Chapter 24
All her crying gave Lily a headache, so she didn’t go out to dinner with Nicola and Wilson.
They didn’t really want her there anyway.
Twenty-four hours ago, Nicola would have been the first person Lily told about her fight with Dorian, but now she couldn’t tell her anything.
Lily had never felt so alone. She called and texted Juliet but got no answer.
She must have gone out. So Lily locked herself in the guesthouse and flopped down on her bed, feeling all jumbled inside.
Her anger cooled enough for her to approach the new information more clearly and logically.
Might there be any truth to what Dorian had said?
But even if there was, she reasoned with herself, why should she care?
She was never going to see him again, and once she got home, she was going to kiss the whole of Hollywood goodbye.
Except … she hated being wrong. And the only thing worse than being wrong was being willfully ignorant.
At least if she found out he was telling the truth and she had completely misjudged everything, she could move on.
So Lily took out her notebook and wrote down in bullet-point form everything Dorian had said. On the opposite page, she wrote a second list: everything that Alex had said. His list was much shorter and had a lot more gaps in the timeline.
Lily wasn’t exactly proficient in the way of cyber-stalking, but she’d picked up a few things from Nicola, who could find out anything about anyone from just a first name.
Nicola’s golden rules: be specific in your key words, click through to page two, and open links in separate tabs. And always use incognito mode.
She found the title of the movie Alex was fired from easily enough: Standing Tall, a feel-good drama about a group of private school boys.
There wasn’t much press coverage before it started filming, though Lily found a cast announcement listing “newcomer Alex King as Bobby, a member of Rupert’s (Khan) friendship group.
” A three-star review of the film when it came out said that Alex King had been replaced due to “scheduling conflicts.” But Lily had learned (unwillingly, in a very long and boring one-sided conversation with Wilson) that “scheduling conflicts” hardly ever actually meant what it said and was a catch-all term used for everything from quitting to firing.
But none of the articles or reviews from the time seemed to know—or care—why Alex King had left the production.
It was, of course, all about “rising star Dorian Khan.”
But what else had Dorian said? Alex had put Stacy Black in the hospital? He’d said it so quickly and so brusquely that it had almost escaped her notice. But that was serious—and Alex hadn’t mentioned anything about it. Lily typed: Dorian Khan Stacy Black Alex King hospital.
DORIAN KHAN, STAR OF THE DANIEL DANGER FRANCHISE, PHOTOGRAPHED EXITING ROYAL LONDON HOSPITAL
DANIEL DANGER 3 SUSPENDS FILMING IN LONDON FOR A DAY
FANS SAY DORIAN KHAN INJURED WHILE FILMING DAN DANGER 3 AFTER BEING PHOTOGRAPHED OUTSIDE ROYAL LONDON HOSPITAL
DORIAN KHAN IS “NOT INJURED” SAYS PUBLICITY REPRESENTATIVE: “JUST VISITING”
But none of the articles mentioned Stacy or Alex.
There was no proof it was Stacy Black in the hospital, and there was no proof Alex had been the one to put her there.
But Stacy Black had enough power and enough money to keep that out of the press.
And if Dorian was telling the truth … that was serious.
What had Alex done? Dorian Khan Stacy Black Alex King assault
STAR OF DAN DANGER DONATES SALARY FROM FILM ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT TO CHARITY FOR SURVIVORS
DORIAN KHAN MAINTAINS DONATING HIS SALARY WAS “ALWAYS THE PLAN”
“I DIDN’T WANT TO MAKE A FILM ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT AND NOT ACCOMPANY IT WITH ACTION” SAYS DORIAN KHAN, STAR OF UPCOMING FILM GONE NOW
DORIAN KHAN DID “EXTENSIVE RESEARCH” FOR HIS ROLE IN GONE NOW AND “KEEPS IN TOUCH” WITH THE PEOPLE HE SPOKE TO
This had nothing to do with Alex King and Stacy Black either.
But as Lily stared at the two lists in her notebook and the dozens of articles about Dorian donating his salary, Lily wondered if perhaps this was not about compiling lists or evidence or data or he-said-he-said.
Perhaps it was about trust and sincerity and proof of character.
When she thought about Dorian, she remembered his tact surrounding Juliet’s injury.
She thought of Franklin’s generous praise.
She thought of the courage it takes to tell someone the truth, even when it reflects poorly on the teller.
Despite his casual cruelty and arrogance, Dorian had always been, as he himself said, honest. And what little he revealed about himself was always specific.
Alex, on the other hand, had been all smooth talk and sweet words and was always rather vague on details.
He hadn’t shown up to New Year’s when he said he would.
He’d made grand plans and big claims and then forgotten about them a few days later.
And he’d openly flirted with Rosie and her own mother, now that she thought about it.
Dorian had been so rude and presumptuous, but at least he’d been forthright.
Maybe Alex had only ever told her exactly what she wanted to hear.
She didn’t know whom to believe. And it wasn’t like she could get advice or help from anyone around here.
Casey, Franklin, Stacy, and Wilson were all under Dorian’s thumb.
Nicola didn’t know anything. But … there was one person who might be able to help her find out the truth, even though Lily had never heard her speak more than two words.
She was close enough to all the key players to know what had really happened—and closest of all to Stacy Black. It was her daughter, Inez.
But how could Lily possibly get in touch with her, let alone engineer a casual conversation about Alex King?
Then she remembered the movie screening at the end of the week.
Wilson had invited her as well as Nicola; it was a work event at the production office.
Stacy Black would be there. Maybe Inez would come too.
Dorian, she was pretty sure, would stay well away.
This would be her only chance to find out more.
Wilson and Nicola were only too happy to discover that Lily wanted to attend the screening after all.
“Of course we want you to come and enjoy yourself,” they urged with tilted heads and smiles.
Once there, they both proceeded to ignore her completely.
It was perfect. As everyone jostled to squeeze into the most important conversations in the lobby and the best seats in the small theater, Lily found it very easy to get close to Inez.
She didn’t pay much attention to the movie, even though it was an all-star-cast heist movie she would usually enjoy.
She kept sifting through her encounters with Dorian, her memories of Alex, all the headlines she had read and the articles that accompanied them, and the one image she couldn’t escape: Dorian’s angry and hurt face as he walked out the door.
As the credits rolled and Wilson and Nicola gushed to Stacy about the film, Lily had the perfect opportunity to start a conversation with Inez.
But how could she broach the subject? Especially when it was, according to Dorian, such a delicate one.
Hey, Inez, what do you think of Alex King?
Did he somehow hospitalize your mother? But Inez, surprisingly, spoke to Lily first.
“So, you’re, like, going home tomorrow, right?” she said to her phone as she chewed gum.
“Yeah.”
“And the flight’s superlong, right?”
“Fifteen hours.”
“I would die.”
“I’m looking forward to getting home.”
“I hate my home,” she remarked with no hint of irony. “My mom’s the worst.”
“Mmm,” replied Lily, to somehow suggest agreement without being directly insulting to Stacy Black. “I miss my friends a lot. The people at Pippi, they’re all really great. Actually, I think you know someone there. Alex King?”
Not her smoothest transition, but Inez didn’t seem to notice. Whatever feelings that name triggered in Inez, they were not positive. Her face turned sour.
“Alex King? That cockroach?”
“You’re not friends?”
“He has no friends. He has targets.”
“Are we talking about the same guy?”
“Tall, handsome, so English it makes you want to vomit.”
“I guess.”
“My mom, she’s a nightmare, right? I know it, you know it, whatever.
He went after her like she was Marilyn freaking Monroe.
And she believed him. Suddenly she’s in love, he’s in her movie, he’s moving in, he’s spending all her money, he’s kissing up to her, creeping onto everyone in a skirt behind her back, and she thinks he’s just the best.”
“I don’t think—”
“Until she’s a couple hundred thousand down, he ruins the movie, totals her car, and the maid turns up in his bed. She confronts him. They fight, he shoves her down the stairs, breaks her arm.”
Inez spoke like she was listing shopping, but to Lily, the revelation was a blow that left her winded.
“Really?”
“Yeah, really. Whaddya think I am, a liar?”
“No, it’s just … there’s nothing out there—”
“Of course not, my mom’s not stupid.”
“Oh.”
“She was in love. Got over that pretty quick.”
“So no one knows about this?”
“She doesn’t like to talk about it.” Inez snapped her gum. “I love talking about it.”
“But how—”
“She fixed him. Dorian fixed him, actually. Paid him off, took some of the heat himself. Mom would have just made everything worse. You know, most movie heroes are dogs in real life. Dorian’s not. He’s actually cool. You’re lucky he likes you.”
“Right,” Lily said finally because that was all she could think to say.
But Inez had already gone back to texting on her phone.
That night as Lily packed her suitcases, Inez’s words roiled around in her head.
How could they possibly be true? She tried desperately to discount them by checking against her own experience and found nothing but more confirmation.
She remembered the very first day she’d spoken to Alex at the party, all he’d told her about Dorian, and the way he had dismissed Stacy Black.
At the time, she’d thought it brave—his clear disregard for fame, money, and power.
But now she realized it had been a self-pitying, self-aggrandizing anecdote designed to make him look good and another person, someone she barely knew at the time, look bad.
He’d kept a low profile while Dorian was at Pippi, even stayed away from New Year’s Eve.
Then as soon as anyone who might challenge him had gone, his story became public knowledge.
She remembered that Cecilia and Aunt Kitty had both warned her, and Dorian himself had done so too, on Stacy’s behalf.
She had ignored them all. Lily suddenly felt sick at the thought that she had defended him.
She had to face a truth so painful it made her cry: at least part of the reason it had taken her so long to realize the truth about Alex was that she didn’t want to admit he had duped her. She’d been wrong.
Lily’s phone rang just as she closed the zipper on her last suitcase.
It was Juliet on video call. She was back home after her trip to Melbourne and she gave the appearance of happiness, but Lily couldn’t miss the hope in Juliet’s voice when she asked if Lily had seen or heard from Dorian recently—or Casey.
“I saw Dorian briefly,” Lily said truthfully.
She wanted to tell her everything there and then, but Juliet’s sad, hopeful eyes stopped her.
How much could she reveal without also telling her the truth about what Dorian did to stop her and Casey getting together?
Should she tell Juliet? But what good would it do?
Wouldn’t it just upset Juliet even more to know she’d been deliberately kept away from Casey—and the reason why?
It was still all so raw and jumbled in her head that she decided it could wait.
She’d be home soon enough and could tell the story in person.
“Casey’s still in Australia,” Lily acknowledged. Juliet looked disappointed but tried to hide it by turning the conversation back to Lily.
“Are you all right? You seem low.”
“Just tired.”
“Sad to be leaving?”
“Ha! I cannot wait to get home.”
After hanging up with Juliet, Lily knew she should be a good daughter and call her mum and sister.
They answered bundled up in thick cardigans.
It appeared to be a cold wintry morning at Pippi and Lily could imagine the steel gray color of the water.
Though LA’s eternal summer had been great, it was beginning to look more and more plastic under the bright sun and she looked forward to getting back to Pippi.
Even when gray and stormy, it was always real.
“Can’t you stay any longer?” said Lydia. “Don’t come back here, it’s cloudier than chicken soup and just as wet.”
“Please come back, Lily,” Rosie whined, “but only so you can pick me up and take me back to LA with you. School is so boring I’m actually losing brain cells.”
“There is nothing going on here, nothing. Nicola’s got the right idea, getting herself a job! Why didn’t you get yourself a job?” asked Lydia.
“Lily, did you get me that eye shadow? You have to, I can’t get it here and I want to make everyone jealous,” said Rosie.
“Have you got that Stacy Black woman’s number? Call her. Do it now. If anyone should have that job, it’s you,” said Lydia.
“Also, can you puh-lease put something interesting on social media? None of my friends believe you’re actually hanging around movie stars and Hollywood producers,” said Rosie.
“Nicola makes a mess of everything and she dresses like a tart. Tell Stacy Black. Tell them all!” said Lydia.
“Oh, and can you pretty pretty please tell Inez Black to follow me back? She’s got, like, twenty million followers,” said Rosie.
Lily felt like bursting into tears after she hung up.
She had been so angry at Dorian for how he’d interfered with Juliet and Casey, and how he’d been so rude about her mother in the process, but now she saw her family through Dorian’s eyes: her mother grasping, her sister naive.
She hadn’t considered Lydia as part of the equation when it came to Juliet and Casey, but there she was—a bright red X inserting herself into any situation she thought she could benefit from.
Anything Dorian had done to keep Casey from Juliet, however cruel it may have seemed, was done only in response to the threat Lydia had posed to them.
The strikes against Juliet were not her fault; instead the blame fell on Lily’s avaricious family.
She was embarrassed by them, and she felt so ashamed for it.