Page 148 of He's The Reason Why

Online could go offline to in person so fast. Della had her own security, but if someone was really determined to get even for what she’d done…she didn’t want to think about what might happen. She’d warned Della, but her sister, as usual, just brushed it off.

“Just ignore it,” Della said. “It’ll go away.”

She was right. The best way to handle this kind of mob mentality was to not be part of the mob. She’d learned that the hard way over the years. Anything she posted or said would stoke the flames, even if what she said was it’s okay, let it go.

So she didn’t post anything at all since the premiere, but the mob didn’t show any signs of slowing down. In fact, her silence seemed to egg them on.

She had so many things to say. So much she wanted them to know. She shouldn’t do it, but her fans were what kept her motivated. They were the reason behind everything she did, and without them, she didn’t even know who she was. She had to do it.

She had to talk to her fans.

What was a singer or an actor without people to hear them?

She gathered her resolve and wrapped it like a blanket around her as she clicked the record button.

“Hey,” Piper said with a lift of her mug. “In case you can’t tell, it’s dark thirty outside. I couldn’t sleep and I have an early call time this morning so I thought I’d go ahead and have a chat with you now.”

She took a deep breath to steady herself. “Y’all may have noticed I’ve made a few headlines this past week. Things happened at the premiere forScorched. Words were said that…well it doesn’t matter what was said. It really doesn’t. I want you to know that, above everything else.”

She stared earnestly into the camera, willing those who would see this to believe what she was saying. “I’m okay. I’m over it. I’m moving on.”

She sipped her coffee for a second or two, trying to gather her thoughts. She didn’t have a plan. She just wanted to talk.

She looked thoughtfully at the cup. “I just wanted to say that words have power. They can lift us up, or they can tear us down, if we let them.”

She looked up. “That’s the thing. We have toletthem. We get to choose how we react. We can let those words pass on by, if we want. We can toss them away, or shout our own words back. We can get mean and ugly, maybe fight about it. Maybe even punch someone in the face.”

She couldn’t suppress the quick grin at the image that invoked. Her baby sister, punching Blake in the nose, was something she’d never, ever forget. “Or we can let it go. We can realize that everybody says something they don’t mean sometimes. Everybody has a bad day. I know I’ve had a few of those over the years. Hopefully your bad days don’t go viral like mine do.”

She saluted with the coffee mug, then set it down and gathered her knees up to her chest.

“Worse than what other people say are the words we say to ourselves. You know the ones. Those little voices in your head that tell you you’re not good enough or smart enough or rich enough or pretty enough or whatever enough…those are the most dangerous words of all.

“You might think that you’re the only one with that voice, but you aren’t. I have that voice, too. Weallhave that voice. And it’s so much harder to let that go, isn’t it.”

She took a deep breath and laid her head on her knee. “Does anybody have a trick for combating your own self-hate speech? Ifyou have any tips, can you let me know? Just drop them in the comments, okay? I’ll be watching.

“And for the record, I like Blake Ryan. A lot. I don’t blame him. What he said was, well, it was true in the moment. I had a lot to learn, and I’m grateful he took me under his wing and showed me how to be the best Jewel I could be. He’s a good guy. Agreatguy. So, you know, maybe cut him some slack.”

She glanced at the clock on the wall. “I have to go. I have work to do today. Thanks for listening, and remember…you totally rock. Always.”

She clicked off, uploaded the post, set it to go live at her usual time, then sat there staring at nothing for a long, long time.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The week following theScorchedpremiere had to go down in the record books for the longest week in history. Blake had spent every day in interview after interview with Piper. She’d laughed, chatted happily about the movie, and had acted for the rest of the world like nothing was wrong. But the looks she’d given him were so cold and distant he’d felt like he was in a different country.

Every time he’d tried to talk to her, she said not now.

He was going to go insane if he heard those words one more time.

On the one hand, it sounded promising. Not now wasn’t not ever. But when would it be yes, now? He waited with anxious anticipation for that moment like a drowning man waiting for a life raft.

He joined Marshall at the desert house late Friday night, after the week-long press tour was over. Marshall had managed to shoot several background scenes while he was waiting for Blake to return, and they spent Saturday going over the dailies.

Piper’s scenes were everything he’d hoped they would be.

“She’s really good,” Marshall commented. “Glad we signed her before everyone else finds out. Her price will skyrocket.”

---