King of Hollywood-Chapter 610 - 18: Please Leave with Grace

The morning sun showered the yard with light, and the automatic sprinklers were twirling, scattering droplets that glistened translucently in the sunshine. It was another fine Monday. Thomas Mottola tightened his tie in front of the mirror, inspecting it from every angle to make sure there were no issues, instructed the servant a few words, and then walked out of the villa with his briefcase in hand.

At that moment, a car approached slowly and stopped in front of him. The driver, Sam Tanaka, got out and walked around to open the door for Mottola.

"Thank you, Sam, I really appreciate you coming to pick me up," Mottola said, adjusting his clothes before sitting down in the back seat with a smile.

"It’s my duty, and it’s been my honor to work with Mr. Mottola over the past month on the MCM Records acquisition," Tanaka replied modestly, bowing slightly.

"I feel the same, Sam, you’ve done a remarkable job. Without you, it could have taken us much more time and effort," Mottola laughed heartily, then made a driving gesture, "Let’s go enjoy our victory."

He was so full of self-satisfaction, squinting out of the window at the receding street scene, the smile on his face spilling out irresistibly. Last Friday, Eric Norton, the Artistic Director of MCM Records, finally covertly swung over to their side, making it impossible for AC Media to turn the tide even with ample funding. Once the contract was signed today, they would thoroughly hand over MCM Records, which was just perfect.

Mottola’s mood became increasingly buoyant as, after twists and changes, the rights to MJ’s records were ultimately back in his hands, along with the entirety of MCM Records. Norton had hinted that although the two hit super girl idols greatly admired Adrian, it wasn’t impossible to win them over, which was fantastic. AC Media was probably facing its first significant setback. The thought of seeing Adrian and Claude’s displeased faces in a few minutes made the Sony Records CEO almost hum a tune.

Before long, they arrived outside MCM Records, met up with some of their own team, and after Mottola gave further instructions, they entered the building and were led by a receptionist to the conference room.

Stepping into the spacious conference room, Mottola was taken aback for a moment because there were only three people sitting inside—Claude Ronris, Adrian Cowell, and... Penelope Cruz?!

Even for Mottola, seeing Penelope brought a flash of surprise across his face. Had they found out? But he quickly relaxed; even if they had, it didn’t matter because an email couldn’t be considered evidence. At worst, he could sell Penelope over to them and save himself some money.

"You’re quite punctual, Thomas," Adrian started the conversation with a grin, and Claude at the head of the table similarly had a smile on his face, whereas Penelope’s face was devoid of any expression.

"Punctuality is a virtue, Mr. Adrian," Mottola replied, maintaining politeness despite sensing that something was off.

"Let’s get started then, shall we? Wasting someone’s time for no reason is akin to murder," said Adrian, gesturing for Mottola to proceed, and Claude then pushed two folders his way.

"That’s a very philosophical statement, Mr. Adrian," Mottola said, showing a puzzled look. The few people beside him, Tanaka included, shared the same confusion. This was very strange; the other side had only brought three people, one of whom seemed irrelevant to the matter. What exactly were they thinking? It didn’t seem like they were ready to concede defeat.

"We’ve already signed, Mr. Thomas; now it’s just you left," Claude made a gesture inviting Mottola to proceed.

Mottola furrowed his brows and immediately began flipping through the folder in front of him, too anxious even to sit down properly. He had only turned a few pages before his face darkened, and after a glance at Adrian and Claude, who maintained their smiles, he quickened his pace. Even so, it took him several minutes to finish, after which he snapped the folder shut, visibly irate.

"Are you joking with me, or are you trying to satisfy your pitiful, unwilling-to-lose pride with this kind of nonsense?" Mottola said bluntly, "If you have any decency, bring out the real contract and sign your names, instead of this absurdity!"

"I think you must have misunderstood something, Mr. Thomas," Claude said seriously, without haste.

"Do you think I’m a child?!" Mottola couldn’t hold back his roar any longer, "Or do you think you own Sony Records and can decide whatever you want with my company?!"

"Calm down, Mr. Thomas, let me explain," Claude tapped on the table, still wearing what Mottola considered an insufferable smile.

"Everyone thought we had no solution to the overall situation, but they were wrong, the countermeasures had already begun, solving these issues is simple, they and you just don’t know it," Claude’s tone was very relaxed. "You think by uniting Warner, Disney, NBC, Fox, and persuading Viacom to stand by, you can trouble our acquisition? Okay, I admit, it did cause a little disturbance, but that’s it."

"Redstone is smarter than you think, Thomas, Murdoch is also much more cunning than you think," Adrian interjected with a hint of disdain and nonchalance. freёnovelkiss-com

"Redstone, who caught wind of our movements early on, took the initiative to contact us," Claude gestured, "then made the right decision."

"A TV series, ’Scrubs,’ predicted to have over 10 million viewers in its first season. NBC felt the same, ’The Office,’ also predicted to reach over 10 million viewers in its first season," Adrian chimed in, pretending to point at himself, "all my predictions."

"Indeed," Claude glanced at his close friend, "Of course, we won’t go into details."

"Allow me this bit of bragging, Crow, it’s not often I get such a chance," Adrian laughed heartily.

Mottola’s facial muscles twitched, staring at them without saying a word.

"Fox has been a bystander from the beginning, in this situation, they would only extend their claws with full confidence and retract them just as quickly, thinking to use them for their own benefit requires sufficient strength, so getting them to back off is quite simple," Claude continued explaining, "Then there’s Warner, which might be a bit more troublesome. Regrettably, they are now heavily involved with AOL and really don’t have the energy to deal with other issues, despite competing with us in many areas, but just offering a little incentive is enough for them to back off."

Having said this, he spread his hands out: "So, that only leaves Disney, are they really interested in Universal Music, or is it just Michael Eisner’s personal grudge? Besides, they’re not at peace internally. Roy Disney recently publicly declared that if Michael Eisner insists on going his own way, he will resign from his position on the board. As the only member of the Disney family still serving on the board, once he resigns, with a push from external forces, it’s only a matter of time before Eisner falls. So last Friday afternoon, we had officially acquired Universal Music, but we delayed releasing the news until today, just a few hours from now."

"So what?" Mottola squeezed these words out through clenched teeth, the absence of his side’s presence making his foreboding worsen, "This has nothing to do with what we’re supposed to discuss today!"

"Yes, yes," Claude said with a good-natured smile. "I just want to say that some things may look complicated, but are easy to resolve. In the end, it all boils down to interests. We can bring far more benefits to Sony as a whole than a single record company could offer, even if that record company holds the music rights to Elvis and the Beatles."

"Over at Sony Pictures, we may have lost ’Spider Man,’ but we still have other comic book heroes, and we’re actually planning to turn ’X-Men’ into a major film series, inviting them to participate." He paused for two seconds before continuing, "As for the entire Sony Group, we have plenty of other things we can trade, such as..."

Claude looked towards Adrian, who shrugged and said, "Supporting them on the standard format of the next generation high-definition DVDs. You know, we have tens of thousands of titles in our library, our four main film and TV production companies are doing well, and we’re also major shareholders in Apple."

He let out a wry smile. "Sony’s main business is electronic manufacturing; profits from films and records come after at least the top three—did you really think I whimsically decided to negotiate music rights with MJ? We included you in our plan from the start! Of course, your strategy did have some effect, creating a diversion and catching us off guard, but you shouldn’t have been foolish enough to try to buy off my woman, Thomas."

Adrian laughed and put an arm around Penelope’s shoulder. "From the beginning, Pene told me everything, then I had her gain your trust during our public invitation period, further deepening that impression with vague intelligence, ultimately misleading you. You must distinctly remember the news over a week ago that we were in deep trouble and even Eric Norton was wavering, Thomas."

Mottola’s face turned uglier as he watched Penelope, whose expression remained impassive, as if fire might burst from his eyes. He clenched his fists, using a great amount of effort to swallow down the word "bitch" that had almost escaped his lips.

"Of course, Eric was a big help too. If it weren’t for his dealings with you, at best we could have just gotten back all shares and then cross-hold shares, instead of having a seat on the board of directors of Sony Records as we do now," Adrian continued with a smile. "As for the funds, don’t worry, I just made a call to my uncle and he settled it. He’s a very responsible and upright man. I moved him with just one sentence: Do you want these precious legacies that have such an important place in American culture to be in our hands? Or controlled by a group with Japanese funding?"

By this time, the few people who had come along had finished reviewing the contract. As Thomas Mottola’s confidants, they each turned pale. Especially Sam Tanaka, who had planned and executed most of this scheme—if Mottola were to sign, he would definitely have to leave. Yet Mottola seemed unwilling to concede defeat, biting his lip as he looked at Claude and Adrian: "I’m not signing. I will take this to the board of directors..."

But they didn’t give him a chance, as Claude immediately interrupted him: "Enough, Thomas. It’s pointless. You know that you’ve lost, and the people you’re waiting for will never come. Those behind you have already covertly called Sony Records to verify. If you sign, at least you can step down with dignity; if you don’t, not only will you be directly ousted by the board of directors, but all your benefits will be substantially reduced. Both we and Sony won’t give you another chance."

"The board of directors keeping the news from you is not just our demand. You need to understand that, Thomas," Adrian added, no longer smiling, his tone becoming less friendly, "So, please sign this contract and then leave here with grace."

Mottola’s lips trembled, no longer showing his previous rage, and suddenly looking several years older. After several minutes of silence, he finally flipped open the contract in front of him, pulled out a pen with trembling hands, and signed his name. Then, dropping the pen, he left the conference room without a word, staggering slightly, with the rest looking at each other before shamefully following him out, Tanaka with a particularly ashen face.

"You’re being rather harsh, Ed," Claude laughed after they left. "Leaving here with grace? Oh, I think this might become the most popular non-vulgar way to curse someone this year."

"Well, why should I be polite with him, Crow? Even though in the end we won, this guy still caused us some losses. To be honest, I would have preferred to throw this contract in his face at the Sony Records board meeting," Adrian said lazily.

"You should consider the face of Sony Records. After all, Thomas Mottola is their CEO, and he’s done a decent job so far. If it weren’t for our sufficient backups and trump cards, he would be treated as a hero," Claude said, shrugging his shoulders and then glancing at Penelope, who was beginning to fidget, before standing up. "Well, you’ve got things to deal with, so I won’t keep you."

Watching Claude leave the conference room, Adrian stood up and took a deep breath. Before he could speak, Penelope beside him suddenly collapsed to her knees, shaking violently and pale-faced: "I’m sorry, Ed! I’m sorry! I was wrong, my head was just in a fog and I was beguiled by them. I just...I just..."

"You just think I can’t give you more, right, Pene?" Adrian didn’t even glance at her as he walked to the small table in the meeting room to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"Listen to me, Ed! Listen to me!" Penelope’s knees scraped the floor with a dull sound; as she passed by a chair, she accidentally snagged a large hole in her stockings, but she didn’t care at all, only looked at Adrian with pleading eyes, "Please forgive me, Ed! Please! I don’t know why I agreed at that time, I shouldn’t have gotten involved in this... I really don’t know why..."

Those eyes that once held charm were now filled with fear and panic, as tears began to spread, her face contorted with regret, she knelt, hugging her arms and shivering with her head tilted back.

"I understand you, Pene, everyone has ambition and desire, everyone wants to fulfill their ambitions and desires; it’s normal," Adrian finally turned around after sipping his coffee and looked down at Penelope condescendingly, "but there are many ways to fulfill ambition and desires. Some have low risks with small rewards, and others have high risks with high rewards. So why did you choose the incredibly risky and utterly uncertain, the most foolish kind?"

"I know, I was so stupid, Ed, please, I’m an idiot, please forgive me," Penelope begged tearfully.

"No need for that, Pene," Adrian sighed, setting down his cup, "after all, we did have a very pleasant time together for the most part of these past few months."

"If... if... you want right now..." Penelope quickly forced a smile.

"I always make clear distinctions between gratitude and grudges, so..." Adrian ignored her, pulled out a checkbook from his pocket, wrote a few strokes, and tore off the check, waving it, "This 3 million is compensation for you."

Speaking, he smiled and walked over to Penelope, who was still kneeling on the ground. He bent down and slid the check down her neckline, taking the opportunity to give her firm, smooth breasts a couple of squeezes.

Thinking she got the hint, Penelope was overjoyed and immediately reached out to hug Adrian’s thigh in an attempt to show affection. Unexpectedly, he turned and walked away, leaving her lunging at thin air.

"Then," Adrian, standing by the table, withdrew his smile and his gaze from above turned ice cold, "go back to Spain and never let me see you in Hollywood again!"

Penelope Cruz, known as the treasure of Spain, after developing intermittently in Hollywood for several years, quietly returned to Spain without a trace. Speculations were rampant: some thought she was not accustomed to Hollywood’s way and chose to return home, while others guessed she had been involved in some major incident that forced her to return. The Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, who had discovered her, held the former view.

Penelope herself said nothing, merely announcing discreetly that she would no longer go to Hollywood. Then she joined a small production in Spain and later worked with Almodovar once more. Strangely this time, though, she fought with Almodovar on the set, leading to her announcement that she was leaving the cast. Almodovar publicly declared she had become an irrational shrew and swore never to work with her again.

But then, Penelope announced her retirement from the entertainment industry, prompting excited people to start all sorts of speculations again. Hordes of journalists wanted to interview her to find out what happened. But it seemed she had anticipated this; shortly after issuing her statement, she disappeared with her family, never to be seen again by anyone.

Later on, as certain events from Hollywood spread, various gossips and rumors began circulating: some claimed to have seen a bar girl resembling her in Barcelona, others said she became a prostitute in Amsterdam, and still, others that she started a pornography website and became an adult film actress. But those gossips and rumors soon subsided; the entertainment industry’s rate of renewal is such that it wasn’t long before this once Latin wild rose was completely forgotten. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to qidian.com to cast your recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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