Page 26 of The Player

‘I’m eager to get started.’ She gestured at her bag. ‘I’ve brought a ton of notes and photos and stuff so we can hit the ground running.’

‘That’s what I like to hear.’

She fell into step beside him, having to lengthen her stride to keep up.

‘I can’t emphasise enough the speedy turnaround needed on this.’ He stopped outside a conference room and gestured her in. ‘There’s a lot riding on this book being a runaway success.’

A wave of panic threatened to swamp Liza, mixed with a healthy dose of guilt. Inventing a bunch of lies to protect Cindy hadn’t seemed so bad when she’d been jotting notes last night, but hearing the hint of desperation in Wade’s voice made her wonder about the wisdom of this.

What if one of her lies unravelled? What if she was declared a fraud? Or, worst-case scenario, what if she exposed Cindy in the process?

‘Something wrong?’

Everything was wrong, but Liza had to do this. It was the only way forward that enabled her to provide a safe future for Cindy while following her own dream at the same time. She was used to depending on no one but herself, and to provide Cindy with that same independence, she had to make this work.

She faked a smile that had fooled the masses before. ‘Let’s get started.’

With a doubtful sideways glance, he gestured her ahead of him into the room, where he introduced her to Danni, the ghost writer, a forty-something woman who reeked of efficiency.

‘I’ll leave you ladies to it,’ he said, glancing at his watch. ‘And I’ll see you in my office this afternoon at one-thirty, Liza.’

‘Sure,’ she said, not looking forward to the marketing meeting one bit.

She might be able to fake it for Danni, but Wade had seen her naked. Not much more she could hide from him.

Over the next four hours Liza laid bare her life. The life she’d pared back, embellished, and concocted, that was. Danni taped their interview, jotted notes in a mega scrapbook already filled with scrawl, and typed furiously into a laptop.

Danni asked pertinent questions, nothing too personal but insightful all the same and Liza couldn’t help but be impressed. And relieved. This biography business was going better than expected and, according to Danni, she’d have enough information by the end of the week to collate into a workable chapter book.

When they finally broke at one fifteen, Liza had a rumbling tummy and a headache, but she couldn’t afford to be late for her meeting with Wade so she grabbed a coffee from the lunch room, checked in with Shar to see how Cindy was, and made it to Wade’s office with a minute to spare.

He barely acknowledged her entrance when she knocked and he waved her in, his eyes riveted to the massive monitor screen in front of him while on a conference call. Whoever was on the other end of the line was spouting a whole lot of figures that made her head spin; hundreds of thousands of dollars bandied around as if they were discussing pocket change.

She could hardly comprehend the advance Qu Publishing had offered her. It topped the other offers she’d had by two hundred grand. Ironic, it hadn’t been enough to tempt her when she’d had her investments maturing but, with her nest-egg gone, beggars certainly couldn’t be choosers.

‘Sorry about that,’ he said after ending the call, clasping his hands together and resting them on the desk. ‘I’ve been working on the pre-orders, which are all important.’

‘How many people are interested in reading about my boring life?’

‘Boring?’ He spun the screen around and pointed at the spreadsheet covered in figures and highlighted colours. ‘According to the orders flooding in already, you’re ranking up there with the best for notoriety.’

He leaned back, pinning her with a speculative stare. ‘Which makes me wonder, what have you done that is so newsworthy?’

Liza shrugged, knowing he would’ve asked this question eventually but feeling increasingly uncomfortable having to discuss any part of her life with him.

Rehashing details for Danni was one thing; baring herself—metaphorically—to Wade another.

‘Not much, really. My high-school sweetheart turned out to be a soccer superstar so we were thrust into the limelight early on.’

She smoothed a fray in her stockings, remembering how out of her depth she’d felt at the time. Photographers snapping their photo wherever they went, groupies slipping phone numbers into Jimmy’s pocket constantly, autograph hunters thrusting pen and paper into his face regardless of appropriate timing.

It had been a circus but she’d quickly learned to play the game when a national magazine had offered her twenty-thousand dollars for an interview. At twenty-two and fresh out of uni it had been an exorbitant sum, and she’d grabbed it to buy a new motorised wheelchair for Cindy.

That interview had been the start. More had followed, along with interviews on talk shows, hosting charity events, and appearing at openings for a fee. Jimmy had encouraged her and with every deposit in her investment account she’d been vindicated she was doing the right thing.

Cindy would be secure for life. Liza never wanted her sister to struggle the way she had when their parents had left them. Being abandoned had been bad enough, but left without long-term security? Liza could never forgive her folks for that.

Not that she heard from them. Her dad had vanished for good when he’d left and her mum occasionally called on birthdays and Christmas, along with sending those cards with a hundred dollar bill for Cindy. Liza never took her calls, letting Cindy chatter enthusiastically, while she wondered the entire time how a parent could walk out on their child.

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