Dad?
Valentina focused her gaze on the man who was supposed to be her father, trying to see if there was any similarity between this body of hers and him. She supposed if she looked hard, she could see a bit of herself in his slightly upturned eyes and the way her brow naturally arched. As she continued examining him, the man continued speaking cheerfully.
“Hello, my cute daughter. How could I miss your opening ceremony? I'm so proud of you my dear! I hope you don't mind my interruption but I brought everyone presents and I also brought a guest." He looked up and his hazel eyes swept the table before focusing on the director. "I am Antonio Salazar and this is Elena Piero’s father, Marco Piero. He’s a close friend of mine and wanted to see his daughter shine along with the rest of the cast. I hope you don’t mind Director Loewe.”
“Of course not Mr. Salazar please have a seat next to your daughter. I’ll quickly have a seat brought out for Mr. Piero as well.” Director Loewe quickly stood up and gestured for Antonio Salazar to sit.
Antonio Salazar slowly walked to where Aaliyah was sitting. As he sat down, he locked gazes with Valentina before giving her a cold look. Seeing his unwelcoming expression, she simply smiled mockingly before holding her drink up to him as a toast.
She then looked away and began talking to Christian Gale beside her as the table was reshuffled to accommodate the extra guests.
Antonio Salazar looked over at his birth daughter in surprise. From what he remembered, this child of his was gloomy and sickly, avoided eye contact, and was either sucking up to somebody or performing evil deeds. Even though she was born beautiful just like his wife, it was previously hidden under layers of ugly clothing, uglier makeup, and a dislikeable personality that was weak and pitiful in front of people while cruel to Aaliyah and servants in places nobody could see. Every move she made; every word she spoke made it clear that she was raised as a dirty commoner with no sense of morals. No matter how he looked at her, she brought disgrace to the Salazar family and he couldn't bear to have her in his home.
But she had changed.
The woman he was seeing before him seemed to be the complete opposite of before. She was elegantly dressed, smiled brightly, and seemed to have an inherent grace and charm as she moved around. Seeing her foxlike green eyes stare blankly at him as if he were a stranger, he was somehow reminded of his wife Evelynn when they were younger.
“Dad! Didn’t you say you had a gift for everyone? Where is?” Aaliyah cheerfully asked as she playfully grabbed his arm and forced his attention on her instead of Valentina.
Hearing his favored daughter's voice, Antonio Salazar immediately snapped out of it and smiled as he sat down.
“Director, I hope you don’t mind but I brought all the cast mates a little present to show my appreciation before your announcement. Of course, I brought one for you too.”
“Oh? You didn’t have to Mr. Salazar.” Director Loewe quickly declined.
“Oh please. Call me Antonio. And just take it as my thanks since my treasured daughter will be in your care.” As his words finished, Antonio clapped, and his assistant came forward with a large orange bag.
The assistant went around the table and gave each person miniature orange LV gift bags. Inside the bags were little designer trinkets. A small coin purse, a wallet, a small bracelet, sunglasses. Although it was small, it was clear that money had been spent since each little gift averaged over a thousand dollars! When the number of people were counted, he had spent close to 30,000 on trinkets.
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“Antonio this is really too much!”
“Wow, dad! You shouldn’t have!”
As everybody cheerfully received the gift bags, Valentina smiled politely before shifting her bag close to Roman.
“Here you go, Mr. Grayson. Since you were an unexpected guest, Mr. Salazar was unable to prepare a gift for you. You can have mine.”
“No way! Mr. Grayson can have my gift. It’s Dad’s fault for not bringing extras!” Aaliyah interrupted him frantically as she tried to slide her slightly bigger gift bag over. Seeing that Valentina was plotting to build a closer relationship with the Graysons by pretending to be a good person, she knew she had to block her. Maybe if she treated his brother well, Kaiser Grayson would look her way, pay her compliments, and then maybe...
“Thank you for the offer Miss Salazar, but Miss Valentina already offered so I’ll gratefully accept it. If you really want to remedy the situation, I suppose you could give your gift to Miss Valentina as she's your cast member and won't have one.”
“…but my dad specially selected this gift for me. I can't just give it away to anyone.” Aaliyah batted her eyes cutely while pouting.
“Is that right? I suppose I understand,” Roman smiled indifferently at her before turning back to the director. “Now, I believe Director Loewe had something to say about an announcement?”
“Yes actually, tonight has been such a great night. I feel like so many gifts have been blessing us. First, we’ve been blessed not only by Mr. Antonio Salazar and his friend Marco Piero who are two of the top well-known businessmen. Additionally, two extraordinary people have graced us with their presence tonight. Mr. Roman Grayson is here at the table and Kaiser Grayson himself will be joining us soon!”
“What?”
“Wow!”
“What a star-studded dinner!”
As the people seated at the began getting rowdy, the director tapped his glass with his knife once more to get their attention. Once everybody quieted down, the director smiled before looking at Antonio Salazar.
“Mr. Salazar, the table is yours.”
“Thank you, Director Loewe.” Antonio Salazar stood up and smiled brightly at everyone at the table, “First I just want to say that everyone looks amazing tonight. This cast is so good-looking, I feel like an ugly duckling.”
As everyone chuckled and reassured him, he laughed before continuing, “No need to comfort an old man like me. I just wanted to thank every for allowing me to say a few words and holding up your dinner. Firstly, I want to ask that you all look after my daughter while on set. She’s my only beloved daughter in the world and even though she’ll call me a worry wart and say she’s all grown up, I really worry about her, especially as she’ll be filming away from home.”
Only daughter huh? As reassurances flowed to Antonio Salazar and the crew began teasing Aaliyah, Valentina felt her heart chill and a pang of sorrow shoot through her body. Saying those words to an adopted daughter while his blood daughter was there, she didn’t know if Antonio Salazar was really that callous or if he didn’t consider her his daughter at all. It seemed that regardless of what world she was in, this was a body that wasn’t destined to be loved.
When she saw Aaliyah's triumphant glance, Valentina took a deep breath and schooled her face into a polite smile while continuing to listen to Antonio Salazar’s words.
“Secondly, I may have fibbed a bit earlier. The presents were a collaboration between me and my friend Marco Piero. He’s actually donated a significant amount of money to the production to become the majority investor since it’s the first film that his daughter Elena Piero is taking part in. Please take care of Elena the way same way you would take care of my daughter Aaliyah.”
As Elena stood up and took a bow, Valentina politely clapped along with everyone else.
“Marco, would you like to say a word?”
“Sure thing brother. I want to say thank you to Aaliyah for telling my daughter about this opportunity and spending hours helping her prepare for the role, she couldn’t have done it without you. And I just want to reassure you that even though I am now the majority investor for the film, I don’t plan on making any big changes, just a couple of tweaks here and there. I fully believe in the vision of the director and cast mates and can’t wait to see a finished product.” Marco Piero gave a smarmy smile, his eyes narrowed as he glanced intentionally at Director Loewe.
Director Loewe gulped and opened his mouth but before he could speak, a calm deep voice spoke out.
“That’s incorrect.”
“Excuse me?!” Marco Piero along with everyone turned their head to see the man walking slowly toward the table with a chilling smile on his face. The man walked directly to the head of the table, his gaze sweeping over everyone before lightly commenting.
“I see there’s no place for me to sit.”
“Ah, I’m sorry Mr. Grayson, I’ll have them bring one right out or you can take mine if you want?” the flustered Director Loewe said as he stood up.
“No need. Brother take mine. Director Loewe, you stay in your seat.” Roman immediately stood up and Kaiser calmly sat down beside Valentina.
As everyone continued looking at him in silence, Kaiser turned to smirk at Marco Piero.
“You’re the new investor in the film, right? It seems that the legal team has been slow on the paperwork. I took a liking to the cast and the director and since my cousin is starring in it, Platinum Entertainment actually owns the rights to the film and I'm now the majority investor. And I don't plan on making any changes.”
At his devilish smile and bold declaration, the entire room was silent.