Chapter 271 | The Petty Bastard

The next day, there were multiple things that Ian had in his mind to do... Among them, his main priority was to attend the meeting where he'd be face to face with the petty bastard; Aaron Holden; the man who he found was trying to tarnish his image.

The morning came by very quickly.

He entered the office with his neutral face, as he showed no emotions whatsoever knowing that many people were going to realise when they see his facial emotions, so he had to hide everything underneath the neutral mask.

He walked inside, and Murphy who was already walking from left to right halted seeing Ian walk in from the elevator.

"Is he here?" Ian asked what he wanted to ask straight away.

Was Aaron here? Did he accept the invitation to talk with Ian? Will he accept the truth? Is it going to be easy? Where will it all end?

Ian had so many questions, although he decided to push forward just one.

"He is, and he's waiting for you. And, Ian,"

Murphy looked at Ian as if he wanted to say something. They've gotten to know each other for so long that by one glance Ian knew what Murphy was about to say.

Ian nodded in understanding immediately.

"Don't worry, I won't."

Murphy was simply telling him not to make any big scene.

Ian walked inside and saw Aaron sitting by the chair closer to the window.

"Good morning, Holdens, how have you been?" Ian asked friendly.

Inside his head, there were a lot of things going on.

Aaron shrugged and smiled politely. "It's been good. What's the matter?" He asked straightaway.

"Just wanted to see how you are in person," Ian gave an oblivious answer which made Aaron cease his eyebrows in question.

Right when Ian entered the room, he couldn't help but think of so many things that he wanted to tell him. Knowing he did such a petty thing without any remorse, made his thoughts worse.

"What do you mean?" Aaron asked, looking at Ian, confused.

"What I meant is actually what I asked. Okay, let me actually rephrase this… What do you think you're doing sharing the pictures online of me?"

A quick look of knowing flashes in his eyes before he gathered himself back up. Talk about being a good actor.

"I have no fucking idea what you're talking about," Aaron said and frowned as if Ian was talking about the most absurd thing of all time.

"Really? I mean, if I was you, I'd have saved my dignity by at least coming clean. Tsk tsk tsk," Ian shook his head from left to right.

He was not surprised at all. Because he knew how these famous people were. They do bad, and then they expect everyone else to believe that everyone else is bad.

"Huh? Ian." Aaron immediately stood from his chair. He looked pissed, his eyes narrowed. "Look, I've been giving you respect knowing how big of a director you are. If you're accusing me of things, I don't care because I did nothing, but I would not tolerate… disrespect!" Aaron said the latter with much intensity.

"Huh?" Ian mocked Aaron directly. "Disrespect? I believe you trying to ruin my image in front of all those people is out of respect? Honesty…" he inhaled before continuing. "I wanted this to be a much more polite conversation than this. But, you don't deserve it."

"I don't think this can get polite either."

Ian smirked suddenly. After the entire discussion, Ian knew there was one thing that he could do to make Aaron back off immediately.

"What?" Aaron asked, noticing his behaviour.

"Well, if you want it to be your way, let me do you a favour. In 2017, do you remember the girl you were with? Fara?"

The bastard frowned hearing what Ian was saying.

"What are you on about?" He asked, knowing Ian was about to say something that could change his view of him, completely.

And thus, he saw the side of Ian that Ian had been trying to hide the whole time. After all, it appears to be true that hiding sides of one's self could only make situations worse; but also, if someone is in the industry, it is something that they should do in the first place.

"Well, as much as I know that you want to hide it, I've evidence to prove that you're not so innocent as well. Sleeping with the co-artist and not just once, but multiple times? See, that's something I'm sure that the public would love to know," Ian said in a low tone.

Aaron immediately raised his eyebrows.

"What are you on about, Ian? I don't get it…" Aaron was worried and confused at the same time.

"Well, the thing is, if you think you want to go ahead with the plan to tarnish my image further, go on. Do it. But if I'm going down, I'd not be going down alone. You should know that" Ian said and smiled.

His sweet smile appeared more than evil to Aaron. He paused before showing any emotions. And in the next moment, Ian knew what was about to come.

"I don't know what you're saying but I'm sure it'll be solved soon. Now I've to go. I'm late for a shooting," Aaron said, smiled and walked away.

Ian nodded after him.

It was settled. Was easy, wasn't it?

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Days later, the premiere of Inception was finally happening.

After a month of the trailer release, Ian decided to quicken the movie release as he knew there would be higher competition with a few more movies that were by famous studios' announced release dates.

As he knew Inception could be a little tricky movie, that every person would not love, he decided to play the field tactically, as he always did. His core intention was to skyrocket the box office numbers as he promised a decent amount of shares to the lead actors from the profits.

"Here we are! Yet again! Welcome you all to the premiere of Inception! It has been four long weeks since the trailer got released! But look! All of them look beyond excited to be here! We have Reyney Moor, the legend who shook the history of Hollywood! How are you today?"

The blonde woman, who looked way too excited to be here, smiled while looking around. "Honestly, I'm really excited. Although I saw the trailer and knew this would be a bang, the days came closer sooner than I had expected. So, hooray to Ian Renner! I can't wait to see how amazing it's going to be!"

She said with the biggest smile of the night, as she waved and walked inside the crowd. Everyone else on the red carpet seemed excited.

All of them had broad smiles, interesting topics to chat about, and also engrossing details surrounding them.

It was a given that the celebrities found such events to be life-changing one way or another. From what they wore to how they behaved in events, people judged them.

"And, here we have Scarlett Johnson, who also looked very delighted to be here! Hello! How are you feeling tonight?! The event looks great, doesn't it?!"

Scarlett smiled through her white teeth. Her face glowed as she replied, "It looks amazing! It-"

She suddenly stopped talking as she saw who was entering the red carpet from the corner of her eyes. Everyone around her immediately stopped doing what they were doing and looked in the same direction.

"Wha-"

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A/N; Ian can be petty too ;)

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