Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Again, the cacophony of the crowd hit like a surge. But beside me, Janus looked calm as ever, standing straight. He strode down the red carpet as if he did this all the time.
And suddenly I wondered… did he? Just how often did the two brothers switch places? In identical tuxes, it was nigh impossible to tell one from the other.
Then there was no time for puzzling it out any further because Janus had stepped up and started fielding questions.
Reporters shouted all kinds of things at him with microphones held out for his response:
“Do you like having sex with your brother?”
“Leander! Leander! How do you respond to the charges of sexual harassment in the workplace?”
“Leander! Where’s Janus? Don’t you do everything together?” Snickers from the crowd before more shouting came.
My face flamed even though I knew I had to stay back. My place was in the shadows even though I wanted to shield my client from every bit of this. Their former publicist had made sure that would be impossible, though. She’d exposed them in every way possible. Why on earth had they ever gotten involved with a woman like that?
And what was Leander thinking now? Was he in that limo reading everything that had been written about the two of them? Tossing around more cocktail-ware? I felt just as furious, but I could do more than throw things. Dammit, I needed to be on a laptop somewhere doing damage control right now.
But supporting Leander… well, Janus, I guessed, right now, as he faced down these vultures, was the most important thing. So I stood tall in the background, out of the way of pictures, while more questions were flung like arrows Janus’s way.
“Aren’t you canceled now? Why did you even show up tonight?”
Followed by an even more vulgar question.
I winced. Jesus, they weren’t holding back, were they?
But Janus just held out his arms to quiet the questions coming at him. Cameras were flashing so nonstop I knew he’d be so blind he wouldn’t be able to even see the first twenty minutes of the movie, that was, if he ever got inside.
But movie premieres were never about watching the movie, not really, were they? They were all about this. The drama out front. Who wore what. Who let what scandalous tidbit slip with a reporter.
Everyone here was hungry for a show.
Then Janus snatched one of the mikes being held out towards him. What the hell was he doing? I tried to wave and get his attention.
No comment, I mouthed at him. But he wasn’t looking at me. Nope, he just confidently walked back to the center of the carpet, looking for all the world like a showman in complete control of the circus around him.
I paused, watching him, and so did most everyone else.
The cacophony of voices even quieted some. At the realization that something different was happening, that they were witnessing a moment, the camera flashes went even crazier. A hundred cell phones lifted to capture what he would say next.
Oh crap, I’d told him to say no comment, and unless he was hushing the crowd to give one big, anti-climactic, “no comment,” I was about to have a helluva lot more to do tomorrow than I’d expected.
Because I had no freaking idea what was about to come out of Janus Mavros’s mouth. And that was always a PR agent’s worst nightmare.
“Quiet if you want to hear me make a statement about the troublesome, disgusting news I’ve only just heard,” Janus shouted into the mike. It had the intended effect.
The crowd quieted as if a god had commanded it.
Because one had.
It wasn’t so quiet one could hear a pin drop—no, there was still an underground current of murmuring. But too many people were hoping for a good sound bite. These were professionals, and they quieted one another harshly, doing his work for him.
“I’ll have a clearer statement in the morning,” Janus said. “But frankly, my brother Janus and I were shocked. So shocked Janus couldn’t even get out of the limo just now. To have our bond so twisted, and by someone we trusted.” Janus contorted his handsome face.
“So you’re denying the allegations? The video?” someone called.
Janus laughed in their face. “The video? People make deep fakes of us all the time. I only heard of this five minutes ago but look what someone sent me yesterday! Before any of this.”
He reached in his pocket and I waited with bated breath along with everyone else as he pulled out his phone. He clicked on something, then faced the phone outwards. I struggled against some of the other press to try to see what was on the screen.
“I don’t know if you can see that,” he spoke into the mike. “But a fan made a deepfake of me playing Loki in the next Marvel movie.” He named the fan page so everyone could check it out for themselves.