Chapter 40

Harley

How couldI have been so stupid?

I felt like an idiot.

I never should have trusted any of them, much less Freya, who’d spent the least amount of time with us. I’d thought it was weird she jumped at the chance to meet us for lunch when she’d barely hung out with us outside of group when we’d been at Harmony Place.

There was something so deliberate about the timing I couldn’t help but wonder if Freya had somehow been planted at the wellness center specifically to become friends with me? Spy on me? But that was stupid. Only a couple of people had known I was going there, and absolutely no one, including me, had any idea I would be making up with Tommy.

This had to be a horrible, unlucky coincidence, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. Tommy was upset, the band would probably hate me, and the wonderful new life I was building with Tommy felt like it was in danger of collapsing.

I’d been trying to get him to talk to me, but he’d said he needed a little time to think. He was quiet the whole way to Z’s place and there was an emotional distance between us I’d never felt before, not even when we’d been divorced. I’d stayed far away from him after serving him with the papers, and I’d had my lawyer go in my place the day we’d had to sign the final papers, so we hadn’t actually been in the same room together until Carter’s funeral. But even then, we hadn’t spoken.

I had a million things to say to him, to try to explain, but none of them felt like they were enough.

How could I possibly explain my stupidity or make up for this?

The ad, and ‘Judgement Call’ by extension, was everywhere from what I’d seen since we’d left the house, and I didn’t understand how it could have happened so fast. I’d only talked to Freya on Monday and today was Sunday. It felt like the highest form of betrayal on every level, and I planned to let the other girls know we had a traitor in our midst. I knew without even talking to them that Mina, Betty, and Harriett hadn’t been involved, so I wanted to warn them just in case they’d spilled any secrets.

Of course, my gut told me Freya was only after me. Whether it was because of Aurora or something else, I couldn’t be sure, but this had nothing to do with the others. They would probably be furious too.

I couldn’t imagine what Tommy had to be feeling.

The worst part was that there was nothing I could do to fix it.

When we got to Z’s house and I told them what happened, the rest of the band seemed less upset than I’d anticipated.

“You’ve forgotten how often people look to exploit us,” Kingston said after I’d explained. “You have to remember that almost no one is truly your friend.”

“I’ll look into how far the reach of that NDA from Harmony Place extends,” Madeline said from where she’d joined us via video chat. “But it’s probably not going to hold out. I’m sure Freya had her own attorneys look at it before she did something like this.”

“We start damage control immediately.” Dorian Malloy, the band’s publicist, was also on video chat. “If you want, I can reach out to Kate Martensson. She’s the best crisis control publicist in the biz, and I’m willing to bet she can make this go away.”

“It’s not a matter of it going away,” Z grunted. “We can’t get her to stop running the ad, which means millions of people are going to hear that song and equate it to Freya Colson and everything she stands for.”

I nearly groaned.

This was my worst fucking nightmare beyond something happening to River.

How could I have let this happen?

“Should I reach out to Freya?” I asked finally. “Do you think I could try to get her to take it down?”

“You can try,” Madeline said, “but my gut tells me this was orchestrated by Aurora, which means either Freya is some kind of spy for her, or she has something on her and Freya didn’t have a choice.”

“But no one knew I was going to be at Harmony Place,” I protested. “Least of all Aurora.”

“Probably a matter of coincidence for them and bad luck for us. You can call Freya, but don’t say anything about anything else we’re doing. Stick to asking her why she would do such a thing. Maybe she’ll let something slip we can use.”

“All right.” I still felt horrible, but at least this meant I could be proactive. “Should I call her now so you guys can listen in?”

“If you want to.” Kellan nodded.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Freya, putting it on speaker. Unfortunately, it went to voice mail, and I decided to leave a message.

“Hey, Freya, it’s Harley. I wanted to talk to you about your new ad. When I saw you on Monday, you didn’t say a word about using an Onyx Knight song and I’m hurt that you would do something like this. Can you call me back?”

I disconnected and looked around. “I don’t know what else I can do. I feel awful about this.”

“In the future, you have to think about every word that comes out of your mouth with regard to the band,” Madeline said in a sharp voice. “You should know better.”

“You’re right,” I said. “I should know better. I honestly felt like these were my safe place people, from the wellness center. It never occurred to me any of them would do something like this.”

“It was probably just a consequence of opportunity,” Madeline said. “Since no one could have known you were going there—unless Aurora knows someone who works in admissions there—it was probably just a fucked-up coincidence. If Freya happened to mention meeting you, and she was already friends with Aurora, it gave her the opportunity to gain your trust. They both knew the NDA protected you when you were there, but the moment you got out, it was open season.”

“That’s why she met us for lunch when she normally didn’t bother,” I said with a groan. “God, I’m so stupid.”

“Just a little na?ve,” Madeline said, her voice gentler now. “Anyway, there’s nothing we can do except keep moving forward. Re-record the songs so we can play them however and whenever you want and then make a formal statement about the situation once we’ve done it.”

“I actually have an idea,” Sasha said, since she’d joined us as well. “I have to run it past my mom, so I don’t want to say anything yet, but trust that I’m working on a plan.”

“Have I told you I love you yet today?” King asked her.

She laughed. “No, but I like hearing it.”

“All right, I’m signing off. I’m going to go over that NDA and reach out to Freya’s counsel to tell her that we’ll be suing them for using the song without our permission. We’re basically blowing smoke up their asses, but it gives me great pleasure to think I’ve given them even a moment of discomfiture.”

“And I’m going to call Kate the minute we hang up,” Dorian said. “Even if she can’t make it go away, she can help me write a better statement that will address some of the issues with the songs. I think we should go public with what’s going on. We can’t stop them from using the songs from those albums however they want in the future, but can control the narrative of why those songs are being used, and let the fans know we’re re-recording the masters, to keep an eye out for new versions of the albums, etc.”

“It can’t hurt,” Madeline said. “And at this point, it doesn’t matter if they know you’re going to re-record those albums. Fuck them. We’re not doing anything wrong.”

“And hopefully, I’ll have good news for you within a week or so,” Sasha said.

“Why won’t you tell us what it is?” Madeline complained.

“I don’t want to jinx anything and, like I said, I have to run this by my mom. I can’t pull this off without her.”

“Well, keep me posted. And don’t do anything without running it by me!” Madeline’s voice was stern. “We’ve had enough surprises this week.”

“Don’t worry—I’m on top of this.” Sasha grinned.

“We could also distract them with news of Tommy and Harley’s upcoming wedding,” Dorian said thoughtfully. “Everyone loves a wedding, and they’ll think Tommy and Harley getting back together is romantic and sweet.”

“That’s a great idea,” Devyn said, nodding.

“I like that,” Madeline said.

“Uh…” Tommy spoke up for the first time and there was a look on his face that made my heart sink. “Let’s hold off on making any announcements about that. We might be putting the wedding thing on hold for now.”