Page 122 of Undone By The Mountain Daddies

It was when we’d just gotten together.

I was going through the motions, new to the industry, the fame.

I remember that night like it was yesterday.

“I know what will make you feel better.”

Holden lifts up a bottle of wine.

“Right,” I say. “Because wine’s the answer to all of my problems.”

“It’s the answer tonight. You’ve had a hard day.”

“When I’ve had a hard day, I dance.”

Holden looks at me like I have three heads.

The photograph he’s showing is the result of drinking a bottle and a half of red wine.

That was the first time I’d ever had wine. I stare at the image of myself. Fake lashes clinging to my real ones. One eye open. My hair looking like a rat’s nest.

To top it all off, lipstick is smeared across my mouth. I look like a cross between a clown and a woman possessed as I lay on Holden’s couch, barely coherent.

“I don’t understand,” says the interviewer as I watch the rest of the interview play out. “Why did Sienna feel the need to do drugs back then?”

“This—” Holden taps his phone screen— “is a mix of drugs and wine.”

He’s such a compulsive liar.

“Sienna was overwhelmed by her fame. She comes from a small, quiet town and went from zero to one hundred in the space of a few months. She showed up at my place—we were dating at the time. I immediately called the paramedics to get her some help.”

The interviewer takes a step back, raising her eyebrow.

Paramedics?

Mixing drugs and wine?

He was the one who suggested the wine. And it was just wine. There were no drugs involved. And no paramedics.

“Look,” sighs Holden. “I could show more, but I think we’ve already seen enough. I’ve made my point.”

“Show us more,” shout the audience behind him. “We support Sienna.”

Holden, the sanctimonious fuck he is, pockets his phone and shakes his head. “That wouldn’t be fair.”

I’ll say.

“I’m doing this so people can understand Sienna better and so she’ll get the help she needs.”

Oh. My. God.

“Sienna isn’t a bad person.” This must be Holden’s closing statement. “She’s back from the mountains, away from those men, and that’s a step in the right direction. She has some mental health issues she needs to work through. I encourage you all to think about that the next time you make a hateful comment about her.” Holden thanks the interviewer for his time and starts walking away.

But the audience starts chanting his name.

“Holden! Holden!”

People shove more microphones and cameras into his face.