Hollywood Zenith

" What\'s with this impromptu meeting?" one of them asked.

" Our stocks are fine right? I really can\'t afford another scandal." another person sighed.

" I heard master Roderick had called for this meeting personally. We can expect the worse!"

" Shhh, what if someone hears you? I am sure it\'s nothing important, his face would be on the news if that were to happen. Don\'t you remember the last time?"

" Don\'t remind me. It was good that his father suppressed the news instantly or else our Glory media would have lost millions during that fiasco! Is it so hard to keep it in your pants?"

" Oh? I didn\'t know Mr Richard had such fine things to say about me." Someone called from behind. They turned their head and were horrified to see Roderick standing behind them.

" Master Roderick! I was only quoting what the media said about you at that time. hehe," Richard chuckled nervously. From about a dozen people present in the room, these ones were at the bottom of the barrel with only a few percentages of shares.

But they barked the loudest when anything wrong happened with the company. Roderick was seething with anger on the inside but never showed it on his face. He had to remember some big dogs were present in the meeting; regardless, they were merely dogs with slightly more giant mouths, nothing more.

" Of course, why don\'t you take the seat? I want to start the meeting." He looked across the room and saw Russell in the far distance. He was not sitting with everyone else, but he needed to attend such meetings as president of the group\'s subsidiary.

After everyone settled down, he again looked toward Russell and smirked before speaking.

" Good evening! I hope it was not too inconvenient heeding my sudden call but a serious situation had arisen which threatens our company\'s image." Even with his pig-like appearance, one must admit he was very charismatic when talking.

" Is it serious? You must know we are in this deal because we trust the Earl family."

" That\'s right. We have been hemorrhaging money due to sudden crisis, our bank\'s stance is very clear on this matter."

" Ascension and Barclays bank, huh. These shit have been running their mouth needlessly since the last incidence." Roderick thought. He watched others protest after the other two took the lead.

" Calm down, gentleman. You don\'t even know the situation and you are already panicking?" He paused for them to cool down.

" It is about the issue regarding the ZY recording studio. Someone planned a insidious move against me, a plan to take me down personally."

" What?"

" You are not making any sense. What is so destructive that you had to call this meeting?" Some people asked. Such a meeting was not standard; they would usually be held to talk about important issues.

" Very well,This morning when I was enjoying my meal someone came and interrupted me. A new artist which our company signed about a year ago came with Mr. Russell to coerce me." Roderick saw their surprised look. Russell was still silent, eager to see where he was heading with this.

" That\'s right, the artist name Adele wanted to take advantage of my kindness with the help of Mr Russell. They probably thought they could blackmail or something with it but I instantly turned them down!" He shouted with confidence.

" Nonsense! How can you lie in front of this many people? We were only there to talk about her album release date!" Russell was baffled by what he was implying. Even by his standards, it was a preposterous lie; others would never believe him!

" That\'s a very serious accusation."

" I too think it is too much. Mr. Russell has been incharge of the company for so many years, I don\'t see his motive to do such a thing."

" Do you have any proof?"

Just as Russell predicted, most people didn\'t believe him. They, in turn, asked for some evidence to corroborate his story.

" I know you are sceptical,, so I asked the eatery for the security camera footage. Edward, can you play the tape." Roderick was not a fool. He had covered all bases before coming here; why do you think he asked for the meeting to be held in the evening?

" As you wish, sir." Edward his subordinate played the video. Everyone curiously watched the tape from start to end, there was no sound, but it looked like Roderick was telling the truth. It made them look toward Russell with suspicion.

What happened was simple, Roderick messed with the tape. He cut up several parts, and with no sound, they could never know what they were talking about. It was all just an illusion; it was time to cement the story.

" I know it is hard to believe but you can clearly see that girl bending down to seduce me when I didn\'t comply Mr Russell got angry at me. He was yelling and left in anger." Roderick put up his sad face, but his eyes never left Russell, who was glaring at him.

" So? he was telling the truth? I can\'t believe it!"

" That girl looked so normal, I never knew that they could devise such a plan."

" You never know what such people will do for money."

" He is lying. That\'s not what happened, I can explain-" Russell tried to say something but it was a done deal.

" You must know, that Mr Russell personally signed her. I believe they also have something going on between them which would explain how such a young girl gets a contract with our company. There is also the issue of Mr Russell deteriorating performance. I think that\'s ample evidence to clarify the severity of this issue." Roderick passing comment made them look at Russell with disgust.

They could clearly see that Adele must have been a child when he signed her. It was not hard to imagine what went between those two, she was hardly older than his daughter\'s age!

" It\'s not true, I didn\'t do anything."

" Shut up! What should we do about this? Should we call the police?" one of them exclaimed.

" What are you hesitating for? Throw him in jail!"

" Wait! Doesn\'t that bring bad publicity for our recording group?"

" Right, other new artist will avoid our studio like a plague. There is also a chance that media will implicate our Glory group in all this mess!"

" I have perfect solution. Despite what Russell had done, we can\'t have news agency breathing down our necks. We can have him fired without any benefits and for the artist this issue is enough to warrant a breach of contract clause." Roderick said with a calm voice.

" That\'s fine with me."

" But we have already invested some capital with her, right? What\'s the price for breaking our contract?" someone unfamiliar with the recording label asked. He was ensuring all costs were recouped, even at the expense of destroying her.

" You don\'t have to worry about that she will be paying the price for a long time." another person said while laughing.

" It\'s five million pounds on top of that she will not be able to work with other prominent labels making her career dead on arrival."

While they were laughing and giggling, knowing Adele\'s fate, Russell felt guilty. He never thought that it would come to this, he always believed they would never hurt such a young girl, but he understood that reality was much crueller than fiction!