‘I want you to print a retraction in the paper,’ I said, getting straight to the point.
Her thumbs paused, head slowly lifted, eyes narrowing on me. ‘I’m sorry, what?’
‘Yeah like that, but maybe with a little more sincerity.’
Her spine straightened. She folded her arms across herchest, her gaze reassessing me, her expression shifting from disinterest to disdain.
‘Okay, I’ll play along,’ A predatory smile spreading across her red lips. ‘What exactly would I be retracting?’
’Every hateful and untrue word you’ve said about Oliver.’ I flashed a satisfied smile that only grew when Ashley’s smile dropped.
‘Nothing I’ve said has been untrue. You have no idea what it was like with him.’ Her voice caught, she even managed to scrounge up tears to shine in her eyes. Oliver was right. She was good.
‘That’s impressive, really.’ I held my palms up, ‘But you see, you’ve overplayed your hand. You used Oliver to gain fame, and then switched it up and decided to latch onto Cole. A guy known for being kind-hearted. You made up all of these stories about Oliver being abusive and taking drugs and went sobbing to Cole, who you knew would believe every word out of your mouth. The damsel in distress card really worked for you, didn’t it? Why the substitution, Ashley?’
Ashley’s tears magically dried up, her voice turning cold.
‘We’re done here.’ She turned and walked down the hallway.
I called out after her. ‘The problem is you didn’t cover your tracks that well.’ Her steps faltered, and she spun around. Facing me with growing contempt.
‘Even the second-rate journalists that have been printing all of these stories seem to have more brain cells than you do.’
She let out a hollow laugh. ‘Alright, go ahead, tell me this story you’ve concocted.’
‘I’ve not concocted anything. I’m writing a book about Oliver’s career and he’s told me everything,’ I’d weighed the risk of telling her about the book. If I could just get her talking,get her thinking that her plans were crumbling around her, it would be worth it.I hoped to God it would be worth it.
‘This project has given me a lot of insight into his relationship with you.’
Ashley’s eyebrows shot up. ‘He told you about us?’
I wasn’t about to give this woman another scrap of Oliver. She’d stolen too much from him.
‘He told me a lot,’ I admitted vaguely, ‘But not half as much as a certain journalist did. The same journalist you’ve been tipping off, slipping stories to.’
As soon as I mentioned a journalist this made Ashley’s facade fizzle away, her eyes widened a fraction. If I looked hard enough, I thought I saw a frisson of fear flash over her face. Like the perfect actress she is, the expression was quickly wiped away, replaced with effortless indifference, but I noted the rigidness of her posture.
‘You’ve been playing everyone.’ I couldn’t keep the anger from slipping out. ‘Youusedboth Oliver and Cole for what? Their fame and their money? Not only that, you destroyed Oliver's life in the process. How could you do that to someone you claimed to love?’
‘You have no proof of any of this.’ Ashley’s cold eyes narrowed on me.
This time my smile was genuine. ‘Actually, I do.’
Her jaw ticked.
‘You see, that journalist, I know him, he’s a friend… well, a friend of a friend really. It didn’t take much convincing for him to show us the most recent tip-off you gave him; he even admitted that he and a few other journalists are the ones you contact when you feel people are moving on from the story. Cole doesn’t know it’s you doing that does he?’
‘You’re bluffing. It’s against the code of ethics for a journalist to give out their sources. Ben wouldn’t tell you anything.’
I scoffed, ‘I think calling any of the people you’re dealing with journalists is a stretch, and Idefinitelythink that presuming they have ethics is laughable. Also… I never mentioned I’d spoken to Ben.’
Ashley’s face fell. Her mouth parted, the desire to rewind the last few minutes palpable.
‘You fucking tricked me,’ she spat.
Gesturing between the two of us, ‘Didn’t you get that from the whole cornering you in a hallway thing? I feel like I’m in a very bad movie right now. But I want to know why. What did Oliver do to you?’
Ashley let out a harsh laugh, head falling back on her shoulders. A wild look entered her eye. ‘Do to me? Oliver didn’tdoanything to me. He was justthere.I could have had my pick of any of the top players but I chose the easy fucking target. Oliver was a nice enough guy, but he also had an ego the size of Australia so it wasn’t hard to get him to end up trailing after me like a puppy. A few well-chosen compliments, the promise of no-strings sex, suddenly he was eating out of my hand,’ She sneered. ‘Or should I say my pussy.’
