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“Actually—”
Vera turns to Aimes and Qiang Wen. “I want you two in the video also. Tell everyone what you know about Xander.”
They both look terrified at that. “I’ll be crucified!” Aimes cries.
“I don’t want any trouble,” Qiang Wen mumbles.
“Trust me,” Vera says. “Truth is always the right path to choose.”
“Wow, Grandma,” Robin says. “That almost sounded like it made sense.”
“Tch, of course it does. Now, I cannot force any of you into doing anything you don’t want to do, but we need to help Millie, and more hands helping is better than fewer hands.”
TJ leans back in his chair, his mind racing. This is exactly the kind of thing he should be staying far, far away from. Especially after getting his bad rep. It’s the kind of thing that could end his career.
Then again, his career is effectively over. He’s given notice that he wouldn’t be renewing the lease on his office space, and tomorrow he’s going to tell Kit, Lomax, and Elsie that the agency is going to shut down. So what is he so scared about? Isn’t it better to go out with one final bang? And not just on any project, but one where the safety of a friend is involved.
“I’d just like to point out,” Tilly says, “that Selena is going to be very unimpressed by all this.”
“Just refresh my memory, Selena is…” TJ says.
“My girlfriend.”
“Soon to be fiancée,” Vera says.
“Ah.” TJ swallows and goes back to panicking quietly. But again, he’s doing this for a good cause. Yes, a very good cause. And it’s not just him involved, it’s this big group of people, and they seem like a good bunch. Except for Vera, who is definitely a bad influence. He looks at Robin. Is he putting her in danger? What would a responsible parent do?
It’s the question he has so often asked himself, because even after thirteen years, he still feels like he’s playing pretend. Pretending to know what it takes to be a dad. Pretending to know what the hell to do when things get tough. Pretending to have everything under control. And he’s so tired of doing that.
Maybe the most responsible thing a parent can do is to be themselves. To show their kids who they really are. And when TJ looks back on the things he regrets most, it’s the ones where he decided to play it safe. Like when Xander asked him for help and TJ turned him away. Deep down inside, TJ knows that if he says no to Vera right now, he is going to live to regret it for years to come. And if it turns out something bad does happen to Millie, he will probably regret it for the rest of his life.
He has to will every cell in his body to let his mouth speak. “I’m in.”
Twenty-Eight
AIMES
Aimes has never been so terrified in her life before. This has got to be a nightmare. This is her worst fears come true. She’s literally had nightmares about this kind of thing happening. This, very specifically this. People finding out what a fraud she really is? Torture.
If Vera had asked her to do this just one month ago, Aimes would have said no. Hell no. She wouldn’t have even thought twice about it. But here she is, actually considering it like it’s a reasonable ask that won’t at all ruin her entire life.
But someone’s life might actually be at stake here, the little voice in her mind says.Not her social life, but like, her actual life-life.
And surely that is worth more than Aimes’s reputation. Aimes grimaces. Gah, she hates her thoughts sometimes. Actually, she hates her thoughts all the time. But it’s true. When she thinks of Millie, someone she really wants to be a friend, she feels a stab of concern. And, admittedly, those text messages that Vera showed Aimes really did look suspicious as hell.
And you owe it to Xan, the little voice whispers.
Damn it, it really had to go there. Her past with Xan flashes through her mind. They’d had fun sometimes, shooting those cute skits. He always kept his distance, but Aimes liked him. Not in a romantic sense but as a person. And then the way she had betrayed him—
“Hey,” Sana says, placing a reassuring hand on Aimes’s arm. “You okay?”
Aimes shakes her head, blinking hard to keep the tears from falling. “I don’t know.”
Julia appears next to her. “It’s totally fine if you don’t want to do it. You don’t need to do anything you don’t feel comfortable doing.” And when Julia says it, it’s clear that she means it, wholly. It’s not just something she’s said to make Aimes feel better in the moment only to judge her for it later on.
Aimes looks at Julia and Sana, and her mind goes back to that day when the three of them had hung out together and Sana and Julia had told her, over ice cream, how they’d met each other. What a mess they’d both been before Vera took them under her wings. Here are people who understand exactly what she’s feeling, who know what it’s like to be a complete fraud, to feel like a failure in every sense of the word, and now look at them. They’ve come through the other side. Maybe she can too.
Bitterness pierces Aimes’s mouth. She betrayed Xander because she was a coward and a fake, and she doesn’t want to be that person anymore. What is the point of becoming an influencer if she loses herself in the process? What is she going to influence people into doing when she doesn’t even know what she is doing?