Chapter 179: Chapter 179: Insidious Means

While Jessie Sterling and Victor Morgan were talking, Wendy Lawson wished she could turn invisible. She kept her head down, staring at her phone, trying her best not to make a single sound that might draw attention.

Daisy Woods was doing much the same.

After a moment of scrolling, the two couldn’t help but look up and meet each other’s eyes.

“Did you see it?” Daisy Woods asked.

Wendy Lawson nodded.

Daisy Woods said, “This is just a baseless rumor, right?”

Wendy Lawson was also beginning to realize that the news dropped by the gossip accounts late last night was likely just the opening act—an appetizer. The comments now flooding the internet were probably the real objective of whoever was behind this.

In the online discussions related to Liam Lawson, other kinds of comments had started to appear.

“I heard Apex Films has let go of a lot of its veterans and signed a bunch of new talent—really young, fresh-faced newcomers. Could it be…”

“I have a wild theory… This isn’t the boss building her own personal harem, is it?”

“This kind of thing isn’t unheard of, but it’s usually with small companies, and it’s men sponsoring women. Wow, the female boss of Apex Films sponsoring a younger guy… Why do I find that kind of hot?”

“I’m so into this, so into this. I’m jealous of the Apex boss. She’s living the life I’ve always dreamed of!”

These comments seemed to be nothing more than the random musings of netizens. Some even sounded envious, with no hint of condemnation.

But in reality, the whole thing was a complete fabrication. For Jessie Sterling, who was married, this was anything but good news.

Wendy Lawson looked over at Jessie Sterling and Victor Morgan, who were still deep in discussion, and couldn’t help but interject. “The online narrative has shifted again. A lot of people are speculating that all the young talent recently signed by Apex might be… well, people like Liam Lawson.”

Wendy Lawson didn’t state it outright, but how could anyone hearing it fail to understand her meaning?

“So that’s what it is.” Hearing Wendy’s words, Jessie Sterling was surprised for only a moment. Then, all the pieces of information in her mind clicked into place.

Wendy Lawson asked, “You already knew?”

Jessie Sterling shook her head. “Someone from my company just called. They said the investors for the TV series we’re currently filming have pulled their funding. And for the historical idol drama that just started shooting last week, those investors are preparing to pull out, too. It’s not confirmed yet, but I doubt there’s any room for negotiation.”

“All because of what happened yesterday?” Wendy Lawson’s headache suddenly intensified. ’Is this what it means for Jessie to truly suffer a loss?’

She pressed her lips together tightly, wishing she could find Liam Lawson right now and tear him limb from limb.

“Yes.” Jessie Sterling nodded. “This is deliberate. They released this story to make investors think the boss of Apex Films is unreliable—that I’m not here to do serious business and make money, but to fool around and find men.”

The investors themselves might not be saints—they might fool around with men and women on the side—but when they put up cold, hard cash, they expect a return. They’re not paying for someone else to have fun and chase after men.

So once Jessie was labeled as “unreliable,” investors would naturally start reconsidering their investments in projects spearheaded by Apex Films.

If the boss is so unreliable, and the company is full of new faces, who’s to say whether these newcomers were signed for their actual talent or just because the head of Apex liked their pretty faces?

Even if the staff at Apex Films tried to explain, the power of public opinion was far greater than anyone imagined.

Jessie Sterling swiped her tablet to the first page of a file and handed it to Wendy Lawson and Daisy Woods.

“Liam Lawson has been in contact with people from Thorne Pictures since last month. He was probably planning to jump ship,” Jessie Sterling said.

This wasn’t an attack on her reputation; it was a corporate attack on Apex Films as a whole.

It’s just that their methods were truly despicable.

She never imagined the ultimate target of all this was the company itself.

Daisy Woods had the strongest reaction. “That conniving bastard!” Her face flushed with anger. The fact that she had been used was now undeniable, so how could she not be furious? “A guy like him, he hasn’t even signed with Thorne Pictures yet and he’s already so eager to be their hatchet man? He really thinks he’s something special. I’d love to see how well he does at Thorne in the future.”

Daisy Woods clenched her fists as she spoke. If she had the chance, she would beat Liam Lawson up right now. Instant karma was always satisfying; waiting just made a person anxious.

“How could he dare?” Wendy Lawson couldn’t understand.

The company she and Daisy had signed with was well-known, after all. Could Liam Lawson really get away with such a blatant betrayal of his original agency?

Even if the traditional entertainment industry and the world of online influencers didn’t overlap much, there was no guarantee their boss wouldn’t decide to make an example of him. Even if Liam Lawson managed to jump ship to Thorne Pictures, would he really have an easy time?

“Someone probably made him a huge promise,” Jessie Sterling said.

She wasn’t particularly surprised. After all, the money and prestige one could earn in the entertainment industry were beyond anything a mid-tier shopping influencer could hope for.

An average influencer couldn’t even come close.

It was perfectly normal for people to be unable to resist that kind of temptation.

Wendy Lawson and Daisy Woods exchanged a look. This was clearly beyond their ability to solve. The best they could do now was stay quiet and not cause Jessie Sterling any more trouble.

Seeing their expressions, Jessie Sterling couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t be so tense. It’s not like I’m the only one who’s ever had investors bail.”

Plenty of shows can’t even secure funding before they’re scheduled to start filming.

Daisy Woods said, “This is all my fault for being so careless…”

“It has very little to do with you.” Jessie Sterling was being honest. Even if Daisy hadn’t been the one to tell Liam Lawson, he had accomplices working with him. The whole thing was clearly premeditated.

“Isn’t Thorne Pictures trying to promote a new star right now? Why don’t they focus on their own business instead of spending all day thinking up ways to sabotage others?” Wendy Lawson grumbled.

Daisy Woods piped up, “You mean Nina Walsh? That newcomer’s career is already about to implode. Cheryl Stuart personally came out and exposed her for being a diva. Remember on the red carpet last time? Cheryl mentioned she’d gone back to Thorne Pictures to deal with her contract termination and ran into a ’junior with a huge temper’?”

Cheryl Stuart didn’t explicitly name the newcomer in front of all that press, but how powerful are fans and the media? After the interview, it only took them a few minutes to dig up every last detail on her.

How could Nina Walsh’s fanbase, in terms of size or fighting power, ever compare to Cheryl Stuart’s?

Besides, Nina Walsh already had a ton of negative press—bad acting, pretending to be a socialite, you name it. You could say it single-handedly killed the youth drama that Arya Thorne had invested so much money in.

“Youth Handbook” hasn’t even finished filming, but the number of promotional articles has already dwindled compared to when production first started.

The general public wasn’t buying it, so Thorne Pictures’ plan to launch a new star basically died on the vine.

Wendy Lawson concluded, “So, because their own newcomer is a bust, they don’t want to see Apex’s new talent succeed? And they resort to starting rumors? Rumors between a signed artist and the boss, no less? That’s just vicious.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep