“To the readers, it is.”
“Ah,” Milo hummed. “It’s fiction to them, but real to you.”
Eliana nodded.
“And things aren’t going well?”
She bit her lip and shook her head quickly, glancing away.
“Well, I don’t know a lot about marketing, but I’ve learned that there’s very little YouTube doesn’t know how to do. I can help you figure it out.”
Eliana’s brows knitted as she jerked her head back. “What are you talking about?”
“To help you get readers?” Milo clarified. “We’ll go hard with the marketing. I’m assuming you write under a pen name?”
“I—yes, but that’s not—” Eliana took a slow breath. “I already have around eight thousand readers.”
“Holyshit.” Milo breathed. “I uh, I don’t think I understand the problem then.”
Eliana grimaced. “The problem is that they hate me. Well . . . the fictional me.” She paused. “Which is just the real me with better hair.”
Milo snorted, then laid a hasty hand over his mouth. “I doubt theyhateyou.”
Eliana tapped back into the app, turning it around to show him thehundredsof notifications she’d woken up to.
His eyes grew wider and wider as he scanned the page. Then he stretched a hand forward to flick the comments up, reading on.
“They want her todie?” Milo asked, his tone shocked. “What the hell did you write?”
“The last chapter I shared was about our discussion with Richard.”
“Ah.”
Eliana’s eyes narrowed. “You agree with them?”
“Now hold on, I didn’t say that,” Milo held his hands up. “I certainly don’t want you to die, but I do think you’re caught up in this . . . idea of your ideal outcome. Where you’re already independent of Jesse, your finances are sorted, your daughters remain blissfully ignorant, and you don’t ever have to dirty your hands—at least not publicly. But an ideal state is a goal. It’s not reality. And I’ll be honest, I am worried about what will happen if your plan goes sideways.”
“So you think I should go with Clem’s plan?”
“Tomurderthe man?” Milo coughed. “Of course not.” He shook his head, casting her one last incredulous side-eye. “No, I think you should see your own plan through. But I think you should also be prepared for the potential of it not working—and then being forced to make the decision that is best for your future. Abby and Zoey are strong girls. You’ve raised them well. They can weather more than you think. And in time, they’ll understand.”
Eliana bit her lip, hearing what he was saying.
Was her motivation to work quietly behind the scenes solely due to fear of her daughters being negatively impacted, or was she scared of how they’d perceive her, in theafter?
Even though Eliana knew the fault of the separation lay on Jesse alone, it would not seem that way when Eliana was the one to initiate divorce proceedings. Her worldly experience may be limited, but she knew the true victims in these situations rarely came out on top.
But if she could force his hand . . . she could keep the girls in the dark about the true reasons of the split. They could sit them down and present it as a mutual, amicable decision. Maybe the odds weren’t in her favor, but she had totry.
“I’m scared, Milo,” Eliana finally whispered, her voice breaking. “I don’t like not knowing. The readers expect something grand, but I don’t know how this story is going to end. What if I disappoint them? What if I disappoint my girls?”
Milo looked up at the trees, swaying in the wind, quietly thinking as he chewed. “You know, when Bea and I first started dating, we talked about the future a lot. And one thing we always discussed was the fact that we wanted kids. I wanted to be a dad more than anything else in the world.”
“What happened?”
“Well, long story short, we got married, and she changed her mind.”
“Just like that?” Eliana asked, shocked.
