“Ella,” he calls out just as I make it to the door.
I turn, batting away a rogue tear.
“We’ll address us later, but I want you to remember one thing today: you have nothing to be ashamed of. I saw you skirting past my office with your head lowered in embarrassment, and I won’t have that. Not in my building. If anyone gives you a hard time, you let me know. What’s going on between us is hard enough, and I want you to be able to put this shit with Kyle behind you. Don’t give him or anyone else your worries.This will blow over. You are my priority, not the story. Don’t forget that today.”
“Thanks,” I squeak, and I practically dart away for fear that if I don’t, I’ll run into his arms and do what I really want to, which is lose myself in him.
5
ELLA
Ihead into the conference room the PR team uses as an office, and everyone’s eyes land on me. Immediately, it’s painfully clear that the team is trying to be quiet and professional, but they aren’t succeeding. The vibe in the room is stiff and awkward, and instinctively, I start to shrink into myself, embarrassed.
But then I shake myself out of it, remembering Asher’s words. His words make me realize that he’s right. I have nothing to be ashamed of. The only thing I’m guilty of is staying with Kyle for too long—of getting caught up in that woman’s role as old as time—thinking I could fix him. Thinking that if I just became more of what he wanted, that he would somehow be happier and magically become a better partner. Spoiler alert, it didn’t work. And when I broke up with him, all his worst traits seemed to multiply to the point where, months later, he was willing to threaten me at gunpoint. None of that is on me. Those were Kyle’s decisions.
I straighten my shoulders as another epiphany hits me: I need to let go and face the fears I was so desperate to protect four days ago. When I found out Kyle was going to release astory with RTZ about our breakup, I wanted to bury it. I wanted to make sure his violent behavior toward me never came to light because I didn’t want to face the public scrutiny. I didn’t want to be forever labeled as a victim of domestic violence—but now I realize that that was a narrow view. With a little distance and perspective, I now see how lucky I am to have made it out of that situation safely when so many women don’t.
It’s still difficult to swallow the fact that my private life is being highlighted in the media, but if this story shines a light on domestic abuse, on toxic relationship dynamics, who am I to deny that it might be beneficial to some woman somewhere in the world? This is the price to pay for being with Asher. And in this case, maybe that price helps someone. I can’t hate that. So, I will hold my head up high and write my own story, and I will show the world that I may have been a victim, but I refuse to stay one.
“How are you?” Heather asks as I set my bag down on my desk.
“I’ve been better, but I’m glad to be back in the office.”
She gives me a hug. “We’re glad to have you back.”
I can tell she wants to say more, but she doesn’t, though the subtext of her thoughts is clear. If things had gone horribly wrong and I hadn’t made it out of that room with Kyle, I wouldn’t be here in the office. I’m lucky to be here. I can’t forget that today.
Emily directs the team to the table in the corner, and we all head there and take our seats.
“It looks like we have two separate battles to fight,” she says, after we’re all settled. “One is the cheating, and the other is the domestic violence. We need to prove, concretely, that Ella never cheated on Kyle, because for reasons I don’t understand, many men on the internet feel Kyle was justified in his actions. Now, normally I wouldn’t worry over some dude-bro trolls and their Neanderthal take on how a man is justified in domesticviolence, but this story is a mess, and the more we can clean it up, the better.”
“I’ll release my videos and texts,” I say, firmly. “That will prove everything in one fell swoop.”
Emily looks at me with surprise and what also looks like pity. “I thought you were against releasing them.”
“I was. But a lot has changed over the last few days. Everyone now knows what Kyle is like, so it’s not something I can keep quiet anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” Emily says after a long pause. “I hate to expose your personal life like this, but I do think it’s our best weapon in this case.”
I nod in agreement and grab my old phone out of my purse. I forward everything to Emily while the rest of the team discusses more strategies. When I’m done, I reach out to the editor in chief of RTZ and tell him that the deal with the beach and engagement photos I had negotiated with him is off. He may not have released the article that was the catalyst to this entire fiasco as it was, but he still released most of it. And I refuse to make nice and do business with someone who doesn’t keep their word.
“Got them,” Emily tells me after waiting a bit for the texts to download. Then she turns to address the team. “Josh and Michael, I want you to help me put this timeline of videos and texts together with a narrative of Kyle’s past behavior. Daphne and Heather, I want you to put together a statement about domestic violence that we can incorporate into it. Ella and Mr. Langford will have the final say on everything before it goes out, but I want to be well-rounded in our approach. We can’t just paint Ella as a victim, we need to also highlight her resiliency and strength. I want to keep Mr. Langford out of the discussion as much as possible, other than to show that once he knew Ella was in trouble, he rushed to help her. We can’t disclose the details of what went on in that room as they areunder an official investigation, but we can work with what the NYPD already released in their statements.”
Everyone nods and gets to work, but since there isn’t much for me to do, I head to the bathroom—I need a minute to collect myself. I open the last stall and take some deep breaths. Talking about that night is bringing up flashes of it in my mind, and the shock of having a gun pointed at me is still messing with me, making my heart race and my palms sweat. I can’t get over not knowing if Kyle would have pulled that trigger or not. The fear of feeling so blindsided by someone I once trusted is a shock that has yet to wear off, even days later.
After a few minutes, I feel marginally better and I’m about to exit the stall when footstepsclick-clackagainst the marble floors.
“I bet Mr. Langford is regretting choosing Ella,” Daphne’s voice filters from the other side of the bathroom. “This is such a mess. She should have told him about her crazy ex.”
I grit my teeth. I did tell Asher about Kyle before we signed the papers for our arrangement. Hell, we broke into Kyle’s apartment to get what remained of my things back before we signed the papers. Asher knew what an asshole Kyle was from the beginning; we just both thought Asher’s threats would be enough to dissuade him from doing anything else to me. But Kyle is clearly a moron and unstable. When he came forward to RTZ about his farce of a story, I was only partially surprised, considering his past narcissistic and delusional behavior, but even I couldn’t have predicted that Kyle would go as crazy as he did. Pulling a gun on someone is not normal.
“If I were you, I’d keep my opinions to myself,” Heather’s voice says in a warning tone. The water turns on at the sinks, and she raises her voice to speak over it. “Mr. Langford is very protective when it comes to Ella. If he heard you talking like this, he’d probably fire you.”
Daphne scoffs. “He’s only putting on a show. He’s the bigbad boss, so he has to act like a tyrant when it comes to Ella because that’s what people expect.”
“And how do you know that?”
“It’s obvious.”
