Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Until my phone buzzes with a video call.
Anya’s face appears on the screen.
Seriously, her timing sucks.
I roll my eyes and tap the screen. “What is it, Anya? I was just about to—”
“Your friend! Lexi!” she cries out—and it takes me a second to realize she’s overjoyed. “She just went live! She just fucking went live and spilled the whole damned truth about Trent Embers! And you’d better bet she has receipts! Proof he cornered her on set. Screenshots of texts he sent her. Receipts!!” She sighs with relief. “Riv … it’s over, it’s all finally fucking over.”
Chapter 20 - Finn
We watch the confession together, all of us.
Huddled up around the small screen of River’s phone.
Still propped up on a desk by books.
Lexi’s live stream was posted to her page. Then shared with the world. Over a thousand views. Then hundreds of thousands. The truth about River. The reality behind Trent Embers’s predatory nature. Now everyone knows the name of Lexi, the once invisible woman who bravely spoke out.
And there’s no doubt now that since her story’s been shared, others will come forward, too. They’ll have stories. A hill of evidence will soon become a mountain. Lexi will become a voice for many, River is certain of it.
After the confession is watched, River goes upstairs to make some calls—among them, his agent, who likely has a whole laundry list of things that need to quickly happen, but first and perhaps more importantly, to Lexi herself, as I imagine the two have a lot to catch up on after these weeks of tumultuousness and uncertainty. Anya, just before she hung up, congratulated River on what’s certain to be the start of a long road back to normalcy, then announced that she was departing Dreamwood at once, as she didn’t wish to test the patience of her firm, which desperately needed her back. “Don’t think this victory weasels you out of watching the rest of Cissy Sees!” she barked at River just before hanging up, and none of us know what she means except for River, whose smile lingered after Anya’s face fled the screen of the phone.
While River’s upstairs making his calls, I stay with my (overly animated, relieved, and joyful) family downstairs. Heather is cuddling with Roman in her arms while Brooke floats around the room, beaming. “At least we don’t have to rebrand ourselves as Hopewell Harbor: Scandal Cove,” says Brooke as she puts away the books that were propping up River’s phone for the live feed that never happened. “I really did have ideas for that. Capitalizing on the scandal.”
Dad is gathering stuff in the kitchen for sandwiches when he calls out: “Do you think River would like to stay for a bite? After he’s off the phone with his people?”
“I think he’d love that,” I call back.
Brooke keeps going on. “We could have discounts if you bring clips or QR codes from any relevant article …”
Heather rushes up behind me for an ambush hug, still holding a somewhat annoyed Roman. “I’ve got my lil’ bro back!” she squeals uncharacteristically.
“Devious Discounts!” exclaims Brooke. “Wait, is that too creepy sounding? Oh! Creeper Coupons! Hmm, no …”
“What do you mean?” I ask Heather, squirming against her vice grip.
“You and Theo made up,” she says with a happy sigh into my ear. “Now you can be friends even if you won’t get back together.”
“And we’ll have ‘Wolfe-It-Down Wednesdays’ at the Parrot,” carries on Brooke, “with bottomless fries …”
“I wouldn’t exactly say Theo and I ‘made up’ …”
“I know, I know,” she grumbles at me. “You and River are it, Theo’s in your past. But now I can feel less guilty if I wanna meet up with him for drinks now and then.”
“You could’ve met up with him before,” I throw right back. “I wasn’t stopping you.”
“Yeah, but now I don’t have to hide it.”
Brooke grunts as she pushes the chair River was using back into place, then eyes me. “Wait, does this mean River is leaving the bungalow early? Like, is he heading back to the West Coast now that he’s done with the Gulf Coast?”
“Oh, I didn’t think of that,” admits Heather, coming to a similar pensive pause as she continues clinging to me.
That seems to drain all the fun from the room, the three of us staring off at nothing, lost in our thoughts. Apparently none of us took the time to consider what comes next.
What will River do now that he’s freed?
I don’t have long to mull it over. Just as the silence of the room threatens to smother us, footsteps echo down the stairs as River returns. It isn’t my imagination that he looks ten pounds lighter on his feet, practically bouncing, with his hair tousled from dragging his fingers through it over and over again—a habit of his when he’s on the phone for too long, I’ve learned. “I swear, it feels like a twenty-ton weight rolled off my damned chest,” he says as he hops off the last step and comes up to me—or rather us, as Heather and Brooke continue to smother me. “Should I take us out to eat somewhere on the island? My treat.”