“Lakelyn,” Jenna answered after the second ring. “Are you okay?”
“Until a moment ago, I would have answered I was great. However, now I’m not so sure. You’ve got me worried.”
“I know you’ve been avoiding social media and the news like the plague, so I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I wanted to let you know as soon as I heard.”
“What, what is it?”
“Tyler’s looking to extend his fifteen minutes of fame.”
I sighed, figuring that would be the case. The man fed off the attention and had an uncanny ability to lie and manipulate any situation if he thought it would further benefit him. Never bothering to give a damn who it might affect or how. As long as he got what he wanted, he was golden.
“What angle is he pushing now?”
“Take your pick.”
“Ugh, I’m so tired of this shit. How long do I have to atone for my mistakes.”
“Lakelyn, you did nothing wrong here. You know that, right?”
“I should have never gone on that show.”
“If that’s the only mistake here, you’ve nothing to apologize for; the production crew needs to own up to their manipulations. They’ve exploited you for their gain and ratings.”
“Jenna, I don’t have a leg to stand on. Whoever writes their contracts knows exactly what they’re doing. They are ironclad.”
“Do you have an electronic copy of it?”
“The contract?” I questioned.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Send it over; I’ll have someone from Cameron’s legal department dig through it.”
“As much as I appreciate the offer, truly I do, I don’t have it in me to fight them. I just want to move past it all.”
“I understand all too well.”
“How are you? How’s everyone?”
“Deflecting, I see.”
“Yep,” I enunciated with extra emphasis on thep. “Since being here, I understand that I must let go of the past to move forward. Nothing will bring Annabelle back; my sister is gone, and my parents wrote me off long ago, truth be told. So Tyler and the network can spin whatever lies they want. I know in my heart I’m a good person. I’ve got no skeletons in my closet, so I don’t care what anyone else thinks about me. As long as you believe my truth, that’s all I need.”
“What about Boden?”
Boden.
I rubbed my hand over my heart as if that would soothe the quickly developing ache. “He knows about Annabelle, and I . . . I’ve tried to tell him a few times about the show. I just—”
“From what you’ve told me, he’s one of the good guys.”
“He is.” I couldn’t help but smile to myself. He was the one bright spot for all that had gone wrong lately. “I’ve never met anyone like him before.”
“So, what’s holding you back?”
Wasn’t that the million-dollar question.
