Chapter 378 Keep Her Secret

"If you didn't say anything, that's fine. You have to keep this a secret for me. I don't want too many people to know."

"Okay, I've got it. Don't worry! If I've got any other good jobs, I'll tell you about it."

"Sure. Thanks."

Laura hung up and sat there for a while, staring into space, then took out her phone and tapped into her bank account's remaining balance.

Looking at the four-digit number there, she had to laugh bitterly.

No one in this world could have imagined that someone like her - a proper up and coming actress, who'd won awards, who was now reasonably famous, who was a new star being showcased by the company - only had three thousand to her name!

Celebrities were supposed to have unlimited potential in the eyes of the public, so how was it that when it came to her, she ended up like this!

Laura sighed. At that moment, her phone suddenly rang.

She looked at the caller, her face changing rapidly.

Her finger hovered over the decline button, but after hesitating for a while, she still took the call.

On the other end, there came a raspy male voice.

"I thought you wouldn't take the call. Looks like you still aren't that heartless."

Laura walked to a quiet corner and muttered, "What did you call me for?"

"Me? I miss my sweet daughter, of course, so I'm calling specifically to ask about you!"

Laura raged, "I already told you, I have nothing to do with you! Stop calling me your daughter, my name's Davies, and yours is Jackson; we're not blood-related!"

The caller chuckled.

"Is that so? But I did raise you for ten years, and plenty of people then could have proven that you're my daughter. Now that my daughter has struck it rich, you should be helping your old father, shouldn't you?" Laura's eyes reddened as she steamed.

"Didn't I give you money three months ago? You've gone gambling again, haven't you?"

The caller clearly sounded guilty.

"No, I just... tried my luck, who'd have thought my luck would be that bad?"

"I don't have money!"

Laura roared without even thinking about it. "I already told you to stop gambling, but you just wouldn't listen and came to me every time you lost it all. You really think I'm an endless piggy bank? I don't have a single cent to my name right now, and even if I did, I wouldn't give it to you. That's that, I'm hanging up!"

With that, she hung up right away.

The man called her several more times, but Laura didn't take it.

In her fury, she up and dragged his number into her blacklist.

To the side, Iris the assistant walked over.

"What's wrong, Miss Davies? Why do you look so upset?"

Laura hurriedly reined in her expression and forced a smile. "It's nothing."

"Oh, that's good, then. Right, I wanted to ask for a day off. It's my mother's birthday tomorrow. I want to go be with her for the day. Is that okay?"

Laura blinked, then hurriedly nodded. "Of course, that's nothing. Go back right away tomorrow."

Iris smiled and nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Miss Davies."

After getting off work at night, Laura dragged her lone, tired body back to the hotel.

The moment she got out of the car, a hand clamped itself over her mouth and dragged her to a corner.

She struggled desperately but was no match for her captor's strength, and could only let herself get manhandled.

The moment the hand loosened, she tried to scream, but a familiar voice rang out. "It's me."

Laura jolted.

It was dim in the carpark, and they were in a corner. Despite all that, when she turned around, she still saw the man's features in detail. "Dad! What are you doing here?"

She cried in shock, then recalled something and her face changed.

"I told you that we no longer have anything to do with each other, so don't come replace me at all!"

With that, she tried to leave, but the man pulled her back.

He sneered, "You were just calling me Dad, and now we have nothing to do with another? Even a swing doesn't flip-flop that quickly."

He spoke, then looked around and muttered, "It's not safe to talk here. We'll talk upstairs."

With that, he sped towards the elevator with her in tow.

They went straight to her room and Laura closed all the curtains on the windows, making sure no tabloid could get a shot on them, then exhaled. She turned and looked coldly at the grubby, middle-aged man before her. "What did you come to me for?"

The middle-aged man was named Diego Jackson.

He was Laura's stepfather and adopted father.

Diego sat down casually on the sofa, saying, "What else? They're really cracking down on trying to collect my debt, so I came for money."

"I don't have money!"

At just a mention of that, Laura's face changed as she barked, "Leave now, I don't want to see you again!"

Diego was a scumbag, and as a wandering sleazeball, he was used to being yelled at and didn't care. He smirked, "Sure, I can leave. I'm just afraid that after I leave here today, there's going to be hot headline news over Laura Davies' dirty laundry. We can bet on it if you don't believe me!"

"You!"

Laura fumed, her expression shifting from pale to beet red, temporarily incapable of speaking.

Seeing that, Diego's smirk grew even wider. "Getting back on track, if I hadn't taken pity on your mother and you and taken you two in, would you have gotten as far as you have today? What? Now that you're famous and you've left the nest, you want to leave me to die on my own? That's a bit too slimy of you!"

"I'm the slimy one?"

Laura's fingertips trembled with rage. "All these years, who was it who paid your debts for you? When you became a junkie, beat people up, and ended up in the station, who was it who bailed you out? Without me, you'd have been cut up into pieces by everyone you've wronged already!"

"Yes, yes! It's all your doing."

Diego just went with it and nodded, "That's why I can only come to you. They've got guns, you know? Guns, saying that if I don't pay them back, they'll put a round through my head. What could I do?" Laura couldn't deal with him and sat down on the sofa, growling, "So how much do you owe this time?"

"Not much. Three million."

"What?"

She shrieked, "Three million? You think I'm a bank?"

Diego lifted his eyes and shot her a sidelong glance, leering, "Keep pretending. Everyone knows you're a hot up and coming star in the entertainment business. A single role makes you up to dozens of millions What's a few of those zeroes for me?"

"That money isn't my own!"

Laura was pale with rage as she yelled, "The pay goes to the company. The company gets a cut, the agent gets a cut, and then how much do you think I get? You can't really think that all the effort I put into filming is all meant to go into this bottomless pit of yours."

Hearing that, Diego grew a bit impatient as his gaze turned cold.

"You really don't have any?"

Laura doubled down decisively. "I don't!"

"Okay!"

Diego stood, as scummy as ever. "If that's the case, then I'll have to turn to someone else. I hear you've been getting in good with a certain young master by the name of Beton, right? Isn't he chasing your skirt? If I can't count on my daughter, I'll have to count on my son-in-law."

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