Page 58 of Mayhem

“I take it you’ve seen the Blindsided article?” she asks, and I detect an edge of worry in her tone.

“I literally just heard about it, and am now looking into it…” It’s the truth at least. Not all of it, but it’s all Eliza needs to know.

“Well, talk to Brad, and get his side of it. If it’s true, fine. Whatever. We’ll deal with it. But if it’s not, we need to shut it down. We can’t have people using Chaos Fuel’s rising star to pull themselves up. You know what I mean?”

The thought of confronting Brad about this makes me feel sick to my stomach. That’s the last thing I want to do right now. But, of course, it’s also my job.

“I understand,” I say, determined to keep things professional. “I’m on it. Don’t worry.”

“Okay. Do your thing, Tess.”

We end the call, and I stare at my phone blankly. I don’t want to do this.

I could quit. Find work somewhere else. Anywhere else. I could move to another country and do any other kind of job. One that doesn’t deal with people. One that doesn’t rip my heart to shreds. Or I could go back to fixing politician’s fucked up lives… That thought turns my stomach.

The runaway train that is my thought process derails, and I think about Charlie. The little girl with the big brain and even bigger heart. She tried so hard to get me and her dad together, I don’t know how she’s going to react to him and Sierra. Does Sierra care about Charlie like I do? Does she play games and do crafts with her? Talk to her like she’s a real person and not just a child?

I’m losing so much more than Brad, and the magnitude of it is killing me. If I’m honest with myself, I did let my imagination run a little wild with the idea of us all together. Even if it was only part-time with Charlie, it felt like we had created a wonderful dynamic between the three of us. We were forging bonds I didn’t even know existed, or only dreamt of.

And now…

36

LOST IN ECHOES

BRAD

Out of nowhere, my phone starts blowing up. My first thought, well, hope, is that it’s Tess, and I jump to answer it, only to find that it’s Ian.

“Just a head’s up that your secret is out,” Ian announces, not even a ‘hello,’ or, ‘how are you?’ to start the conversation politely. That’s not like him.

“Secret? What secret?” I glance over at Charlie, half-asleep on the couch next to me, and make my way to my bedroom down the hall. That initial statement makes me think this is going to be a crazy discussion. I am not wrong.

“About you and Sierra,” he adds, sounding disappointed.

I may not be disappointed currently, but I’m sure as fuck confused.

“Me and Sierra? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Don’t act so surprised, Brad. She went to the tabloids and told them you’re back together.” He hesitates for a second, and with a sigh says, “And, Tess and I overheard your conversation with her earlier today, so the cat’s out of the bag. But why is she going to the press with this stuff? Did you guys think it would help?—”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I shout, disbelief clouding my vision momentarily. I literally have to blink several times to focus on anything again. “Sierra and I are not back together. And we won’t ever be.”

“Well, that’s not what she told Blindsided.”

“I don’t give a shit what she told anyone; it’s not fucking true.” My heart is about to pound out of my chest, and I start pacing around the bed, trying to make sense of what he’s saying. I can hear other phone notifications trying to break through the call, but I ignore them for now. I need to know what the fuck is happening.

“She said, and I quote, ‘Brad and I realized during our time apart that we were made for each other. No matter how much we tried to forget the other person and move on, we just couldn’t. We were meant to be…’”

“What the actual fuck?” I growl, my teeth and fists now clenching. There was no indication whatsoever during my call with Sierra that she would do something like this. She tried to get back together with me, but it didn’t work. I shot her down as gently as I could. Even though we broke up because of her lying to the press about a supposed ‘engagement’ that never happened, I never hated her. Shit, I still considered us friends after the call this afternoon. Well, fuck that now. She just burned that bridge with napalm.

I rake an angry hand through my hair, grabbing a fistful and debating pulling it out by the roots. I don’t know that I’ve ever been this mad before in my life. And to be fair, I’ve had a lot of fucked up shit happen to me.

Charlie’s small voice from the doorway freezes me in place.

“Daddy? What’s wrong?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

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