C3 Chapter 2: A Worst Day

Clara Simpson

This is one of the worst days of my life. In the past hour, I got my script changed, had been offered an explicit affair from filthy investors, then asked for the penalty for breaching the contract and now a threat to defame me if I don't do according to their wishes.

Although I turned them down about following their wishes, I know I have to do something about it very soon. I looked at the phone in my hand while my hands scrolled through it to check my bank balance. I should have enough to pay the compensation for breaking this ridiculous contract.

"What the hell!" I sat straight in shock when I saw the amount in my account,"20,000$" I felt like I could have a heart attack.

"What happened?" Denise asked, looking at me worryingly.

"Freaking twenty thousand dollars," I said, bringing my phone in front of her to let her have a good look at my broke self. "How can this happen?" I shouted out at the same frequency as before.

Denise looked at my phone, and her expression changed just like mine. "It cannot be possible." She took my phone and started exploring.

"The day before yesterday, it was 16 million." She said, and I was thinking the same.

I was in an extreme condition, not knowing what to do in this case, when she said, "I looked at the transaction history, and it says that you withdrew all your money yesterday evening", she said, lifting her eyes from the phone and looking at me.

"You know that I didn't do it, Den, I was all the time in set all the time, and you were with me," I said in exasperation that I was feeling right now.

"I know you didn't do it, and perhaps I know who can do it," she said, adjusting her fame on her nose. "you will be disappointed all the time."

Her vivid revelation told me that It could only be my mother. All these years, I worked like a robot to provide myself and my mother with a roof on our heads and a good meal, but all she could do is to spill all my efforts and money into gambling. Then, as a result, I came to point zero in my life from where I started fresh.

This time things are different because now I am in deep trouble, and I don't have a cent to pay for the penalty. It can drag me into a bottomless pit along with my career.

I was in my thoughts. I didn't even realise that I was still sitting in the car, which had already come to a halt in front of the building where I lived.

"I am already disappointed" A tiring feeling engulfed me with its extreme.

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine. We'll seek for the solution like we always do." Harry tried to reassure me. The point is that I know this time the trouble the much bigger than the previous ones.

"I don't know, Harry. First, let me confront mom related to this matter." I stepped out of the same car in which we all were sitting. Harry and Denise followed me.

After my conversation with the investors and Mr Thompson, Harry, my manager, tried to persuade Thompson, but the result was the same. I knew Thompson from my childhood. He was my father's good friend. Things changed only after the death of my father.

I always thank God that he didn't do anything inappropriate to me, probably due to his friendship with my late father. All these properties can not make him a good man because Thompson is a money-hungry dog. This is proved now when he practically sold me on getting three times the investment.

The journey from parking to my apartment was in utter silence. I Pressed the code and entered the living room only to see my mother, who was effortlessly sitting on her massage chair with a hood dryer settled on her head.

"Mom, why did you withdraw all the money?" I asked directly, without a greeting, since I was too angry about this.

Her assistant removed the hood from her head on her signal, and then she paid me attention with such calmness that I envied her.

"Lara baby, when did you come? Didn't you have a shooting schedule till late night?" she said with the cheerful expression that I ignored.

"Why did you withdraw money?" I asked, gritting my teeth. "And what did you do with it? Last time you promised in the name of my late father that you would not throw my money into gambling," I continued without keeping my anger in check.

Her expression changed, "I didn't do gambling this time. I tried to help." she said.

"I don't need any help right now. I need money because I am in trouble and want to clear my name from this contract." I said, running my fingers from my hair to soothe my exploding nerves.

She already did much help to sign a contract with Thompson this time when I was free from the previous one with extreme difficulty.

"I don't have money right now," she said, not looking into my eyes, and I know this happens only when she is guilty of something.

"What do you mean you cannot give me money? You said that you didn't gamble, then where is the freaking money?" I asked. Now I was losing my cool.

"Language Lara." She scolded me. "Wait here, " she said and returned from her bedroom with some papers in her hand. She handed them to me. "Look at these"

I got through the content of the papers and came to know that she invested all the money into some business firm of which I didn't hear the name before.

"Oh, God!" I almost shrieked, "This is insane." I handed the documents to Harry and Denise.

"Can you look into this and find a way to bring back the money?" I said to Denise, who is like an information software.

"Don't Freak, but Clara, This is fraud." Denise was the one who said, after scrolling for five minutes on her specific tablet. "It has been a month since I heard the news of a group of swindlers who lure people into fake investment scams and disappear with their money without a trace."

She said, and I felt my world falling apart. All the money that I earned from my hard work is gone like nothing.

"It is not a scam." my mother said, grabbing her phone from the side table and dialling some number. "Let me call Mr Reeve, and you will see that it is a genuine investment. I checked all the documents he provided as proof," she said.

"Let's see then, " I uttered in anger, but God knows that I was praying inside that It was a genuine investment, not a scam.

She put the phone on loudspeaker, "The number you have dialled is not in service" the automated voice spoke the message loud and clear.

"Let me check again," she said exasperatedly, dialling the number repeatedly. The result was the same. The number was not in service.

"Enough," I said when tears wailed my eyes of all the pain, I was feeling. "Don't you see that it was a scam? That he has removed all the traces. That, you lost all the money I earned working day and night."

My whole body was numb. Never in my life ever I felt this helpless in my mother's hand. Today I was going to say all that is in my heart "In all my childhood; you pushed me into acting because you wanted a luxurious life after my father died. You didn't care if I was grounded between my school and acting career. You fell into gambling when I earned enough to give you this luxurious life."

The tears were blinding my vision. My legs gave up strength, and I fell on the floor."Due to your gambling habit, goons were after your life and mine. You know how I got rid of them. After that, you promised that you would not do anything like this, but this time you ruined me."

Harry and Denise were consoling me, but I was not in a condition to sense anything."This is not all. You trapped me into a contract with Thompson again, and you know what? They are now asking me to sleep with every investor, or they will not only seek a lawsuit that I breached the contract but also ruin my career. The funny thing is that I was thinking of paying the penalty and breaking the contract, but I don't have that due to your foolishness. And I am ruined."

I cried out all the pain that I had felt all this time.