Chapter 78

After the call ended, Brenda sat down beside Phoebe, grinning, “Nice work!”

“Leon really thinks he’s something, doesn’t he?” she added, her tone thick with disdain. “Leon was the absolute worst.”

Phoebe smirked. “Just trashing him isn’t enough to satisfy me. Oh, I’m going to do more than rattle them. I’m going to poach their best talent.”

Brenda froze for a moment, then asked, a spark of excitement in her voice, “Who are you planning to poach?”

“I’m targeting a Senior Operations Director from the Jenkins Group, along with his team,” Phoebe replied. “After Ollie took over Jenkins Group Entertainment, Leon joined him in the company as an agent.”

“Apparently, he didn’t like the previous director, so he promoted their own people,” she explained. “Then they trumped up some excuse to demote Brian Vance to a supervisor, leaving his whole team sitting on the sidelines.”

“If they’re so quick to disregard them, we might as well put them to use,” Phoebe concluded.

Brenda’s eyes sparkled. “Poaching talent like this? I’m all in. The people they don’t appreciate, thriving at our studio. When Ollie and Leon realize it, they’ll be fuming!”

Phoebe winked. “That’s exactly the point.”

Of course, Phoebe wanted to poach the team because, after some research, she’d confirmed that this operations group was exceptionally talented.

Brenda abandoned trying on clothes. “Shopping’s over for today. Let’s go recruit them.”

The two got up, changed back into their clothes, and bought all the outfits they’d liked. They left their address for the mall to deliver the purchases to their homes. Linking arms, they walked out to the car.

“So, Pherbs, where should we go to track them down?” Brenda asked.

Phoebe replied, “I found out that Brian picks up his child from school every day lately. We’ll head to the school entrance and catch him there.”

To poach people, they’d need to start quietly, without going directly to Jenkins Group. If they pulled this off, Phoebe could make it official later. Otherwise, Ollie and Leon would catch wind of it and likely create problems to keep them tied down.

Phoebe gave Brenda the address. Brenda set up the GPS and drove out of the parking lot.

“Pheebs, once we bring in this operations team, should we focus on finding you a personal assistant?” Brenda asked. “Then we could either poach more or scout for fresh stars.”

Brenda was feeling fully energized, ready to build something big with Phoebe. Phoebe nodded. “Yes, I do need an assistant. I’ve been searching recently but haven’t found anyone suitable.”

“Not only am I a star, but I’ll be managing stars as well, so I need a high-level assistant. I want someone I can train to my standards instead of constantly switching and wasting time and energy.”

Brenda thought about it for a moment after hearing this. “I could recommend someone for you.”

Phoebe’s interest was piqued. “Really? Go ahead.” She trusted Brenda completely.

“My college roommate, actually. We were in the same dorm and are still pretty close,” Brenda began. “Her mother was hospitalized a while back, so she took some time off to care for her.”

“But her boss didn’t approve, and he demanded she come back to work overtime, even sent her piles of assignments to complete while she was away. If she’d agreed, she’d have had no time to care for her mom.”

“And the kicker? They counted her leave as unpaid time. So, she had no choice but to resign.”

“A few days ago, I saw her mentioning in our small group chat that she’s job hunting,” Brenda continued. “Since her mom needs surgery, she’s hoping to find a job that could offer an advance on a few months’ salary.”

“But a job like that is obviously hard to come by,” Brenda admitted. “She’s incredibly capable, hardworking, meticulous, and, importantly, she knows when to keep things to herself.”

Brenda paused, then added, “She comes from a single-parent family. Her father passed away when she was young and her mother, who raised her and her younger sister alone, never remarried.”

“Her mom has always worked two jobs, one to pay off the debt from her dad’s illness and the other to put her daughters through school,” Brenda continued. “When she got to college, she started working part-time to cover her own tuition and living expenses to help ease her mom’s load. We even stayed with them for a few days once; their home wasn’t wealthy, but it was warm and full of love.”

Brenda admired that kind of warmth, the mother’s dedication, so precious that she wished it could be preserved forever.

Phoebe thought for a moment, then asked, “If she works as my assistant, things will get hectic sometimes. There may even be times when we need to leave Solara City for a while. Would she be okay with that?”

Brenda nodded. “Absolutely. She graduated college this year and had planned to take time off to care for her mom in the hospital. Now, though, she’s looking for a job to cover the medical and surgical expenses.”

“With her experience, she’d likely earn more than the average fresh graduate. She and her family are very close,” Brenda added. “She had a boyfriend, and they were even considering marriage.”

“But when her mom suddenly fell ill, needing surgery and long-term medical care, her boyfriend and his family insisted she could only send money home each month but shouldn’t quit her job to personally care for her mom.”

“They wanted her younger sister to take on that responsibility. They even suggested postponing the wedding if she refused.”

“They’d been together for years, and she was really fond of him,” Brenda continued. “But when he gave her that kind of ultimatum, she ended the relationship without hesitation. So, aside from her work skills, I also really admire her character.”

Phoebe valued character highly, too. “From what you’ve said, she sounds perfect. Reach out to her and see if she’s interested in meeting with me. If she’s the right fit, we’ll arrange to advance her pay.”

Brenda nodded. “Alright, I’ll get in touch with her tonight.” Then she asked, “When it comes to stars, should we focus on recruiting people from other entertainment companies, or are we better off scouting fresh faces?”

Phoebe’s eyes gleamed with a hint of mischief. “What if we take the stars that Jenkins Group has abandoned, sidelined, or deliberately held back and make them into stars? Doesn’t that sound more satisfying?”

Phoebe had made up her mind to sever ties with the Jenkins family completely. No matter what happened, reconciliation was out of the question.

Previously, Phoebe’d focused on her career and staying safe, only wanting to win people over and avoid that family altogether. But Ollie and Leon had tried to force her hand by attempting to blacklist her in the industry.

Then, they used variety shows and hired online trolls to promote Sienna while tarnishing Phoebe’s name. Lately, they’d even gone out of their way to clean up Sienna’s image at her expense, launching relentless attacks against Phoebe.

If Phoebe hadn’t been prepared, saving photos and backed by Maddox’s team, she’d be the one under attack from all sides right now.

With her reputation destroyed, no one would want to work with Phoebe, and she could never survive in this business. Their aim was clear. They were cutting off her future. It was beyond despicable.

Just because Phoebe wanted to distance herself didn’t mean she’d let them trample all over her. If they could stay out of each other’s way, peace could have reigned.

But since Ollie and Leon wanted to ruin her and erase her path forward, she would find a way to get even.

Poaching their best talents and using Jenkins Entertainment’s neglected resources to build her own studio was just one of her plans for revenge. The talents they couldn’t manage or intentionally sabotaged would soar under her watch. Not only would this humiliate the Jenkins Group, but it would make Ollie and Leon taste the bitterness of regret and failure.

(The final paragraph appears to be corrupted and unintelligible.)