Standing beside a trailer, Matthew held his phone in one hand, telling Helen, "The shoot is going well. If nothing changes, we should be wrapped by the end of the month."
He turned his head and glanced a short distance to his left. Charlize had walked over to Stuart, and the two were talking about sothing, their voices too low to make out from this distance.
However, judging by the expressions on Charlize's and Stuart's faces, it looked like they were having another argunt.
Matthew continued into the phone, "Helen, you didn't forget to schedule my eting with Zack, did you? I—"
"I don't need your pity!"
Stuart's voice suddenly erupted, several tis louder, his expression agitated. "You never respected , never listened! You just look at
with pity, go to that damn bar, and I'm sure you slept with that redneck from Texas! You fucking bitch!"
Hearing the last word, Matthew had only taken a single step toward them when Stuart raised his hand.
Stuart's palm cracked across Charlize's face.
Stunned by the slap, Charlize stood motionless, simply staring into Stuart's eyes.
In that instant, Matthew broke into a run.
Nearby, a crew mber who had been keeping a careful watch on the press saw it happen, his mouth falling open.
The security guard at the trailer door couldn't believe what he was seeing.
On the edge of the set, a blonde female reporter and her caraman stared at Stuart in stunned disbelief.
"Is this... real?" the blonde reporter asked her caraman, almost unconsciously. "Did that idiot really just slap Charlize Theron?"
The caraman, despite his astonishnt, never stopped filming. "Oh my God," he replied. "He's lost his mind!"
As they spoke, Stuart raised his hand a second ti.
From the mont he was denied entry to the press interviews to being stopped by the crew, a fire had been building inside Stuart, one he couldn't extinguish.
After the first slap, seeing the cold expression on Charlize's face and the light quickly fading from her eyes, Stuart felt nothing but desperation and rage.
But just as he was about to strike his girlfriend again, his hand never reached Charlize's face.
Soone caught his descending arm from the side. Stuart felt his wrist being squeezed as if by an iron vise.
He whipped his head around and saw a painfully familiar and infuriating face.
It was Matthew Horner!
"Sally." Matthew gripped Stuart's arm and turned his head to look at Charlize, asking in confusion, "Why do you put up with this?"
Charlize stared directly at Stuart, her face a mask of indifference. She didn't open her mouth to answer Matthew, her gaze fixed solely on Stuart's face.
Stuart glared at Matthew and commanded, "Let go!"
On the edge of the set, the two TMZ paparazzi were practically clapping with glee.
"Big news!" the blonde reporter exclaid excitedly. "We've got big news! Keep rolling!"
The caraman didn't need to be told; he knew that what was happening right now would make them rich.
Seeing that Matthew had no intention of letting go, Stuart struggled with all his might to pull his arm free, but he couldn't break the bastard's grip.
"Fuck!"
He swore viciously, balling his other hand into a fist and swinging at Matthew.
"Matthew!"
Charlize cried out instinctively.
But Matthew wasn't worried. Stuart's punch was slow.
He didn't understand the ntality of n like Stuart. Charlize had achieved far more than he had, and if he couldn't accept that, breaking up was the only option. So why didn't he? Was it because Charlize could offer him a comfortable life?
The thought flashed through his mind, but Matthew's movents didn't slow in the slightest. He caught Stuart's fist with his free hand, pivoted, twisted at the waist, and threw him over his shoulder.
He was far stronger and sturdier than Stuart; it took little effort to send him crashing to the ground.
Stuart had no chance to resist. He only felt his feet leave the ground before his back slamd heavily onto the dirt.
Fortunately, the ground beneath them wasn't hard concrete or asphalt, but even so, the fall left Stuart dizzy, his back aching as if his spine had been fractured.
He lay on the ground, about to cry out in pain, when a hand as hard as a rock clamped around his neck, turning the scream into a strange, gurgling sound.
Matthew grabbed Stuart's neck with his left hand and aid his right at him, warning, "Don't struggle, or I'll hit you."
As he spoke, his right hand balled into a fist, hovering over Stuart's face.
Stuart tried to say sothing, but he couldn't make a sound.
It was then that Charlize finally reacted, rushing over and grabbing Matthew's right arm. "Matthew, calm down!" she shouted.
In that mont, she suddenly rembered Matthew telling her that he would teach Stuart a lesson if he ever saw him raise a hand to her again.
Charlize couldn't pull Matthew's arm away, so she had to raise her voice. "Matthew, stop!"
Matthew turned his head and looked at Charlize. "Sally, bastards like this—"
Charlize felt a wave of relief seeing that Matthew's fist hadn't landed on Stuart's face. She cut him off, "We'll talk later. Let him go first. The paparazzi are filming us."
Hearing her, Matthew glanced over at the blonde reporter and her caraman, then slowly lowered his fist, unclenched the fingers of his left hand, and stood up.
"Cough! Cough!" Stuart sputtered from the ground.
Charlize, however, made no move to help him. She just stood there, her gaze shifting between Matthew and Stuart.
The security guard at the front of the trailer recovered from the shock of seeing an Oscar-winning actress assaulted by her boyfriend and rushed over, positioning himself near Stuart to prevent another attack.
The crew mber also ran across the lot and headed for the main set, apparently to get the director.
The two TMZ reporters stood behind the barrier, diligently performing their duties, capturing everything through the lenses of their caras.
Stuart slowly pushed himself up from the ground, looking dazed.
Just then, the director, Doug, appeared on the scene, his face instantly flushing with anger at the sight of the bright red handprint on Charlize's face.
"Who did this?!" he roared.
Not even makeup could hide that, which ant filming would have to be halted for a while.
Then more people arrived, even the producer, Goldsman, ca out of his office.
Goldsman and Doug quickly understood what had happened and glared at Stuart with undisguised hostility.
They didn't care about Stuart's disagreents with Charlize, and they didn't care that Stuart had hit her. All of that was their personal business.
But what about today's shoot, now that Stuart had done this to Charlize's face?
They had a two-day rental on this location. If they couldn't finish the scheduled scenes today, the subsequent shooting schedule would have to be changed, which ant lost ti and money.
"Are you okay?" Matthew asked Charlize with concern. "Do you want to go to the hospital?"
Noticing his temporary assistant on set, he ordered her, "Get a cold towel."
Everyone on set liked Charlize, and many were now looking at Stuart with disgust in their eyes.
In fact, so stories about their relationship had been circulating within the industry for a while.
The other actors who had arrived on the scene understood what was happening, and their disgust gradually turned into contempt.
Charlize looked at Stuart, her eyes showing nothing but coldness.
anwhile, Matthew took out his phone and sent a text ssage, first to Ilana, then he dialed Helen's number.
Reviews
All reviews (0)