“If you’re photographed together, Sophie handles it.”
“How?”
Sophie hesitated.
“We’d say she’s a friend.”
The bruise on my knee began to throb beneath the table.
Claire had driven four hours the previous week to attend a showcase no one would remember. She had stood in the back because we had decided it would be safer than having her beside my mother. Afterward, she had waited in the car for forty minutes while I shook hands with radio executives.
A friend.
“What if they ask Claire?” I said.
“We’d brief her.”
Something about that phrase made Rachel sit up straighter.
“You will not brief Claire without Savannah present.”
“Of course not,” Sophie said quickly.
I pushed the pizza box away.
The meeting had started with arrows.
I missed the arrows.
They had been simpler.
Richard softened his voice.
“This is temporary.”
“How temporary?”
“Until you’re established.”
“What does established mean?”
“A strong second album. Headlining numbers. More control.”
“So success.”
“Yes.”
“And after I succeed, I get to tell the truth?”
His mouth tightened slightly.
“You’ll have more choices.”
It was a very polished answer.
I would learn to give hundreds of them.
Rachel closed her legal pad.
