Re:life with Karmic Gacha (Modern Family)-Chapter 364: Start Filming

[Edward POV]

"I can't believe she's still surviving."

A week passed since I decided to "cancel" Leonard's mother. The immense pressure from the general public forced the publishers handling her book to pull it from the market.

"I wanted to do more, but I'm afraid of getting another lecture from Sage."

Sage had asked me to think about the plot of The Big Bang Theory and remember Beverly's character development.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there was only Leonard's growth as a character in the subplot, not Beverly's. The conclusion of their relationship was Leonard accepting her as she is, not that she changed to become a better person.

"What a bunch of bullshit. However, that's considered normal in this country in this era."

Even so, I decided to bow out and not cause any more damage. Some victims of the book also decided to sue her for the emotional trauma it caused, but due to freedom of speech protections, it would be difficult for them to file a successful lawsuit.

The court might recognize that the book aimed to shed light on complex emotional issues, thus serving a greater good. This public interest defense can make it challenging for plaintiffs to prove that the author acted with malice or negligence.

In other words, she got off scot-free in the legal battle. However, her work has been discredited, and she lost the contracts for her next book.

She appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show after receiving an invitation, but that turned out to be a bad move. Her condescending tone, smug expression, and thinly veiled jabs at me caused public opinion to turn against her—even those who initially defended her fell silent this time.

While she was fighting for her reputation, many major news publications seized the opportunity to scrutinize me.

They claimed that I had used my fame to destroy someone's life's work, publishing a 3,000-word article filled with veiled contempt.

The tabloids had a field day with unconfirmed rumors, even targeting my mother, which prompted me to retaliate against them.

At 3 a.m., the writers of the article would wake up to someone dressed in black whipping them with a thick rope drenched in red paint—which they mistook for their own blood. They begged the intruder to stop, but he just laughed maniacally and continued.

Some went to the police, but the harassment persisted even while they were under police protection. A few decided to run away, even entering witness protection, but it happened there too.

I tormented them so much that they thought they were going crazy. From changing their shoe sizes to smaller ones, altering the hue of their living room lights, to the full terror of the whip, a few of them had to be admitted to a mental health facility.

The attention on the issue lost momentum when news broke about Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart's breakup.

All the media focused their attention there, as it was a compelling drama. Kristen had been caught cheating with the director of Snow White and the Huntsman, after all. Within two days of that news breaking, no one was talking about the book anymore.

After that, I continued with the movie production, putting the matter to the back of my mind. While on set, I received a video call from Leonard.

"Hi. Italy seems to agree with you," I greeted him cheerfully.

He smiled and said, "It really does. I don't know why I waited so long to travel before."

Suddenly, a girlish shout from afar attracted Leonard's attention.

"Leon, dai! Vogliamo farti vedere i nostri nuovi bikini!" (Leon, come on! We want to show you our new bikinis!)

"Arrivo, mia cara," Leonard replied in perfect Italian. He had managed to learn the entire language and speak like a local in just two days while on NZT.

He learned the piano, finally decided to pursue his dream– writing a mystery novel—though it wasn't finished yet. He began working out and solved several problems he had struggled with in his experiments.

He even published a research paper on a method for generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses. (A/N: Nobel Prize Winner 2018—Donna Strickland)

Leonard suddenly became a high-profile name in science, which led to Sheldon feeling jealous of him.

"I'll make this short since I have an earlier appointment," Leonard said charismatically.

"Appointment? Sure," I raised my eyebrows in teasing, but he didn't mind.

"After thinking about this, I decided to write a book from my point of view. The title is I Wish My Mother Is Dead, written under the pseudonym 'The Needy, Greedy Baby.'"

"Banking on current public interest to make millions? I'm so proud of you," I said with an amazed expression. "Not to mention the really attention-grabbing title."

"Well, you make it sound cheap, but I thought that since many people could relate to my childhood, I wanted to do something for them—to show them that lives can be better."

Growing up, he heard a lot about his mother's work and even followed her to psychology lectures. NZT made all that information flood back, and he used it to write a heartfelt, Chicken Soup for the Soul-style book that could help others heal from their childhood wounds.

"Send me the PDF of the book. Do you want me to handle publishing in the United States?" I asked casually. The set director signaled to me that the set was ready, and Leonard saw it too, so he didn't want to take up too much of my time.

"I had thought about hiring a lawyer to handle all the work. But then I thought of you—someone who can teach me the impossible and make it possible." Leonard used a bit of flattery, playing to my ego to get the book out there as soon as possible.

I grimaced and said, "You just don't want anyone to bother you while you're having fun with the Italian girls."

Leonard was stunned for a few seconds before he smiled and said, "I'll leave it all to you. I'll give you 5% of the total profit from the book."

"I'll have a lawyer draft a contract and send it to you soon," I said before ending the call.

To solve the problem with his shared apartment with Sheldon, Leonard considered buying the entire building for $4.4 million—from me.

I owned the building they lived in, and after Penny was gone, I renovated her apartment into a duplex to tempt her to move back in. But that didn't work, so I rented it out to another up-and-coming actress. Well, actresses. There were now two rooms in the apartment.

The triangular-shaped apartment at the end of the street had been cheap in 2011. The owner had a massive gambling problem and needed the money fast, selling it to me for $4 million.

I fixed the elevator and made numerous renovations to increase the building's value.

I founded a trade school where students could learn practical skills, and the apartment was used as one of the on-site practical training locations.

With soundproofing technology, the learning process didn't disturb the other tenants in the building. And of course, I paid the learners based on their work and not let them work for free disguised as teaching plans.

Even if the students made mistakes, the android robots could fix them without any hassle. I currently own 15 buildings—10 in New York and 5 in LA. The five-story building in Pasadena was the cheapest among all my properties.

After Leonard learned I was his landlord, he stopped trying to buy the apartment and discussed with Sheldon the possibility of letting his girlfriend Amy move in with him. Sheldon needed someone to help him get through his day-to-day life, and his girlfriend was the perfect person for that.

Speaking of Amy, Sheldon's frumpy girlfriend had recently undergone an image change. She no longer wore her grandmother's sweaters and had cut her hair short, just like she did at the end of The Big Bang Theory.

She was swarmed by reporters after receiving the Genius McArthur grant award, receiving $400,000 for her work on degenerative brain diseases. Thanks to her study on Britta's brain, she achieved a breakthrough in her research.

Amy was downcast when she saw her pictures in the news, taken from unflattering angles. Although she tried not to care, she began to cry when she read the comments about her physical attributes.

Penny and Rajesh took her shopping and helped her change her image. Sheldon freaked out at first, but Penny helped him through it. Then Penny left, which made Sheldon appreciate Amy more.

...

The scene I needed to shoot today was the apartment scene, in which Atlas was making out with a girl but stopped when he saw the horseman card in her shoes.

"Well, this is awkward," I muttered as I turned to my dad.

"This is awkward for me too," he said, discomfort evident in his voice.

The girl next to me exclaimed, "This is actually quite a turn-on for me."

I grimaced as I turned to her. "I can still change the actress, you know?"

Willa Holland stuck her tongue out mischievously and teased, "Wow, straight to threats, huh? Will you be an overbearing director on set?"

Known for her roles as Kaitlin Cooper in The O.C., Agnes Andrews in Gossip Girl, and future Thea Queen/Speedy in Arrow, Willa was popular enough not to take the role of an extra. But her agency had pushed her hard during casting for the movie, even lowering her asking fee.

After a bit of investigation, I finally understood why. It was to foster connections between us and soon bring the relationship to her stepfather, Brian De Palma.

Her stepfather was the director of the first Mission Impossible movie and Scarface. He had a long list of films in his filmography and was cited as an inspiration for directors like Quentin Tarantino, but currently, he was in a slump.

His latest movie, Passion, starring Rachel McAdams, was an erotic thriller that bombed financially and received mixed reviews from critics.

Although her stepfather split from her mother in 1997 after just three years of marriage, he still helped her break through in Hollywood.

De Palma was basically funding all his movies himself right now due to a long list of box office failures after the 2000s. At 72 years old, he was still creating films.

Maybe in his mind, letting his 21-year-old stepdaughter talk him up and arrange a meeting with me for funding for his next movie wasn't such a bad idea. Although I didn't think he knew that Willa had no plans of talking him up at all.

The girl was...wild. After learning she had to strip in her role and make out with me, Willa became excited instead of downcast. She had a tendency to do risky stuff, which could lead to her downfall in the future—like when her sex tape was leaked.

"Ready? Action!" The assistant director helped with directing since the director was in the scene.

My hair was long, and I had a scruffy beard—which people thought was makeup, but I used a transformation technique to apply it to my face, aging me up a couple of years and adding a sense of realism.

"I'm your biggest fan," Willa said, kissing me and wrapping her hand around my neck as we entered the tiny apartment.

"I can tell," I replied curtly and closed the door behind me. "Close the door; bad neighborhood."

"Magician, come here!" Willa grabbed my hand and pulled me to the couch. She pushed me down while she took off her dress, revealing her matching white underwear.

"Wait—wait."

"What?" I asked, disappointment on my face. My dad looked away and sighed. The reason he was there was that a minor couldn't do this type of kissing or intimate scene without a guardian present. It's the law here, although some directors ignored it. I usually followed the rules on set.

She sat on top of me, and before we continued, she suddenly pressed her hand over my lips and said, "Shh! H-How did you do that—"

"The seven diamonds at the side of the tower?" I interjected, playing my know-it-all smartass persona. While she was on top of me, Willa accidentally perched perfectly on my hips, and she could feel what was hiding underneath my jeans.

Willa was suddenly stunned, momentarily forgetting to react.

Confused, I glanced at her just as the assistant director yelled "Cut!" because she took too long.

"Willa, you don't have many lines. Just react if you forget," the assistant director rebuked her.

"Oh—sorry! It's not that I forgot the line; I was just surprised," Willa said, blushing slightly.

"Surprised about what?" I asked, curious. Her face turned red as she looked away.

"Take 2. Ready? Action!" the assistant director shouted. We continued where we left off, and she took off my clothes. Her eyes became dazed for a second, which was captured perfectly on camera. I decided to keep the footage.

In the original scene, Daniel Atlas didn't take off his shirt, only his jacket.

The makeout scene continued, and Willa asked, "Can you do 52 different tricks on me?"

"I'll see what I can do," I replied.

She giggled and exclaimed, "Oh Magic Man!" and leaned forward, kissing me on the neck. She was supposed to pretend to do it, but Willa actually blew air into my ear, trying to make me break character.

However, I ignored her and focused on the cards in the shoe on top of the drawers instead, pushing her away from me.

"You need to leave," I told her.

She became mad and said, "Are you kidding me? Do you usually do this? Some kind of sick trick you play on women? Bring girls back to your home just to humiliate them?!" She put her clothes back on and stormed out of the apartment, only wearing her top.

"I'll call you," I said noncommittally, my focus still on the card.

Willa turned around angrily as she opened the door. "You don't have my number!"

I shrugged, "I'm magic. I'll figure it out." She puffed her cheeks and slammed the door as she left the room.

"Cut!" the assistant director yelled.

The short scene wrapped in just two takes. Willa still had another scene with me, which would be shot later in New York. Before she left, she said, "Ah, I'm supposed to ask you this: Do you want to have dinner with me at my place?"

"I have a girlfriend," I replied curtly, shutting down her advancement.

"Aww shucks," she snorted derisively. "Like that ever matters around here." There was a tinge of sadness in her voice. She had been in the industry for a long time and had seen a lot.

"Well, it matters to me," I said as I turned toward her. Willa was stunned for a few seconds before she showed a sad smile. "That girl is so lucky." Then she began to tease again, "Like, I felt it on the couch. She must've been really, really lucky."

She laughed while gesturing the size with her forearm. I rolled my eyes slightly and said, "You can go now. I'll call you when it's time to fly to New York."

SNL contacted me a week ago, and I was supposed to be there today. But with the scandal breaking out, they decided to hold off inviting me as a guest host for two more weeks until the fire dies down.

"That's it? I kissed you and licked your neck for nothing?" she said playfully.

I smirked and replied, "I mean, it's not like you didn't enjoy it. I saw you drooling when I took my shirt off."

"When did I do that?!" Willa burst into laughter, delighted to find someone who played along with her jokes.

"Yeah, you were undressing me with your eyes even before I took off my shirt. And you even got paid for it," I said, hugging my body slightly, pretending to feel molested.

Willa laughed hard and said, "Yeah, I definitely should not take any money for it; otherwise, you'll become a gigolo."

"Please, if I'm a gigolo, you can't afford my fee."

The scene where Willa and I laughed together caught the attention of a certain petite girl who came to visit the set. Willa gave me her personal number and asked me to consider her for acting roles, although that was just an excuse.

I spotted Vanessa waving at me from afar, and I walked toward her as the production crew wrapped up today's filming.

"Did you go to see the wedding dress with Frankie today?" I asked Vanessa as we walked to the car together.

"No, not yet. Incidentally, Haley heard about the wedding and offered to design the dress for Frankie. She's coming back home from college this weekend."

"Oh," I exclaimed softly. Vanessa raised an eyebrow and scrutinized my expression before saying, "You know what? Willa looks a lot like Haley."

I opened the door for her like a gentleman and closed it when she got inside, saying, "She does, a little bit."

As soon as I entered the car, Vanessa asked, "Is that why you picked her to be your makeout partner?"

And boom, the argument started.

...

[Vanessa POV]

I knew I shouldn't have picked a fight with him, but I couldn't help myself.

Late at night, as I slept next to him on the bed, I turned to him and immersed myself in his dashing look.

"You're the mature one, as usual," I said, sighing slightly, disappointed in myself. The way he was making her laugh irked me a lot. I tried to let it go, but it still slipped out in the end.

But I did make up for it with an amazing time, so I guess it's fine. I think I'm getting addicted to the makeup sex that I wanted to pick a fight for no reason.

When he was playing with his mother that evening, making her laugh while they watched cartoons together, my heart gushed with affection for him.

But when Sage, his god-sister, came to visit and they had a mock fight in the gym, not letting anyone see it, I bit my fingers in frustration, my mind swirling as I thought about what they were doing in there.

They came out sweaty and full of smiles, and God, her body. Can a human being actually look like that?

They didn't have any romantic feelings for each other from the way they interacted, but my mind couldn't help but worry.

"I think I think too much," I muttered. Then I realized something and took out my phone, opened the notes app, and wrote down what I just said in the lyrics I'd been working on.

(A/N: Guess the song.)

Looking at the screen, I whispered to myself, "What should I do with this? I'm too freaking embarrassed to ask Edward for help with creating it. Maybe Taylor? But she's not speaking to me since I told her Edward and I are dating. Hmm, wait."

Suddenly, I thought of someone. "Who helped Edward with his tracks before? The high guy... Leo? Should I ask Pepper to contact him? But Edward is the CEO now. It'll seem like I'm undermining him. Ahh! What should I do?!"

"Maybe you shouldn't talk out loud when you're in bed with me. I woke up because of you," Edward said suddenly, hugging me from behind and startling me.

I smiled and turned to him, asking warily, "How much did you hear?"

"Everything. What lyrics? Show me." He reached for my phone, and I flinched.

"NO!" I instinctively pulled my hands away. "My notes app is private! I'm not going to let you see it!"

There was a lot of embarrassing stuff in there that I definitely didn't want him to know about.