The end of the meeting between Sarah and the two lawyers promised another beginning for Sarah and her little façade.

“...What do you mean, sir?” Sarah asked.

She was confused by what they were saying. After the tall, lean man who introduced himself as a director of a talk show walked inside the meeting Sarah and the two lawyers were having, he requested her presence for the next show.

“We won’t put you in a tough spot, Sarah. All you gotta do is trust us, and we’ll take care of the future of Lilian and you,” Grit said with a sympathetic smile.

“Okay, let’s do it,” Sarah said.

The interview for her on live TV was truly going to be something, and that something wouldn’t do any sort of good to Ian.

“Redbo TV is at the top when it comes to current trends in Hollywood. Since we need to proceed with things quickly, are you free on the day after tomorrow?” the director asked.

“Yes, sir. Uh, can I know what we’d talk about in the show?”

“Don’t worry about any of it, now that you agreed, leave the rest to us,” the director replied with a smile that gave shivers to Sarah.

“Okay,” she said.

‘If this would do any good for Lilian and me, I’m ready to take any step without hesitation’ she thought to herself and smiled at the three men.

‘Even if it includes walking on fire or thin ice’

She kept thinking about how risky all this is, and after all, she was just a girl who wanted to live to the fullest in her life.

One mistake was all it took to make more along the way. And that ruined her life, now she was left with no choice, but to move forward, so that she could simply live.

-

Two days later.

“What do you mean?” Ian asked looking directly into the eyes of the lawyer, who sat with Uncle Mason beside her.

“I meant exactly what I said. Somehow the appeal is under processing, and we don’t see it moving forward anytime sooner.”

Ian looked out the window thinking about what possibly could be happening.

“That is absurd, lawyer. Do you think there’s something behind all of this?” Mason asked.

In the little office room that belonged to Mason, Ian was standing up and watching the buildings outside the building.

The news that the lawyer had brought was nothing but severe pain in the head.

“The appeal is stuck under an enormous amount of red tape, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think we gotta be patient for a little while.”

“Sorry to interrupt, I have another bad news,” Niko said and walked in, followed by Raelynn.

“What is it?” Ian asked looking behind.

“Uh, let me connect the tv,” Niko said and walked around the table to switch the TV on.

With noise, the TV started and all the pairs of eyes were plastered on the screen.

“Welcome back to RedBo TV, brought to you by Goofy. Today, we have Sarah….” Thus, the host started the program.

[...] “... I felt used and thrown away. I-” she sniffed and continued her thoughts. “Ian… I was looking forward to a healthy relationship with him, and then, he just threw me away like I’m nothing. I- I can’t believe I’m saying this all on TV-”

“Even we can’t,” Niko mumbled.

“I felt emotionally abused. I had high hopes for us, he promised things including taking me shopping, taking care of us, and even he talked about how excited he is to spend the nights we did,” Raelynn went on talking while trying to garner sympathy.

“This is bullshit,” Ian said loudly. “Can you guys see how hard she is trying to gain sympathy? For fucks said, every emotionally abused person out there must be cursing at me right now!” Ian thumped his fists on the table and groaned.

“Ian, calm down,” Raelynn said behind him and rubbed his shoulder.

“Switch the damn thing off!” Ian said loudly and sat on the nearest couch.

“Wait, let’s see what more she says, maybe we can use it against her during the trial.”

On the TV, Sarah who was wearing a yellow gown, with her hair on her face, had her mascara everywhere.

With all the sobbing she was doing on TV, the audience was sympathizing with her.

Some of them had tears on their face, and some were already sobbing.

“I’m so sorry, Sarah. But, we’d like to know one more thing, what was Ian’s reaction when he got to know about the kid?”

“I- I never said we were having a kid in the first place, I was scared. And I couldn’t hold it in any longer considering I’m not financially stable to raise a kid on my own. But somehow… I met this lawyer, who thought that it’s better if we went against Ian and gain whatever Lilian and I deserve,” she said through grit teeth.

“Is Lilian here with you today? For the preliminary hearing, we saw that she was with you?”

“Oh yes,” Sarah said and a man who was dressed in plain black walked in with Lilian who looked more silent than ever.

“Hello, Lily,” Sarah said and showed her to the cameras.

The baby looked extremely cute, and people awed at the baby.

“What a cute little thing,” the host said while making faces for which Lilian laughed.

[...] “Are you guys done?” Ian asked not being able to look at the screen anymore.

“We’ve gotta do something real quick,” the lawyer said with widened eyes.

“The best thing possible to do is try and get the system to work. The appeal should be out of the red tape, and it might solve all our problems pretty quickly and easily,” Ian said.

“I’ll try my best,” the lawyer said and stood up to walk out of the room.

“See you soon, lawyer,” Mason said and walked her outside the office.

After a while, everyone was settled in different seats—well, everyone except for Ian.

He was still looking over the buildings.

“What are we going to do now?” Mason asked while walking back in.

“Start filming Home Alone 2. The last scene of Marriage Story is still there to shoot, and after that, within two weeks, Marriage Story should be out in theatres. Whatever this scandal is, we won’t stop to give it much attention.

In the meantime, I need to talk to someone who I see is involved in this in a very subtle way,” Ian said and walked out of the office.

“Let’s just hope everything would go as planned,” Niko said and sighed.

Ian walked out of the office and headed to Murphy’s office.

Murphy who saw Ian walking in swift movements stood up immediately.

“Sir?”

“Murphy, contact the assistant of Jeff Sanson, and get an appointment as soon as possible,” Ian said and walked in to sit on the chair in front of Murphy.

“Oh yes sir, sure,” Murphy said and dialed the numbers to get Goofy in line.

-

[At Goofy building]

“Mr. Renner? This way,”

“Thank you, I think I’ll manage,” Ian said and walked to Jeff’s office without a glance anywhere but his way.

“Excuse me?” Ian said and Jeff replied quickly with a ‘come in’

Walking in, he was met with the most annoying yet I-look-kind face ever.

“Ian, long time no see!” Jeff said loudly faking a smile.

“Mr. Sanson-”

“Please call me Jeff, what happened?” Jeff asked looking genuinely concerned.

“Can I know why your company’s TV channels are attacking me? Redbo is yours, and not just me almost everyone is fully aware of it.”

“Huh?” Jeff frowned and in the next second his eyebrows raised in shock—realization. “About the interview with Sarah? Man, I have no idea why they are doing so!” he said.

“I doubt it, Jeff.”

“I’m serious, and don’t you worry about it anymore, I’ll take care of it. It’s good to see you again, but the situations aren’t peaceful.”

Ian sighed hearing his words.

‘This man is someone who can’t be trusted even if the world announced its' ending within two hours’ Ian thought to himself.

“True that, how have you been?” Ian went along anyway.

“I’ve been great, and I wanted to ask for days, how is your next movie coming along?” Jeff asked.

“Well, one movie is already in the line, and the next one would be a sequel for the first movie I made, Home Alone.”

“Home Alone 2 it is then,”

Ian nodded at his statement.

“Hmm… Ian, how about another proposal?” Jeff asked.

“The last one is still at a halt, Jeff. Go ahead.”

“Home Alone 2 can be made by Renner Studio and Goofy, with a 50-50 shared ownership-”

With the first few words, Ian realized that Jeff was attempting to bribe him.

“ -That way, things would be much easier for you in the future,” Jeff said.

“I’ll think about it, thank you for your help,” Ian said and stood up to leave the office.

As soon as fresh air hit his nostrils, he took his cell phone out and switched off the power.

‘This better be a fucking good night’ Ian said and got into the sports car he brought along with him.