Chapter 31
She was awoken by someone pressing her door buzzer and a message from Charlie letting her know he was there, at last. She swung herself out of bed and snatched her hair back into a ponytail, swiping her fingertips under her eyes to sweep away any tearful mascara stains.
He looked her over searchingly when she opened the door, as if assessing her for damage.
“Oh, Kate.” He dropped his bags to hug her. “I’ll make everything okay, I promise.”
She shook her head as she stepped back to allow him inside the flat, closing the door behind him with a weary sigh.
“I don’t see how it can be okay after this,” she said, leading him into the kitchenette.
He took one of the two chairs at the tiny kitchen table as she went through the motions of making coffee.
“Have you seen everything that’s being said online?” she said.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Everyone hates me,” she said, unscrewing the lid from the milk.
“No, they don’t,” he said. “They’re confused, and the vacuum of official information is being filled with speculation and rumor.”
She put their mugs down on the table and took a seat opposite him.
For a moment, they took each other in.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here earlier,” he said.
“You didn’t need to rush back,” she said, relieved that he had.
From the moment things had erupted online, she’d needed his presence beside her.
They were a team in this; everyone else involved had other priorities.
H was Fiona’s only concern. For the publishing team, the book was at the top of the list. Only Charlie was thinking about how all of this impacted Kate.
“I got a train as soon as I heard,” he said.
“Did Fiona tell you about this afternoon?”
His expression shifted. “I had to turn the volume down on my mobile, she was…expressive,” he said. “She mentioned something about a dinosaur?”
Kate sighed and closed her eyes. “An angry seven-foot T-Rex.”
Charlie laughed into his coffee mug. “At least that bit hasn’t made it online,” he said. He squared his shoulders. “Look, it’s going to be a rocky few days. I’ve just come from a meeting with Prue and the team. They’re going to issue a statement tomorrow.”
She nodded, her hands clasped around her mug. “Do you know what they’re planning to say?”
“Not precisely, but it’ll go some way toward explaining the behind-the-scenes business decisions and give people something else to focus on. They won’t name the author, of course, and they’ll thank you for your help in bringing the book to market.”
“Do you think that’s going to be enough?” she said, finding it hard to imagine.
He took a few moments to gather his thoughts. “As far as the book’s concerned, I think this whole scenario is nothing but good publicity,” he said. “Sales will increase. Reader speculation will turn to who the real author is, and it’s on Fi and the team to handle that.”
“H deserves the privacy he was promised,” Kate said, worrying for the angry Welshman she’d almost met that afternoon.
“Prue and the team think it’s best if you lie low going forward,” he said.
She wasn’t surprised, after Fiona’s sharply delivered message earlier. “And you? Do you agree with them?”
He turned her question over before speaking.
“Having sat through the meeting this afternoon, I can honestly say everyone genuinely feels bad for you over there,” he said.
“But they have to make the book their number-one priority.” He looked her straight in the eyes, leaning toward her.
“Kate, I’m thinking only about you when I say this.
The best thing you can do right now is absolutely nothing—trust me, I learned that the hard way.
Don’t engage, don’t try to defend yourself while you’re emotional, you’ll leave yourself open to attack.
In fact, don’t go online at all if you can help it. ”
“Everyone is telling me the same thing,” she said, rubbing her hand over her forehead.
“You, Fiona, Prue, even Liv. Say nothing, do nothing. But I hate it, Charlie, all those things being said and thought about me that aren’t true.
Surely I could put my own statement out tomorrow too, just to apologize at least? ”
He reached across the table and covered her balled-up hands with his own.
“Let the publishing team do their job and see how that changes things. You don’t need to make all the decisions at once, okay?”
Kate’s phone pinged a message from Liv she couldn’t make any sense of.
Shit! I’m so sorry, sis, it all happened in the heat of the moment! You know how much Nish loves their trifles, it was in my hand and she was being such a cow. Call me if you’re awake Xx
She pulled her hand reluctantly from Charlie’s, shaking her head.
“I don’t know what she’s talking about, but whatever it is doesn’t sound good.” Wondering how many times you can get that sinking feeling without touching the bottom, she clicked her phone open.
It didn’t take long to unravel the meaning behind Liv’s cryptic text. Charlie scraped his chair around the table to look at Kate’s phone screen as the latest installment in the seemingly never-ending saga played out in front of their eyes.
Claire, the supermarket worker who they’d met in-store on publication day, looked down the camera.
“Can’t keep this one on the shelf today,” she said, piling copies of The Power of Love into the empty space before rolling her eyes at the camera.
“Bet the ‘author’ doesn’t show her face in here again, though!
” She made sarcastic air quotes as she spoke, sparking a flurry of hearts and thumbs-ups near the little livestream symbol winking in the corner.
Kate had checked out Claire’s book-blogging page after they’d met; it was full of shelving videos as the latest books arrived in the shop, accompanied by book recommendations and reviews. She’d grown quite a following.
“Say that again and you’ll be wearing this trifle,” someone off-camera yelled.
“Holy shit,” Kate whispered. “Liv, what have you done?”
Charlie leaned in as Kate turned the volume up.
“You again,” Claire said, filming Liv now. “Fake author’s sidekick,” she said into the phone, for the benefit of anyone watching.
“Sidekick?” Liv said. “Sister, actually, and I’m going to give you one chance to stop being rude about someone you know nothing about and do the job this place pays you to do rather than creating content when you clearly should be working.”
“I’m on my break, actually,” Claire spat. “So I’m going to give you one chance to get out of my aisle and go and pay for that trifle instead of waving it around.”
Liv glowered into the lens, then turned on her heel and stalked away slowly.
“At least she didn’t throw the trifle,” Charlie said.
“Let’s hope the phony author has more dignity than her sister, eh?
” Claire said to her followers. She’d probably imagined Liv was out of earshot, but she’d underestimated the power of a woman scorned.
Liv, still on camera, swung back around and marched straight up to Claire, tearing the plastic lid off the family-size trifle.
“Dignity?” she said, furious. “Dignity? I warned you.”
The last thing visible on the video was the trifle flying through the air toward the screen. Cream obscured the lens with a splat, but Claire could be heard screeching with shock as Liv yelled she’d happily pay for the fucking trifle now.
Kate clicked her mobile off. First Alice and now Liv. She loved her family to their bones, but it felt as if today was the day they’d decided to ruin her life.
“Well, that’s not going to help, is it?” she said, flat, not even looking at Charlie.
“Fiona mentioned she’d met your sister.”
Kate heard the subtext; Fiona had no doubt done a complete hatchet job on Liv, having been stuck in a storeroom with her for a chunk of the afternoon.
“We lost our mother when we were really young,” Kate said, feeling the need to defend her sister.
“It’s been us against the world ever since.
” She shook her head, remembering all the times Liv had waded in, both feet first. “She has this”—she splayed her hand flat on her chest—“this fire in here, a protective instinct that kicks in hard at the first sign of trouble.” She sighed and turned to look at Charlie.
“You must wish you’d never opened my letter. What do we do now?”
—
Both of their phones blew up over dinner, Chinese grabbed from the place a few doors down. Kate’s social media was on fire, and Charlie’s missives from Fiona and the publishing team were incessant. In the end, he turned both phones onto silent and placed them face down.
“Just eat,” he said. “Everyone can wait.”
“Today has felt at least four days long,” she said, pushing noodles around her plate. “If I’d known what was coming, I’d have stayed in bed.”
“It would still have come just the same,” he said. “The world keeps turning, even if you hide yourself away from it.”
“I know,” she said. “I just wish I could click my fingers and be somewhere else.”
“I was thinking exactly that on the train,” he said. “Now would be a really good time for you to be somewhere else for a few days.”
Kate pushed her plate away, done. “It feels like running away from my problems.”
Charlie’s phone rang, and he declined the call after checking. “Press again. Taking yourself out of a crazy situation so you can think straight isn’t running away. As your agent, I strongly advise it.” He held her gaze, and then her hand. “I just want to get you out of here to someplace safe.”
Her phone rang again, yet another number she didn’t recognize. She let it go to voicemail and listened back to a sharp-voiced journalist from one of the nationals sniffing around for an exclusive.
“My father kept a place in Henley-on-Thames. Let me drive you over there early in the morning,” he said. “He also had a ridiculous old sports car, you’ll like it.”
Of course Jojo had a sports car and a bolthole in Henley-on-Thames.
Charlie’s tired eyes reminded her that he’d shifted his entire day around to be here. She’d waited all day to hear his advice; now she needed to take it.
Their phones beeped constantly.
“Am I asking too much of you?” she said, realizing she wanted to say yes.
“I asked you, remember?” he said. “Besides, I’ve been looking for an excuse to drive the car.”
She appreciated the lie, knowing he was downplaying things for her benefit. She had no idea how this whole fiasco was going to play out, but at least she didn’t feel alone in it anymore.