SWNOVELS Chapter 34
Who will like it?
When Clarissa hung up the call, her cheeks were already blushing. It would seem obvious to anyone who witnessed her shy look that her heart was fluttering at this moment.
She felt slightly nervous after returning to the hotel, with her heart racing rapidly. All she could think about was Matthew's face and his charmingly charismatic voice...
Shit!
Even Clarissa could not help but giggle shyly.
Truthfully, she knew very well that it was simply too easy to fall in love with Matthew.
If he was serious about what he had said, it would be impossible for her to refuse.
The reason that she kept delaying it was that she had wanted to calm herself down. After all, she had yet to do something as rash as this, without having any consideration of the possible consequences.
If she were to calm down in a week's duration, she would possibly have different feelings in regard to the matter.
However, she had a feeling that she would end up succumbing to Matthew's advances. In other words, she had already admitted defeat but was just trying to act all melodramatic.
Her phone's urgent ringing tone suddenly interrupted Clarissa's shy thoughts.
When she saw that it was a call from Ellie, she felt embarrassed. Ellie's furious voice came blaring the moment she answered the phone.
"Clare, Shermaine is a crazy woman. Stay away from her! Why didn't you heed my advice?"
"What's wrong?"
She did not expect Ellie to know about Shermaine's deliberate acts from that morning.
"What's wrong? You are on the trending searches right now, with everyone hurling insults at you. It's all over social media that an ignorant screenwriter had dared to go through a scene with Shermaine, a top actress. Those insults are downright disgusting. Go and take a look at them... Never mind, don't look at them. They're all left by her fanatic fans. There's nothing to see there."
Although Ellie had informed Clarissa to steer away from the comments, she could not help herself from doing it.
While still on the call, she quickly turned on her laptop and immediately saw the trending searches.
A Screenwriter Goes Through A Scene With Shermaine.
A "Diva-like" Screenwriter.
Shermaine Remains Humble Amidst The Amateur Screenwriter's Pretentious Act.
These were considered the more neutral headlines out in the mix. On the opposite spectrum, her social media account, with the username @clarissa.quigley, was already flooded with criticisms.
Of the one million followers she had, some of them were scolding her alongside Shermaine's fans. Yet, there was also a portion of her loyal book fans trying their best to defend her. They thought that everything was a huge misunderstanding that featured a cordial discussion between an actress and a screenwriter.
However, these rational comments were soon overwhelmed by criticisms. Within a short span of time, a plethora of negative scandals about Clarissa was exposed.
Someone who claimed to be in the same editorial team as Clarissa said that her novels only got raving reviews because she bribed the editors. Her follower count, her likes, and other results were all due to her deliberate manipulation. The reason that she never showed up in public-not even to attend the annual meetings-was that she was an ugly and vicious old woman, who was afraid of losing followers if she was exposed to the public eye.
The whistleblower even claimed that Clarissa only managed to sell the film rights and secure investments after sleeping with the owner of the film company.
Another member of the crew revealed that Clarissa was an extremely arrogant person, while Shermaine had always been humble. It was shocking to see Clarissa thinking so highly of herself and insisting on going through the scenes with other actors. She even doubted the director's opinion and bossed everyone in the studio around. If that was not shameless enough, she tried to seduce the main male lead, Ryler...
In conclusion, all sorts of insults and scandals were heaped onto Clarissa simultaneously.
Why hasn't an ugly b*tch like you died yet?
This woman is disgusting. I hope that her entire family dies!
She just plagiarizes the shit out of everything. Not only that, but she's also a sl*t who has slept with many men. A piece of crap like her is downright disgusting...
Reading these insults, Clarissa was so furious that she began to tremble in anger.
She had never borne the brunt of such aggressive attacks. In fact, there were even comments that were more vicious than those.
When she first became popular, she had encountered other authors trying to sway the readers by criticizing and insulting her. However, those were nothing compared to the insults that she was receiving now. This was Clarissa's first time being a victim of cyberbullying.
She gripped her phone tightly as if she was going to shatter it with her brute force. Driven by an impulse, she had the urge to read more of the comments, the more upset and furious she got. She wanted to see how evil humanity was and how vicious the keyboard warriors could be.
"Clare, Clare..."
Ellie was extremely worried. When Clarissa did not respond to her for a long while, she knew that something was amiss.
"Stop reading the comments. Those are all irrelevant people who have nothing better to do. Why should you care about their opinions?"
"I... I'm fine."
Clarissa's voice trembled as she finally turned her laptop off. The notification sounds on her phone rang incessantly, prompting her to glance at the messages. They were from her readers and the editorial
team.
"You're still claiming to be fine? Are you crying? Don't be scared, Clare. I'll help you. Shermaine must be the culprit behind this. I'll settle the score with her." "Don't, Ellie. It might not be her. There were a lot of people present in the studio, so many of them have witnessed me going through the scenes with Shermaine. Someone else might have leaked it instead. Don't confront her without any evidence. Plus, we might have wrongfully accused her."
"We can't just leave it like this, can we?"
"Forget it."
After calming down for a while, Clarissa's rationality returned. "Ellie, this matter only blew up because of Shermaine's fame and influence. There is always trending news like this popping up every day. Soon, everything will be settled and left in the dust. Let's not do anything about it. I'll take a break from social media too. It's better if I refrain from tainting my eyes with those nasty comments. I'll just stay further away from Shermaine from now on. If I don't provoke her, she can't possibly seek trouble with me, right? I'll be leaving in a few days too. Let's just keep it as it is."
"But..."
"Forget it, my conscience is clear. I'm not part of the entertainment industry anyway, so it doesn't matter if others criticize me. I just need to continue writing my novels seriously. I'm a bit tired today, so I'll go and rest first."
After hanging up the call, Clarissa wallowed in her sadness. She read the consoling messages that her kind readers left her, saying that they trusted her no matter the circumstance. Her editor had also informed her that the company would release a statement and announce that they would take legal actions against the ones who had spread the malicious rumor. Her team unanimously sided with her.
This touched Clarissa greatly, dissipating the anguish that had been tormenting her earlier. There are still a lot of kind people in this world, huh?
However, Ellie was still filled with indignation.
Her instincts told her that this certainly had something to do with Shermaine. After all, she had seen through Shermaine's hypocrisy since young and detested her greatly. The duplicitous woman always hated to see someone who was better or prettier than her. It was evident that her aim was to defame Clarissa.
Hence, Ellie called Damon immediately and asked him to investigate the identity of the person who made the first post.
In fact, he had already started his investigation. Even though Clarissa had rejected him, he could not bear the sight of her getting bullied.
When Ellie returned home, her grandmother and her mother were chatting happily, as though something joyous had occurred.
When they saw how unhappy Ellie was, they could not help but ask, "What's wrong, Ellie? Did something happen?" "Mom, Grandma, Clarissa has gotten bullied."
"Who bullied her?"
Ellie relayed the entire incident to them, not forgetting to criticize Shermaine whenever there was an opening.
"Clare told me that Shermaine was acting weirdly. She looked for Clare all of a sudden to discuss the script and even deliberately asked her to guide her with her acting in front of so many people. In the end, this mess happened. That b*tch must have hired someone to defame Clare."
"That's... That's impossible. Shermaine is a good girl. There must have been a misunderstanding."
Esther did not believe that Shermaine would do such a thing.
However, Ellie had already expected her reaction. "Grandma, why can't see through her yet? Shermaine is a manipulative woman who can act really well. Don't you believe what I've just said?"
"It's not that I don't trust you, rather, there might have been a misunderstanding. It's possible that someone else in the crew deliberately spread the rumor instead. There are all sorts of ridiculous things across the Internet, so why should you care about it? Since Clare has already chosen to let it be, you should stop harping on it too."
"..."
Ellie's mother tried to stop her from speaking, but Esther continued, "I actually like Shermaine a lot. Plus, she really fancies Matthew. Didn't he go to the film studio to visit her a few days ago? There are some hopes of them getting together, right?"
When Ellie heard that her grandmother was not only refusing to suspect Shermaine but also hinting that she might become her future sister-in-law, she erupted into a fury.
Bolting up, she stormed out of the house furiously, ignoring her mother's calls from behind her.
She took a flight and headed straight to the film studio. The first thing she did when she landed was to look for Clarissa, embracing her warmly as she consoled her.
Hugging Ellie, Clarissa coaxed, "Truthfully, one cannot put on an act for eternity. If there really is a flaw in her character, it'll be revealed sooner or later. I truly believe that no one can keep up a facade forever. Furthermore, Shermaine won't even know how angry you are right now. Even if she does, she'll definitely be over the moon for successfully provoking you, right? Instead of fuming over it, why don't you take a good rest and replenish your energy? You can think about the matter afterward, okay?"
"Yeah, you're right. I must not torment myself. If that b*tch knows how furious I am now, she'll certainly be overjoyed. I will not be angry! Just wait, I'll definitely rip her deceptive facade off! Let's sleep now." Clarissa laughed as she lay down, while Ellie wrapped her arms around her tightly.
Smiling exasperatedly, she switched off the bedside lamp and fell asleep.
As both of them slept really late the previous night, they were still lazing around in bed, unable to wake up even though it was already late morning.
The doorbell woke both of them up eventually. Clarissa gently nudged Ellie, who got out of bed in a daze, and opened the door.
"Who's there?"
When she caught sight of the man who was standing outside, she was stunned.
"Uncle Matt? Why are you here?"
At the mention of his name, Clarissa abruptly sat up straight from her bed. The immense fright that she got completely jolted her awake.
She scrambled out of bed and dashed to the door unhesitatingly.
"I informed Uncle Matthew that you were here. Since you came here without informing your family, I was afraid that they would be worried about you."
Ellie frowned when she saw how anxious Clarissa was.
On the other hand, Matthew raised his eyebrows teasingly as his gaze swept across Clarissa's body. This woman was so scared that she got out of the bed before realizing what she's wearing right now.