Chapter 17: Protective Instincts
The next few days were a whirlwind of activity. Sarah spent her mornings at Stellar Entertainment working with Zachary and his team, and her afternoons doing photo shoots and interviews. Everything was moving so fast that she barely had time to think.
On Thursday morning, Sarah was getting ready for a magazine photo shoot when she heard voices coming from downstairs. One of them was definitely Mason’s, but she’d never heard him sound so tense before.
Curious, she crept to the top of the stairs and listened.
"I don’t care what the board thinks," Mason was saying in a cold, controlled voice. "The answer is no."
"But Mr. Liu," another man’s voice replied, "Ms. Zhang has been very successful in all her previous collaborations. Her company has grown by 200% in the last year alone."
"I said no," Mason repeated, his voice even colder.
Sarah heard the sound of high heels clicking on the marble floor, then a woman’s voice, sweet and flirtatious.
"Mason, darling," the woman said, "surely we can discuss this like adults. We’ve always worked so well together before."
Sarah felt a stab of jealousy at the familiar way the woman spoke to Mason. She found herself creeping further down the stairs to get a better look.
The woman was stunning. Tall, elegant, with long black hair and the kind of perfect features that belonged on magazine covers. She was wearing a designer business suit that probably cost more than most people’s cars, and her perfume was so strong Sarah could smell it from the stairs. Everything about her screamed wealth, success, and sophistication.
And she was standing way too close to Mason.