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Leigh realised she had said what was supposed to go unsaid. If Jack could have seen how this was going, he’d probably start googling ‘Black market pig heart replacement.’ Leigh wondered how big that mistake was and what its cost would be.

‘Look, I’m sorry. I retract that. I… It’s my first day.’

Ivy raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, it ain’t Alex Walker’s first day, so you better get…’ The sound trailed out there.

Leigh didn’t hear anything else she said for the next few minutes. Once she heard the name of Isabelle’s PR person, everything shut down.

Alex Walker. Alex. Walker.ALEX WALKER!

No. Please,no.

Seven

Alex was sitting in her office with her phone in her hand, trying to decide if she should make a call. Correction, shewasgoing to make it. Any second now. Or was she? No, she was. Shortly.

The phone rang in her hand, startling her. It was Isabelle. ‘I just saw it. It’s out. It’s out.’

Alex refreshed her laptop to see that, yeah, there it was. The impending divorce was reported. It had gone live about six minutes ago, from the look of it.

‘It’s not good, Alex. I’m not happy,’ Isabelle said.

Shit. Alex had only been dormant for six minutes, and she was already playing catchup. Not great. She scanned the article. It was neutral, from what she could see.

‘What is it you don’t like?’

‘It’s supposed to report that she’s a cheat. It doesn’t say that,’ Isabelle growled.

‘It doesn’t say a lot of anything from what I can tell. Which isn’t surprising. She didn’t need to say much initially. Just the fact you’re splitting up is clicky enough for now.’

‘Clicky? Erin was supposed to be exposed!’

‘I’m just telling you what Ivy’s probably doing. My guess is she’s building some suspense. But she’s not the only one who got the press release today. Other newspapers and sites—’

‘But you told me that she’s the one that matters,’ Isabelle burst in.

‘Oneof the ones that matter is what I said. And she’s probably writing a second article as we speak.’

‘My agent just called me. Already, she’s telling me she got a call to say that they’re thinking of going with someone else for Marie Curie!’

‘It only came out a few minutes ago. I would imagine that was a coincidence,’ Alex said calmly.

‘Oh, youwould, would you!’ Isabelle roared, going up a decibel or six.

She was a bit terrifying when she was angry, it had to be said. But Alex did her best not to be cowed. ‘Give me time to do what I do. We haven’t even started.’

‘If my reputation is damaged, Alex…’ Isabelle broke off, and Alex wondered if she’d slung the phone at the wall or maybe lobbed it at a staff member, Naomi Campbell style. But then she heard sputtering and sobs. Isabelle was crying.

‘I’m sorry,’ Isabelle managed to choke out. ‘This was too much.’

Alex wasn’t shocked at the change. She dealt with people in crisis all the time. She accepted this part of it. Yelling and crying, it was all par for the course.

One time, a member of a girl band that had been big about fifteen years ago had gotten a major stress nosebleed in Alex’s office after her husband published a tell-all. Which wouldn’t have been an issue if she hadn’t violently sneezed all over Alex. Alex had been wearing a pure white Chanel suit at the time, so she looked like she’d been in a tussle with a Bengal tiger. The girl-band member was so embarrassed that she had bought Alex a brand-new suit and then sent a food hamper to Alex’s office that was large enough to block out the sun.

‘Isabelle, do you want to talk in person? I can visit you right now,’ she said.

‘Yes, maybe. No, I can’t, actually. I have to be on set in an hour.’

‘Where?’