"Good work!" the director shouted happily as the scene ended successfully. "For the next scene, the clothes are different. Crew, please assist the actors," the directed instructed while looking at what was next in the schedule.
Isabelle's attire was already prepared and hung in the dressing room. Upon the director's orders, Camila immediately brought Isabelle to the dressing room where her clothes waited.
Just as Camila was about to push open the dressing room's door, it was pulled open by the person inside. A young girl anxiously ran out and without daring to even look at Isabelle, she lowered her head, greeting Isabelle "Excuse me" before rushing off.
Due to a tight schedule, Isabelle and Camila didn't think much, entering the dressing room to change into the clothes and high heels that were prepared before returning to the filming location.
For this scene, the second male lead had found out that the second female lead was the one who had destroyed his relationship, hence he was coming to seek revenge.
The first scene was of Isabelle. She sat beside the pool under a parasol, reading a book quietly.
This was a static shoot, so Isabelle was required to stay at the same spot with the book while the cameraman shot from the different angles.
When the angle was chosen, under the director's signal, Alexander sat down in a sports car speeding towards Isabelle. Just before crashing into her, the car stopped and Alexander came out, slamming the car door shut, marching over.
Seeing that it was Alexander, Isabelle broke into a wide smile. Before she could shout out the second male lead's name, he snatched her book, throwing it to the ground. Turning to face Isabelle, he started to scream at her.
The TV series had gone on smoothly till here. The next scene, Alexander told Isabelle that he never wanted to see her again and turned to leave. Isabelle reached out to pull him back in a panic but was roughly pushed away from him.
She wasn't able to regain her footing and fell.
Alexander didn't actually use a lot of strength, he just acted as though he exerted a lot of strength. Isabelle had acted accordingly, letting go off Alexander's hand, falling.
She had indeed released Alexander's arm when he lifted his hand, but when she was prepared to fall, her high heels broke the instant she exerted some pressure on them, causing her to lose balance, falling into the swimming pool.
The swimming pool was two meters deep. Isabelle entered head first, making a large splash.
The incident was too sudden and the surrounding people were too stunned to react.
Alexander had pushed Isabelle away, leaving with a sunken face but after no more than two steps, he heard the sound of someone falling into the water. Subconsciously, he turned only to see the huge bubble formed where she had fallen in.
Isabelle couldn't swim, and since the swimming pool was in open air, it wasn't heated. Now that it was the middle of the night, the water's temperature must have been extremely low, and she had just recovered from a cold....
Alexander's face paled in an instance, and without any thinking, he jumped into the pool.
When Isabelle's head sunk under the water, she was still in a daze. The wave of cold water washed over her and she started to have difficulties with breathing. She tried desperately to shout for help, but that caused her to take in more water.
She struggled instinctively, but due to the momentum of falling into the water, she kept sinking. Yet just when she was about to reach the bottom of the pool, she felt someone hook an arm around her waist, bringing her into a warm embrace and dragging her upwards.
The moment Alexander dragged Isabelle out, he immediately reached to press her abdomen.
As he applied pressure, Isabelle continuously spat out water. She gradually came back to her senses. With her eyes shut, she began recalling how she had fallen into the water.
Everything had happened too fast and the people nearby couldn't detect any loopholes. But as the victim, she distinctly remembered her heel breaking before she had fallen into the pool. There was no other reason other than foul play for her heel to break on flat ground. Someone must have been trying to humiliate her.
The time Alexander had taken to bring Isabelle up was less than two minutes, so she was in no danger. However, she remained pale and unconscious even after spitting out water.
Alexander frowned, anxiety and fear flashing in his eyes, He reached out and tapped Isabelle's face lightly, but she remained motionless. Instead, her body was trembling uncontrollably. Alexander clenched his lips. Not caring about the crowd, he took a deep breath before lowering his head, aiming for Isabelle's lips.
The more the people wanted to watch her humiliate herself, the more she would not let them get their wishes.
Now that she was filming and had accidentally fallen into the water, she would change this incident into something exciting!
In the script, the second male lead was already interested in the second female lead. Hence, if she fell into the water, he would definitely save her... Isabelle's long lashes trembled slightly as she thought of her next line. Slowly, she opened her eyes. The cold from the water caused her to tremble, making it difficult for her to speak.
With a trembling voice, she said, "I did it because I like you, but I promise never to do it again. Can you forgive me?"
~*~
When Alexander had carried Isabelle out of the water, someone had already snapped out of his daze and shouted out anxiously, "Someone fell into the water!"
With the person's voice, the director was also shaken out of his shock. Taking his speaker, he was about to shout for towels when Isabelle's voice sounded.
"I did it because I like you, but I promise never to do it again. Can you forgive me?"
In that instance, the director stopped his original actions, looking into the screen intently.
When Alexander first heard Isabelle's voice, he was puzzled. He looked into the girl's dark eyes for five whole seconds before realizing that she was still acting.
Falling into the water was not an incident but part of her act?
Alexander suppressed his concern, studying Isabelle. After confirming that she was alright, anger washed over him.
She was sacrificing her life just to act? She had just recovered from a cold and now jumped into the freezing pool... And she couldn't even swim. What if no one saved her in time.
Alexander's expression turned cold, emitting an overpowering pressure. He looked at Isabelle. Lifting one corner of his lips, he laughed coldly and tossed her out of his arms. With an anger that he couldn't suppress, he stood up and stormed off.
Together with Alexander's departure, the director shouted a satisfied "cut" before instructing the crew, "Hurry, bring some towels to Miss Davis and Mr. Smith."
The crew hurriedly brought towels and fresh clothes over to Isabelle and Alexander.
When the crew brought a towel over to Alexander, he stared at them furiously. The crew was too scared to say a word, stumbling backwards before his assistant took the towel. The man passed it to Alexander daringly, saying carefully, "Mr. Smith, wipe yourself down before you catch a cold."Alexander snatched the towel from his assistant and tossed it onto the floor roughly before entered his resting area with a gloomy expression. Taking his phone and wallet, he was about to leave the set when he saw Camila helping Isabelle dry her hair. He hesitated for a while before starting to walk in her direction.
"Izzy, even if you were inspired, how can you treat your life so lightly. You can't even swim, why would you enter the water?" Camila recalled the earlier scene and couldn't help chastising her, "If you weren't saved in time, you could have drowned!"
Isabelle thought about the heels that were submerged in the water. Her eyes flashing, she said in a hushed tone, "I didn't want to fall in, the heels that I wore broke, causing me to lose balance and fall in."
Camila's actions paused momentarily before she asked, "Your heels were fine, how could they break so suddenly? Unless..."
Camila stopped talking. Even though neither said anything, both of them were clear that the heels had been tampered with.
After a while, Camila seemed to have thought of something. She leaned towards Isabelle and whispered, "Izzy, I don't think Alexander doesn't care about you. Just now when you fell into the pool, a normal reaction would be to go into a daze, but he jumped in after without any hesitation."
Isabelle knew that Alexander had saved her but she wasn't aware of the situation before he had jumped in. So, when she heard Camila's words, her heart trembled. She lifted her head and was about to clarify with her friend, but Alexander appeared at the door, causing her to swallow her words.
Alexander looked down at Isabelle, and after about two seconds, he spoke, his voice laced with anger, "Miss Davis, I hope that you will inform me before adding your own scenes in the future. This is a filming set, not a place for you to play. Not everyone will tolerate your ideas if you were to act as you please."
He paused momentarily before glancing at Isabelle's dripping wet hair and the robe that covered her soaked clothes. In a tone that was razor sharp, he said, "If you want to die, don't do it on the set. Global Entertainment doesn't need a dead actress to tarnish its name."
The tiny spark of anticipation that had formed in Isabelle's heart vanished in an instance with Alexander's words.
She had believed Camila for a moment. But how could she have forgotten that Alexander had been the best screen actor for so many consecutive years. He was always a one-take actor, and when he had jumped in to save her, it wasn't because of worry but to follow through her act.
Since she was soaked in cold water, Isabelle was pale as a sheet of paper, without any trace of color. She tried to keep the calm on her face but Camila who stood behind her couldn't help feeling upset for her.
"Mr. Smith, Izzy didn't want to drop into the water, but her heels were tampered with, causing her to lose balance and fall into the pool. She only decided to add the scenes to escape having to retake the whole scene..."
Alexander's expression froze slightly as his gaze fell on Isabelle's feet, realizing that she was not wearing any shoes. He frowned deeply, an eeriness flashing past his eyes. Before Camila could finish her sentence, his face dimmed and he left the set in his wet clothes.
Camila looked at Alexander's back and couldn't help pouting.
"So rude!"
Isabelle remained quiet, using a towel to wipe off the droplets on her face. She stood up and went to the changing room to change before leaving the set with Camila.
On her way into the hotel, Isabelle bumped into a crew member, a young girl. She smiled sweetly at her. Isabelle returned a slight smile and nodded.
By the time she reached her hotel room, she recalled that she had seen the girl before but since there were so many crew members, she couldn't pinpoint who she was. Only at night, when she was eating dinner and caught sight of the same girl sitting beside Annabelle's assistant, did she whisper to Camila, "Who is that young girl sitting beside Annabelle's assistant? She seems familiar, have we seen her somewhere?"
Camila chewed, her chopsticks in the air, as she stared at the young girl. Suddenly, she remembered something and said, "Izzy, I remember! This afternoon, when we were about to go to the changing room, she ran out of it. Do you remember? I think it's her, just with a change of clothes."
Isabelle was already sure but she couldn't confirm. Now that Camila had confirmed her suspicion, she nodded, saying, "Yes, it's her."
"She is Annabelle's new assistant. This afternoon, after she entered your changing room, your heels broke..." Camila stopped in mid-sentence, staring straight at Isabelle before smiling coldly. "I never would have expected that she would do this on the very first day!"
Isabelle smirked silently.
~*~
After dinner, when there were no more scenes to shoot in the evening, the crew usually liked to rest downstairs in the lounge, play cards, sing, or work out.
During dinner, Isabelle and one of the minor actors she was close with decided to meet up at eight to play cards. After dinner, she and Camila took a walk in the garden behind the hotel, and when it was just about time, they went to the lounge downstairs.
Not everyone was there just yet when Isabelle arrived at the recreational room. She chatted with a few people for a while, and then went to the bathroom.
The restrooms in the lounge were decorated particularly beautiful with a humongous dressing table.
Isabelle walked into a random stall. A few seconds after she locked the door, she heard a flurry of footsteps. It sounded like there were quite a few people.
Just as Isabelle was ready to flush the toilet, she clearly heard a voice from outside say, "Mr. Smith is just the worst. He says the harshest things..."
Isabelle stopped in her tracks and listened carefully.
"Right? So, what if he's the best screen actor. He's just so disrespectful!"
"Especially since Anna didn't even do anything. Everybody was singing in the box when sister Annabelle saw that Mr. Smith was sitting all alone. She thought she'd ask him to sing too out of the kindness of her heart, but he said such horrible things. It was so hard to hear!"
When Isabelle heard Annabelle's name, she was so happy that she sat back down on the toilet and continued to eavesdrop.
"Right? How could he tell her that if she liked hitting on guys so much, she should go straight to a nightclub and not work in the entertainment industry!"
"Those words of his were enough! How could he then turn to the director and ask him to hire 'sensible' actors instead of these shady escorts. He added that actors like her served to bring down the class of our whole crew! And he said it right in front of everyone!"
"There were so many people in the room and a few investors outside! The way he just called sister Annabelle an escort was so inconsiderate!"
"But don't you girls think that Mr. Smith was acting strange today? Before, he would never even attend these kinds of singing events or any of the group events, but he turned up! Granted, he did ignore everyone who approached him, but he turned up! His words today were so irritating. Wonder what the hell killed his mood."
"So what if you're not in the right mood! You can't just go and insult people!"
"Alright there, sis Anna, cheer up..."
It was not until everyone had their say that Annabelle finally speak up. With the hint of a trembling cry in her voice, she said, "I'm fine. It's alright. Let's go."