“Have you been on social media today?” Cherish asked, instantly typing on her phone to pull something up.
My head shook as I extended my hand to accept her phone. “No, why?”
“I think the video will speak for itself,” she continued, and she was absolutely right.
I watched me chase Natasha outside and beat her ass. I wasn’t sure which of our neighbors had recorded it, but they’d sent it to a blogger, and the post had gone viral. In one day, it already had three million views. My eyes burned with tears as I slid the phone across the table to Cherish. As if being cheated on and betrayed by two of the closest people to me wasn’t bad enough, now, millions of people saw me reacting to it. That certainly wasn’t the light I wanted to be portrayed in, and I didn’t even bother looking at the comments.
While I wouldn’t say I cared about how people felt about me, I cared about the image I put out into the world. I took pride in my aura and energy. Fighting my naked best friend outside, regardless of the reason, was not a good look. Plus, it looked like I bullied her ass because she didn’t want to fight or even try to protect herself.
This was horrible.
Freaking horrible.
Groaning, I covered my face as my head and leg shook.
“So, . . . you wanna talk about what led to that, or do you want us to go straight into how damaging this is?” Andrew asked as I sniffled and dried my eyes before my tears could fall.
I was grateful I had on shades because I’d cried so much yesterday my eyes were puffy.
“I found her in bed with my man. My ex-man. I was so angry and hurt I just . . . reacted.”
Lowering my hands, I sat back in my seat. Their expressions softened as Cherish gently squeezed my hand on top of the table.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she almost whispered. “That’s your best friend, right?”
“She was,” I clarified quickly. “She’s nothing to me now. I still have to move my things out of the house and figure out where I’m going to live, but yeah. Our friendship is definitely over.”
“Has she contacted you since the fight?” Andrew questioned.
“They both called until I blocked their numbers yesterday. I haven’t talked to either one of them.”
“While I sympathize with your situation and likely would have had the same response, I can’t deny how bad this looks,” Cherish said, removing her hand from mine. “People are speculating that the fight had to do with some kind of disrespect or betrayal, but because they don’t know for sure, this makes you look really bad, Eli. We’ve been pushing the image of who I truly believe you are—a sweet, kind, loving, soft woman. The woman in that video does not depict that. The aggression, the violence . . .” Her head shook as she sat back in her seat.
“We’ve gotten several calls already pulling future endorsements, and there are talks of canceling shows,” Andrew picked up. “The comments are insane. Some people are assuming it was cheating and are on your side, but a lot of people are dragging you for beating up what they are taking to be a defenseless woman. Your following on social media has already started to drop, and if we don’t bring a publicist in to start to do immediate damage control, I honestly don’t like where this is going, Eli.”
I was conflicted. A part of me wanted to say I didn’t care if my following declined. Quite frankly, I didn’t want any sponsored deals, and I didn’t want to perform anyway. When I originally started sharing videos of me doing covers, it was because I was bored and playing around on social media. I had no idea it would lead to all this. If it wasn’t for my father pushing me to see how far I could take my career, I would still be in my reclusive bubble of solitude.
It felt silly doing something I didn’t really want to for my father’s approval, but we had so little in common that I jumped on the opportunity to make him proud.
My mother died when I was fourteen, from cancer. Up until that point, I was a mama’s girl, and Isaac was our father’s bestfriend. When she died, I immediately felt alone. The boys in the house were obsessed with sports, specifically football, which was why I’d learned what I’d learned about it over the years. Still, my father was not a girl’s dad by any means. Isaac Senior didn’t try at all to get close to me or try to fill the void of losing my mother. All his attention was on his superstar, football-playing son. He knew long before his namesake did that my brother had a future in the NFL, and all his focus and attention went to his junior.
Time in therapy helped me realize I had a lot of resentment stored in my heart toward my brother. I felt rejected and ignored by my father and abandoned by my brother. My teenaged years were depressing, and my early twenties were wild and full of fighting and rebellion. Now, at twenty-six, I’d mellowed out significantly. I was all for peace because I saw how destructive anger and depression could be in my life.
That woman the world saw on that tape was a version of me I wanted to bury and never let out again.
She shrank the moment my videos started to go viral and my father saw potential in me. He started giving me the same attention he gave my brother and investing in me.We didn’t have a close bond now, but him caring about my career was better than nothing, and remembering that was the only thing that made me want to do what I could to restore my image.
When he heard about this, he was going to besodisappointed. It was hard enough having a father who wasn’t loving, soft, and expressive as it was. The last thing I wanted was for him to believe I’d ruined my career, since it was the only thing tying us to each other.
“How can we fix it?” I muttered, deciding to put my big girl panties on.
Chapter
Six
Falcon
Hearty laughter escapedme as I stared at my publicist. Her serious expression only made me laugh harder. I was starting to think either she’d lost her mind, or I was on some kind of prank show. After she called me earlier, she told me to make her office my first stop. I dropped my bags off at home, showered, then headed her way.
