Chapter 24
IN THE ELEVATOR, ALL THREE of them exhale.
“So that’s the Reality Bitch?” Alba presses the button for the convention level and turns to Cole in disbelief.
“She’s as annoying as everyone says she is.
I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with a more punchable face.
” The young assistant claps a hand to her mouth.
“Not that I’m condoning violence, I would never do that—”
“So who’s going to explain to me what the hell she was talking about?” Cole interrupts, glaring at the two women. “What the hell happened on Criminal Confessions that neither of you told me about?”
“Let’s talk about that later. It’s our last night here, so let’s just power through, yes?
” Tegan’s smile looks forced as she pulls out her phone.
“We’ve got the fan meet and greet, so brace yourself to be mobbed right when the elevator doors open.
And then we’ve got press photos, and then I promised Celebutants two minutes before the step and repeat, and then it’s straight into the banquet—”
“Tegan,” Cole snaps. “Whatever Glynnis Glenn was talking about, tell me now so that I’m not blindsided again. It’s literally your job to prepare me for things like this. What don’t I know?”
The elevator reaches convention level, but before the doors can separate, Tegan places a finger on the button that keeps the doors closed.
Alba presses herself into the side wall, looking like she wishes she were anywhere else but trapped in a box with two strong personalities who are about to get into it.
“Apparently, during the interview, Samuel Figg said something unexpected to Jana Jones.” Tegan speaks slowly. “And of course they used the clip in the first trailer.”
“What did Figg say?”
Over the orchestral cover of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” piping softly into the elevator, Cole can hear how she sounds. Her voice is raspy. Strangled. Almost like she knows what the other woman is about to tell her.
“He said he didn’t kill your friend Lorelei.”
Cole’s stomach churns. Too much alcohol, not enough food, and yet somehow she feels as sober as she’s ever felt. “That’s ridiculous. Figg confessed. Open-and-shut case.”
“Which is probably why they used the clip, because they know it’s controversial.
” Tegan bites her lip. “I thought it would be best not to bring it up until after the convention was over. I imagine it must be really upsetting to know that the man who went to prison for your friend’s murder is now saying he didn’t do it, after all this time. ”
Upsetting. Ha. That’s an understatement. That’s like describing a tsunami as a big wave. Ya think?
There’s not enough vodka in this hotel to dull what Cole’s feeling right now. But she can’t react; she has to work.
She checks her reflection in the mirrored wall. All she sees is a glamorous woman staring back at her with a calm expression. There is no sign of the inner turmoil that’s twisting her gut into knots.
“Open the doors,” Cole says to Tegan. “I’m fine.”
Tegan takes her finger off the button and the doors open. Instantly they’re hit with a wall of noise and clusters of bodies holding cell phones and cameras pointed directly at them.
Cole realizes she spoke too soon. She is most certainly not fine, especially once she steps through the doors and hears several voices in different tones and pitches coming from different directions say her name.
Cole Lennox. Cole. Cole. Cole.
It almost feels like she’s being assaulted. Her hands begin to tingle as her breath starts coming out in short, rapid bursts. Oh god, not a panic attack, not now.
She feels someone touch her arm, and she jolts.
“Cole Lennox, oh my god, I love you, I’m such a fan—”
Reflexively Cole jerks her arm away, but the fan continues to squeal with excitement and delight.
In the sea of faces, she catches a glimpse of Glynnis Glenn watching her through the crowd.
The woman must have jumped right into another elevator, beating them to the convention level. Will she not give up? Apparently not.
Glynnis begins moving toward her, the sharklike smile back on her face as she holds up her phone. She’s making a video. Probably a livestream to the official Reality Bitch Instagram account.
Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.
From somewhere beside her, the fan is still gushing. “You’re even more beautiful in person, Cole, and I’ve loved you since the first season . . .”
Cole blinks and Glynnis is gone. She cranes her neck, trying to see past the bodies, but there’s no longer any sign of the woman’s black T-shirt and burgundy curls.
Thank god. Over the noise, the fan is still babbling.
She sounds so young, like a teenager, and there’s something about her voice that bothers Cole.
It’s needy, whiny, desperate, the way Barb had sounded the night Lorelei—
The fan grabs her arm and squeezes. Stuck in the crowd and feeling claustrophobic and trapped, all Cole wants to do is to get away, from here, from everyone, from the memories threatening to drown her.
The Starlight. The argument. The shoving.
The way Lorelei’s face looked as the life started to drain out of her eyes.
Figg telling the world that he didn’t kill her, after all this time, when it doesn’t matter, when it doesn’t change anything, other than to ruin the life Cole’s worked so hard to build.
Why would he say that now? Why?
Lorelei, I’m so sorry . . .
The hand on her arm squeezes harder. Cole tries to shake it off, but if anything, the grip tightens. Cole whirls toward her, only to realize that it’s not the fan at all.
It’s Glynnis Glenn.
Oh, you bitch.
Instinctively Cole makes a fist with her free hand and punches the woman as hard as she can.
The sound of the crunch as her knuckles make contact with her nose feels so good.
It’s been a long time since she hit someone intentionally, to stop them, to hurt them.
She’s only done it once before. And just like it did then, it feels shamefully satisfying.
The hand finally drops away from her arm as everyone gasps.
Oh my god did Cole Lennox just hit that girl?! she hears someone say in a shocked voice. Yes she did she punched her in the face I got it on video oh my god what a bitch—
What? No, it wasn’t the girl, it was Glynnis, Cole insists in her head through the fog of disembodied voices coming at her from all directions.
Wildly she looks around for Tegan, because her publicist will explain this, because that’s her job and she does it well.
But she only finds Alba, standing a few feet away with an expression of horror on her face.
And beside her, his camera clicking, is Asher Kaye, the paparazzo.
No, you all have it wrong, it was Glynnis Glenn, and she deserves it because she’s been an asshole to me for years and she wouldn’t let me go, she wouldn’t let go, she wouldn’t . . .
Finally Tegan is at her elbow, pulling Cole through the crowd of people holding up their phones to record every damn thing.
But her publicist isn’t moving her toward the banquet doors.
Tegan is leading her in the opposite direction, away from the crowd and toward the stairwell, and Cole struggles to keep up in her tight gown and five-inch heels.
Turning around one last time, Cole hopes to at least catch a glimpse of the Reality Bitch’s busted nose, because she doesn’t care, it was totally worth it, and she’d do it again. But she doesn’t spot Glynnis Glenn.
All she sees, through the chaos of angry fans still shouting at her in outrage, is a sobbing teenage girl, the blood gushing out of her nose and dripping all over the fresh white i love cole lennox T-shirt that has a licensed screen print of Cole’s face on it.
“You are so fucked,” Tegan says, and since her publicist never swears, she must really fucking mean it.