Chapter 4
Mark raised his glass with a smile, his eyes full of self-satisfied pride.
He knew he'd made the right gamble.
Now that he'd reeled in a prize like Emily, what did he have to worry about? Investors from all over Eastland would be lining up to throw money at him, begging to have Emily star in his films.
"To my favorite actress," Mark said, "and to freedom."
Their glasses clinked together with a crisp sound.
Halfway through the meal, Emily called the waiter over to pay the bill.
She placed her black card in the bill folder. This was the corporate card Starlight Media had issued her, with a limit of 2 million dollars.
She'd been using it for six years and never had a payment rejected.
The waiter took the card and left.
Five minutes later, he returned.
"Miss Harper, I'm sorry, but your card was declined," the waiter said.
Emily frowned. "That's impossible. Try it again."
The waiter went off again, then came back, looking more embarrassed. "Miss Harper, it won't go through. The system says the issuing bank has frozen your card."
Emily's expression finally shifted. She snatched up her phone, opened her mobile banking app, and entered her password.
A red pop-up appeared on the screen: [Your account has been frozen. If you have questions, please contact the issuing bank.]
She tried three other cards.
All of them were frozen.
Emily's hands shook so badly she could barely hold her phone.
She scrolled through her unread messages and saw that right after the termination notice, there was another email from Starlight Media's legal department, sent two hours ago.
She'd been so angry earlier that she hadn't noticed it.
The subject line read: [Legal Notice Regarding Miss Emily Harper's Breach of A-list Artist Exclusive Management Contract.]
Emily opened the email and read it line by line.
It said she'd violated a certain clause in the contract by revealing her relationship in public, causing major damage to the company's reputation.
That meant she'd triggered the penalty clause in the contract. She had thirty days to pay up, and the amount was 900,000,000 dollars.
When Emily saw the number, her phone slipped right out of her hand and hit the plate, splattering sauce all over her.
Mark quickly picked up the phone, and when he saw the number on the screen, his smile froze.
"How many zeros is that?" he asked.
Emily was too stunned to reply. She slumped back in her chair, her face frozen in shock.
A full 900 million dollars.
The number was nailed down to the last dollar. It matched every dollar she'd made in six years at Starlight Media.
Richard's legal team wasn't demanding compensation. They were using the law to tell her she could walk away, but she had to cough up every cent she made in those six years.
"Waiter," Emily said, her voice trembling. "How much is this meal?"
"That'll be two thousand six hundred dollars, Miss Harper," the waiter replied.
Emily rummaged through every pocket in her bag and finally found a personal debit card with eight hundred dollars left on it. Then she asked Mark to send over one thousand dollars he had left in his account.
Mark looked miserable. He didn't want to do it, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and sent the money.
Two thousand six hundred dollars.
Back then, she could swipe her Starlight Media corporate card for over a hundred thousand dollars in a single day without batting an eye.
Now she could barely afford a single meal.
As they walked out of Micheline's Aureole, Emily pulled her coat tighter around herself and glanced back at Mark.
The soft look in Mark's eyes was gone.
He was frowning, lost in his own thoughts. "About that penalty—" he began.
"I'll handle it." Emily cut him off. "Richard's just pissed off right now. There's no way he's seriously expecting me to cough up 900 million dollars.
"Come on, I made him a fortune, and he spent plenty on me. He knows exactly how much. He's pissed I made him look bad on a national livestream. Give it a few days. He'll cool off, and I'll talk to him. We'll work it out."
Mark's face softened a bit. "You sure about that?"
"Absolutely," Emily replied, her confidence coming back. "I'm Emily Harper. Who else can deliver a billion-dollar box office? Who else can win awards at international film festivals?
"Richard's a businessman, and businessmen chase profits. He's not going to let money slip away. Backing me is the best deal he could get, and he knows it."
Mark nodded, at least for now, convinced by her logic.
But Emily didn't notice the hint of scheming in Mark's eyes as he nodded.
*****
Emily took Mark to her penthouse at One Riverfront.
She'd bought the place last year, and it was in her own name, not some Starlight corporate apartment, so there was no way they could take it from her.
When the elevator doors opened on the top floor, she froze.
In the hallway, two sheriff's deputies stood guard, with a locksmith waiting by the door.
A copy of the writ of restitution was already taped to the door, bearing the county's embossed gold seal.