Chapter Thirty-Three
The screening finished to rapturous applause.
I had burst with pride when Elliot joined RJ, Sol and the rest of the cast upfront before the screening to introduce the movie, and everyone was simply buzzing as they began the after-party celebrations.
RJF had taken over one of the courtyard areas around a large pond, thick with lily pads.
Festoon lighting had been strung overhead and a string quartet played contemporary tunes to serenade the guests, who tucked into vegan canapés and champagne.
The whole scene was magical, glamorous, celebratory.
I hugged myself; it was moments like this that made me certain I’d picked the right career.
Sol flitted around the party like an exotic bird, embracing her castmates and industry peers with generous smiles and posing for the official photographers.
She was luminous; her performance was all anyone could talk about.
As Sol engaged in happy conversation with Janice again, I noticed Riley and Noah locked in what looked like heated discussion by one of the makeshift bars by the pond.
In fact, Noah wasn’t just arguing – he looked hysterical, and Riley was clearly trying to calm him down.
“Lucie?” Sol’s voice cut across my reverie.
“Yes, hello?” I snapped back to attention.
“I’m really confused,” Sol said.
“About what?”
“You,” she said. “Twin Roses.”
Now I was the one who was confused. “I don’t get what you mean.”
“I just mentioned your idea to Janice,” Sol said. “Told her to get you in to pitch it.”
Pure joy coursed through my veins. “Oh, that’s so—”
“Problem is, I’ve already had the same idea pitched to me,” Janice said.
“Wait.” I shook my head in dismay. “Someone else wants to adapt Twin Roses?” I’d always prepared myself for this possibility, but for someone to pip me to it when I’d just had interest from Sol was galling.
“Not only that,” Sol went on. “From what Janice said, the exact same type of adaptation you propose.”
This couldn’t be right. “What do you—”
Sol cut me off. “Me as the lead. Staging it in modern-day New York instead of Ohio. Lean into the sexuality and the fashion as a calling card … Sound familiar?”
“That’s my pitch,” I said.
“No, that’s the pitch I received, today,” Janice said.
“I’m guess I’m just disappointed,” Sol said. “I know I hadn’t signed anything, but you knew I was interested in working on this with you. Did you pass it to someone else?”
I felt like the ground was tilting beneath my feet and not because I was wearing impossible shoes. “No, no. There must be some kind of mistake.”
“I was under the impression this pitch was the brainchild of the producer I met with.” Janice fished around in her clutch. “Here’s his card.”
I took it, yet again having the eerie feeling I knew who was responsible before my eyes even clocked the name:
Ralf Fisher
Executive Producer and MD
VLV Ent
I felt sick. “Wait a minute,” I said. “This is impossible. I never shared my proposal with him.” But what were the odds of Ralf dreaming up the exact same idea as me?
Sol squinted at the card. “That’s the creep from the photo shoot!” She spun to me, eyes widening. “Lucie, he was all up in our grill about your idea, remember?”
“Yeah but … how has he done this?” I demanded. “I never discussed it with him in detail or anything.”
“I’m confused,” Janice said. “Was this Ralf’s project or yours?”
Sol was trying to pronounce the company name on the card. “Vilv … Vul … Vulv … Oh my God, why does his company name sound like vulva?”
“VLV. Vivian LaValle.” I raised horrified eyes to Janice. “RJ’s assistant, Vivian, she must have started her own company with Ralf and somehow stolen my idea and passed it off as VLV Ent’s project. Oh my God, it really does sound like vulva.”
Janice glared at me. “You have proof of this?”
Furiously, I looked across the party to where Noah was still hyperventilating and something slid into place.
A malfunctioning laptop, strange metadata.
“Give me five minutes.” As Janice assured me to take my time, I stomped over to Noah, all pain from my shoes forgotten.
It was nothing compared to the rage that boiled within me.
At the sight of me, Noah paled, and I knew my gut instinct was correct.
“Did you help Vivian and Ralf steal my idea?” I demanded.
Riley grabbed my arm. “What are you talking about?”
I shook her hand off. “He knows.”
Riley turned to Noah. “You didn’t steal anything, tell her.”
Noah gulped. “Vivian’s been RJ’s assistant for two years. He treats her like crap.”
Riley’s eyes glittered. “What did Vivian do?”
“We all know her dream is to set up her own film production group,” Noah said desperately. “Financing. She’d be awesome – she has such taste, you know it and RJ knows it. He’s been promising for ages now to mentor her, make the right introductions, but he’s let her down time and again.”
“And this has what to do with Lucie?” Riley yelled.
Noah screwed his eyes shut. “I’m a sucker,” he said. “Lucie, when your laptop malfunctioned, Vivian suggested I install spyware in your new one.”
“Noah, tell me you didn’t,” Riley said.
“He helped Ralf and Vivian hack into my laptop,” I snarled. “Ralf knew I had a project in development, one that Sol was very interested in collaborating on. The other night, I saw that very project had been accessed on my laptop at a time when I was asleep. That must have been when they stole it.”
“I only installed the spyware!” Noah yelped. “I thought I was helping with a corporate issue. Vivian told me you had a pitch that was actually RJF property, that you shouldn’t have saved it on your work machine, that we were entitled to it.”
“Bullshit!” I snapped.
“Um, contractually it isn’t,” Riley said miserably. “If you use a work machine for your own, original projects … technically, RJF owns it.”
My rage was quickly replaced by cold dread. “No, that can’t be right.”
“I’m so sorry,” Riley said. “It’s true. I don’t like it, but there it is in all our contracts.”
“But what if I didn’t sign a contract?” I said, desperately. I was on secondment, after all, and I knew damn well no such clause existed in my contract with Temper.
“I … I don’t know,” Riley said. “But it is company policy. Either way, it doesn’t make it okay what they did.”
“Well, they didn’t steal my work for the sake of RJF,” I said, “Not only has Vivian already set up her own company with Ralf as MD, but they pitched my work to Janice today as if it were their own.”
“I’m so sorry,” Noah said. “I didn’t work out what exactly they were doing until too late. Vivian said Ralf had some software he could use to—”
“Ralf ran my pitch through AI,” I realized, nausea creeping through me.
“He must have been able to wipe the watermarks with it too. Noah, I may have made a mistake in saving my work to an RJF laptop, but it’s my work.
Mine.” My legs wobbled and I had to lean against a nearby tree.
Either way, I was fucked. RJF could lay claim to my project if they had a mind, but Ralf had stolen it and rewritten it with AI. I didn’t know which was worse.
“I didn’t know!” he said. “Vivian was so upset about her job and RJ really screwed her over—”
“Noah, you idiot!” Riley took my side. “Vivian manipulated you. She knew you’d do anything for her, and you helped her steal Lucie’s work!”
Noah buried his head in his hands, apologizing over and over.
But I couldn’t spare him any grace. For the last couple of years, I’d poured every hour of my limited free time into that pitch, sacrificing sleep, time with friends, all to create something that I knew could make a name for myself. “How do … What do I do now?”
“Did you, like, register it or anything?’ Riley said. “Did you buy the option to the book?”
“No, I didn’t have the money to option it. My deck was watermarked, I thought that would be enough,” I moaned. “How could they do this?”
“They’re entitled shits,” Riley said. “They don’t care who they trample on.”
“I’m so sorry, Lucie,” Noah said. “It was only when I saw her walking in on Baldemar’s arm that it all fell into place; she used me.”
Riley laughed bitterly. “Yeah, well, love makes you do stupid shit.” She turned to me. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Fury rendered me immobile. I knew I needed to do something, but what?
“Could RJ help?” Riley suggested. “Throw yourself on his mercy. Maybe he asserts ownership to get Vivian and Ralf to back off. Technically, legally, it does belong to RJF. But if what Ralf pitched was different enough from your document, then I’m not sure that would work anyway.”
“There has to be another way,” I said. “I delete the file from my work laptop, RJ doesn’t need to know.”
“I won’t say anything,” Riley assured me. “I mean, I’m no lawyer or intellectual property expert, but if you want to claim copyright of an idea to stop Ralf and Vivian, it might be tricky to do so without RJ’s help.”
“I really am sorry,” Noah said, his eyes raw.
I couldn’t do more than give him a tight nod.
The guy was a moron, lovely as he was. He had a girl like Riley in love with him, yet he’d sold his morals for an ounce of flattery from the likes of Vivian.
I buried my face in my hands. If Janice decided to proceed with Ralf’s pitch, how on earth would I prove it was actually my work?
Riley was right. If RJ asserted RJF ownership of my pitch, it might be enough to get VLV Ent to back off.
But I’d have to trust RJF would then relinquish said ownership back to me.
I didn’t know what else to do, but I was damned if years of work was going to be claimed by someone else.
RJ was a creative; surely he’d understand.