Chapter 4

EPOV

I glanced over my breakfast as mom and dad walked into the breakfast room, holding hands and with smiles on their faces.

In just a few months they would be celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary and even now, you could still see the love and devotion that they shared together.

I bet when she had me, she never thought that I would join the family business.

It was now Tuesday morning and I was beyond exhausted.

We were shooting well into the night last night had I had a meeting in just a short while, so sleep was not a thing I had had much of, and my eyes were still stinging from tiredness.

"Good morning, Son," mom said with a smile as she kissed the top of my head and sat down next to me. Dad sat on the other side after he gripped my shoulder firmly and gave me a swift nod.

The meeting over the weekend went well, after I voiced my concerns, and dad was impressed that I was willing to go along with it.

I wanted to tell him that I didn't have much of a choice, but I didn't want to cause more stress than what he was already under.

Mom had been ill recently, hence why they had been on a vacation and the stress was showing with him. I always likened them to swans. They paired up for life and I think if anything happened to mom, dad would make sure that he followed her soon after.

"Morning," I replied, my throat still thick from the little sleep that I did manage to grab and a little swollen from its vigorous workout, too.

"I heard that Jessica gave you some minor problems last night," dad mused as he poured out some cornflakes into his bowl.

Nothing like talking about business over breakfast. I internally laughed as I went to reply.

"A few," I mused, "she doesn't like the fact that, with your new plans, she would not only be looked over for a role, but also with me being a part of the new plans, she would be paired up with someone else," I almost groaned as I remembered how she had tried to pout her way into the plans. "Thankfully Jasper being on set kept her from getting too deep into her pleading."

I chuckled quietly as I thought about Jasper's intervention last night.

"And that's the whole reason why we should shake things up. I don't like the idea of you all sticking to the same partners all the time, we need to spice things up and change things about. Our clients like a variety and we should give them that or we'll be pushed out of the market," he sighed deeply as mom reached over to stroke his hand.

I still had no idea how they managed it. Even after all these years, she was still okay with his profession. Okay, so he wasn't in front of the cameras anymore, but he was when they met. How could mom ever be so understanding to stand by and watch, even partake, in what he used to do?

I don't think I could have what they did. How would any future girlfriend of mine be so understanding?

I guess it wasn't any weirder than the fact that I had followed in his footsteps, even though I knew she occasionally watched the screenings, with a professional eye of course.

I shook my head slightly as I got on with my breakfast.

"Edward, do you still want to step down when this deal comes to an end?" mom asked with a smile as she poured herself a coffee.

I smiled warmly as I thought about taking over dad's place.

"Yeah, I just don't feel it anymore with my job. I want to be on the other side of it now, follow in daddy's footsteps and all," I laughed and watched as they joined in.

It was no secret that I was getting older and we needed fresh blood in the place, and I was ready to go behind the scenes now.

"That's good then, at least you have a plan for yourself, and that you're willing to stay in the industry," she smiled gently.

"Yeah, because you can all imagine what I'd look like in a suit, sitting behind a desk," I joked.

When breakfast was over, I headed over to the meeting with the bank that I'd had planned for a while. I wanted to free up some cash so I could buy a few properties. With the economic climate being the way it was, I wanted to make sure that I had a fall back plan if needed.

I could buy up some places cheap, do them up and rent them out, giving me a hefty chunk of money each month to put into savings. I didn't want to go down the route of being a landlord, but if I had a letting agency cover everything, all I needed to do was sit back and watch the money roll in.

It was a good plan.

~(*)~

I came out of the bank a very happy man and I all but skipped to the car and drove home, windows down and the stereo blaring.

I was now wide awake and was ready to face the day.

"Edward, can you spare me a few moments of your time? We've had the first round of applicants sent to us by Angela and as you wanted to be involved from the get go, now's the time," dad waved a bunch of papers in his hand around and then walked off towards his study as soon as I walked in the front door.

I caught up to him quickly and saw that he was smiling from ear to ear. He really wanted this to pan out from the start and I couldn't knock him for his enthusiasm.

"What about Emmett and Jasper?" I asked as we walked towards his study. I didn't want them to be left out, especially after Emmett's comment last week about 'blind dates'.

"Not just yet, I want to get rid of the worst first and then when we have to really nail down the selections, we'll bring them in. Consider it your first step towards moving to the director's chair," he said with a smirk and I nodded. It was a good choice to make. Emmett, being Emmett, would take the piss out of every applicant and we would never get any of our work done. Jasper would then feel very sorry for the ones that we passed up, but this was a cut throat industry and personal feelings couldn't get in the way of that.

Dad cleared his desk as soon as we got into his study and started laying out the forms that we had put together. Clipped to the top of each form was the picture that we had requested and as harsh as it sounded, we looked at the pictures before the forms.

There was no way we could have anyone that wasn't 'pleasing to the eye', even if their credentials were perfect.

It was a cruel process, but we had no choice, our hands were tied and we would just have to live with it.

Within the hour we had cut down the pile by a huge chunk and then we hit a problem. The rest of the applicants were good, really good.

"Now to look at their forms," dad sighed as he sat down in his chair and I perched myself on the front of his desk.

"You take the red heads and others and I'll take the blonds and brunettes?" I chuckled as he nodded.

"It's a tough job, but someone has to do it," he smirked.

That was his saying and he was famous for it.

I skimmed through the pile, sorting them out by hair color and when that was done, I looked harder at the pictures and the information that the girls had submitted. Some were good, others were downright scary, but I had to stay neutral.

That was until I reached the picture that almost took my breath away.

Why hadn't I seen it through the first round?

The girl was eighteen and just out of school. She had worked as an assistant librarian through school to pay for her books and she was fucking stunning. I read and re-read her file until I think I had memorized it.

Every detail of her picture was seared into my memory and when I read about her part-time job, all I could think of was how she would look dressed up like one.

"Edward, see something you like?" dad chuckled as I looked at him dumbly.

"Why do you ask?"

"You've been staring at the same file for the last fifteen minutes, son. It must be quite impressive," he smirked at me with a knowing look and all I could do was smile.

"Yeah, just a bit," I smiled as I handed him over the picture of Isabella Swan.