Chapter 25
Luna
I’m almost done with a handoff list of everything I’m working on.
I don’t know who I’ll be passing my items to, but I want to make sure they know where everything is once I’m gone.
I should have probably just gone straight home and waited for the call from my supervisor telling me not to come back.
I would have preferred that, but it wouldn’t be right for me not to leave things in order.
It wouldn’t be fair to Nyxara. I still want them to continue pushing her.
There’s also Killa-Kyra. They assigned me her contract two days ago and she’s been so excited about our plans to promote her.
The idea of leaving the work I do with them breaks my heart.
My desk phone rings.
“Victor is ready for you.” His receptionist’s voice is curt.
I stand, smooth my suit skirt, and drop my phone, charger, and the photos of me with my mom, Sel, and the one I’ve been avoiding looking at since I got here today—the one with Rio in Miami—into my laptop tote.
I want to make a quick exit after my conversation with Victor and go straight home.
I step out into the hallway and make my way to his office.
People turn to look at me as I’m imagining they do when guards are escorting a prisoner to the execution chamber.
Dead woman walking. I haven’t eaten today, so no last meal for me.
Across the room, I see Hank, and my middle finger itches to flip him off.
I shoot him a smile instead and go into Victor’s suite.
His secretary looks at me nervously. I smile at her. “Good afternoon, Amy. Loving the pink on you.”
She waves me in.
Victor barely looks up. “Sit down.”
I do as he says. He finishes typing on his computer, probably requesting to revoke my building access, and looks up.
“I’m sure it’s not a surprise that I called you into my office.”
“I’m all ears.” I’m not going to make this easy for him. He put me in an impossible situation by assigning Thierry to me, knowing the history.
“When we hired you, we knew that you had some celebrity status and connections, but we never expected that would interfere with your ability to perform your job duties.”
Riiiight. That’s why you assigned me to that fuckhead.
“I don’t think it does. I’ve done my job to the best of my ability.”
“You have done a good job thus far. But the way I see it, there’s a clear conflict of interest that impedes you from serving our client, and that’s a real problem because the people we represent pay top dollar for our services, and you are not—”
His phone rings. He looks at the screen, and his eyebrows shoot up. He holds a finger up as he swipes to answer.
I blow out a quick breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
He nods a few times and shrugs. Then he says, “Got it.”
When he looks up at me, his skin reddens, and his facial features tighten. His hard glare sets off alarm bells, even though I already know the worst is coming.
“I need you to figure out your priorities, Luna. Your personal life cannot interfere with the work we do. It’s not professional, and it’s not fair to our clients.
I’m not telling you what to do, but if you want to continue growing with Elevate and reaching your full potential, I suggest you take control of your personal relationships so they don’t bleed into this.
In the meantime, I have approved the communications to go out. Take care of it. We’re done here.”
If I want to continue? I’m not fired?
My heart is pounding in my ears, and I’m stunned but not stupid enough to question it. “I will. I do have a request.”
He raises a brow and scoffs. “You have a request?”
I’m pushing my luck, but I’m going for broke. “Can you communicate to Thierry, through the official agency channels, that it is not appropriate for him to make comments of a personal or sexual nature about me? I honestly thought that would be part of this conversation.”
He seems taken aback. A couple of seconds tick by, then he nods. “Draft the talking points and send them to me. I will have an in-person conversation with him and follow up in writing. In the meantime, you will continue to represent him.”
I stand and leave. When I get to my office, I close the door and collapse into my chair.
I shoot a text to Maeven.
Me
I don’t know how you did it, but I know you saved my job. Thank you.
Her reply is quick.
Maeven
Don’t do that again. We’ll talk more later.
My hands do not stop shaking as I start sending out replies to the different media outlets. I jump on a couple of phone interviews. As I grab my bag to go, my phone rings.
It’s Bethany Belmont.
I should’ve blocked her number long ago. Everything in me tells me to let it go to voicemail, but I answer anyway.
“Everyone gets a freebie, Luna. That one was yours. I don’t know how you managed to stay employed today, but the next time you bring up that concert business, I’m going to destroy you and your mom. I hope she remembers the NDA she signed.”
All that says to me is that she did her best, but I’m still here. So I lean on that and vent my frustration on her.
“I’m not afraid of you, Bethany,” I say, using her name for the first time.
She doesn’t deserve my respect. “I think we both know you have a lot more to lose than we do. An NDA won’t save you once all the dirty shit you do is out and accessible to the world.
My mom knows better than anyone but I don’t need her to talk.
I can talk about how I was mysteriously drugged after Adina ordered me a drink.
I suspect she knows more than she lets on about that.
I wonder if Thierry will keep quiet to save her.
Also, don’t call me. Thierry is my client.
You and your daughter don’t need to communicate with me. ”
I hang up and walk out. As I’m in the elevator, I scroll through my text messages. There are several from Mami, Sel, Thierry, and Rio.
Seeing his name makes my stomach burn.
I answer Mami and Sel and then hop in an Uber home. I need to think before I say anything to him. I haven’t had a chance to analyze what happened today. I keep turning it over in my head and blaming him.
But I’m the one who made the choice and needs to get my priorities in order, as Victor said.
When I get home, his SUV is parked outside.
* * *
Rio
The Uber pulls up outside the building, and Luna steps out.
I reach for the door handle of the SUV and get out.
I don’t have to call out her name. She’s waiting for me as the car pulls away.
Her face is blank, not panicked like when they brought me in handcuffs, or worried as it was when she walked in the room to negotiate with my team.
There’s no trace of the annoyance in her eyes when she left the station.
There’s nothing there.
Cold settles in my chest as I cross the street. It makes me want to turn back, but I’m walking to her anyway. I reach her, lean to kiss her, and her lips pucker against mine. When I pull back, the sadness in her eyes hits me like Thierry’s sucker punch.
“Let’s go inside,” she says.
I nod and follow her in, but my feet want to root to the ground. I want to tell her it’s okay, that we don’t have to do this. Because what’s coming is pressing on my spine. I’ve been dumped before. I know what the end looks like when it looms—tired eyes that have had enough.
Enough of me? Of my shit?
It triggers memories of Perla except this is not dulled by grief.
I’m fully feeling this moment. We go up the stairs.
The echoing of our feet against the walls and empty hallway is intense.
I’ve never noticed before. The first time was probably because I was coming up to pick her up for the baseball game, and the idea of seeing her had my heartbeat pounding in my ears.
The night before the concert, I could only hear the gnawing pain.
But Luna’s hand was there, guiding me. Today, the sound of every step bounces, rebounds, and unnerves.
Because this is the end.
At the top of the stairs, a few feet from her front door, she pauses.
“Luna.” Her name falls from my lips with the need to tell her we don’t have to do this. I can just go.
She turns around, and with one look at her face, teary-eyed, I can’t say the words. There’s no way in heaven, or the fucking hell I know so deeply, that I can walk away from her by my own doing.
She opens her mouth, but words won’t come out. She takes my face in her hands and kisses me.
The door to her apartment swings open, and we break apart. Her mom steps out into the hallway with a huge smile on her face. “I couldn’t wait until you came in,” she gushes and extends her hand toward Luna.
A diamond ring, a huge sparkler, shines on her hand.
“Mami,” Luna gasps, staring at it. Then she smiles just as big as her mom and throws her arms around her.
From inside the apartment, a tall, dark man in a blue suit steps out. Luna goes to hug him as Raquel watches. Her smile is full and bright, like someone who has everything. It’s a dagger straight to my heart because I’m losing everything. But I step up to hug her because she deserves to be happy.
“Rio.” She smiles at me and hugs me. Then she introduces me to her fiancé.
“Congratulations,” I say.
“Thank you.” His smile matches hers. He has every reason to. “We’ll get to know each other better soon.”
“We’re headed to one of Darren’s business dinners, but we will need to celebrate sometime this week,” Raquel says then frowns while looking between Luna and me. “Is everything okay?”
No, and please don’t leave so it doesn’t have worse. But her mom has always been kind to me, and this is a huge moment for her. I can’t ruin it for her.
I put my arm around Luna and smile like I’m not bleeding inside. “Yeah.”
“We have to celebrate this weekend. Sel is going to lose her mind, and we have a wedding to plan.” Her voice is light, but her hand tightens on my lower back as if she’s trying to hold on.
“Love you, Mariposita.” Her mom kisses her and walks out with Darren hand in hand. I remove my arm from Luna’s shoulder, and we go inside.
She dumps her purse on the table and moves to the living area.
Her back is turned away from me with rigid shoulders.
It intensifies the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I cross the room and stand behind her, placing my hands around her waist. She leans back against me, and we’re silent for a bit.
I breathe the dark fruit scent of her hair and close my eyes. “You can say it. I know where this is going.”
She spins around, and we are face to face, almost as close as we were in the stairs when we kissed. “How can you know where this is going when I fully don’t?”
“You do, Luna. We know each other well enough. I put your job on the line and made the world talk about you again. You didn’t sign up for this, and Elevate is going to be on your ass. I don’t blame you. I would dump me too.”
She flinches. “This is not your doing alone. I made a choice today that changed everything.”
“Because of me.”
“Yeah. But you didn’t ask me to. I volunteered.”
“To save me, Luna. And you don’t need to do that. I have money and people to do that. I don’t ever want you to lose your career for me, even if I think you are better than that place.”
“I know what you think about the agency and my job, but I told you this is important to me. And obviously, you are more, because I thought nothing about almost throwing all of it away. And I would do it again.” Her eyes are clear and focused on me.
“What can I do?”
“Can you stop being insecure about Thierry?” she asks. “Can you be okay knowing I will continue to work with him? Can you ignore a bunch of childish messy men when they question you for supporting me?”
I shake my head. “No. Because it’s not about that. I worry about you and what they’ll try to do to you.”
“Do you trust me?”
“With my life, but you’re not the problem. He won’t stop coming after you. He won’t be able to help himself. He’s destructive.”
“But I’m telling you none of that matters,” she insists. “I took measures today to make sure it doesn’t.”
“You don’t need this job, Luna. You have all the other work you do. You have every cent I own at your fingertips.”
“I didn’t go to school all those years and bust my ass to get straight A’s to depend on a man, not when my dream job has been laid before me, not when I’ve spent years getting the necessary experience to be able to land it.” She shoves a hand through her hair and walks up to me.
She places a hand over mine. “You’re not okay with this, and I get it.
But I can’t sacrifice this for you because I’m going to resent you.
This is my dream. You’re already living yours.
You got built back up to number one, touring sold-out venues all over the world.
Now it’s my turn, and I’m not willing to give that up. ”
“I would never ask you to do that, so say it,” I beg her. I can’t take any more of this.
“I love you too much. I see myself putting you first, and I don’t want to be that woman whose ambitions get lost in a man’s. I also don’t want to be your downfall. You were doing so amazing, and you did this because they used me to bait you.”
“Say it.”
She shakes her head.
“We don’t need the words, do we?”
I kiss her because I can’t help myself. “I’m always going to love you, Luna Zaira.”
And I walk past her and out of the apartment.