Logan nodded, pressing his lips together hard. “You were filming when these came in. I opened mine, and I’m assuming yours is the same.”
Logan tossed two envelopes onto the table, one unopened had Angelica’s name on it. Hope furrowed her brow, wanting desperately to reach forward and slice it open to see what was inside. Logan stayed quiet, finally coming forward to sit across the table from them.
Angelica pursed her lips as she snagged the letter and slipped her pointer finger underneath it to open it. “This is from Josef?”
“Yes,” Logan answered, a tremble in his voice. “Normally, I wouldn’t be concerned since we see things like this often, but with everything else…” He trailed off.
Angelica’s eyes were glued onto the papers in her fingers. Her manicured nails gripped the papers tightly as she read quickly. Hope’s heart thundered. What the hell was in those papers? What was happening? She was in the room where everything was happening, and she still knew absolutely nothing.
Hope clenched her jaw, just waiting. Because what else could she do? Finally, Angelica dropped the papers in front of her and looked up at Logan. “It’s because he doesn’t want to countersue me.”
Logan’s lips parted in shock.
Hope ignored it, however. She knew exactly what Angelica was talking about. She read the papers in her fingers. Lawsuit against production and crew for defamation. Everything was outlined clearly about what was going to happen and when they had to respond by. Hope trembled.
Every time they thought they were taking a step in the right direction, Josef came back and fired another ten rounds at them. She just wanted to give up. Exactly like Angelica did. She was so tired of fighting a battle that felt unnecessary and harmful.
“He won’t win a defamation case,” Angelica said, shaking her head so that her curls bobbed on her shoulders.
“What do you mean countersue?”
“I’m suing him for harassment.” Angelica swallowed hard before she dashed her tongue against her lips. “My lawyers should have filed everything late last week. We’ve been building a case for a while, and I finally had enough and told them to pull the trigger on it.”
“Ange…” Logan sighed heavily. “You should have told me.”
“There wasn’t a need. This is a personal case, not one that production is bringing against him, and you didn’t need to be involved yet.” Angelica’s shoulders tightened hard.
“He thinks we’ve defamed him?” Hope shook her head and sighed heavily, but her stomach was a mess of nerves that she couldn’t break. “Because we told the truth?”
“Yes,” Angelica answered sharply. “This isn’t the first time I’ve run into men like this, who think they can push a woman around and make them do what they want through the lawbecause they can’t for one second imagine that they might have done something wrong.”
Hope had never heard so much disgust in Angelica’s voice before. It surprised her. Where had all of that anger been hidden for the last few weeks?
“He’s trying to ruin my life, one piece at a time,” Angelica murmured, glaring daggers at the papers in front of her. When she looked up and locked her eyes on Hope’s, all Hope could see was what she wasn’t saying.
And he’s going to succeed.
Reaching out, Hope curled her fingers around Angelica’s and held on tightly. “This defamation suit is against production, so we can just prove that everything we’ve been saying has been true all along. We have proof of what he’s done for three years.”
“Proof of some of it,” Angelica muttered, looking toward the wall.
Was she trying to hold back tears?
“I’d like to say that they’ll fight this, but I’m not sure they will. It’s always easier to settle cases like this,” Logan added.
“Which will only give him the funds and the backing to come after me personally.” When Angelica looked at Hope this time, there was no denying the fact that she was giving up already. The brief respite they’d had was gone instantly, in one fell swoop.
“We’ll get through this,” Hope said, trying to be the positive force that they both needed. “I promise you that we will.”
“I know we will,” Angelica said, her lips pulling upward slightly into a small smile before they fell again. “I don’t know about anything else.”
“This is going to take a few years to untangle at best.” Logan reached for the plate of food and started eating it.
At least someone was going to enjoy it, because after this news, Hope was damn sure that Angelica wouldn’t have anappetite for the rest of the day. Not that it’d stop Hope from trying to get her to eat something.
“Naturally,” Angelica muttered under her breath. “I should have anticipated this, I’m sorry. I thought he’d only come after me.”
“Any idea why he has it out to get you?” Logan asked around a piece of pita bread.
