Noah

I barked out a laugh. "Oh, you're on, kid."Chapter 21

Two weeks later

"What time is it?" I asked.

The script supervisor was closest, and she told me we were breaking for dinner soon. A very, very late one. Apparently it was already nine PM. We'd been at it all day, same two scenes, and this would hopefully be the last angle I needed.

"Thanks." Heading up the stairs in the narrow apartment building where Sophie's character lived, I joined her and Brooklyn on the landing. "Why you lookin' mopey, Brook?"

She shrugged, finishing the final touch-up on Sophie. "Miss my girls. I can't wait for them to visit this weekend." She side-eyed me. "Why you lookin' frazzled, Collins?"

I checked my watch. "Because…Julian's grandparents should have received the tickets now."

I'd sent them with a simple note. "Please give us a chance. It's family. Nothing to lose, everything to gain." Other than that, the address to our hotel, and I'd let them know I'd make reservations for them, too. If they agreed to come next week.

"Have you told Julian yet?" Sophie asked quietly, knowing Julian was downstairs with the rest of the crew. I merely shook my head no. "Noah."

"You two weren't supposed to know, either." It was most likely my weakest defense ever. Christ, it was bad. But I didn’t wanna get Julian's hopes up in case the Hartleys didn’t show, which was a big possibility.

The only reason Sophie and Brooklyn knew was 'cause they'd walked in on me in my trailer when I'd ordered the tickets.

My initial thought had been that it could be some big, romantic gesture, but I'd gotten over that. I should've told him before I even went online to find flights.

"Anyway, we ready?" I asked.

Brooklyn nodded and stepped back with her makeup case. At the same time, an assistant arrived with Little Paul, who played April's son, and his adult stand-in was done for the day. The rest of the actors got into position halfway up the stairs, too.

"You ready, little man?" I squeezed Paul's shoulder gently.

He grinned and nodded. "Aye, aye, captain."

Lucia hollered for everyone who had no business on set to get the fuck out, leaving only the actors, me, herself, and Paul. He was operating one camera, and I was doing the other.

"Want me to take it from here, boss?" Lucia asked. I nodded as I adjusted the dolly on which the camera stood. "Roll cameras!"

Through the lens, I had Sophie huddling in the corner with Little Paul. Both looked frightened, and they clung to each other as April's family climbed the stairs.

"Action!"

"Get away from us!" Sophie shrieked.

Little Paul buried his face against Sophie's neck and started crying. In the previous scenes, the future star had managed to produce real tears, but I knew he was drained.

April's brother reached them first, quickly followed by Joel, the kid's dad. I zoomed out to make room in the frame, and I was impressed by the intensity in Joel's eyes. Relieved to see his boy, livid at April, torn because he knew she was ill, and beyond exhausted.

"This ends now," he choked out as he made a grab for Little Paul. "We don’t want to take him away from you, but you leave us no damn choice, April!"

"Dad, no!" Paul screamed. "Mommy says you're bad!"

April's ex, as well as her parents who stood farther down, broke at that.

It was April's brother who took charge and managed to wrench the boy away from a sobbing Sophie. Mayhem followed where she tried to get her son back, and Joel got in her face, yelling about how much she'd hurt the family. She was unfit to see it, though. She saw only her own world.

I couldn't help but grin. All these visions flooded my mind. I pictured how it would look on the screen later, the scene slowing down and music taking over. I zoomed in on Joel's hands as he grabbed her by her waist, holding her back. She thrashed and screamed, all while April's parents pleaded for her to see reason.

"Cut!" I yelled.

In the next scene, a doctor would arrive, and they'd have to sedate April. It was a rush. We had plenty of scenes to go, but this was one of the last ones that would be shown in the film, and I was definitely satisfied.

*

"What do you think?" Tennyson asked.

I groaned and scrubbed a hand over my face. "Why now, Wright? Jesus Christ." It looked good. The printouts on the table in my trailer looked good. But we already had a location here in Paris where we were supposed to shoot the epilogue.

"Tiff stumbled across it." He spoke of our location scout. "You know why I'm showing them to you."

Of course I did. It was only an adjustment I had to do up in the noggin. We had three days booked in a psych ward, and so I had the images of that room, that atmosphere, etched in my head. But yeah, the facility Tiff had found in Nice fit my previous mental image. We wouldn’t even have to do much with the room.