Page 22 of Between the Lines

I shouldered a mess when I had expected to inherit a legacy.

And I’ve worked day and night to make everyone forget thatHartmanorTitan Mediameans scandal.

“Don’t worry,” I tell Mandy as I push away the memory of Charlotte sitting in the same chair. Her hand shaking mine. The intrigue I feel despite my intention to give the ghostwriter next to nothing. “I know what I’m doing.”

CHAPTER 9

CHARLOTTE

The Los Angeles air is the perfect temperature. It’s mid-April, and spring is here. At least this early in the day. By lunchtime, it’ll be the kind of heat I’m used to in summer.

But now it’s only seven, and I’m waiting outside the house where Aiden lives, just barely visible behind a giant gate outside his Bel Air estate. I’m so nervous, it’s hard to focus on anything but my nerves.

Car ride to office. 20 mins.

That’s on my planner, one of the few little windows of time when I’ve been granted access to him. I’ve worked with very busy people before. This won’t be any different in that regard.

Only that it’shim.

And it’s Titan Media.

Andthisis why I shouldn’t sleep with random strangers. Why I spent years trying to move away from making bad decisions. I’m a smart person who makes smart, considered, tactical decisions. I never get emotionally invested, and I definitely don’t sleep with my subjects.

I was up late last night, reading through the info packet I received from Eric. It includes pages and pages of details about the company. On the other hand, significantly fewer pagesabout Aiden. It read more like a résumé. His schooling, notable achievements, and the date he took over Titan Media.

The rest I googled. His father. The fraud investigation. The heavily publicized court case and the sentencing hearing. Pictures of Aiden from when he attended the courtroom and sat in the back row. His clean-shaven face was carved in stone, his hair a bit longer back then.

His eyes were unreadable as he stared up at the judge.

And then he’d taken over the control of Titan Media, the company that producedThe Gamble, and allowed the cesspool that it is to flourish.

I don’t think aboutThe Gambleor that time in my life much these days.

It hardened me. The public ridicule. The comments. The looks. Simply being the topic of so many conversations.

On the whole, I know it was just a flash in the pan. Fifteen minutes of fame I never wanted, but inadvertently invited into my life. And afterwards, my life continued. So had everyone else’s. Except I came out scarred by the experience.

Heart, broken.

Pride, shattered.

Trust, betrayed.

I rarely get recognized these days. That had taken time to achieve. But I’d gotten here, after a bit of growing up. I stopped adding the bleached highlights to my hair and let it return to its natural brown. I stopped straightening it to death and embraced the natural wave. I learned how to exercise and eat healthy in a way that allowed my body to fill out organically and settle into its own feminine shape that I’d been fighting against as a teenager.

Changed my last name.

I hit rock bottom when I walked off the production set ofThe Gambleat nineteen, having made a fool of myself and barely understanding how I ended up in that situation in the first place.

But when you’re on rock bottom, the only way is up.

Yet here I am. With Aiden Hartman, Titan Media, and the contract I signed before I knew who the subject was. That had seemed intriguing at the time. I had fun fantasizing about who it might be before learning the truth.

This will be a big one,Vera had said.Career-defining, possibly.

Like a fish, I’d been baited and hooked. I wanted this deal so badly because of what I stand to get after. An entire year to spend investigating and writing a story of my choosing.

Writing memoirs has been great. A way to hone my craft and a stellar means to pay the bills while flitting from town to town and story to story. But the old dream hadn’t died… and even now, when I should run, it’s what I’m clinging to.

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