Beside her, Sean Quinn caught up. Hanging by one hand with a foot on a hold, he remarked with effortless grace, "If you can't do it, I'll have someone lower the safety rope. You should just give up..."
He could see that something was wrong with her.
"That's not necessary." She would never give up so easily. "I can definitely overcome this..." 'I have to conquer my fear of heights, or how will I ever be able to act again?'
"If you'd just give up, I can introduce you to other projects. Miss Lockwood, my time is valuable. I have none to waste on you and these childish games..."
Sean Quinn continued his calm persuasion, feeling a pang of regret for provoking her into such a dangerous sport. He was used to climbing without ropes, but she was just an inexperienced girl. Someone with a fear of heights would never normally attempt something like this. He was pushing her too hard, but she was too stubborn to admit defeat and insisted on toughing it out.
'I miscalculated. This time, I underestimated her courage.'
"No. This is the project I want."
She started climbing again, but she had been hanging for too long. Her legs began to tremble, and her arm strength was gradually giving out. With every hold she reached, she felt completely drained.
Sean Quinn watched from the side. 'Such a damn stubborn girl,' he thought.
It was September, and the weather was already sweltering. The air conditioning in the gym was off today. Beads of sweat began to form on Stella Lockwood's forehead, and her palms grew clammy.
Just then, her palm slipped. With a startled "AHH!", she began to plummet.
Sean Quinn saw it happen. He quickly grabbed a nearby safety rope and, with a light swing, propelled himself to her side. He caught her by the waist and roared, "What the hell are you trying to prove?"
Stella Lockwood instinctively clung to an arm as hard as rock. Realizing she was steady, she opened her eyes to find Sean Quinn's frosty face inches from hers. She flinched at his roar, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. A faint scent of tobacco filled her nostrils—'That's right,' she remembered, 'this man loves to smoke; he has a serious addiction.'
In the blink of an eye, Sean Quinn swung twice, tapped his toes against the climbing wall for purchase, and brought her safely to the ground. Then, he unceremoniously dropped her.
Then, he asked coldly, "Stella Lockwood, what's more important to you: your life or your acting career?"
'My life, of course.'
But for some reason, she'd had a strange certainty in her heart that if anything happened to her, this man would definitely save her. That certainty stemmed from the last scene of her past life: he had sworn to make her murderers die without a place to be buried...
'Although she didn't understand why he wanted to avenge her, she had taken a gamble. If she made it without incident, she would pass his test. If she fell, he surely wouldn't just watch her get crippled. And even if she was wrong about him, there were thick mats below. She wouldn't have been crippled anyway, right?'
In the end, she won her bet.
He had caught her with the speed of a jaguar, bringing her safely to the ground. But he didn't ask her softly if she was okay. Instead, he shoved her away, his expression fierce and unreadable.
"Acting is very important to me," Stella Lockwood answered seriously. 'For a woman to live a good life, she has to have her own career. That's what I learned from dying once. As for my life... well, I'm perfectly fine, aren't I?'
"A pity you didn't pass my test. Philip Lefevre, we're leaving." With that, Sean Quinn turned and walked away.
And so, Stella Lockwood's second attempt had once again ended in failure...