Hollywood Zenith

" This way. The President is waiting for you." The lady guided them inside. They followed her and saw a man sitting comfortably behind the desk 'observing'.

It was a man in his fifties staring with his mouth covered with his crossed hands. The other person was standing behind the oversized chair; he must be the man's personal advisor.

" Oho, look at their expression. A novice actor would have started trembling right about now." Samuel thought. The smile never left his face.

" It's good that you have come. Clara, please write down everything." The man commanded. The secretary sat down with an open laptop and started typing.

" Now, Mr Rothschild, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am David Zaslav, the President of Warner Group. How may I help you?" David introduced himself.

" Oh, and this is Terry, my financial advisor. You have already met my secretary, Clara."

" Pleasure," Terry said only one word and maintained the tension.

" It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr Zaslav. I didn't come here as a Rothschild representative; you can casually address me as Sam."

" Is that so? But it is hard to believe you suddenly wanted to meet me; normally, it would be impossible for our contracted actors to do it."

" What kind of play is this?" Darren, who had been quietly whispered to Samuel from the side.

" Sit back and just watch. You will see something interesting today." Samuel instructed him. Darren shrugged and took the empty seat. He didn't particularly like this type of fake meeting, he could easily smell one, and this definitely reeked like one.

" That might be true, but don't you think it should be reserved when meeting a 'real' president?" David and the rest became alert.

" Did he notice?" He looked toward Terry, to which Terry shook his head lightly. It was impossible; even if it was the Rothschild consortium, it was their most heavily guarded secret. They were confident that it would never leak out.

" I don't know what you are talking about, but I only have one answer: no." David got into the role again and said as he was instructed.

" Huh?" Samuel was confused. He was also getting sick of it; he scanned toward his left and saw that all the preparation had been done.

" Well, I don't know what type of bullshit you spew. I guess it would be clear once I meet the right person."

" Hey, wait, where are you going?" Clara exclaimed when she saw him moving to the left.

" Isn't it, Miss Secretary? I never met a more brazen employee who screamed in their master's presence." Samuel said with a bewitching smile. It was enough to make her heart skip a beat.

" I-i am s-sorry."

" No worries, Miss Lori, it was already over before you knew it."

" What? I am C-Clara. Not Lori!" She refuted, which made Samuel sigh. Does he have to point out their every little silly mistake?

" Alright, It is faster since you refuse to give up." He directly kicked the left wall, which crumbled without much force. When he first scanned the building for life force, he had already located the trap door. It was empty then, but now, two people were sitting inside him.

They had shocked expressions plastered on their faces, but Samuel ignored it and casually entered the room. Darren, who had been waiting, was surprised to see such a scene. His friend really shows him some impressive feats from time to time?

" Now, Why don't we have a proper meeting, Mr Astor?"

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The Astor family achieved prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries.

With ancestral roots in the Italian and Swiss Alps, the Astors settled in Germany, first appearing in North America in the 18th century with John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest people in history.

For many years, the members of the Astor family were known as "the landlords of New York". Their New York City namesakes are the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Astor Row, Astor Court, Astor Place, and Astor Avenue in the Bronx, where the Astors stabled horses.

The neighbourhood of Astoria, Queens, was renamed to incite John Jacob Astor to invest there.

But at the beginning of the twentieth century, their powers declined, and many members moved to other countries like Britain and were later granted a noble peerage. Two hereditary titles to their name were known to the public.

The reason was evident; with the dissolving of several large households like the Bundy family, Collins family etc., the Astors felt like they had been in the public eye for too long.

Such was the nature of the masses; they either hate or love you. Some people would opt out and choose an easy route, while others like Rothschild and Rockefellers would power through and live in the limelight.

Astors chose the former method; they integrated themselves into small groups and bought other smaller families' trust to control them from the shadows.

The Warner Group was one such vassal; on the surface, it looked normal, with shareholding divided and spread out across several well-known companies, but the voting rights were reserved for the Astors, who was the actual owner of the company.

The Advance Publication, a privately held company controlled by the Newhouse family, was the largest shareholder. They controlled eight per cent of the company shares and had significant voting rights.

Newhouse came into prominence in the late 1920s, they were only a small publishing firm at the beginning, but with enough funding from the Astor family, it could create a juggernaut of a company in only eighty years.

They were the first few families that came under their rule. As such, they were basically the heart of the Astor family chain. William Backhouse Astor was the current head of the family, and Steven O. Newhouse acted as his proxy when making decisions.

Why they were hiding from Samuel and how Samuel learned about it was a different matter. He was not sure about it at first, but seeing this two operating in a secret room and listening to his conversation, Samuel was confident.

These two people were the backbone of the company.