Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 119184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
I haven’t bothered looking at a single notification on my phone. For my sanity, they’re muted, even though I know they’re chirping like mad.
Thousands of chattering bees hell bent on making my business theirs because their own lives are so unremarkable. Maybe because so many of those lives have issues that make our drama look easy, and they just want to feel better about themselves for two seconds by laughing at someone else’s nightmare.
I’m starting to appreciate how time slows to a crawl as your army of haters grows.
Right now, the whole world feels stalled on a knife’s edge while our spectators hold their collective breath, waiting for their next hit of excitement.
It’s a toxic addiction.
When will the Pruitts address their public meltdown? They have to say something.
They’re about to get it.
It’s taken an entire day to outline everything I have to say, plus speaking to all the right people to get the logistics in order.
Now, I’m ready to go live with at least a million viewers hanging on my every word.
Even with the entire universe on the line, there’s only one spectator I care about.
I had Luis tracking her plane from the very second we found out a jet chartered by August Marshall left Reno-Tahoe International.
It’s almost pathetic that I punched the air less than an hour ago when I found out she agreed to see me.
For all I knew, she’d want to hide forever in anger or shame.
Lena must know I’m responsible for this mess. I pushed that asshole so hard, he fired back. I’m the reason he leaked those dirty photos, detonating her life.
Of course, the fact that Harry Jay still had them isn’t my fault. Using them to retaliate also isn’t a choice I had a hand in.
But nobody can deny that I triggered the duel. I pulled my trigger, and he pulled his.
I fired my best shot over all her objections, over her proud demands for me to let her handle this alone.
If she decides to hate me forever, I won’t blame her in the slightest.
If she’s coming to see me, though, I don’t think she’s decided yet.
I still have a chance at a miracle.
Hearing footsteps makes me look up just in time to notice people are moving through my condo, heading for my studio room. Luis enters first, followed by Lena.
For a second, I don’t recognize her.
She looks tired, dark lines under her eyes, shadows formed by a thousand tears. Even her walk doesn’t look right—it’s slower, careful, more subdued.
Her chestnut hair looks frizzed. Not like its usual glorious mess after she comes home from a full day healing animals.
Even so, she’s goddamned radiant.
She can’t help being the most beautiful candle in the room, even when she’s got half the city trying to blow her out.
I’m not the only one who gets an adrenaline jolt when I see her.
Queenie leaps up from beside my desk and goes pounding over, her tail swishing so violently she nearly knocks a lamp off its end table in the corner.
“Hey, pretty girl.” Lena’s voice is subdued as she kneels down and buries her face in Queenie’s black fur for a second. “Oh my goodness, I missed you too!”
Oblivious to the drama, Queenie barks a few times, spinning in circles, before she leads Lena to the sofa facing me across the room.
I glance at Luis as he stops behind the camera tripod, already set up.
“Are we ready?”
“If you’re sure you want to do it here, yes. Live stream in three minutes.”
Not enough time for a proper conversation, but that’s what I planned.
For the first time since she stepped into the room, we lock eyes.
“There’s something I need to say,” I tell her, nodding to Luis and his camera setup.
Through the large window, it’s a peaceful day, the sunset gleaming off the city and the ships on Elliott Bay like a fever dream. The shiny silver and glassy water make such a striking contrast you’d never guess the world is falling down around us.
Any other day, it would be an ideal romantic backdrop for my quiet penthouse.
Today, it’s just the calm before the storm.
“Brady, what do you mean? You’re streaming right now?” Lena stares at me, her eyes wide and questioning.
No time to explain.
I can’t risk scaring her off.
“Everything’s set,” Luis says, checking the equipment one last time. I checked it myself three times before he showed up.
Queenie butts her head under my arm, her tongue flopped out with excitement. It’s going to be anticlimactic as hell if this dog jumps on me while we’re live, but what can you do?
If that’s all that misfires today, I’ll be a lucky man.
“I don’t understand,” Lena hisses, annoyance flashing in her eyes. “Can’t you just tell me what’s going on—”
“It’ll make sense in five minutes. I promise. Thanks for coming,” I say gently, checking my watch. Sixty seconds to go. “Humor me one more time, Lena. It has to be like this if I want it to come out right.”