Page 46 of The Player

Liza blew a raspberry. ‘I hate it when you’re logical.’

Shar winked. ‘All part of the service.’

Now that Liza had come this far, she should tell Shar all of it.

‘I did it for the money.’

‘The biography?’

Liza nodded. ‘That day I went to Qu Publishing to tell them to stop harassing us, I had a phone call from my financial adviser’s office.’

She took a deep breath, blew it out. ‘My investment has gone. He scammed the lot.’

Shar blanched. ‘Hell, that’s diabolical.’

‘To put it mildly.’ Liza hugged her knees tighter. ‘I was still in the office when I took the call, after basically telling Wade to stick his offer to publish my biography. But after I got the news, I was reeling. Wade found me in a crumpled heap and was a good sport, so in the end, I had to accept his offer. The advance and royalties from the biography were the only way out.’

‘Drastic times call for drastic measures.’ Shar picked up the ARC from the floor and laid it on the table. ‘If you didn’t mention Cindy in the book, did you stretch the truth in general?’

‘A little.’ Liza wavered a hand side to side. ‘I mostly stuck to the truth with the WAG side of things. Played up all that glamorous nonsense people lap up. It’s what he asked for.’

‘What about your folks?’

‘I told the truth. Within reason.’

Even now, ten years after her mum had walked out on them, and almost two decades since her dad had bolted too, Liza cushioned the hurt by justifying their appalling behaviour. They didn’t deserve it but the last thing she needed was for Cindy to realise the truth one day.

That their parents had left because of her.

Cindy had been too young to know their father, had swallowed the story their mum had told—they’d grown apart and divorced—when in reality he’d been a coward, unable to cope with a disabled daughter and had taken the easy way out by abandoning them all.

As for their mum, Cindy wasn’t a fool and had been stoic when she’d left. Louisa had emotionally withdrawn for years and Cindy had been philosophical, almost happy, when Liza became her sole carer.

Finding Shar at the time had been a godsend too and Liza knew she wouldn’t have made it this far without the full-time carer and confidante.

‘As long as you didn’t tell blatant lies, I don’t see what the problem is.’ Shar picked up the ARC and flipped through it. ‘What did he mean about losing everything?’

‘Apparently the advance came out of his pocket.’

But from what she’d learned, Wade was loaded. He had his own publishing company in London. Then again, she knew better than anyone that appearances could be deceptive. If his company was anything like Qu Publishing and the rest of the industry, maybe he’d taken a hit with the digital boom and was losing millions with falling print runs?

But her biography was already at the printers, ready to ship to the many bookstores that had pre-ordered by the thousands, and those pre-orders were like gold.

So what if she’d omitted Cindy from her story? What the readers didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. He’d overreacted, probably smarting more from her omission than any real financial pressure.

Shar laid the ARC on the table and nudged it toward her. ‘Maybe you should talk to him?’

‘Are you kidding?’ Liza shook her head. ‘You didn’t see how mad he was.’

‘Give him time to cool off, then talk to him.’ Shar took a huge bite of brownie, chewed it, before continuing. ‘Besides, isn’t he your boss? You’ll have to talk some time.’

Hell. Somewhere between the shock of having him turn up at her house and the kerfuffle of fending off his wild accusations, she’d forgotten she’d have to face him at work and see the devastation and disgust in Wade’s eyes all over again.

Shar dusted off her hands. ‘Go easy on him. I think he likes you.’

That’s where the problem lay.

Liza liked him too.

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