He knew. He was there when I fell during a high-wire scene, refusing a stunt double just to give my best on camera. He also watched as I was pinned together with eighteen steel screws right after my fall. Despite all that, he saw me drag myself back to set the same night. He even held me as I shook and cried through the pain, drenched in cold sweat.
He wasn’t ignorant of any of it.
But he still looked away, reasoning, “Marina’s new, yet she’s made it this far on her own. It hasn’t been easy. Besides, you’re her senior. Just give this to her.”
“No way!” I shouted. Then, jabbing my finger at Marina, I retorted, “If she were better than me, fine, I’d accept it. But when I memorize my lines, she just mouths ‘one-two-three-four-five-six-seven.’ When I do my own stunts, she hides behind eight doubles for a single scene. And you want to hand her an award that takes an actor eight years of blood and sweat to earn? Just to a pretty face?!”
Isla's POV
“Isla!” Dominic suddenly raised his voice, his gaze cutting through me with a coldness I’d never seen before. “Know your place!”
The words had barely left his mouth before even he looked startled, as if he hadn’t meant to say them.