She and Markus exchanged a glance of shared amusement. They might be broken up, but there was no one she’d rather enjoy this moment with.
All the players were present. Phil was downing a cocktail and wearing an expression of resignation. The OG members of Inner-G were looking snobby and strangely not hungover—all those G-shots maybe. Gabby preferred them after a Jägerbomb.
Phil gestured to the string quartet. “A string quartet on a boat—it’s a littleTitanic, huh? Remember when we saw that together? ‘I love you, Jack.’” His eyes shone with tears as if he were the one sinking into the ocean.
“Phil.” Gabby shook her head. How many times did she have to remind him that he had left her? It was too late to pretend he was Jack.
Before any official wedding stuff started, she had to sneak away with Markus for long enough to check [email protected]. She grabbed his hand and led him toward a room with a door. “We have to talk.”
“Gabby, I’m sorry,” he started to say.
“Ooh, hold that thought. We have some EOD business to attend to.”
She dragged Markus into what turned out to be a utility closet. Her giant train barely fit. It took up more space than the two of them. As soon as he managed to shut the door without the train jamming it up, Gabby asked, “Do you have a phone?”
He pushed the train out of the way to get to his pockets.
“Can I see it? I need to check my email. Naomi said she sent something that will explain everything.”
Before Gabby pulled up her email, someone knocked. “Hey, guys, it’s your wedding.”
“One sec!” Gabby called.
She typed in her password three times before she pulled up the account. Sure enough, there was an email from Naomi. No subject line. No writing. Just an attachment. It was an article. Chills raced up Gabby’s spine at the author’s name: Amanda Duvall.
It really was all circling back to Amanda.
The headline: Could a Hollywood Cult Spark an International Incident?
A few years ago, Genesis Love was the top-billed action star in the world. After one epic box office flop, he disappeared. The flop, though, wasn’t a regular flop.Power Couplebecame an instant cult classic. The movie’s biggest fan: Genesis himself.
Strains of thePower Coupleoverture filtered into the closet, an ominous soundtrack to the moment.
Like he does with everything, he took it to another level. Genesis turned his cult classic movie into a literal cult, Inner-G.
After ten years of mismanagement and bad decisions, Inner-G’s financial decisions are set to ricochet across the globe. Among the weirdestof Genesis’s problems, he’s taken millions upon millions of dollars fromPower Couple’s second biggest fan, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.
According to a source from Inner-G, Jasmine Love has been spending all the money on luxury goods instead of its designated purpose: filming a sequel toPower Couple.
This isn’t a joke. North Korea might not have a lot of power on the world stage, but it will not take this lying down. If Genesis doesn’t make good on his promise to deliver a movie that Kim Jong-Un has paid for, he risks assassination. North Korea will undoubtedly take ownership of the luxury goods that its money paid for or, perhaps, even the resort itself. There will be fallout.
Someone pounded on the door again. Gabby blinked at the article. She knew most of it, but the North Korea bit was—maybe she should have guessed, but it was just so weird. The president’s psychic was the most down-to-earth person at this resort, and North Korea was footing Inner-G’s bill. Gabby was living in the upside-down.
It doesn’t end here. Inner-G’s line of luxury skincare, Inner Beauty, makes all the usual claims: vegan, cruelty-free, no parabens. In actuality, the line is using cheap, non-medical grade products and selling them at a luxury price point.
The cherry on top: visitors to Inner-G should not expect privacy. The Loves will sell your secrets to the tabloids, as more than one pop star has found out.
Genesis has done everything short of murder to pay for his luxury resort, private jet, and most recently, a world-class yacht.
Markus whistled. “Amanda was about to take Inner-G down. This would have led to a federal investigation, charges, the whole works. They would have lost the resort and maybe ended up in prison if the charges stuck.”
Gabby said, “And the unnamed source—that’s gotta be Naomi.” When Gabby thought about it, Jasmine was the only one mentioning running away together.
Someone pounded on the door again. “Hey, it’s your wedding, not spin the bottle.”
Markus said, “We can’t do anything till Valentina gets here.”
Gabby nodded in confirmation. “Guess we’re getting married.”
