Page 72 of Beyond the Fame

And fuck it’s... bad.

Jensen lifts his head the moment I tense. He stands and tugs a chair close to me to sit.

“Lexi, let me call you back.”

I hang up before she can argue.

“What happened?”

My hands tremble as I set the phone on the table.

“There’s an article and a video. It hasn’t been picked up yet, but Lexi, my publicist, is worried it could go viral.”

“What is it? I can fix it.”

“It talks about script negotiations for Tyler’s Team. About how difficult I was. About how the film almost didn’t get made. The video is from set of us disagreeing over a shot. It gets pretty heated. This is on top of the picture from dinner that first night here in Kauai, when I was glaring at you. The article doesn’t even mention all the other pictures and videos of us flirting with each other. It's one sided and only meant to make me into the villain.”

“I sent a statement to my publicist explaining all the pictures of us. Didn't you?”

I shake my head, ashamed.

“Rebecca.”

“I know. I just didn’t want to deal with it.”

He stands. “Even so, they published the article without asking for our side.” He stands and walks off into his room, returning with his phone and charger in his hand. “My phone must have died last night when we got back from the waterfall tour.”

After plugging it in the outlet next to the table where I’m sitting, he reaches his hand out and rubs my forearm.

“My phone died too. I charged it this morning, but I always have it on silent.” I scroll through my notifications. Lana texted at some point. She tried calling a few times this morning too. I’d been so in the zone writing; I didn’t notice the screen lighting up with notifications. “My lawyer and publicist have been trying to get a hold of me since last night. So, they did try to get our side before publishing.”

I lower my head into my hands and start crying. Jensen stands to console me, rubbing my back with his warm hand.

“They make me out to be such a bitch. I wasn’t doing it to be a bitch. This was Tyler’s life... I... I just wanted it told in its truest form.”

“I know, Rebecca.”

“Did you know when the movie was announced, people emailed me? They threatened me.”

“What?”

“They told me I better not let Hollywood change a single thing. People connected with the book. It helped them grieve and move on. There was this obsession with it. Dedicated fans found Lana and forced her to move. She changed her number and disappeared from social media. I fought not only because of Tyler’s legacy, but because I was scared. I just didn’t want to let anyone down.” I pause to catch a breath because this is the first time I’ve told someone other than my lawyers about this. “Then it came out with the changes, and I worried for nothing. Everyone loved it. Aside from a handful of death threats, which were handled by the police, not a single person was disappointed in me. Not even my parents. It was the first time they even acknowledged something good in my life since he died.”

Jensen stands in front of me and I wrap my arms around him. I bury my face into his stomach.

“We’ll fix this,” he says into my hair and kisses the top of my head.

“How?” I ask, my voice muffled.

“I’ll call my parents.”

I pull back, tilting my head up to see his face. “What?”

“They’re entertainment lawyers. Powerful ones. Big name ones. They’ll get the article and video taken down. They'll find out who leaked it and make sure they never work in this industry again.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“Of course.”

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