But Lewis just looked dejected. Like my words had finally sank in. “Don’t go like this. We can try again.”
“No”—I extracted my arm from him—“we can’t.”
My heart constricted as I eased past him and out the door. I hated what had just happened. How it had all gone down. The fact that Lewis had seen what we’d done, so he now clearly blamed Penn for our breakup. When it was all his lies. And secrets. And obsession.
I was nearly to the elevator when I felt Penn catch up with me. Our eyes met for a minute, and then I turned away. He knew me well enough not to say anything.
His shirt was still undone. His tie had vanished, likely never to be seen again. He hastened to right himself. Though it was obvious that we were both more rumpled than we’d been earlier.
I’d come to Katherine’s wedding to prove a point. That I wouldn’t back down from a challenge. It had all unraveled from there, and now, there was no reason to be in attendance.
But when we bypassed the entrance to the Grand Ballroom, there was a crowd of people standing around, reading on their phones. Not what I would have expected of a reception party. Then, Jane appeared. Her eyes rounded when she saw me, and she darted toward me.
“Oh my god, Natalie, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you,” she gushed.
“Why?” I asked warily.
“Your pen name,” she said. “Someone found out you’re Olivia.”
“What? How?” I gasped frantically.
“I don’t know. But someone leaked it to the press.”
I took the phone she offered me and read the headline of the article she had up, suddenly feeling faint.
New York Times Bestselling Novel Bet on It Author Olivia Davies Reportedly a Pen Name for Former Temp Worker. Not the Insider You Expected!
Natalie
39
“No,” I breathed. “No, no, no, no, no.”
I skimmed through the article with my heart in my throat. This couldn’t be happening. This…this couldn’t be real.
And yet, it was.
The article was a tell-all in its reveal of me. Slamming me for writing a fucking fictional account. As if it didn’t say based on on the fucking cover. It painted me as a jilted ex. Someone who had lost in all of this and was desperate for revenge. As if I’d written it for that and not to expunge the contents of my soul onto the page.
It claimed that I’d painted the picture to appear like I was an Upper East Sider who had fallen into this group. When, in fact, I was just the help. A washed-up temp worker who was watching a home in the Hamptons last fall. That the book wasn’t some insider information that was worth reading; it was just a boring outside perspective of someone who wished they could live in this world.
And since the article was an editorial from someone in the know, it was clear that they didn’t think that my information was important enough to come from ‘the help.’ I effectively had no voice in this. And would be given no response. Just a salacious headline that tore me from my apparent pedestal.
Basically, I was no one important. The book sucked. And I was kind of a whore.
“Holy fuck. I don’t…” My hands were shaking as I all but threw the phone back at Jane.
“How the hell did someone get this information?” Penn demanded. “Does the author list a source?”
I shook my head.
“This is slander. We could go after them.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Jane said. “How many other people knew about this?”
“Hardly anyone. Maybe a half dozen people.”
“None of us would have leaked this,” Penn said.
Jane agreed. “Someone else had to know. Someone out to get you.”
“Shit, I don’t even know what this means for the book. I have to call my agent,” I gasped. “Fuck, it’s Saturday. She’s not going to answer. I’ll have to email her. I hope she doesn’t see the article before she gets my email.”
I fished into my purse and pulled out my phone. My brain was running a million miles a second. There had to be some kind of damage control that Caroline could do. Or Gillian. This was…beyond words.
I’d thought that finding out about Lewis and the subsequent breakup would be the death of me, but…my career was hanging in the balance. The only thing that I’d ever wanted to do with my life. The thing I’d finally secured happily. And now…I didn’t know where I stood.
“Natalie,” Penn murmured softly.
“What?” I asked, glancing up at him.
But he was looking elsewhere. I followed his line of vision and found the dark-haired beauty clothed in white, walking toward us.
“Katherine,” I muttered. I wasn’t ready for this confrontation. Not after Lewis. Not after this debacle with my pen name.
Her smug smirk was relentless. “Hello, Natalie.”
“Look, I’m leaving now anyway, so you can save your speech for someone else.”