Page 30 of For My Finale

L ilah sat across from Simon DeLaney. She’d known the journalist in passing for years, he wasn’t a friend, but he wasn’t quite the enemy either.

They were in a plush hotel suite, a quiet setting for what was supposed to be her big return to the industry interview.

Cameras were set up, already recording her every movement, the lighting was so bright that she could look nowhere but at Simon’s face.

She took none of it in, it was like being in her own living room she was so used to it.

Simon smiled in that easy, practiced way that TV journalists always did, his signature clipboard of questions resting on his knee. “So, Lilah, the real question, the real reason that we’re sitting here. You left Hollywood at the height of your career. Why?”

She’d rehearsed this answer with Margot a thousand times since agreeing to this interview. “I needed a break,” she said smoothly, flashing a charming but detached smile. “I wanted to take a step back and breathe for a bit.”

Simon tilted his head, scrutinizing her for the cameras. “Some might think this was a publicity stunt. That you vanished for dramatic effect, only to return to be lauded later.”

Lilah sucked a breath in. In her head, she wanted to shout and yell and tell him that leaving was the realest thing she’d ever done.

She’d gone in genuine desperation, she’d been searching for something real.

But that wasn’t what the world wanted to hear.

She was supposed to be larger than life, a woman who controlled every aspect of her image.

So instead, she raised one eyebrow and shrugged. “Then perhaps that’s what it was.”

Simon chuckled. “You don’t sound so sure.”

Lilah smiled again, lifting her other eyebrow and tilting her chin just so, the camera catching her good side. “It’s all part of the mystique, isn’t it?”

Simon laughed outright at this. Maybe he understood, maybe he didn’t, maybe Margot had filled him in, maybe he was just play-acting for the cameras.

“Alright, alright, so let’s move on to more recent rumors.

There’s talk that you’re about to make a big return.

A certain Martin Leyland, who also quit Hollywood, is attached to a new project, and your name has been floating around in connection. Can you confirm anything?”

Smoothing out a tiny wrinkle in her dress, Lilah smiled. “I can’t tell you much.”

“But you can tell me something?”

She hesitated. She knew what she was supposed to say.

She was supposed to say that she was excited, that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, that she was ready to reclaim her place on the silver screen.

And yet… for a long moment, she hesitated.

She hadn’t confirmed anything. Was this really what she wanted? Simon was looking at her.

She forced a grin. “Let’s just say it’s an exciting time.”

He studied her for a beat before nodding. “Fair enough, your lips are sealed, message received. Let’s talk about something a bit more personal then. There have been whispers of a new romance. A certain someone who might have managed to capture the elusive heart of Lilah Paxton.”

The question hit her like a punch to the gut. This was not supposed to be this way. It wasn’t on the list of pre-approved questions.

Her smile faltered for the briefest of moments.

Of course, she knew exactly who he was referring to.

Blossom. And just the thought of her name made Lilah’s stomach flip.

Blossom with her warm eyes, Blossom with her warm kisses, Blossom with her warm heart.

Blossom who’d let her walk away without a word.

Lilah swallowed hard. “Nonsense,” she said lightly. “Who could possibly capture the heart of Lilah Paxton?”

Simon laughed again. “That tracks with everything that I’ve heard.”

Her chest ached with the sound of his laughter.

She’d said the words so effortlessly, with all the charm the world expected from her.

But they were by far the worst lie that she had ever told.

The worst and the most painful. Someone had captured her heart.

But she’d been so afraid that she’d snatched it back again.

The interview wrapped up with the usual pleasantries. Simon thanked her for her time and Lilah shook his hand and then she was walking out of the suite, her back straight, her head held high, her heels clicking on the polished floor.

But the moment the door closed behind her, the performance dropped away. She stumbled slightly, reaching out to press a hand against the cool marble wall of the hallway. Her breath came unsteadily, and she clenched her jaw, blinking rapidly.

She’d thought she could handle this. She’d convinced herself that leaving had been the right thing to do, that she was protecting Blossom, that she could never have a normal life.

But sitting on that couch in front of those cameras and denying that Blossom even existed had ripped something apart inside her.

She breathed out slowly, staring at the tiled floor. She’d done what she always did, played her part. But it wasn’t a part she wanted to play anymore. She couldn’t pretend that she wanted this.

She closed her eyes and stayed there, leaning against the wall, trying to ignore the way that her heart was aching in her chest like it might fail at any second.

“Oh, for God’s sake.”

Lilah opened her eyes to see Margot standing in front of her, arms crossed, looking at her with a mixture of exasperation and something close to pity.

“Not quite a shit-show, but close to it,” Margot said .

“I handled it,” said Lilah.

“Did you?” Margot sighed. “Come on, you need a drink.”

Lilah let herself be led to the elevator and then down into the hotel bar. The drinks were overpriced, but at least there was some privacy here. The hotel had a reputation to keep up and wouldn’t let the press in.

Margot ordered a whisky for herself, and when Lilah didn’t object, another for her. Lilah wasn’t entirely sure she wanted a drink, but she took it when it came, smelling the deep scent of it.

“To putting all this nonsense behind you,” Margot said, raising her glass. “A scratch on the record, nothing more.”

Lilah had lifted her glass out of habit, but now she put it down. “It wasn’t a scratch.”

“Of course it was,” said Margot. “A little blip, an amusing story you’ll tell one day at a fancy party. ‘Remember when I ran away to the countryside for a bit and got chased down by a badger? What a riot!’”

“It was a bull,” Lilah said.

Margot waved a hand dismissively. “You didn’t really think you could just disappear, did you?”

Lilah took a long sip of her drink, feeling it burn as it slid down her throat. “I wanted to.”

“You’re crazy,” Margot said, shaking her head.

“You’re Lilah Paxton. You don’t get to live a normal life.

And why should you? You’ve spent your entire life in the public eye.

And guess what? The public, your fans, the ones who have spent millions of dollars on you, they deserve to know who you are and where you are.

That’s part of the deal. It’s the Faustian bargain you make in exchange for fame and all its trappings. ”

“I never wanted any of that,” Lilah said sadly. “Not really.”

“Oh, please,” said Margot. “You worked your little ass off for all this. We both did. All the late nights, the endless auditions, getting your teeth done, the sacrifices. Don’t think that I don’t know what you’ve done to get where you are, because I was right there with you most of the time.

And you want to give it all up for what? ”

Lilah’s fingers curled around her glass. “Not for what. For who.”

Margot gave her a look. “Oh, Lilah.”

“I was happy there,” Lilah said quietly, setting her drink down again. “With her.”

With a sigh, Margot rubbed her temples. “You’re telling me that you want to throw everything away for… for a barista?”

Lilah’s jaw tightened. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

Margot waved the waiter over. “Bill, please.”

The young man nodded and printed out the bill, handing it to Margot to sign. He accepted the paper back and then hesitated. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but…” He took a breath. “Miss Paxton, I’m a huge fan. Really huge. Would you mind?” He held out a napkin and a pen.

With a practiced smile, Lilah took the pen and scrawled her signature. The young man beamed. Internally, Lilah screamed. A week ago, she’d been buying her own eggs. Now she couldn’t even drink in the most discrete of bars.

“See?” Margot said. “That’s more like it.”

Lilah didn’t respond.

Margot stood up, slipping a couple of extra bills onto the table as a tip. Lilah wondered if she’d bribed the waiter to ask for her autograph, just to remind Lilah what she owed the public.

“Come on, we’ve got a big week ahead,” Margot said. “You need your beauty sleep.”

Lilah followed her out of the bar and into the hotel elevator. Margot pressed the button for the top floor, then leaned against the mirrored wall, checking her phone.

Lilah stared at her reflection.

She looked like… Lilah Paxton. Perfect smile, perfect hair, perfect composure. And yet she looked nothing like herself. Not the person she’d been in Bankton, with her messy hair and yoga pants and distinct lack of makeup.

She sighed. She had everything, didn’t she? Money, fame, the comeback of a lifetime, the adoration of millions of fans, the sort of career most people only dreamed of. So why did she feel like she had nothing at all?

As the elevator climbed, Lilah let her eyes drift shut.

She couldn’t change it. If even little Bankton wasn’t safe from the press, from people selling her out and wanting things from her, then where was?

Nowhere. So she had to settle for the decisions she’d made.

Because as unsure as she was about nearly everything, there was one thing that she was certain about. Blossom was safer without her.