Chapter 62: Leah

LEAH'S POV

The air conditioning cooled my skin and the soft music playing in the background soothed my ears as I sat in the dressing room of Rose Cosmetics company, applying one of their products to get ready for the photo shoot.

My eyes were closed as the Make-up artist stood in front of me, working on my face, and the hair stylist was behind me curling my hair. Shirley sat on the couch behind us doing God knows what.

"Oh, my God! Prince Estefan is present," she exclaimed.

Estefan's name caught my attention and I opened my eyes before turning to look at her, stopping the actions of the two ladies working on me. "What is it?"

She stood up to move closer to me with her phone. "The Royal Family interview." She showed me her phone screen where the Spanish Royal family sat with a bunch of reporters in front of them. "The thing is, Prince Estefan has never attended the interview before but to everyone's surprise, he appeared this time," Shirley explained.

"What about his wife? I thought she would be there since she is now part of the royal family?" The make-up artist asked.

"She's scared of crowds. remember?" The hairstylist replied.

Their eyes widened when they noticed me glaring at them for mentioning Rhea in front of me.

"We are sorry, ma'am," they chorused.

"Leah, look. They are asking him about his relationship with you." Shirley tugged me.

I took the phone from her and my heart raced as I waited for his reply. We were in perfect silence as we listen to Estefan claiming all my allegations about Rhea to be wrong and denying ever having any intention to marry me. I tightened on the phone as he confessed his admiration for Rhea and I smashed the phone on the ground when I couldn't take it anymore.

"My phone," Shirley wailed at the broken pieces of her phone but I ignored her.

My entire body was burning in rage, knowing that everyone watching that video would take me for a liar. How could Estefan do that to me? Did all those moments we spent together really meant nothing to him? All because he wanted to protect Rhea, he attended the interview that he never appeared in. What does she have that I didn't?

"Miss Knight, I think you should calm down," the hairstylist said.

"Calm down? You expect me to calm down after that?" I yelled at her, making her step back in fear.

"Miss, the photo shoot is in ten minutes. We need to finish your hair and make-up," the make-up artist interfered.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded at them to continue. Estefan words played in my head over and over which made me angrier. I knew I had to figure out a way to make everyone believe that he was lying but how would I do that when there was no witness of our relationship?

When I was ready, I put on my dress and made my way out to the studio with Shirley behind me. On getting there, I met Kenzie chatting and laughing with the director, making me furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

"Why is Kenzie here?" I whispered to Shirley.

"I have no idea," she whispered back.

The director walked toward us with a smiling Kenzie behind him. "Leah, I was just about to come and see you."

"Hope there's no problem?" I asked.

"There has been a little change, so we won't be needing you for the shoot anymore," he said, looking everywhere but at me.

"What?! How can you make such a change at the last minute and why?" My eyes widened in shock.

"You must have watched the Spanish Royal Family interview, so you should know why." He shoved his hand in his pants pocket. "We can't afford to make any losses by letting you model for us, so Mackenzie will be doing the shoot instead of you."

"That's not fair, you can't replace me just like that." I raised my voice, attracting the attention of everyone on the set.

Kenzie stepped forward to stand directly in front of me. "What you did to your sister was not fair either, so you are in a position to talk about fairness." She leaned to my ear. "I told you you'll regret this." She moved back with a victory smile on her face.

It was taking everything in me to stop me from jumping on her and pulling all her hair out of her head.

"Leah, I think you should leave now," the director said before turning to Kenzie. "Let me take you to the dressing room." They walked away from me.

With my face red with anger, I grabbed my bag that was with Shirley and stomped out of the studio, making my way out of the company building. I got into the car and banged the door after me.

My phone rang in my bag and I took it out to see Mr Darlington calling me. The entire scene was like a Deja vú except I wasn't in my room like last time.

I answered the voice with shaking hands, "Hello, sir."

"Leah, I'm going to go straight to the point. We are terminating your contract with Empire immediately," he said.

"Sir, please don't do this, I can explain." I pleaded.

"No, Leah. I don't want to hear anything. I can't believe you were willing to tarnish your sister's image just to get your fame back, that's so selfish of you."

"Sir, you have to believe me, they are all lying against me."

"That's enough. You have no idea what I put at risk just to sign you back into our company but now I know you were not worth that risk. From now on, I don't want to see you anywhere in Empire ever again. Goodbye, Leah." The phone went silent.

"Hello, hello." I stared at the phone with tears in my eyes.

"Ahhhh," I screamed, banging my hands on the steering wheel.

That was it. I lost everything all because of one person; Rhea Knight.

I was never going to forgive her for doing this to me.