Paige studied him, eyes bright. ‘Well, let’s hear it, then.’
‘I want to talk in the Love Shack,’ he suggested.
She nodded. ‘Fine by me.’
They walked through the hall and to the interview room, and Oliver sat on the stool that he’d spent so much time on over the last eight weeks.
‘Camera on or off?’ Paige asked, still staring at him. He knew that he looked peculiar, grinning like an idiot after days of abject misery.
‘On’s fine.’
‘Right.’ The red light blinked on. ‘I assume you know where you’re going with this?’
‘Yes,’ he said. Now, unfortunately, the hard part came. Paige would certainly not make this easy. ‘I’m done playing your game. I’m not taking any more orders from you.’
Her face fell immediately, the effect almost comical. ‘Be serious, Oliver.’
He continued with a straight face: ‘I am serious. I’m not going to let you blackmail me, and I’m not going to waste any more of my time trying for the approval of people who don’t give a shit about me. And you’ve got that on tape, if you’d ever like a reminder of how low you’ve gone in life. Watch at your leisure.’
To his surprise, shame flitted across Paige’s features. ‘This is my job. I know it’s not pretty, and believe me, it’s not easy for me to see you like this. But I want you and Declan to be togetherproperly. It’s not as though I’ve got an evil agenda here.We want the same thing.’ She looked at him, pleading.
He shook his head. That refrain had never been less true than it was now. ‘I want to protect Declan. You just want to use him. How is it you don’t see the difference?’
‘You don’t know how I feel about you, about all of this,’ she argued.
‘I know it’s your career on the line. I understand giving everything else up to go after something – that’s what I’ve done for ballet. But there are more important things. It’s Declan’s entire life that you’re threatening. It’s my life, my livelihood, my sanity. You’re manipulating me, all in the name of… what?’
‘Making a point,’ she snapped. ‘A very important point.That,I thought you would understand.’
‘You’re not making a point,’ Oliver countered. ‘You’re profiting off people’s emotions, their vulnerabilities. If the audience knew what went on behind the scenes of the show, they would go ballistic. How do you think they would respond if they knew you offered me a good edit, fame and money to out another contestant on national television? That’s not as progressive as you’re telling yourself it is.’
As soon as Oliver said it, everything fell into place. He knew exactly how to get out of this, how to get almost everything he wanted. He’d lost Declan, but he had figured out how to win.
Paige’s face had turned a blotchy red, and she stared at him defiantly. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. Darcy’s heard the audio. I can’t stop it from airing, even if I wanted to.’
Oliver bit back a laugh. ‘You haven’t shown it to Darcy. There’s no story here unless I go along with it. If you air the audio and I leave, you expose yourself for exactly what you are: an industry capitalising on traumatising people for entertainment. Outing contestants for shock value and jeopardising their wellbeing in the process. I think you’re smart enough to know that’s not agood look, and that’s why you’ve kept this plan between the two of us. Isn’t that right?’
Her face was all the confirmation he needed. ‘Oliver – come on, we can still figure this out so we both win.’
‘You never fuckinglistento me. I’m leaving. I quit. You can’t make me stay.’ The words bubbled out of him. ‘You can’t make me do anything any more.’
Her face was stony. ‘Is that all?’
‘That’s all. Good interview, Paige.’
The red light blinked off. He stood and walked out the door.
Chapter 23
Declan
One Week Until Finale
Neil Steel: Awkward conversations abounded in the villa last week. Let’s take a look…
Eavie Laurent: ‘You’re in love with Maeve.’
Oliver Wright: ‘I’m completely falling apart.’
