Upon the sight, Brianna was stunned!
lody was sprawled on the floor with her lace sleeves fanned out like broken wings. She looked small, trembling, and entirely fragile.
"She pushed !" lody shrieked with a cracking voice for the perfect amount of feigned terror. She leveled an accusatory, shaking finger at Brianna. "She actually pushed !"
The silence of the prep room went away. Several crew mbers, easily swayed by the sight of a "crying" girl, rushed to lody’s aid, hovering over her as they helped her to her feet.
"Why would she push you?" Rochelle snapped defensively, holding her iPad like a weapon.
"Dr. Colburn doesn’t have the ti or the interest to touch you, let alone push you."
lody didn’t look at Rochelle. She let a single, pathetic tear track through her heavy mascara and a faked, hitched whimper. "All because I tried to ask her if the rumors about her marriage were true... I was just concerned! She just proved the point by attacking !"
The atmosphere in the room curdled instantly. The crew mbers—the sa ones who had just been in awe of the "Goddess"—started murmuring. They threw side-long, judgntal stares at Brianna.
"I always knew she was as rude as the other hosts gossiped about."
"The ’icy expert’ finally snaps under the pressure of her marriage and is taking it out on a "helpless" junior."
"I an, pushing your junior? It’s giving an girl energy. It’s not Siren—I an, lody’s fault her marriage is truly failing."
Brianna stood perfectly still, and honestly unbothered. She looked at lody—who was currently leaning heavily into the arms of a sympathetic caraman—and then at the whispering crew.
The sound of the commotion had drawn Mr. Matthew Koch back into the room. He took one look at the scene—lody trembling on the floor and Brianna standing cold and silent—and his expression darkened.
lody scrambled toward him, her fake tears flowing with practiced ease. "Matthew! I’m not doing an ad with soone who’s going to attack ! She just tried to hurt ... everyone saw it!"
She gestured vaguely at the crew. A few mbers nodded tentatively. They hadn’t actually seen a hand touch a shoulder, but Brianna’s icy silence and indifferent posture were enough to convict her in the court of public opinion.
Brianna cocked a perfect brow, mumbling audibly through lody’s sobs. "The ad wasn’t even about you in the first place."
Matthew’s head snapped toward Brianna with a gaze filled with a heavy disappointnt. "Dr. Colburn... I expected much more from you."
He turned back to lody with a soft voice as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Rest assured, lody. Everything is being taken care of."
"But what if she hurts again?" lody whimpered, clutching his sleeve. "I can’t believe soone I looked up to as a senior would do such a thing just because I asked a simple question."
Matthew looked at lody with genuine pity, then shot a cold glance at Brianna. "Tell you what. It seems Dr. Colburn is truly uninterested in this brand deal. I’ll put in a word with the campaign manager. We’ll see if we can pivot the lead role to you."
The transformation was instantaneous. lody’s eyes brightened as she wiped her cheeks. "Oh, that would be lovely, Mr. Koch—I an, Matthew!"
Matthew nodded as his focus shifted to the door. "Perfect timing. There he is—Mr. Thomas Lynde. I’d like to have a word with you."
Thomas on the other hand, didn’t look like a typical campaign manager, because he wasn’t. His gaze scanned the room until it landed on Brianna’s. Checkmate.
"Mr. Lynde, given the... physical altercation, it’s best we make the switch. lody is more than prepared to lead this campaign."
lody tilted her head to look as innocent as possible. "I just want what’s best for Better Health, Mr. Lynde. I won’t let a little ’push’ stop from giving my best performance."
Thomas didn’t respond.
These people before him were only going to ruin his plan. He didn’t even look at the script Matthew was holding out. Instead, his cold gaze drifted slowly to lody.
Why would he want to switch Brianna with Charity?
He had only even given her the brand deal as a ans of interrogating her. Since the company wouldn’t let him see their precious ’doctor’ without an appointnt, and with Mr. Colburn, unaware of his interrogation, couldn’t risk cornering her in the villa.
Under the weight of Thomas’s stare, lody’s fake-angelic smile began to falter. She felt as though she were being dissected by a scalpel!
"The lead role stays where it was assigned." Thomas stated firmly, leaving no room for argunt.
lody opened her mouth to ntion her uncle or her "injuries", but the sheer coldness in Thomas’s eyes kept her jaw shut.
She stood there, speechless and trembling. Siren had finally been silenced by a predator.
Matthew, realizing the tension, quickly cleared his throat. "Of course. My apologies. lody, let’s... let’s get you ready. We’ll start with the dual-shot."
He practically dragged a stunned lody away.
...
The caras were rolling.
lody was still fuming from Thomas’s dismissal. She was determined to show Thomas, Matthew, and especially the "Granny" beside her, that she was the real star.
"Rember," the director shouted from behind the monitor. "lody, you’re the one suffering from the bloating. You’re uncomfortable, you’re frustrated. Brianna, you’re the expert. You provide relief. And... Action!"
lody clutched her stomach. Her face contorted into a pout that looked more like a tantrum than digestive discomfort.
"I just don’t feel like myself today," she whined, her voice hitting that high, "Siren" pitch.
"Every ti I eat, I feel so... heavy."
Brianna stepped into the fra, holding the bottle of Bloom-Ease to the cara. "Discomfort shouldn’t dictate your day, lody. Science has a solution!"
She poured a single large soft gel into lody’s hand.
This was the mont. lody looked at Thomas.
Determined to make this the "perfect" shot, lody didn’t wait for the water, she popped the gel into her mouth and began her concluding line. "With Bloom-Ease, I can finally—"
Gulp.
The gel was designed to be swallowed with plenty of water. Without it, the smooth, oversized capsule acted like a localized adhesive.
lody’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.
The crew stayed still for a second, thinking she was just "committing" to the discomfort of the script.
But her hands flew to her throat while her face turned to a terrifying shade of dusky purple in seconds!
She tried to cough, but only a small, pathetic ’ghk’ sound escaped. Panicking, lody began to claw at her neck and her heels scuffed desperately against the floor.
"Cut! Cut!" the director yelled, finally realizing this wasn’t acting.
Rochelle gasped, dropping her iPad. "lody? Is she... is she actually choking?"
While everyone else was paralyzed by the sudden shift from a comrcial to a dical ergency, Brianna didn’t hesitate.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
"PHUT."
The gold-colored soft gel flew out of lody’s mouth like a bullet, bouncing off the expensive cara lens and landing sowhere near the director’s feet.
lody collapsed on the floor gasping for air, while Brianna stood over her, smoothing her blazers and checking her watch.
A round of applause broke the stunned silence of the studio.
"It was nothing," Brianna said, waving it off with a casual flick of her wrist as if she had just swatted a fly rather than saved a life.
"You’re a hero, Dr. Colburn!" the director shouted, his previous "side-stares" replaced by pure adoration.
The crew mbers who were calling her a "an girl" seconds ago were now looking at her with sparkling eyes.
Brianna offered a small, polite smile for the caras, but internally, she felt a rare sense of satisfaction. She hadn’t just saved Siren, she had enjoyed the forceful necessity of those three hits.
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