Page 24 of All the Forbidden Things

Fuck.

I need to discuss how to handle this with Lennon and Aaron.

I study my wife as I contemplate my options. The ice in her pale green stareshouldflay me, but it has zero impact. So, I match her sneer with one of my own and watch as, slowly, her chin lifts, her eyes close and she lets out a long slow breath. When she opens them, something like resolve creeps across her face.

“Please don’t take her away from me, Max. I know you’re angry right now, but please think about it. She’s all I have left. I want to be a part of her life, and I can’t do that if I go back to the States.”

I think back to how I felt when I contemplated Layla might not be mine, how just the thought of losing her stole my breath.

“I’ve spoken to Deana, we’ve talked about sharing a place. She’s a physical therapist, so she can help with my recovery, and she can help with Layla when I go to castings. I thought that—”

“No!”

“No what?”

“No, it’s not happening.”

“Max, I need to go back home. I can’t stay here.”

“Tough fucking shit.”

“I have nowhere to go, no money for a hotel or apartment. Where am I supposed to live?”

“Honestly? I don’t give a fuck, but the press will. I’ll have the formal dining room turned into a bedroom while you recover and get yourself together. That should give Jerry time to count his millions and work out what he can spare you. I’m sure there’ll be an insurance payout of some kind. Plus, you’ve been injured, so you’ll be entitled to make a claim against someone, or however these things work. Our life insurance includes critical illness and all that kind of thing. I’ll get Aaron to look into it.”

I have no idea if that’s true, but I’m done talking to her. Done arguing. Done letting all of this consume me.

Aaron will probably throttle me for making this offer, but I’m not entirely sure what else to do. Yeah, I could walk away, but then what do I tell Layla when she grows up? What sort of role model would that make me?

I’m fightingnotto let Whitney’s infidelity turn me into a bitter, vindictive person. I want to be the best version of myself for my daughter. Holding on to pettiness and grudges won’t do that.

Max

Ichug on the bottleof water I helped myself to after arriving at my meeting with the head of our management agency and record label earlier.

“Probably not your wisest move,” Lennon tells me.

It’s something I already know, so I shrug. “She’s got me by the bollocks. I’ll file for divorce as soon as the marriage is a year old. She’ll be served with the custody order as soon as she’s out of the hospital. If I could, I would’ve already done it, but”—I shrug again—“how’s that gonna look to the public?”

Lennon rolls the pen he’s holding between the thumb and index finger of his right hand as he studies me. “For fuck's sake. I hadn’t even thought of that.”

I raise my brows and shake my head in mock disappointment. “I thought I paid you to think of everything?”

Lennon is like no other agent in the industry. Like no otheranybodyin the industry, really. He’s not fake or self-serving. He knows the business inside out, and despite some of the shit I’ve pulled in the past, he’s always covered my arse.

Since managing his brother Marley’s band, Carnage, Lennon has expanded his empire to incorporate the agency and the label. He knows the business from every angle, and what he doesn’t know, Marley, now his business partner, does. They have a great set up, are prolific in the industry for their professionalism, and are just genuinely good people.

“What are the chances of her going public with a sob story once you serve her?”

I scratch at my chin. The stubble from last week is now a full-on beard. Whitney hated beards. That pettiness I wasn’t going to allow to creep into my life? Yeah, the beard was a big fuck you to her and to that, but, oh well.

“I honestly don’t know, Len. I could threaten to withdraw my offer of letting her remain living at my house if she does, but she might get offered millions to sell her story.”

“Has she got anything on you?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know? Sex tapes, drug taking, abuse? Anything you don’t want out there?”