too late for a second chance novel (Lila and Dorian)

Terry laughed in disbelief. He pointed at Dorian, then at Zara. "You two... are amazing, just... amazing!"

Dorian realized Terry had misunderstood and tried to clarify, "I have done nothing wrong to Lila. Zara has been getting a lot of negative press, which is mostly due to what I did. I was worried she'd spiral if she was left alone at home."

He would have been better off not explaining anything at all. Terry didn't even want to answer him after hearing that. He simply turned to leave.

"Terry," Dorian called out and halted Terry's steps. "Just give me a few more days. Once the situation is under control, I will dispel the rumors around Zara. After that, I will not contact her any longer."

Zara clenched her fists. The calm expression she previously had instantly shifted.

Dorian wanted to add that he felt guilty for Zara and needed to make things right, but seeing Terry's disgusted look, he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.

Terry's dark face did not lighten after the explanation. "You'd better follow through on that. Don't come back to me with any of this nonsense if you can't stick to your word."

"As for the script," he continued. "Lila only said she'd consider it, but so far, it doesn't seem like she suspected anything. I'll let her read it through and reach out when she decides."

Terry gave Zara a look of absolute contempt. "And as for you, get your life together before you reach out to me again. As a friend, I've said my piece."noveldrama

With that, he got in his car and drove away, disappearing down the road in seconds.

Dorian turned to Zara, who was clearly upset, and said gently, "Terry can be harsh, don't take it personally. Once all of this is settled, concentrate on your filming. To avoid any suspicion, let's avoid contacting each other.

Zara bit her lower lip, looking rather distressed.

She almost blurted the question she'd been thinking. Why did it always have to be Lila?

Zara could accomplish everything Lila could. Zara didn't just mean being a better agent or assistant-she could handle everything else just as effectively, even more so than Lila.

Lila was busy filming the whole day and only had time in the evening to go over the script Terry had given her.

Even though what he said during the day made sense, she was still not convinced.

She knew how close Dorian and Terry were, but she had hardly interacted with Terry herself. Immediately after turning down Dorian's attempts to reconcile, she suddenly gets offered a script? She couldn't shake the suspicion that this was all Dorian's doing.

She skimmed through the script quickly and thought it was generally of decent quality. Based on Dorian's current position, the resources he could get should be at least better than what Terry was claiming.

This put Lila a little at ease, but she still wasn't planning to give Terry an answer just yet. She figured it was best to wait things out a bit longer, just in case.

The next morning, Lila intended to stop by to see Jamie and Teddy after wrapping up her work in the morning.

However, she got sidetracked by a flood of 99+ unread messages on social media during a break. Was the world ending? She opened it to find that the messages were from a group chat with Jamie and Teddy, affectionately named by Teddy as "Top 3 Richest".

Were these two troublemakers chatting instead of focusing on filming? Amused, she scrolled through the chat history, and her smile slowly faded.

Jamie: "What's going on? Is Zara working as Dorian's assistant now?"

Teddy replied with a shocked emoji.

Jamie: "I just saw Dorian lead Zara into his waiting room. When I asked around, I found out that she's been sidelined because of all the rumors and is now working as his assistant."

Teddy: "Her lead role got taken away, and with everyone knowing each other on set, isn't that awkward for her?"

Jamie sent an eye-roll emoji.