‘I don’t think,’ Rose had said, shocked.
What was wrong with these people? Couldn’t they see that the guests were becoming increasingly unstable, that this was the type of person the show was now attracting?
Suddenly she felt very alone, out on her own with nobody at her back.
Theo had been the first person who’d ever been stronger than she was and who was totally behind her.
She’d been the strong one for Adriana.
Theo had been the strong one for her.
After a series of altercations outside the studio, the number of security guards on the door was doubled on the show.
‘It’s fine, it’s all safe,’ the executive producer had said. ‘We’re taking this very seriously.’
Rose took this with a pinch of salt.
The studio only cared about ratings.
So that final day when Rose is talking about hair products with Denise, she is only half-listening to the stylist, and half-listening to the noise from the studio, metres away.
Theo had predicted something would go wrong. She knows he’s right. She thrums with low-level anxiety.
The gunshots were unmistakable.
A suspended moment ofIs that what I think it is?
Denise throws herself on the ground but Rose is frozen in her seat.
‘It’s all her fault,’ a man is screaming so loudly that he’s heard above all the noise.
Rose knows exactly who he’s talking about.
It’s her.
Theo was right: she’s about to lose everything.
Her ego, her hubris have brought her here.
It’s a miracle only the shooter himself is hurt. Anothermiracle that he isn’t actually killed, merely receiving a shoulder wound.
So many miracles that Rose knows her time is up: she has to get out of there.
When Rose walks back onto the terrace, only Dianne is sitting there. She looks tired and old.
Rose finds it hard to pull herself out of her own worries to run the retreat, but she has to.
‘Talk to me, Dianne,’ says Rose encouragingly, as Dan collapses into a chair nearby, Keera and India trailing behind him, hot and tired.
‘I can’t,’ says Dianne. ‘I would love to but I really, really can’t. Not here …’
She stares Rose in the face for a full minute.
Rose gets it.
‘I know this is a group but I think perhaps Dianne and I need to speak alone—’ she says.
‘But no—’ interrupts Dan, who obviously wants to hear all. He’s exposed his pain and everyone else should too.
