Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“You can probably guess, but, uh, Lila?”
“Yeah,” I said hesitantly.
“I don’t talk about her or ask about her, but Derek called to discuss the trip, and he …”
“Yeah?”
“Ash doesn’t know?”
“No.”
“And you agreed to tell him after we get back?”
“Derek said he would,” I confirmed.
“I wish he’d never told me. I feel real sick about knowing and not telling Ash. I don’t even know Lila. She was two years ahead of me at St. Catherine’s. We didn’t really interact. But how do you think he’ll react when he finds out?” Amelia asked softly.
“That … I don’t know.”
“Do you think he’ll … try to stop the wedding?”
I put my hand on Amelia’s. “You’re only hurting yourself, asking yourself these what-ifs.”
“I know, but fuck, the bad timing. Did Cole really have to propose to Lila right now?”
A glass shattered behind us.
We both whirled around. Ash Talmadge stood before us. A drink had slipped out of his hand. The liquid was on the bottom of his suit pants and glass all over the floor. His face was pale, and his eyes were dark when they locked on Amelia.
“What?” he asked, hard and flat.
“Ash,” Amelia gasped. Her hand went to her mouth in horror at what she’d unknowingly just done.
“Cole … proposed to Lila.”
“Yes,” I said. I wanted to step in front of Amelia. I could weather his anger. Amelia didn’t deserve it. She had been the one there for him all these years while he was dealing with his shit.
“You knew?” he said, still looking at Amelia.
“Yes, but …”
“Did Derek know?”
Amelia opened and closed her mouth. “He …”
“Of course he did. Of course he fucking did.”
“Ash …”
“Everyone knew,” he finished.
Amelia took a step forward, reaching to touch his sleeve. But Ash flinched and jerked backward. I’d never gotten along with Ash, but even I felt bad for him in that moment. And just as bad for Amelia, who looked ready to cry by that one act of rejection.
“Hey, what’s going on over here?” Maddox asked, striding toward us.
Ash shook his head. “I’m … going to go.”
Maddox watched him walk away in confusion. “What just happened?”
“He found out about Lila,” I said.
“Fuck,” Maddox said.
“I should go after him,” Amelia choked out.
“No,” Maddox and I said together. That would not go well.
Maddox sighed. “I’ll do it. Let me make sure he gets in a car home and doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“Thank you,” I told him as I put a protective arm around Amelia.
“I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. He needs to process.”
“I shouldn’t have hidden it from him.”
“Maybe not,” I admitted. “But we all agreed to. That’s not on you.”
“Fuck. Fuck everything. Fuck this timing. I just thought we were …” She trailed off and swiped under her eyes. “I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m … going to get someone to clean this up.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” she said and then went in search of help.
I sank into a seat. What a night. I should probably tell Cole, Derek, and Mars what had gone down. No one was going to like that it had happened this way. But it was done now. No more hiding.
I pulled out my phone to shoot them a text and saw that I had a missed call from an unknown number. They’d left a voicemail. I brought the phone to my ear and tried to drown out the party to listen.
“Hey, Josephine. It’s with deep regret that I make this call. We greatly enjoyed your audition for the part of Beatrice, but unfortunately, we’ve had to go in a different direction. Thank you so much for your audition, and we hope to see you again soon.”
The voicemail ended, and I was frozen in place.
The color drained out of my face as fast as the bottom drained out of my career.
I hadn’t gotten the job.
I hadn’t gotten the job.
28
SAVANNAH
PRESENT
“Well, I got Ash into a cab,” Maddox said when he found me downstairs in the lobby. “How’s Amelia doing?”
“It’s over, Maddox.”
He paused. A flash of fear flashing on his face. He asked very gently, “What is over?”
“My career.”
The fear disappeared, and in its place was confusion. This wasn’t where he’d thought the conversation was going. I hadn’t been honest about what my life had been like in the intervening years since Academy had ended. I avoided talking about it at all. Just focused on this one last audition. The one that I had been sure I had in the bag.
It had been the best audition of my life. Better even than Academy.
I was starting to think that I’d only gotten that job because I already was Cassie Herrington. Henrick Van der Berg had wanted someone just like me to play his heroine. He’d plucked me out of obscurity to do it. In my darkest days with Craig, he’d told me that I couldn’t act and had only gotten the job because I didn’t have to act. I’d screamed at him for saying it. I’d hated him then, so I’d ignored his hurtful comments. Millions of followers, eight seasons of the show, and one movie later, and I was clearly a good actor. Wasn’t I?