Chapter Twenty-Two

"Is she still asleep?"

Ivy. She's the one who whispered the question. I can clearly hear her because I'm back at my teeny, tiny, costs more than my unemployed ass will be able to afford soon apartment. She's standing near the "kitchen," which is a hot plate and a microwave and a weirdly shaped fridge I'm sure was very modern in 1989.

They took me home and put me in bed last night after I'd cried for a solid three hours. When the tears started the guys had disappeared, but that was all right with me. I kind of hate all men right now. I know I don't really, but if I don't have to be around one for a few days, I'll be okay.

I'm not particularly fond of women in power right now either.

"You know Ani. She might sleep for a few days," Harper whispers back. "You remember when she broke up with Tommy Hammersmith in college? She didn't leave our dorm room for a week."

Yep. I'd hidden under the covers and lived off of protein shakes and pixie sticks. It had not been my best look.

"I don't get it," Ivy says. "I thought this guy was totally into her. Emma says they're an excellent match."

"Well, Emma doesn't know everything," Harper shoots back.

I want to stay in bed. I want to block the world out, but I can't. I have things I have to do, and they start with telling my friends everything I didn't tell them the night before. I'm so grateful they were there for me. If Harper hadn't been working, she wouldn't have known anything happened at all. They would think I was getting ready for the big move. "She knew enough."

"Hey, you're awake." Ivy hurries across the small space and sits on the edge of the bed. "I have some coffee and donuts. I can get something else if you like."

Harper joins her, but on the other side. I sit up in my Murphy bed that wouldn't have fit Luca at all, and I'm squished in by my two best friends.

"Does this have something to do with why Patrick was fired?" Harper asks.

"Yeah, she said something about a PA, but she wouldn't tell me because she said it had to do with the NDA you signed," Ivy replies, her expression beyond curious.

I sigh and wipe the sleep from my eyes. I'm weary as I sit back. "It doesn't matter now. Yes. I caught Joe sexually harassing Patrick. I pretended to take his explanation and called Jessica, who promised me she would take care of things. Apparently one of the things she needed to take care of was me."

Ivy's gaze goes steely. "Are you kidding me? Jessica, your mentor for years Jessica? Jessica, who talks feminism at every conference and talks about building your network of women and never letting them down because we all have to fight the patriarchy together? That Jessica?"

She's neatly summed up my boss. "The very one. I guess when she found out it was a man harassing another man, she decided she didn't need to give up her moneymaker for her principles."

"But that doesn't explain why Luca would dump you," Ivy says.

"Oh, it does." Harper leans into me, a familiar gesture of comfort. "They could close down the production. Jessica likely talked to her lawyers, decided they could cut Anika loose and save their prize director. Did she come up with some leverage against you?"

"My mom," I whisper.

"Fuckers." Ivy stands. She's the ragiest of my friends and the one most likely to plot some serious revenge. "All right. Let's figure out how to handle this. Should I go scorched earth, or do we want a slow burn where she thinks something's going wrong but can't quite put her finger on what's happening."

"We do nothing," I reply. "Except maybe talk to a lawyer because I broke my contract when I walked out last night. I don't think they'll challenge me on it because if they do I'll explain what happened, and that's what they're trying to avoid. I've thought about this and I need to talk to my mom, but I don't know if they can block her entirely. They can keep her off Pinnacle sets, but she's a mainstay in New York. She's had some clients for over thirty years."

"You want to talk," Harper surmises with a nod. "I think you should."

"I'll talk to CeCe and ask her to get a referral from Lawyer…," Ivy says and winces. "I should find out his name. I sometimes worry I'm becoming CeCe. But you know what CeCe Foust would never do?"

"Don't say sexually objectify someone because we all know her," Harper quips.

"She never acts on it," Ivy argues. "And she would never leave me in the lurch. Ever."

"Because she thinks of you like a daughter." I guess the betrayal from Jessica should hurt worse, and likely it will in the future. In the future I'll be able to shrug off this numbness and look at things rationally. But right now there's a hole in my heart and his name is Luca St. Marten. "Jessica has her own kids. I'm sure she would tell me she's doing this for the good of the company. She would say she's making the hard choices. The way a man would."

"Yes, but that's been our mistake all along." Harper sighs and holds my hand. "You definitely need to talk to a lawyer but until then, what are we doing about Luca? Do you think they put pressure on him to cut you?"

"I'm sure they did."

"Then he could still feel the same way about you," Harper hedges.

"He cut her cold with cameras filming her every move. He didn't give her a heads-up," Ivy argues.

But he kind of had. I hadn't taken the cues, but they'd been there. "He had his bodyguard tell me, but I didn't understand what he was saying."

"What did he say?" Harper asks.

"That I should remember Luca has to sacrifice." I sniffle. "I just didn't think he would sacrifice me."

"Asshole." Ivy is still pacing. "Like I said, there's zero coming back from this. I don't care if he's planning on trying to see her after the filming. We need a plan. I can probably take out his government with a few keystrokes."

"Ivy Jensen, you will do nothing of the kind." It isn't Luca's fault he was born the king of a country. It isn't truly his fault. He'd tried to warn me. He'd used Hans to do it, and Hans didn't understand how to plainly state hey, girl, you in danger.

Yeah, if Whoopi Goldberg had been Luca's bodyguard, I would have known to be on guard.

"I don't see why not," Ivy grouses.

"Because I'm moving on and honestly, Luca isn't the problem." I mean that. He has a goal and I got in the way of that goal, so I'm out. I know that now. It's a hard practicality that I have to find a way to accept because I'm not going to be the king's side piece when he gets out from under all the cameras.

Not that I feel very practical. I feel like drowning in my own tears. I want to stand in front of him without cameras running so I can tell him exactly how I feel. Anger. Rage that he could do this to me. I want to beg him to change his mind, to find a way to get what he needs while not giving me up. But I sit and I force myself to go numb. There still is someone I need to help. "Patrick is the problem now. Well, what happened to him is. I can't let it lie."

"Ani, what about your career?" Harper is always the reasonable one.

Reason has flown out the window. "They won't fire me, but I work on contracts. I'm assigned to different crews. I suspect there won't be a lot of work for me in the future. If I keep my mouth shut, they'll still work with my mom's company."

"Oh, I can take down Pinnacle, too." Ivy's gone a florid red.

I'm sure this whole thing reminds her of how she got treated in Silicon Valley. She knows what it's like to be a woman in a man's industry. Which is funny when you think about it. Women consume far more media than men, and yet the entertainment industry is still mostly run by and for men.

"I can connect them to some seriously dark shit and then call in some reporters I know. Jessica Wallace can go on a watch list and see how she likes getting the slow hand from the TSA every time she wants to fly," Ivy vows.

But this won't be settled in the court of public opinion. At least I hope it won't. "I need to go over all the scenarios. I feel comfortable when it comes to leaving sequester. Like I said, they won't want me to talk about why. But that leaves me in a bad spot, too, because it means they can edit my time on the show however they like. That could hurt Patrick's case if they get to control the narrative. Turning me into an angry, jilted almost-queen is good for the show and it could mean jurors later on think I'm being bitter."

"I want Ivy to figure out a way to shut the whole thing down entirely," Harper admits. "Look, if this was a home reno I would be your girl, but this is really more Ivy's world."

Ivy seems to think the problem through. "I think I can do it, but I might need some cash. CeCe can call Lawyer, who I am sure knows a couple of reliable black hats, though she'll probably just call them Criminals. I'd love to see one of those dudes deal with CeCe. It's all digital, right? All I have to do is fuck up the digital and all the backups and voila, no more dating show that hurts my bestie."

It's all super sweet. I mean seriously you want these women as your ride or dies, but I have to shut this line of thinking down. "I can't let you do that."

"Because of Luca?" Harper asks.

"Because of Luca. And Patrick and the crew, and those women I've grown to genuinely care about. That's the funny thing. We go in fighting over some man and we get maybe twenty minutes with him a day. But we spend all our time together. You really get to…" Huh. You really do get to know people. "I think Hannah and Riley are hooking up."

"Oh, according to Emma, they are a damn near perfect match." Ivy is nodding, leaning against the little bar. "I ran them through when I caught them holding hands where the crew couldn't see them. They are going to have a lovely life together."

"Unless one of them becomes the queen of Ralavia," Harper points out.

I doubt that will happen. Oh, he'll pick one of them and he'll do all the showy things he needs to do. Likely Shelby or Ashley F. He'll consider Hannah and Riley too easy to hurt. He'll make appearances with his fiancée and eventually announce it didn't work out.

Like he'd planned all along. I had been the bump in the road. I had been the detour he didn't want to take.

I wonder if he viewed the debacle with Patrick as a convenient off ramp. Was he out there relieved he never has to see me again? I doubt seriously I'll be invited on the Contestants Tell All show they always have right before the big reveal of who won.

Does he feel the loss or is he so used to sacrificing that it no longer bothers him?

Or there's a third scenario. He never cared about me at all. I was there and willing to have sex with him, and why should he turn me down?

My chest feels heavy. "I hope they make the right choice."

Ivy moves over and sits next to me again. "I'll call CeCe and get the name of a lawyer. Are you okay with me sparking a shit ton of rage in her so she'll get angry at the world and pay for everything?"

That sounds perfect to me. Especially since I can afford next to nothing. I don't feel bad about it either, because CeCe lives for this kind of drama. "Do you want me to cry in the background?"

Ivy pulls out her phone. "That's a good plan. Can you cry on cue now?"

I burst into tears because I give myself permission to relive last night's utter heartbreak.

Even Ivy looks scared. She presses in a number and holds the phone to her ear. "Thomas, I'm going to need to talk to CeCe. We've got a big problem."

Harper sniffles and wraps me up in her arms.

I let them take care of me while I try to purge myself of this awful heartache.