Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
“Kora’s agreed to take over your finances for right now,” Angelica sat across the table from Theo. She felt as though she’d spent all week right here, doing nothing more than running numbers, correcting numbers, and attempting to teach him the very basics of what he should already know.
She still wasn’t sure how he’d made it for this long.
“Oh?” Theo asked, seemingly confused by that statement.
Angelica furrowed her brow and nodded. “She has a grasp on a bit more than the basics, and Hope’s discussed with her what needs to be done. She doesn’t want to do it permanently though, so you’re still going to need to hire someone to work with them.”
“And you’re sure I can afford it?” Theo worried his lower lip.
“I’m sure that you can’t afford it.” Angelica gave him a hard stare.
They’d already done this dance a number of times, and as much as she understood that it was damn difficult to admit that she needed help, Theo seriously needed help on this front.
“I’ve also worked through the schedules and staffing so you can see how you can more easily function with about two-thirds of the staff that you currently have. ”
“Two-thirds?” Theo squeaked.
“It’ll cut costs dramatically. Here.” Angelica pushed her iPad over so that he could look at it more directly. “This is how you will fill the gaps with fewer people.”
She pointed out each of the ways, explained all of them, and then sat back and waited. Theo was going to have to figure out at some point that reduction in staff meant laying people off.
“Okay. I’ll think about implementing this.”
“No,” Angelica corrected. “You will implement it. Today. Come on. We’re going to run through the employees, figure out who’s staying and who’s going and then I’ll sit with you while we have those conversations.”
“You mean fire them?” Theo paled.
“Lay them off.” Angelica tapped over to a list of employees. There were a few that she could definitively say needed to go, but the rest, she’d leave to Theo’s discretion. “No one likes these days, but they must be done.”
“Okay.” Theo sighed, but he seemed willing to work with her on everything.
Angelica sat with him, breaking the news of letting employees go for the next three hours.
She poured as much compassion as she had into those conversations, and by the time they reached the end, she was done.
She wrapped the scene and did one more with Theo to give him the plan going forward, and then all she wanted was to escape.
And luckily, she had an hour before Hope would be back to film the introduction and exit they had planned, since Angelica had missed the first full day of filming.
Angelica snagged her iPad and went toward the elevator to escape into her room and the silence she needed to find there.
She ran into Lyric as soon as the doors opened and stopped short.
Lyric’s eyes were wet and red, as if she’d been crying. Angelica’s lips parted as concern rushed through her. She’d never seen this woman cry. Not once in all the time that they’d worked together.
“Lyric—”
“Ange! I need to speak with you!” Florence’s voice echoed through the lobby.
Angelica refused to look over her shoulder, keeping her gaze on Lyric.
“I’m fine,” Lyric said quickly. “I promise. Just that time of the month.” She rolled her eyes as if she didn’t believe it either.
“You know I think that’s a piss-poor excuse, so why are you even attempting—”
“Ms. Shields.” Lyric sighed heavily. “I’m fine. I promise.”
Angelica hummed her disagreement.
“Ange!” Florence shouted again.
“I can take that if you were putting it upstairs.” Lyric pointed to Angelica’s iPad.
Handing it over, Angelica planned on using that later to figure out exactly what had upset Lyric so much.
Because whatever had crossed Lyric’s face in the last few seconds made Angelica more uncomfortable that she should have been.
Something had happened, and Lyric was avoiding sharing.
She’d give her the grace of avoiding—at least for now.
“Ange, I need to speak with you.” Florence was only a few steps away now.
Lyric gripped the iPad and ducked her chin. “I’ll catch you later, Ms. Shields.”
“I have an hour break before—”
“This can’t wait.” Florence walked away, back the way she’d come, and Angelica closed her eyes briefly before following.
No matter what, a bomb was about to drop on her. She had no doubt of that. Something had happened, and she wasn’t going to like it. And she was about to face the next battle—as if all the ones she was facing right now weren’t enough.
“Care to tell me what this is about?” Angelica asked as she stepped into the staging office. It was nearly cleared out already, most of their things packed away—at least what could be.
Florence pointed toward one of the chairs and then sat down next to her.
She dragged over an iPad and called Logan.
Which was only confirmation of what Angelica had already known.
This was going to be yet another bomb—either something she’d done wrong, some threat from Josef, or something she was now going to be charged with fixing.
Assuming they’d even give her that power and control back after the interrogation she’d endured the last weekend.
“Thanks for meeting with us, Ange,” Logan said from the video call. He was seated at his desk in Los Angeles, clearly having already set up the time and place for this meeting—it wasn’t an emergency call. Yet, once again, Angelica hadn’t been told about it.
“Care to fill me in on what I’m missing?” Angelica asked, raising an eyebrow first at Logan and then at Florence. “You know how much I don’t care for being jerked around.”
Logan looked away from her and focused on Florence. “You didn’t tell her?”
“I haven’t had a chance, and she’s been avoiding me.”
Well, that much was true at least. Angelica would avoid her each and every time she had a chance. Florence was just someone that she’d never be able to fully get along with—that much was clear after filming nearly half this season already.
“We need to talk about press. Hope’s interview isn’t dying down. In fact, it’s ramping up, and not in a good way. We need to find a way to counteract it.” Logan didn’t look pleased, and Angelica could understand why.
“You shouldn’t have let her interview on her own. Not with something like that.” Angelica wasn’t going to let him off the hook for that one. It had been a stupid decision, and she’d stand by that. “But I don’t know what you expect to happen to fix it.”
“Production feels the audience needs to see the two of you together—outside of the show.”
“Outside of the show?” Angelica repeated, more confused than ever.
“Like a date,” Florence said confidently.
“You want Hope and me to go on a date for filming purposes?” Angelica couldn’t even believe those were the words coming out of Florence’s mouth. “Absolutely not.”
“I told you she wouldn’t like this idea,” Logan said. “What do you suggest, then? Because we need a solution, quickly.”
Angelica paused. Because she had no other ideas. They could do interviews all they wanted but no one would actually be seeing their relationship firsthand, and that was really what would dissuade the bad press they were getting about everything.
“What’s being done about Josef’s leak of confidential reports?” Angelica asked, changing the topic immediately.
“We’re looking into where he got that information,” Logan stated.
Angelica shook her head slowly and rolled her eyes.
“In corporate speak that means absolutely nothing. You’re not looking into it.
You’re not going to do anything about it.
You’re not here to protect me and Hope. You’re here to protect your fucking show!
” Angelica slapped her hand onto the tabletop.
She’d had enough of this bullshit. She was tired of running into the same roadblocks every five seconds.
She was tired of being told that they were doing something about it and then doing nothing.
She was just fucking tired of playing pointless games.
“Ange, you know this takes time.”
“I’m tired of waiting.” Angelica pushed herself upward.
“Don’t leave yet,” Florence said, calmly.
And something in the way she spoke compelled Angelica to sit firmly back down in her seat.
“We all want the same things, Ange. You know that. We want this show to succeed and to continue to be renewed for seasons to come. We want you and Hope to not run into so many problems. But we can’t deny the fact that we’re dealing with a lot of problems.”
She knew that. Of course she did. But she had so much more on her plate that she hadn’t even told them about, and all they could do was tell her this? It was unsatisfactory. And they should know that.
“I was late to filming this week because of your inquisition.” Angelica pointed directly at Logan.
“Not mine,” he corrected, putting his hands in the air. “Trust me, I pushed hard to allow the inquiry to wait because of the allegations and Hope’s miserable interview. They couldn’t put it off—or so they said.”
Angelica wanted to roll her eyes at that one. She wanted to tell Logan exactly what she thought about everything—and… hell, why was she holding back?
“No. I refuse to accept that. They panicked, and they took their panic out on me. And I’ve borne the brunt of this show’s lack of ethics for four fucking years, Logan, and I’m through with it.
You can either treat me like an equal, or I’ll leave.
” Angelica tensed. She hadn’t meant to take it that far, but everything she said felt exactly right.
She would leave. Because it didn’t matter if she had the show or not, she’d still be happy with the life she’d spent years building.
She’d just chalk it up to something she’d tried and decided it wasn’t right for her.
“You have a contract,” Florence said.
“I’ll break it.” Angelica focused on her. “No contract is ironclad. And I don’t care about the consequences.” She looked back at Logan. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” he said, his lips pulling into a slight smile as if he’d been hoping she’d get to this point. She’d have to figure that one out later, because right now, she just wanted to get the hell out of here.
“Good.” Angelica nodded at Florence. “I’ll be back to film in one hour.”
With a rush, Angelica walked out of the room. She didn’t have any use for their nonsense anymore. She was tired of it. All of this bullshit would lead to absolutely nowhere.
“Ange!”
She halted. Angelica held her breath as she stared down the hallway toward Eva who barreled toward her. She waited as the girl skidded to a stop in front of Angelica with the biggest grin on her face, crystalline blue eyes bright with mischief.
“Mom says we’re leaving tomorrow.”
“We are,” Angelica confirmed. And thank fuck for that. Because she wanted to get out of here. She wanted to be done with filming, for at least a little bit. She needed the break.
“I looked up some places to go check out.” Eva pulled up her tablet, the only thing that Hope and Rex would let her have, with very limited access to the internet. Angelica had asked about it at one point, surprised that they hadn’t given her something else to track her down by. “See?”
Eva shoved the tablet in front of Angelica’s face, pointing to the grubby screen. Angelica furrowed her brow, still not entirely sure what she was looking at. It seemed to be a list of stores, but none of them really made sense.
“What is this?” Angelica asked, needing more information before she could make a judgment about what was happening.
“Jewelry stores.” Eva sounded so pleased with herself.
“All right. What are you buying?” Angelica asked again, still trying to dig more information out of a conversation that she was clearly lacking information on.
“I’m not buying anything.” Eva flipped through the list. “This one is closest. We could go tomorrow before our drive.”
“We?” Angelica pursed her lips, still completely lost.
“For a ring. Duh.” Eva rolled her eyes. “For Mom.”
“A ring,” Angelica repeated the word, racking her brain. Hope’s birthday wasn’t any time soon, and as far as she could remember, there wasn’t an anniversary in there either. Lyric definitely would have reminded her of that. She always did, even though Angelica remembered the important ones.
“So you can propose.”
The air rushed from Angelica’s lungs. Cold rushed through her. “What?”
“So you can propose,” Eva repeated, like Angelica should understand exactly what she was talking about. “You know, get down on one knee and all that, but I’m not sure how that works with two girls. Do you know?” Eva looked up, meeting Angelica’s eyes. “Has anyone ever proposed to you?”
“Uh… yes. But that’s not… What do you mean propose? Propose to who?”
“To Mom.” Eva squinted and shook her head. “You’re not dating anyone else, are you?”
“No.” Angelica flexed her fingers. “But I’m not… we’re not… your mom and I haven’t talked about getting married.”
“She said she wanted to marry you.” Eva put her tablet down at her side, those big blue eyes turning on Angelica with sadness sweeping through them. “Don’t you want to marry her?”
“I…” Angelica stuttered for words. For the first time in ages, she honestly couldn’t think of a reasonable response. Because Eva would easily be able to tell if she was lying, and she didn’t want to lie to her—ever. And yet… maybe honest was just the way to go. “I haven’t given it much thought.”
“But you two love each other,” Eva said confidently.
“Yes, we do love each other.” Angelica relaxed at that. If they could focus on this, then maybe she’d survive this conversation.
“And people who are in love get married. So… you have to pick the perfect ring.” Eva’s eyes went bright with excitement again.
Angelica’s stomach dropped. How was she supposed to explain this? “Life isn’t always what’s in the fairytales, Eva. And I love your mom, I really do. But marriage… it’s not just about love. It’s legal and binding, and way more complicated than just love.”
“Is it, though?” Eva grinned at her. “Oh well, I can look up places in Georgia too. Just let me know!” And she skipped off.
Like the conversation hadn’t even happened.
Angelica furrowed her brow, watching Eva just skip away like she didn’t have a care in the world. But she knew better. Like hell had that question-and-answer time not been intentional.
Eva knew exactly what she was doing.