avery's first time here after signing her contract, Diana gave her the full tour, introducing her to the different departments.
Avery only half-listened, her attention zeroing in on the management, publicity, and public relations teams.
She knew she'd be dealing with them a lot in the future.
Stellar Media didn't have many artists at the moment.
Aside from a couple of established names, the rest were all newcomers signed within the last year.
Half of them were already working, playing bit parts in Stellar's various short-form dramas.
The other half were still at the headquarters, going through intensive training.
Julian Shaw was out of the country, so Dexter Reed was holding down the fort. Avery wanted to talk to him about Wyatt and Shane, so after her tour, she asked Diana to take her to his office.
Dexter had known Avery was coming in, so he'd stayed put.
They found him hunched over the company's annual financial report, a sea of red ink that seemed to get deeper the longer he stared at it.
When Avery and Diana pushed the door open, he was slumped in his executive chair, looking like the numbers had sucked the life right out of him.
Seeing his defeated expression, Diana didn't seem surprised. "What's wrong?"
Dexter barely lifted his head. "What do you think is wrong? We're hemorrhaging money. I have no idea how I'm supposed to explain this to Julian."
Diana tried to console him, a half-joke in her voice. "He never expected this company to turn a profit anyway. What's there to explain?"
Dexter tossed the report onto the table with a sigh. "Yeah, I know, but we can't just keep bleeding cash. It's making me sick just looking at it."
Just then, his gaze shifted and landed on Avery.
His eyes lit up as if he'd just spotted a winning lottery ticket, and he shot up from his chair. "Diana, the second Avery is done with the bar exam, I want her schedule filled. Start reaching out for brand deals. When Julian gets back, I'll have him line up a few commercials for her to shoot."
He gestured vaguely toward the door. "The other artists are dead weight, but we've got a genuine rising star right here, don't we? Stellar is in the red this year, but maybe next year... maybe next year we'll be in the black. We can turn this whole thing around."