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My stomach bubbled with acid.

Someone touched my shoulder. I whirled around, my knee-jerk instinct to flee evaporating when I saw Vuk’s concerned frown.

What’s wrong?

“Emmanuelle’s here. We talked, and she—she dropped me from the agency.” I summarized the rest of our conversation, watching Vuk’s face grow darker and darker until it resembled a thundercloud ready to burst. “Is it true? What she said about Hank?”

I didn’t believe a word out of Emmanuelle’s mouth, but I had to be sure.

I didn’t tell him to play favorites; I warned him about the way he treated you that day he showed up to your apartment unannounced.Vuk’s jaw turned to granite.The grounds for a lawsuit are bullshit. My lawyers will destroy it in seconds, especially since we have evidence Hank was secretly surveilling you.

“It’s not about the legal standing for their case,” I said. “It’s about the optics. Emmanuelle doesn’t care if she wins or loses the lawsuit. She just wants to drag my name through the mud and ruin my career.”

History was littered with examples of famous women who were brought down by smear campaigns. Even if they hadn’t done anything wrong, theillusionthat they had was enough for people to turn on them.

Emmanuelle was doing all this because what, I talked back to her? Asked her to give me something that rightfully belonged to me?

A dash of fire swallowed my nausea. Despite my personal feelings toward Beaumont, I’d been nothing but professional over the years. I was their highest-earning model, and I never even talked bad about them to other models. Now, Emmanuelle was trying to ruin me because I’d bruised her ego. What gave her the fucking right?

“I need to tell Sloane. She’s here somewhere,” I said, formulating a plan on the spot. “Emmanuelle said the lawsuit will drop on Monday. We need to get ahead of it. I also need to talk to my accountant and hire?—”

Ayana. Vuk placed his hand on my shoulder again.Breathe. We’re going to get through this. Emmanuelle fucking Beaumont will NOT ruin you. I’ll die before I let that happen.

Streaks of emotion burned through my panic.

We’regoing to get through this. Not I.We.

I was struck again by the strange sensation of having someone by my side, fighting with me.The shield to my sword, or the sword to my shield—whichever one worked in the situation. I wasn’t going into battle alone, and that simple fact was enough to steady my breathing.

I might not have wanted other people to solve my problems for me, but I wasn’t naive enough to think I could take on Beaumont without Vuk’s help.

“Thank you.” I swallowed. “I’m sorry about ambushing you with bad news the minute you walked through the door. Parties are usually more fun. I promise.”

I doubt it.Vuk glanced at the burlesque performance. His mouth twisted into a grimace.Talking to you about anything, even bad news, is definitely the highlight of this party for me.

I laughed. I ignored the stares of other partygoers and laced my fingers with his, determined to show him a good time despite the Beaumont-shaped cloud hanging over our heads.

I pulled him toward the bar, the pressure in my chest easing with each step. Vuk was right. We were going to get through this.

As long as we were together, we could get through anything.

CHAPTER43

Vuk

Emmanuelle had some fucking balls.

It was Saturday, the afternoon after Maya’s party, and I was still seething at the agency head’s audacity to not only drop Ayana with no warning, but to do so in the middle of one of the biggest social events of the season.

It didn’t matter that Ayana was planning to leave Beaumont anyway. It was the principle of the matter.

Once I was through with Emmanuelle, she’d be lucky to have a business card left, much less a thriving agency.

I hadn’t thought she was bold or stupid enough to go up against me—and she had to know that by targeting Ayana, she was also targeting me—but she’d been clever in the way she framed her accusations. I’d give her that. By accusing me of “intimidating” Hank on Ayana’s behalf, she’d essentially tied my hands. I couldn’t do anything outside the legal scope of things without bolstering her claims.

It took everything in me not to find Hank and deal with him personally, but that would be playing right into their hands, so I let Sloane and my lawyers handle the situation. For now.

Meanwhile, I had another problem to deal with.