Free Web NovelChapter 171: Behind The Mask
Stan walked back to the Star Entertainment table with the unhurried composure. After all the whole Lily Reeves situation was just minor inconvenience to him. He had only just handled a minor inconvenience and was now returning to the actual business of the evening.
’What’s with girls named Lily? My ex-girlfriend, Lily Xavier, was trouble from the very beginning. And now this Lily Reeves is trying to blackmail me. Not only that, but her younger sister Vivian even tried to seduce me...’
He let out a long sigh.
’This is getting ridiculous.’
For some reason, women kept throwing themselves at him. It was like he was a magnet for trouble and attractive women were the iron filings. Everywhere he went, someone was flirting with him, trying to seduce him, or dragging him into another ridiculous situation.
At this point, he was beginning to suspect the universe was doing it on purpose.
’No matter where I go, trouble always seems to come wrapped in a pretty package.’
Shaking his head, Stan slipped into his seat between Vivian and Xenia without the slightest ceremony.
Vivian glanced sideways at him, the question already present in her eyes.
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah, It’s nothing."
Vivian held his gaze for a second longer than necessary, clearly unconvinced, but ultimately chose not to press.
"The shortlist discussion is progressing well," she said, smoothly returning to business. "Xenia and I narrowed the development framework down to three possible structures. I wanted your input once she had time to review each option."
"Walk me through them."
Vivian nodded and immediately transitioned into explanation mode with the effortless professionalism of a branch manager fully in her element.
Her voice was calm, structured, and efficient.
Xenia listened carefully, posture straight, expression attentive.
Unlike the excited newcomers flooding the industry every year, she understood exactly what this discussion represented. This was not just networking anymore. This was infrastructure, direction and positioning. The kind of conversation capable of shaping the next several years of her career.
Stan listened as well.
But not all of his attention remained at the table.
A quiet part of his awareness stayed loosely oriented toward the side corridor. Watching and waiting.
Several minutes later, Lily Reeves returned to the arena floor.
She moved with the same elegant composure she had worn throughout the evening.
Her hair was immaculate. Her dress remained perfectly arranged.
Her expression carried the same polished neutrality expected of a senior executive operating in a high-profile industry environment.
Anyone watching her cross the floor would have seen exactly what she intended them to see:
A composed director returning from a brief private conversation. Nothing more, nothing less...
Daniel glanced up as she reclaimed her seat.
"Director?"
"Continue with the candidate assessments," Lily said after taking a measured breath. Her voice was perfectly level. "The next performer is starting."
Daniel gave a small nod and returned to his tablet without suspicion.
Lily picked up her pen but her fingertips were cold. The grip she held on the pen was slightly too tight.
Under the table, her left hand remained clenched in her lap hard enough that faint crescent marks would likely remain in her palm long after the evening ended.
None of it showed externally, but that was the point.
Lily Reeves had spent twelve years constructing the professional mask she wore in rooms like this. Twelve years refining posture, tone, expression, cadence, and every visible surface polished into something controlled and untouchable.
The surface held. The surface would always hold. Underneath it, however, something had been violently hollowed out.
She had walked into that restroom with what she believed was a calculated, intelligent plan.
The hidden camera inside her hair clip had originally been something harmless, a discreet device she casually carried to record segments of live events for later reference.
But once the possibility of seducing Stan Harrison presented itself, the purpose of the device evolved almost immediately.
Insurance: that was how she had justified it.
Because if the seduction failed to secure cooperation... if the private proposal afterward yielded nothing... then the footage could become leverage.
Not necessarily outright blackmail at first. But it could be used to pressure Stan. It can be used as a negotiation material and it can also be used as a contingency trump card
After all, she had no intention of offering her body without guarantees in return. In her mind, only a fool entered a high-stakes negotiation without a backup strategy.
The seduction had been the primary play. The footage was merely the safeguard behind it.
At least, that was what she had believed.
But Stan had identified the hidden camera within moments of entering the room. He played her and he had destroyed it in front of her with casual ease, as though crushing an insignificant insect beneath his hand.
And then, far worse than the destruction itself, he had calmly explained that he had recognized her intentions from the very beginning.
Every calculated glance. Every carefully measured word. Every touch. Every shift in tone.
He had seen through all of it almost instantly.
And instead of stopping her... He had allowed it to continue because he found it amusing.
That realization hurt far more than the humiliation itself.
Because Lily now understood something she had never experienced so completely before:
At no point during that encounter had she possessed control.
Not even briefly. She had entered the restroom believing herself intelligent, composed, and dangerous. But she had walked out realizing she had spent the entire interaction being observed by someone operating on an entirely different level. It was the single most devastating defeat of her career.
And now she had to sit at the Netflix table for the rest of the evening pretending absolutely nothing had happened.
Her chest still felt tight. Her thoughts still churned violently beneath the surface.
The humiliation lingered like heat beneath her skin. But thankfully, only two people knew what had happened in that restroom. Her and Stan. As long as it stayed that way, she could recover, eventually she should.
Sighing, Lily lowered her eyes to the program in front of her and placed a neat, precise mark beside the next performer’s name.
Her handwriting remained flawless.
...
Meanwhile, across the arena, the evening’s program continued without interruption.
The fourth performer was a singer, a young woman in her early twenties whose vocal control immediately suggested years of disciplined private training.
Her transitions were clean, her breathing nearly invisible, and unlike many technically gifted performers, she understood restraint well enough not to oversing.
Both the Netflix and Star Entertainment tables noted her name. free𝑤ebnovel.com
Both tables marked her as a serious candidate.
The fifth performer was an actor whose raw stage presence exceeded his technical range. His delivery lacked polish in several areas, but the audience responded to him instinctively, the kind of reaction that could not easily be taught.
The assessments between the two tables diverged almost immediately.
Netflix leaned more favorably toward long-term developmental potential and screen adaptability.
Star Entertainment evaluated him through the harsher lens of immediate commercial usability.
The sixth performer was a relatively unknown comedian whose material was sharp enough to earn genuine reactions from the assembled executives, an uncommon achievement in a room filled with people who had spent years consuming curated entertainment at industrial volume.
Several tables laughed despite themselves.
That alone elevated his profile significantly.
