411: Yves’s Confidence
(Author’s POV)
After leaving Starlight Entertainment, Caleb headed straight to Gale Entertainment.
+25 Points:
He had a contract to terminate. He’d arranged it through Zachary, the contact he’d originally brought in when he’d made the jump. Zachary had been the one to smooth the transition, to handle the paperwork
and the introductions.
Caleb figured he at least owed him a conversation before walking out.
He hadn’t even made it through the front door before he spotted Zachary walking out of the HR department.
Zachary looked like a man who had just been handed a bill he couldn’t pay.
He didn’t bother with pleasantries.
“Don’t bother looking for me after this,” he said flatly. “I’ve been let go.”
Caleb stopped. “What?”
Zachary’s jaw tightened.
“You heard me.” He glanced back at the HR office, then away. “I recommended bringing you on board because I believed in the commercial value. Believed in the talent.” He let out a short, humorless breath.
“But you lost the head–to–head with Amelia, and then the Hugh scandal sent the stock into freefall. Arthur
went back on everything. The double salary – gone. Every promise he made – gone.”
He shook his head.
“Every employee who jumped ship from Starlight Entertainment has been cut. Most of us were still in
probationary periods. No severance. Nothing.”
Caleb said nothing.
Zachary swore under his breath, low and bitter and unrestrained.
“If I’d never left Starlight Entertainment,” he said. “If I’d stayed and worked under Amelia – I’d be in a completely different position right now.”
The words landed heavily.
Because they were exactly what Caleb had been thinking.
From inside the HR office came the muffled sounds of other former Starlight employees – raised voices, protests, someone demanding to speak to a manager. They were accusing Gale Entertainment of
discarding them the moment they stopped being useful.
Zachary scoffed.
“Pointless,” he said. “Gale Entertainment is going under anyway. It’s only a matter of time.”
< Chapter 411 Yves’s Confidence
(Author’s POV)
Once he’d vented, Zachary seemed to notice Caleb was still standing there.
“What brought you in?” he asked.
“Contract termination,” Caleb said. “I’ve got an overseas label willing to sign me and cover the buyout.”
Zachary stared at him for a second.
Then he let out a dry laugh- not mocking, just exhausted.
“Arthur’s desperate to cut costs right now. He’ll probably be thrilled to let you go.” He looked Caleb over.
“An overseas label. So you’ve got somewhere to land.”
“Looks that way.”
Zachary shook his head slowly.
“You’ve got real talent, Caleb. Real luck too.” He said it without warmth, just as a statement of fact. “And
you still managed to push away the one person who could have pulled you up.”
Caleb didn’t flinch. He’d already said that to himself a hundred times.
“As for me,” Zachary continued, “if I’d stayed at Starlight, my career would look nothing like this.”
He looked at Caleb one last time.
“Good luck,” he said. Then he turned and walked away.
The other dismissed employees filed out behind him, faces tight with anger and regret.
Someone in the crowd was talking about Starlight Entertainment’s rising stock price. How different things
might have been. How they’d made the wrong call at exactly the wrong moment.
Then someone recognized Caleb.
A beat of silence.
Then the whispers started.
*Of everyone here, Caleb had fallen the furthest.*
*Born into a pack with money and a name. A famous face. A career that should have been untouchable.*
*And now cast out. His father behind bars. Having turned his back on the only lifeline he’d ever had.*
Those words tore into him like claws.
He’d kept his composure in front of Amelia. He’d walked out of that office with his head straight and his
voice level.
But standing here now, surrounded by people who had nothing left to lose, he couldn’t hold the pain at bay.
The regret hit him in waves.
+25 Points
< Chapter 411. Yves’s Confidence
If he’d gone with the family when they brought her home.
If he hadn’t, in his blind and desperate cruelty, tampered with her brakes and tried to have her killed.
If he’d just been different.
But there were no second chances.
What was done was done.
(Author’s POV)
He didn’t let himself drown in it for long.
He pulled himself together and walked toward Arthur’s office.
He raised his hand to knock.
Then stopped.
The door was slightly ajar, and voices drifted through the gap – low, deliberate, carrying the particular weight of a conversation no one expected to be overheard.
Arthur’s tone was grave.
VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Alpha's Abandoned Daughter is the Secret Heiress