Page 104 of Beauty & Chaos

“Mr. Warner, Michael wants ten minutes of your time. Can I send him in?” Tiffany asks from the doorway.

“Yes. Give me a couple of minutes, then send him over.”

She smiles and disappears. I’m about to head to the bathroom, but I’m drawn back to the podcast. It started five minutes ago.

Fuck it.

I click play and start to listen.

“...and as you know we’ve been investigating Leo Taylor and the many reports that you’ve sent in.”

Woah.

I’m standing, but I lean my palms on my desk.

“I’ll be honest, I was going to put this story to bed. These serious allegations can impact a person’s life, so the right path to take is filing a police report, so it’s investigated properly.But today we have a story we believe needs sharing.”

I straighten, sliding my hands into my pants pockets.

This is it. The reason I pursued Brooklyn. What I wanted more than anything...and yet, something about it feels hollow.

If I lose her because of what I’ve done, none of this will be worth it. He will have won and destroyed something else in my life.

I sigh.

No, I did that.

“We have new information that I’ve been sitting on. This has been given to me by someone who’s trusted me enormously. Leo’s son.”

She hasn’t called or messaged. I can’t help but feel this is her parting gift.

Goddamn it.

I told her I loved her. I told her things I haven’t detailed to the guys. Brook knows things about me no one else does.

When I met her, something sparked inside me. She made me laugh. She made me feel. She made me see a future I’d never dreamed of.

Fuck.

“Hey, Travis, thanks for seeing me,” Michael says, wandering in.

I hold my hand up. “Sorry, I need to cancel. I’ll call you in an hour.”

He stops.

“Many of you will remember him from the nineties, walking the red carpets with his dad.”

Michael probably thinks I’m a jerk kicking him out to listen to some celebrity gossip right now, but this is too important.

I give him a pointed look.

“Sure.” He does a one-eighty and walks out.

I close the door, lock it, and return to my desk. Sitting down, I turn up the volume.

Is she going to share my recording or just do a high-level summary?

My heart thumps loudly.