CHAPTER 63: A TIP OF THE ICEBERG

"I need you to sign these papers," Megan stretched out the document in front of Katherine.

This was the first time she had seen her in a week after she’d made it specifically clear she shouldn’t come to Veila Entertainment until her scandal died down a bit.

After the day of the press conference, angered fans were still roaming around, patiently waiting for when they would see Katherine and give her a piece of their mind.

Katherine cocked an eyebrow as she glanced at the papers before looking back up at Megan.

"And what’s this?" She asked.

"It’s a contract termination agreement," Megan said without stuttering. "I didn’t want to do this, but I can’t risk Veila’s reputation for your sake."

Katherine blinked at Megan two times, before chuckling as if she’d heard the first joke since a week ago when things had been tough for her.

But no one in the room laughed along with her. Not Stella, but Allison and most especially, not Megan.

The woman was looking at her as if she’d lost her mind.

"This isn’t the time for jokes, Megan. For a second there, I thought you wanted to terminate our contract," Katherine said, still chuckling.

Megan gave Stella a questionable look, silently asking if Katherine had lost her mind after experiencing just one scandal.

"I’m not joking, Katherine. I need you to sign these papers. Don’t worry, we’ll pay our fine for canceling the contract on such short notice." Megan shifted the files further towards Katherine and then dropped a pen on them.

Katherine’s face was stoic now.

"You’re serious?" She asked. "You’re going to cancel my contract?"

This was a tough decision for Megan to make. She didn’t want to do this since Katherine was her top model compared to other models signed in Veila.

Which was why she’d waited a whole week to pass, to monitor the situation on the internet, but every day, more people demanded that Megan terminate her contract with Veila, and Veila kept on losing brand deal.

At this point, she would rather lose Katherine than lose the reputation of Veila.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Katherine demanded. "You can’t possibly be terminating my contract with this company all because of a small scandal."

Katherine knew deep down the scandal wasn’t a small one. She’s also lost deals because of it, but losing Veila as well was not part of her list.

"I’m not going to talk too much about this, Katherine. Just sign the documents," Megan said, her eyebrows already furrowing in stress.

"I’m not signing this. Are you going to do this to me after everything, Megan?"

"If you don’t sign the contract, I’ll have to take you to court," said Megan.

Stella was uncomfortable while sitting next to Katherine who was already seething in rage.

"You’re a top model, I’m sure you can find another entertainment company ready to partner with you," Megan said.

Stella had told Katherine beforehand that a contract termination might be the reason Megan had called them to her office that day, but Katherine was still in shock.

"If you don’t sign this document right now, I might have to take you to court," Megan threatened.

Katherine gritted her teeth.

After a whole week of bad luck, she was only met with more bad luck. Yet, she couldn’t risk having Megan take her to court.

She took the pen, unable to believe what she was about to do.

Indeed, she could still get a contract from another company but Veila was a famous brand itself.

Katherine’s teeth were gnashing as she signed the papers without even reading them.

And just like that, she was no longer a model for Veila.

"I’ll make an official announcement about the contract termination. You can leave," said Megan.

Katherine was still finding it hard to believe. She’d lost almost everything, all because of one woman.

Stiffly, she stood up and left the company but as she and Stella were stepping out, she saw someone familiar, the root of all her problems, the person behind everything.

Alisha smiled when she saw Katherine.

"I never thought I would see you here. But hold on, why do you look like you’ve lost so much weight? Even the heavy makeup you’re wearing can’t hide the pimples on your face. Did the scandal cause you so much stress, Katherine?" Alisha asked, her tone mocking.

"I’d advise you to watch how you speak to my model," Stella said, glaring at Alisha

The woman stared at her. "Let me give you a word of advice, hmm? I’ll suggest you start looking for other jobs, or perhaps, start recruiting new models because I’ll make sure Katherine falls so hard, even smaller companies wouldn’t want anything to do with her. And you," she faced Katherine. "You look so pitiful right now I almost wish I didn’t get those pictures on the internet."

Katherine was shaking with anger right now. She wished to do so many things to Alisha, to make her suffer, to make her beg, to have netizens drag her on the internet as they did to her but she couldn’t.

"You’re going to pay for this," Katherine finally said. "I’ll make sure you paid for this," she promised.

"I didn’t plan on giving unsolicited advice today but I’ll still try it, in case you learn anything from it," said Alisha dismissively. "This is just the beginning compared to everything that you’ve done, Katherine. I know your secret. And this scandal...there’s more where that came from. You should be glad I didn’t expose you a week ago, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna. I’m just taking my time," then she twirled her hair around her fingers. "This is only the tip of the iceberg and you’re already shaking so much."

Then she leaned so close to Katherine, towards her ears. "What if I expose that you’re the one behind Evangeline Montclair’s disappearance? What do you think would happen?" Her voice was so low that Stella wasn’t able to hear her.