Avery's Game Of Revenge
Chapter 160: Reality Show

Chapter 160: Reality Show

"Your account. When last was it refilled with the profit dividends you are entitled to as my wife," Archie replied, stressing his words one after the other even though he knew Avery had understood him the first time. She had presided over a business organization for years after all. He continued, "We got married three years ago; your dividends were accumulating since I couldn’t get it to you. It was supposed to be delivered to your account on the day you got back home. But you’re saying it wasn’t?"

"I didn’t," Avery confirmed, raising her hand as if to stop him from talking. "But wait, Ava, I mean the real Ava, when did she uh... leave? Why am I the one getting her dividends? I understand if I get from last year or so, but you two supposedly got married three years ago and I’m also getting three years worth of accumulated dividends? How?"

Archie facepalmed himself, totally clueless about what reaction would perfectly convey what he was feeling at the moment. Was his wife this... ignorant?

He dropped his hands and sighed, "Come home early, Angel. I think it’s time you realize what it was that you agreed to last night." He dug his hands into his empty pockets, bringing out the pocket lining with them. "About the cash you need, check the drawers in the room while I call my finance manager. You’ll get the money before you get to the first floor." Leaning in to press a long kiss on her lips, he added with a smirk, "Don’t miss me too much, okay?"

★★★

CS Agency, 10th Floor.

"Welcome, Miss Donovan."

Settling into the only empty seat in the room that had been obviously left for her, Avery smiled and extended her hand to the people across the table sitting across the table from her.

Two men and two women.

While the first man and woman maintained eye contact with her as they accepted the handshake she offered, the other two lowered their gazes slightly as they did. Avery smiled awkwardly at that, wondering what their reaction was all about until the first woman pulled her attention back.

"Thanks for coming, Miss Donovan. Since our invite was impromptu, we half thought you wouldn’t be able to take it," she said.

Avery flashed them a wry smile.

"It’s alright. I had no prior engagement, so it was no big deal getting myself to come," she said.

"Still," the man pressed. "Your plan might have been to rest today when our email came and disrupted it all. We still have to apologize."

"It’s really nothing," Avery insisted, knowing they wouldn’t normally dedicate this kind of attention to an average actress they wanted to sign in their agency. This was the top 1st agency in the country for goodness’ sake. The only people they were and should be scared or were their employers—the Shermans—and other people like Archie, whom they knew their employers wouldn’t want to offend. The respect they were currently giving her was and is rightfully Archie’s.

She knew that.

"You are so easygoing," the woman said, to which Avery gave a polite nod, before she continued, "I am Lucy Reeds and this is," she turned to the man beside her. He introduced himself, "Francis Ale."

They didn’t bother introducing the other man and woman who had avoided Avery’s gaze earlier, and she didn’t bother calling their attention to it either.

"Pleased to meet you all," she said, tucking a loose tendril of her hair behind her ears.

"I assure you we feel the same," the woman named Lucy stated. She looked down at the contract files in front of her and opened one, pushing it to Avery’s side of the table before doing the same to the second one in front of her. "So, Miss Donovan, the original plan was to send the invite email for next week, later today. But Mr Ale got valuable intel on a show we would like you to feature in, hence, the reason why it was moved forward."

"A show?" Avery asked, her voice reflecting her interest.

Lucy smiled, seemingly eager to talk about whatever this show was about.

"Yes. It’s actually a reality show and our rivals are the ones hosting it."

"This agency has a rival?" A confused Avery raised a brow. She hadn’t heard of any agency contending with CS agency for their number one spot in the country. Same way she didn’t know A² had a rival until Jodi told her otherwise.

Lucy’s smile widened. "I totally get your line of thought, Miss Donovan. But agencies aren’t like other business organizations where the best ones are measured by the profit being raked in per year. Maybe that’s the point at the end, but our ratings aren’t based mainly on that." She clasped her hand together on the table, her expression growing serious as she continued, "We judge positions by the number of popular stars an agency has signed under them, and if you’ve been studying this industry for a while now, you’ll notice that the scale is very unpredictable. An actress, model, or singer might be popular at the beginning of the year but end up on the rack by the end of the same year. In other words, they might make a mistake that would result in the public turning on them and deserting them—everyone in this line of job knows exactly how fickle the public are—there are also instances where they suddenly lose interest in a particular artist and start boycotting his or her shows, dramas, movies, and the likes."

Avery nodded in understanding, and Lucy continued, "In the same vein, there are also stars who rise to glory overnight. The public are so simple that if one studies them well enough, it’d be easy to manipulate them. I hope you understand me?"

"I definitely do," Avery assured her.

"Great. So what I am trying to say is that all these—how many number of stars an agency possesses—are what we take into consideration while trying to judge which agency owns the top spot in the entertainment industry. In our case, even though we’ve held the top spot for years, our rival is the agency on the second spot that can easily overtake us. Warner Agency."

Avery’s eyes widened in surprise, but she was able to quickly regain her composure. Wasn’t that the agency Jodi was preparing to sign into?

"Oh... Thanks for explaining. So what is this reality show about?"

"Before that, I’m sure you’d be interested to know that the set is your campus," Lucy announced excitedly. Spotting the surprise in Avery’s eyes, she slowly bobbed her head and added, "Yes, the residence to be precise. It’s a reality show meant to showcase how students attending the top 1 university in the country, NewDun Elites, go about their day to day activities and live life in general."

"Uhm... sorry if I’m intruding but would people actually watch that?" Avery asked, not bothering to hide the doubt in her voice.

This time, it was Francis who replied, "More people than you can imagine. While the younger teenage audience would watch it to daydream on how their life would be like if they’re able to get in that university, the older teens who are set to write college entrance examinations would watch it for motivation."

"And the part of the audience who are now students of different reputable universities?" Avery questioned.

Francis explained, "Those ones either watch to criticize what NewDun have and doesn’t have, to console themselves for getting into a lower school. Also, some others watch to see what they’re missing by not attending their dream school. To be sincere, no one can really say what goes on in another person’s mind so we can’t be sure. What I do know however, is that people would definitely watch the show. People of all ages."

"Uhm, sorry for asking too many questions, but if they want to organize a program like this, shouldn’t the cast be normal students on campus who are interested?"

"They are definitely going to pick some of those," Lucy said. "But they do need stars that attend NewDun as part of the casts too since that will spark more interest. Every agency is literally scrambling to get their stars that attend the university to join and we aren’t about to take the rear floor and let them surpass us."

Francis cut in, "It’s alright if you don’t understand much about the show now. All will be explained better later. Remember, today’s just for signing the contract."

"Oh... Yes, of course," Avery smiled at him, sitting up and lowering her gaze to the opened contract in front of her. She read for the next few seconds until she came across a clause that made her brows furrow into a frown. "About this," she raised her gaze to meet theirs. "What’s this about my image?"