Chapter 25 Zoe
ZOE
The next day, filming resumed. Zoe arrived bright and early to get everything ready, but Nathan met her at the door. His expression was closed, his arms were folded, and he looked like a completely different man from the one she’d spent the night with just a month ago.
“You don’t have to stay,” he said.
“No, I will. I need to help manage everything, and I’m going to try to get that… scene… cut.”
“I think it would be better if you left.” Nathan was looking over her shoulder as though the very sight of her was unbearable, and Zoe’s heart shattered again. She was very close to tears, but her strong, professional side won out.
“Unfortunately, I can’t do that. I still have work to do here.” She pushed past him. “I won’t get in your way, but I need to do my job.”
Zoe and Nathan spent the morning avoiding each other. Zoe spoke with the patients, helped the light and sound crew get set up, and waited for her moment. She’d been up half the night, and she had a plan for how to get the pregnancy reveal out of the show, once and for all.
As soon as the producers arrived, Zoe pulled them aside.
“I imagine you want to discuss the pregnancy reveal again,” the showrunner said in a bored tone when Zoe managed to corral them into an exam room long enough to talk to them.
“I do.”
“I think we were clear yesterday.” The lead producer frowned at her. “We have every right to use that audio.”
“No, you don’t.” Zoe folded her arms. “I never signed a waiver for my voice to be used in the show — unlike Doctor Hale or his staff or patients. Legally, you can’t use my audio without my permission, and I don’t give my permission.”
For once, the trio fell silent. For a long moment, they just looked at her. Then the lead producer spoke.
“You have every right to ask us not to use that audio, Ms. Devine,” he said. He no longer had the joking, light tone he’d used before when telling them that the scene was staying in. “Unfortunately, though, we just aren’t interested in producing the show without it.”
“What?” Zoe’s heart sank. “You’d pull the show if I took the audio?”
“We would.”
“But you accepted the show without any scandalous content,” Zoe reminded them. “We agreed that it was going to be heartwarming.”
“Yes, but we hoped to find something like this. People like heartwarming content, but they like scandal a lot better.”
Zoe couldn’t believe this. The network had lied to them, and now they were essentially blackmailing her.
“It looks like you have a decision to make, Ms. Devine,” the lead producer said.
“I understand that you’ve staked your career on this show.
We took a gamble on you, despite hearing bad things from a certain PR icon in the city, because the show looked like something that could really take off.
Without the show, and with a black mark from a leading network, as well as from Carla Vassallo, I can’t imagine you’d find it easy to get another opportunity like this. ”
“So, Ms. Devine,” the showrunner put in. “What’s it going to be? Your career, or your privacy?”
“I—” Zoe couldn’t finish her thought. If it was just about her privacy, she would choose the show every time.
Sure, announcing a pregnancy on air would be a bit of a professional speedbump, but she could get over it.
The real decision was between her career and Nathan’s.
If they went ahead with the show, her career would continue to take off, but Nathan would be forced to put aside the serious work he did and participate in the kind of scandalous reality show he hated.
If she pulled the audio, the show wouldn’t happen.
Nathan would be okay — he’d still have his practice and his patients, even though he wouldn’t have the money he’d hoped for to expand.
And Zoe would have to slink back to New York City and probably get a job in advertising or retail or something.
She’d never be able to work in PR again.
“Yes?” the lead producer said.
Zoe lifted her eyes to his. She thought of her mother, lying on her deathbed, asking Zoe to promise that she would always live life to the fullest. Zoe had thought that meant chasing her career and her dreams, but maybe it meant something more.
Maybe it meant doing the right thing. Maybe it meant trying to fix your mistakes, no matter how much it cost.
Nathan would never forgive her, but maybe, just maybe, Zoe could give her child a chance to know their father.
“Pull the audio,” she said firmly.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am. You don’t have my permission to use that audio. If you still want to continue with the show, great. If not, that’s your decision.”
“Then the show is off.”
Zoe lifted her chin. She wasn’t going to let this shake her. “Fine.”
The producers stared at her for a long moment, then the lead threw up his hands and stormed out of the room.
The others followed. Once she was alone, Zoe sank onto the exam table, the paper crinkling beneath her, and took a long, slow breath.
Her career would suffer because of this, but she was still certain she’d made the right decision.
After taking a few moments to gather herself, Zoe left the exam room and slipped out the back entrance.
She walked back to her B&B, smiling at the kids on bikes and an elderly couple she’d met in Nathan’s office, and went to her room.
She needed to pack. There was no reason to stay in Islingburn anymore — there wasn’t going to be a show, and Nathan didn’t want to talk to her anymore.
She'd go back to New York, spill the whole sad story to Katherine, and start putting her life back together.
And she’d book an OB appointment.
Maybe, now that the show was off, Nathan would eventually reach out and ask to play a role in the baby’s life.
Zoe hoped so. But she wasn’t going to push him — it wouldn’t help.
He’d been clear that he was done with her, and he’d had every opportunity to say something, anything, about the baby. He hadn’t.