For as long as it was possible, he fought off Ashley's attempts to get him from the apartment. He was happy in the solitude of his apartment, he didn't need anyone else but his characters that grew closer to his heart with every paragraph. 

"Honey, humans are social beings. Going against the nature of law results in madness," was her argument that didn't really impress Michael that much. 

"But mad people are happy in their madness. It's everyone else that think something is wrong," he, as per usual, replied with something that knew his agent would find triggering.

Her response was something he expected. After all this time, after all these years, her reaction still hadn't changed. The stare remained the same; it tried to scold him or make him realise the joke he had made wasn't funny at all.

"Relax, Ashley," he tried to calm her, "I'm not Proust.". He started dressing up, obeying her wish to go among people for a day. 

She waited for him outside the room to give him privacy and remain silent until she wasn't sure if her memory served her right "Is that the one with biscuits?"

Michael snorted in the bathroom while he was pulling on a new pair of jeans, or at least, a newly discovered pair of jeans for which he believed was lost for years. "That's him, but I didn't mention him because I like tea and biscuits as well."

"Why then?"

He came from the bathroom fully dressed in an outfit that had been more or less approved by her. "Towards the end, he'd only leave his place to remind himself how humans interacted in order to write realistically."

Ashley cringed. She rarely approved of weird things writers did, and Michael was no exception. For her, he was a whole different species. She smacked her lips together in an annoyed manner and started fixing his ruffled dirty blonde hair. "Well, you're not far from him, which is why I need to act. Come, now."

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Ashley led him on a stroll through a city of Los Angeles and stopped in front of a building that reminded Michael of a palace of glass his mother included in her stories of vicious goblins. He was losing himself in the memories of stories his mother told him when he was a young boy. Without closing his eyes, he could still see how he imagined each character, and how the goblins crawled over the palace like leeches with claws. With all the memories in his mind, he barely noticed a familiar black man in an expensive suit who approach them. It took Michael a moment to leave the world of fiction and interact with the world around him. 

Michael looked at Ashley "To get a drink I need a lawyer?". His agent only sighed uneasily and Michael knew she had lied to him earlier. "Just tell me what did you do behind my back in my name, right now."

"Big day today, huh?" Said Jesse when he was close enough, and encouragingly punched Michael's shoulder. The only thing Michael did was direct a clueless but angry look at Ashley, but to Jesse, everything was more than clear "He doesn't know, does he?"

"No, I don't know," judgingly exclaimed Michael, but his agent pretended not to be moved by it. 

He saw Jesse felt extremely uncomfortable. It was unlikely he and Ashley crashed because he always succumbed to her will because she's his agent. Seeing him angry must have terrified the lawyer. 

Ashley checked herself in the mirror she always carried around in her Louis Vuitton handbag and started walking towards the entrance of the glass palace. "We should be going. I'll tell you everything on the way."

Jesse stopped Michael in the first step "Don't be angry with her, man. She only cares about your best interest."

I'm sure, yeah. 

Michael smiled at him but he didn't completely brush it all off. If Ashley lied to him, it was because she knew he wouldn't have agreed with her. 

The ride in the elevator was dangerously silent, and the writer's eyes wouldn't stop looking at his agent accusingly until she broke the pressure "I'm sorry, okay?"

"No, you're not."

"I hate lying to you, but as your agent, I want to take care of your success, while your stubbornness apparently doesn't. I did what I had to do." 

Ashley justifying her actions told Michael everything he needed to know. He lifted up his eyes, "Is this about the adaptation of Nightingale?"

No response from her was better than any. All of it made Michael feel uneasy, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Ashley bought him here to sign a deal, a deal he knew nothing about except that it will involve something he created from his own heart. 

The elevator pinged and Michael was glad he left the dreadful music behind him. Down the hallway, he spotted a giant room with walls of glass in which six businesspeople were sitting. He immediately thought of goblins and added Ashley's appearance to the picture as well. 

Before any of them saw them approaching, Michael pulled Ashley aside "I know nothing about this deal! I can't sign it!"

Ashley eyed him like she was about to rip him apart. She probably was. "Don't you dare do this to me, Michael! This was the best deal I could get from negotiations, so do not!"

"Don't I dare?! You lied to me to get me here! I care about my books!" Michael argued back and was surprised nobody noticed they were in a semi-heated argument. 

"This isn't one of your books where you're the master of the universe and you have your own puppets. Here, you are a pawn in the world of business - my world. So, let me handle this."

Jesse intervened and stepped between them when he saw Michael was about to take a leap at her like a feral cat "I'm glad you two are both so passionate but they noticed us and are looking pretty weirded out by why we're hiding behind a freaking plant. Ashley, chill. Michael, behave."

He was suddenly the one to take the lead and let both of them eat his dust as he headed to the office full of businesspeople. Michael could only follow him, but if it were up to him, he'd throw himself out of the window of the glass palace and let the goblins eat his corpse. 

With Ashley, he walked through the door and was politely greeted by everyone. 

"Mr Stone," the man who must have been in charge got up and offered Michael his hand, "it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Pleasure is all mine," said he, even though it was anything but. Ashley could have at least filled me on the names.

Like a diva, she fought her way to the front and mentally pushed Michael away. At least, that was how he saw it. "Ah, Mr Wood."

"Miss Morrison, it's good to see you again."

Michael leant to Ashley when Mr Wood was busy with Jesse and muttered something so only she could hear him "Again, hm, Miss Morrison?"

Flashing her smile at the businesspeople, she spoke to Michael in a threatening voice that did not match her happy expression at all "Honey, lash your anger out on me later, how does that sound?"

"Like building up feelings."

Ashley's act broke and looked at Michael angrily, but to his knowledge nobody noticed it. 

Mr Wood was slowly sinking down in his chair and invited all of them to join "How about we do some business?"

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Michael felt like he was in hell. If Dante met Count Ugolino in the seventh circle, he was sure he'd meet Mr Wood. He kept going and on and about legal issues, and whenever Michael looked at Ashley, he recognised all the signs of boredom she showed, one of them being she was constantly looking at her pink manicured nails, like looking for a fault. Jesse wasn't doing much better, but he was the only one who tried his best to follow. 

"Do we understand each other on this matter?" Mr Wood asked and looked around at the faces seated behind the table. 

Michael wanted to sigh loudly out of relief, but he knew it would be highly inappropriate. Legal issues, in general, didn't interest him, he had Jesse for that. All he remembered was no other production house could take over, whether the adaptation turns out to be a success or a flop. 

"All clear," he nodded, getting more anxious about the role he was gonna be assigned. These people must have prepared the whole deal in advance, this meeting was just a formality to get him to sign the papers. 

Mr Wood smiled and pushed the contract in Michael's hands "This is the contract we need to be signed if you want the production to begin."

Jesse, who was magically fully awake now, warned Mr Wood about legally approaching this, "My client will take a good look at the contract first. We can continue the rest of the meeting then."

"Of course, but it'd be preferred if we finish with this today."

Michael smirked secretly and confidently like there's an inner joke only he knows about, "Don't worry, Mr Wood, I'm a fast reader."

Even Ashley smirked at his words.

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"What is this?" Michael beamed at one of the points of the contract. Jesse looked closer and tried to explain it to him, but Michael's question was rhetorical "I know what it means, but what the hell!"

Ashley, who kept in the background as long as it looked like Michael was gonna go through with the deal, finally approached and peeked from the space between the two men, "What is it?"

Michael hoped Jesse would be the one to explain it in his calm and lawyerish manner. He knew he, himself, could not do it without breaking down completely.

Jesse understood his silence "He only has a say in it if they ask him for an opinion, so as a counsellor. But they are not obligated to ask him anything or to listen to him." 

"Couldn't you get me a deal where I'd be the producer or something? Like J.K. Rowling did, or Jojo Moyes." Michael whined and put the blame on Ashley. 

She didn't like the deal they composed for Michael, but she understood the business more than anyone. She sat down on the chair next to him and sighed "I told you I got the best that I could get. It's not ideal, I know. But they might employ you as a screenwriter or something along those lines. There's still a possibility for that. And if that doesn't happen, well, people like you for your books and not the movies."

"Are you persuading me to sign this? It's like my biggest nightmare." He paused before continuing and sighed heavily to push down many feelings inhabited in his chest. "For years, I watched my favourite books become an abomination, one after another. And now this is happening to my stories."

Ashley nodded "I know where you're coming from, but maybe they won't screw it up."

"Open your eyes, Ashley. The sole purpose of Hollywood is to ruin books and stories, with how they want the largest spectrum of an audience as possible. You know why? Because these people don't care about what Nightingale is about. They just care about the coins in their pockets."

"You need to watch for your pockets as well. This movie could be a huge income for you. It would raise your popularity, visibility, you'd be recognised. That would give you leverage for your further projects." She tried to encourage him, and even though he thought he could believe her words, he refused to. 

Michael shook his head without looking away from the restricting text he mentally bolded "So, my Brian will turn from a man with PTSD into a crazy douchy bad boy which is what will probably attract Maddy. Great. Just freaking great."

After he angrily closed the contract and let it rest on the table like a hot potato, when Ashley tried to do her magic again. "How many times have you told me movies are good if you haven't read the book? Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"That's it's gonna be a failure in any case?"

"No, honey. Some people will see the movie, fall in love with Brian and Maddy, then read the book. Trust me, it's business. You're not the first writer I've represented."

Brooding Michael refused to look on the bright side of the current situation. What was the bright side if everything you cared about, and something that has a part of soul invested, will be torn apart and sloppily put together again. "And where are they? Let me guess, you arranged a deal for them too, and since the adaptation, no one has heard of them again?"

"No, they sucked in general. You don't." Ashley poked him with his finger in the shoulder and his whole body swayed at the impact. "And don't tell me I don't know how to do my job."

He sighed heavily, biting his tongue. He wasn't directly mad at her, he was mad at the whole world for creating Hollywood as a soul-sucking systematic machine. 

"Are we going through with this, though?" Jesse asked and was honestly confused who to look at. 

None of them knew the answer. Michael knew the silence. Ashley might have had her motives, but she wouldn't force him into something that he dreaded that much. 

Michael glanced at Ashley while her words still resonated in his mind. Nightingale was a book he wrote with his soul, but it's far from his best writing. As much as he hated that thought, he knew he had to agree with it. 

He sighed "Call them in. I'll sign."

Ashley beamed at him, she must've been sure he would turn down the offer. 

Michael saw how weirded out and surprised she was by it and shrugged "You said it yourself this is the best deal you could get and I trust that you spoke the truth. Might as well sign it then."

She smiled like a proud mother, while Jesse nodded "I'll call them in then."

Michael felt like he was trapped in the void. He was staring at the contract on the table, while Mr Wood and his colleagues were joining him back in the room. 

"I see you have made your decision?" Mr Wood smiled.

As if he were in a trans, it was impossible for him to speak. Thankfully, Ashley spoke for him and confirmed Michael was going to go through with it.

He was offered a pen which he held with difficulty. Despite his decision, he was far from being happy with it. He signed the deal nonetheless. 

The pen was moving slowly over the paper, drawing lines he then called his signature. It seemed to make everyone happy except for him. He didn't care if other writers accepted the awful adaptations as bad experience; he was still hurt by a single thought that the film won't make his characters justice. But for now, he could only hope. What was done, was done.