Chapter 107 - Variety Show (9)

She didn't mean to set off a dark cannon who wanted to destroy another company just because he was feeling annoyed; she just wanted to be free of her contract!

Kaiser calmly continued as if he were discussing the weather, "Starting with your case, I'm going to use this opportunity to drive Black Rocks' reputation into the ground, allowing the public to begin ripping them apart. The entertainment industry is pretty dirty, and they're some of the worst people in it. We have a stock of less optimal contracts from other artists, as well as evidence of illegal backroom deals, so I'll have those cases reopened and begin draining their funds in petty lawsuits. I'm sure others will tag in once yours is won, even if it's just to collect a settlement fee. Once their legal team is busy, I'll slam them with the main case we've been building and really make them work to defend their brand. 

The worst case for them is that they drag it out since my goal is not to win the case but to force them to settle once their finances begin looking bad and their brand value is worse than dirt. I can offset any losses happening with Platinum Entertainment with our other businesses, but Black Rock is a publicly traded company with hungry investors looking for a big return. 

By the time I'm done with them, a good amount of investors will be looking to sell their stock quickly, which I will buy up for a low cost until I have a sizeable amount to influence their executive board with my own people; we'll poach more of their artists, and, more importantly, they'll have to sell those I assets I want at a next-to-nothing cost to recoup some cash, which is my main target in the first place. Everything else is just a bonus. They should have just sold me what I wanted in the first place. Then they could have had a few years of peace."

As Kaiser shrugged while smiling happily as he detailed his plan, Valentina could only stare at him blankly. Even if she studied for 10000 years, she didn't think she could teach her brain to move in the twisted way Kaiser's did. How did a simple idea to break her contract turn into this convoluted plot to tank another company's stock while ruining their reputation so he could buy some assets and plant his people on their executive board? 

"Afraid yet? Are you upset with me for not being sincere and using you to further my company's purpose? Want to run away?" Kaiser gave her a dark smile as he gently grabbed her chin and tilted her face to look at him while he observed her reaction carefully.

If she were afraid, he would pass it off as a joke, change the subject, and not share anything like that with her again. But he wanted her to be okay with it; he wanted to be able to share things like this with her; after all, this was a part of his life, what he did on a daily basis and would be doing for the foreseeable future. He had promised 

"Oh, please. Our first interaction was with you trying to buy me. I fully expect this type of thing from you, and as long as you use this devious brain of yours to screw others over and not me, I don't really care." Valentina smacked his hand away while rolling her eyes. "I'm just wondering why I need to be in a fake relationship for my portion of your grand scheme or great master villain. And what does Aaliyah have to do with this? As far as I know, she's not an executive at Black Rock and not involved in the day-to-day business."

Seeing her calm reaction and hiding his relieved sigh, Kaiser calmly answered her.

"I assure you I've learned and changed my ways. Promise." Kaiser held his hands to his heart while laughing softly.

"Sure, sure. And the sky is green. Look at you; you can't even say those words with a straight face. Just continue explaining." Valentina rolled her eyes once more, not believing a single word coming out of his mouth.

"I've changed in regards to you. As for everyone else, heh. Anyways, when I say relationship, I don't mean dating. I want you to look as if you have a close friendship with Jonathan or the Fallen Angels while leaving it ambiguous enough that people think, 'Are they friends, or are they something more?'.

I want you to come out as clean as a lamb when this is over and have a better reputation than what you had going in. To that, it needs to seem like none of this was your idea. You were dragged along unwillingly by the tide. The story needs to be crafted in a way that paints you as an innocent person looking for justice for yourself after you were innocently taken advantage of as a new artist and made to sign an unfair contract by a big evil corporation. 

It's a story many regular people and other artists will relate to, and they'll feel bad for you and want to defend you. This case can also be used to clear any previous misconceptions about you, as we can say Black Rock made you act a certain way under duress. Of course, Platinum Entertainment being your defender gives us bonus points as well as the perception of us caring about our artists and going to any extent to protect them, no matter the cause.

In a way, blaming Aaliyah for pushing you down the stairs is a great catalyst, as it's clearly an assault from one of Black Rock's top artists and an executive's daughter to a smaller artist. It can be inferred that that is Black Rocks Entertainment's attitude towards artists they don't care about and will add to the neglect you faced from them. Personally, though, I just want to remove Aaliyah from the film and from your sight, but I can tell you're resistant to that?"

As Valentina unwillingly nodded as she remembered the system's warnings, Kaiser continued, "That's fine with me since you'll be blamed if she's removed at this moment, and people will talk even though she clearly did something wrong and deserves to be punished. From what I can tell, she strongly dislikes you, so this complaint likely came from her being pressured by the release of the video and public opinion shifting in your favor. You need to continue to ride that wave of being an innocent person. I'm willing to bet that during the time you're filming, she'll be making little moves to go against you. Let it slide."

As Valentina frowned at him, Kaiser grabbed her waist and pulled her closer with a sly smile, "I'm not saying don't fight back; if she openly attacks you, insults you, or does anything to make you angry, report her to the director and to Roman or me and then beat her up without worrying about the consequences. Roman and I will handle it. But if she's sneaky or seems to be baiting you, don't lose your temper, don't hit her back, just record everything that you can and collect the evidence. I'll have Roman throw in a helper for you, and I'll have my people do some digital digging on her as well. 

Once we have enough evidence, we'll blackmail her into good behavior and some cash for you to spend on yourself. If she doesn't want to comply, we'll take her to court for bullying, defamation, and assault, among other things, and ruin her career. What do you think?"

"Hmmm." As Valentina quietly thought, Kaiser continued.

"Ah, I guess I should mention it as well but the Salazar's have quite a large stake invested in Black Rock Entertainment. Antonio Salazar is one of the top executives, after all. If we go through with it, this will bring their relative wealth and influence down considerably, especially in the short term. But if you don't want that or object to anything I've mentioned, I can just pay off the fine and pay off your contract, and you can leave them peacefully. I would understand since they are your family at the end of the day. But eventually, Platinum Entertainment will be going after Black Rock Entertainment. And as I said before, if Aaliyah makes a move against you and I catch her tail, I certainly won't be polite." Kaiser told her almost apologetically.

He generally pursued perfection in all the business ventures he owned and always wanted to be the undisputed number one. Sooner or later, he planned to begin chipping away at Black Rocks' seemingly solid status as a stable and decent company to join. The original timeline to begin the attack was three to six years as there were many things to set up and collect to present an air-tight case for the best-case result; he didn't think an opportunity to rally the public against them would present itself so soon, cutting the work he would have to do in half. Although he was happy to move his plans up, he was displeased at the thought of the affected party being his person.

Remembering the vicious terms in Valentina's contract, he could feel his anger begin to bubble beneath his calm facade. No matter how he looked at it, it was created by a person who had a deep-seated hatred for her and wanted to give her hope while forcing her into a pit of despair. 

Even the lack of a complete NDA, leaving the possibility that she could speak about the contract yet not being able to afford it due to lack of money and work to make that money, screamed of a person taunting her constantly, dangling an opportunity of freedom yet making it completely out of reach.

Remembering the biased treatment from Antonio Salazar and the derisive glances both he and Aaliyah pointed toward Valentina and the bruise on her cheek; Kaiser made a note in his heart to send over a present Antonio Salazar would not forget any time soon. 

After all, if someone consorted with criminals and used dirty money, shouldn't the law and certain officials be notified so they could be investigated? As a law-abiding citizen, Kaiser felt like it was his job, nay his duty, to report criminal activities when he knew of them. As for the timing? Who knew why so many bad things were happening to Antonio Salazar at once? Either way, he would have to focus on saving himself and not harassing Valentina, which was all that mattered.

As for Aaliyah, his intuition told him she had a lot of fingers in a lot of dirty things. The best way to boil a frog was to leave it in the pot and slowly cook it. He would leave a couple of feelers out and continue investigating everything she had done to Valentina and pay it back tenfold.

Looking at Valentina's face, which was scrunched cutely as she was deep in thought, he gently smoothed her furrowed brow out.

Vowing to increase the compensation given to Valentina by a large amount when she signed the contract and continuing to reward her secretly, he gave her a boyishly happy smile. She had unknowingly saved him millions and didn't even know it. It was truly a blessing when he met her when he did.

Maybe he should give Roman a present as well for unintentionally playing Cupid.

"Valentina? What do you think? Shall we go with my plan, or do you want to protect your family?" he asked once more, dragging her close to him and inhaling his favorite scent.