CHAPTER 48: THE DEEPER THE HOLE, THE HARDER IT IS TO CRAWL BACK

There were many things that Allen didn’t need to tell his boss, especially something as simple as this. Besides, the Lion Square management had already informed him that they had reassured Derek. They only reached out to Allen in case Atlas wanted to know.

Normally, Allen wouldn’t report something like this. The hotel management had already resolved the matter, and this couldn’t even be considered a problem. The only reason he reported it was because...

"You don’t like him?" Atlas’ voice snapped Allen out of his thoughts.

Allen smiled. "It’s not like that, sir. I just thought you might want to hear, since I’ve asked Harvey to arrange a meeting with Chairman Lancaster."

"..." Atlas didn’t say anything, but his eyes remained on his assistant. "Good work."

A shallow breath of relief escaped Allen as he lowered his head slightly. His boss hadn’t asked him to arrange a meeting with the head of the Lancaster family. However, with what Allen had heard yesterday—about the teacups—and then today, about Derek demanding that the Lion Square kick out what he mistook as a weird, unpleasant hotel staff—he was worried.

The young men of the Lancaster family had no idea just what Atlas could do, and how he could force their company into bankruptcy in the blink of an eye. It was Allen’s job to make sure his boss didn’t ruin someone’s hard work just because he could—per Atlas’s personal orders to him.

As Allen strode off, he stopped by the door when his boss spoke.

"Did Harvey correct himself?"

Allen froze, wide-eyed. Slowly, he turned, like his neck had rusting screws.

"Si—sir?"

"Harvey screwed up the formal gifts, didn’t he?"

"..." Allen gulped quietly, blessing Harvey’s soul. "I was planning to tell you about it."

"You don’t have to now," said Atlas. "So, did Harvey correct himself?"

"He will today—"

"Tell him not to bother," Atlas peeled his eyes from his assistant as he finished writing his signature. "He did a good job."

Deep lines appeared between Allen’s brows as he stared at the busy man behind the desk. His thoughts suddenly turned into question marks, utterly baffled by this.

Didn’t Atlas order to credit the rightful person for this partnership? After all, Atlas wanted to give that credit to Lola Young and no one else. But now, he was saying not to clarify this, and that Harvey did a "good job" in making a mistake?

"Is this a dream?" Allen wondered.

"He might change his mind if we clear up the misunderstanding."

To Allen’s surprise, Atlas’s disinterested voice echoed in the room. The latter looked up at him and added,

"The deeper one digs, the harder it’ll be to crawl back to the surface."

The lines on Allen’s brow deepened, now utterly confused. For a second, he just noticed a trace of malice in his boss’s usually flat tone. His thoughts, however, halted when the connecting door of the office flew open from the other side.

"Father Sir, we’re back! That was fun!" Chacha hummed giddily, then Second followed with, "Father Sir, who did that presentation from the Lancaster? It was so horrible! Our little cousins can do better than that!"

Chacha and Second stopped right beside their father’s seat.

"Don’t worry, Father Sir!" Second added. "Chacha and Second saved your eyes from seeing it!"

"Did we do well?!"

Allen’s face twitched as he watched Atlas stop his work completely to ruffle their heads.

"That, I don’t disagree," he whispered, slinking out of the office to give the trio some privacy.

****

[Lion Square Hotel]

"Taz!"

Lola almost jumped when she heard Director Sarian’s loud voice. Seated in the suite’s small living area, she looked up at the approaching Director Sarian and Ida.

The second Director Sarian saw her face, he stopped.

"You haven’t worn your costume yet?" Ida quipped as she continued walking, leaving behind Director Sarian.

"I have plenty of time," Lola winked. "And I’m letting my skin breathe."

After all, she had slept with the makeup on. With how sensitive her skin was, she didn’t need to overdo it.

"Taz, you see, you really don’t need to wear any of that!" Director Sarian intoned as he finally joined them, taking a seat on the long divan across from her. He scanned the beauty before him and huffed. "Just go to the audition today like this! I worry about your skin."

"Director, Taz knows you’re lying," Ida chuckled, stretching her neck as she caught sight of the laptop in front of Lola. "Were you watching the audition yesterday?"

"Just the ones I missed and a few others just to check their performance," said Lola. "Anyway, I think we had strong candidates yesterday."

"All the actors today are people I wouldn’t want to hire," Director Sarian’s face soured, thinking that the ones who would be here today were all people affected by the aftermath of bullying Lola. "I’m still angry about yesterday—tch!"

Lola chuckled but didn’t dwell on it. She then reached out to the bag on the couch she was seated on and took out a few profiles.

"By the way, Director, I reached out to some actors who had shown an interest in the film but couldn’t get a slot for the roles," she said as she handed the files, which Director Sarian intuitively accepted. "Inside their files, there’s a disk of their audition tapes except one."

"Oh." Director Sarian opened the folder, his brows rising as he checked the profiles. After a few pages, he frowned. He lifted his eyes and met hers. "Lola, do you want him on the project?"

He lifted the profile to show her. "This guy has been kicked out of the entertainment industry because of a scandal. You want him here?"

"Lola, are you planning to use him as part of publicity?" Ida asked curiously. "I know bad or good publicity is good publicity, but he isn’t even under any management. Besides, he hasn’t been active for the last three years."

"I know." Lola nodded and smiled. "But I want him on the project."

"And... why is that?"

The corners of Lola’s mouth stretched until she was grinning. "Because I’m thinking of managing him."