It’s a toxic addiction.
When will the Pruitts address their public meltdown? They have to saysomething.
They’re about to get it.
It’s taken an entire day to outline everything I have to say, plus speaking to all the right people to get the logistics in order.
Now, I’m ready to go live with at least a million viewers hanging on my every word.
Even with the entire universe on the line, there’s only one spectator I care about.
I had Luis tracking her plane from the very second we found out a jet chartered by August Marshall left Reno-Tahoe International.
It’s almost pathetic that I punched the air less than an hour ago when I found out she agreed to see me.
For all I knew, she’d want to hide forever in anger or shame.
Lena must know I’m responsible for this mess. I pushed that asshole so hard, he fired back. I’m the reason he leaked those dirty photos, detonating her life.
Of course, the fact that Harry Jay still had them isn’t my fault. Using them to retaliate also isn’t a choice I had a hand in.
But nobody can deny that I triggered the duel. I pulled my trigger, and he pulled his.
I fired my best shot over all her objections, over her proud demands for me to let her handle this alone.
If she decides to hate me forever, I won’t blame her in the slightest.
If she’s coming to see me, though, I don’t think she’s decided yet.
I still have a chance at a miracle.
Hearing footsteps makes me look up just in time to notice people are moving through my condo, heading for my studio room. Luis enters first, followed by Lena.
For a second, I don’t recognize her.
She looks tired, dark lines under her eyes, shadows formed by a thousand tears. Even her walk doesn’t look right—it’s slower, careful, more subdued.
Her chestnut hair looks frizzed. Not like its usual glorious mess after she comes home from a full day healing animals.
Even so, she’s goddamned radiant.
She can’t help being the most beautiful candle in the room, even when she’s got half the city trying to blow her out.
I’m not the only one who gets an adrenaline jolt when I see her.
Queenie leaps up from beside my desk and goes pounding over, her tail swishing so violently she nearly knocks a lamp off its end table in the corner.
“Hey, pretty girl.” Lena’s voice is subdued as she kneels down and buries her face in Queenie’s black fur for a second. “Oh my goodness, I missed you too!”
Oblivious to the drama, Queenie barks a few times, spinning in circles, before she leads Lena to the sofa facing me across the room.
I glance at Luis as he stops behind the camera tripod, already set up.
“Are we ready?”
“If you’re sure you want to do it here, yes. Live stream in three minutes.”
Not enough time for a proper conversation, but that’s what I planned.
