"Vanessa! I thought you had promised me that you would focus on stabilising the company first," Ethan snapped, his voice full of frustration as he paced in front of his desk.
"You said you'd work on strengthening our relationship and only return to filmmaking after a few years. Then what is the meaning of this announcement?"
He stopped pacing for a second, his expression tight as he threw the phone in his hand at her feet.
"When you should be busy with our engagement preparations, why am I seeing headlines about you starting your new project? And that too with a star from my company?" His tone rose slightly, disbelief mixing with anger. "Tell me, what do you think will happen if anyone starts suspecting a 'link' between us before we have annoinced the engagement? Right now, people don't even know we are acquainted with each other, let alone about us being in love!"
Ethan resumed pacing, each step louder than the last, as he sent looks to Vanessa who was sitting on the couch, her posture relaxed, an almost indifferent look on her face.
Her silence only made him more agitated.
He exhaled sharply, ran a hand through his hair before saying, "Alright, let's do this instead." His tone shifted then, from angry and irritated to almost cajoling, "You can call a press conference and set the record straight. Tell them that while you were considering Elliott for the role, he got ahead of himself and made a premature announcement."
Ethan moved closer to her, took her hand in his and kissed the back of her hand. "Make it clear that the project is still under finalisation, and since Elliott couldn't keep his mouth shut, you've decided to drop him from the film. That should settle the matter for now."
He glanced at her briefly, as if giving her a chance to protest and when she remained silent, he continued to hold her hand. "Once our engagement is announced and everything's stable again, you can go ahead and hire Dominic for the lead role. That will be a safer choice, and it'll look clean from every angle."
Ethan took out his phone, already scrolling through his contacts. "Alright then, I'll call the press and arrange the conference for you right away."
Vanessa smiled then, though her eyes were cold. Really?
Ethan was quite committed to Lynette. Even now, he'd founf a way to delay things for Lynette? If she waited until her engagement, then after the 'surprise' they had planned for her, she would be left watching from the sidelines, with nothing in hand. As if she was going to let that happen.
"Ethan. Put the phone down. There's no need to call the press."
He froze mid-scroll and looked up at her, surprised by the interruption. "What?"
"I've already started working on the project. It is not taking away from my time at the company and our engagement preparations are all done. Everything is moving as planned. You don't need to worry about it."
For a moment, there was silence. Then, slowly, Ethan lowered the phone. His expression shifted from disbelief to irritation. "You've already started? Vanessa, are you seriously opposing me right now?"
"I'm not opposing you. I'm just telling you that the project is mine, and it's already in motion."
Ethan's eyes narrowed. This wasn't the tone he was used to hearing from her. Usually, she gave in after a few sharp words, quietly falling in line. But now, there was a steadiness in her voice that made him pause.
"You don't want to hold a press conference?" he asked slowly, testing her. When she didn't answer, his jaw tightened. "Fine then. You can ask your PR department to do a press release instead. Keep it short and professional."
"Ethan! I am not going to put the project on hold!" Vanessa said slowly, letting each word fall clearly.
Ethan stared at her, still unable to understand, "What did you just say?"
"I said I'm not putting the project on hold," Vanessa repeated calmly.
He gave a low laugh, the sound sharp and humorless. "Unbelievable. You think you can just decide things like this? Without discussing them with me? What happened to us being a team?"
"I don't need to discuss every professional decision with you, Ethan! Did you ask ask be before taking on Lynette with your company? Why? Because it was your project! This is my project, Ethan. My work. So, I don't need to consult you."
"Vanessa! Those are different matters. Have you forgotten when you proposed to me, you promised that you would..."
"I proposed to you? Have you lost your memory, Ethan. It was you who offered yourself to me and said that I could use you to get what I wanted. Have you forgotten that?"
Ethan swallowed back his anger at that! What was wrong with her today? She seemed intent on making trouble. Before he could say more, there was a knock on the door and in walked his 'other' problem... Elliott Ross.