From Background Character to Leading Lady

From the back cover

My life as Marcus Thorne's personal assistant was a tightrope walk, fueled by debt and a desperate need for invisibility.

He was Hollywood's most feared mogul, and I was just the anonymous competence making his world run.

Then Tiffany arrived, a caricature of a woman whose perfume assaulted the senses, declaring herself Marcus's "leading lady" and dismissing me as mere "help."

Her delusion quickly escalated from annoying pronouncements to outright malice.

She openly resented a simple silver pendant Marcus had given me, dismissing it as "charity."

She deliberately sabotaged my work, sweeping crucial files across the floor.

Once, she even sloshed scalding coffee onto my hand and keyboard, her smirk dripping with false sympathy.

Her threats grew bolder, hinting she knew a dangerous secret about Marcus's most guarded Blackwood deal.

I tried to endure, focusing on my duties, but her fervent belief in her own rom-com script, coupled with her growing aggression, was deeply unsettling.

How could she be so dangerously unaware of reality, or worse, so brazenly malicious?

The breaking point arrived when she, in an overly dramatic gesture, spilled steaming coffee directly onto Marcus Thorne's immaculate suit.

The room fell silent.

But Marcus didn't look at her; his icy gaze found me.

"Sarah," he said, his voice dangerously quiet.

"Handle this."

It was the first time he truly saw me, not just as background noise.