Page 11 of Overexposed

“Clara, what thefuck?” I asked again. My brain was too numb to form much more thought than that. “You’re breaking up with me because you want public sympathy to win roles? How about you just become a better actress and stop pretending to be such an airhead, then directors will take you more seriously?”

For all her many faults, Clara Belle wasn’t an idiot. She was sharp and business savvy, but she was a mediocre actress who’d never cracked it past straight to streaming rom-coms and the occasional art house women’s fiction flicks. Still…that was a low blow.

Her outraged gasp told me she thought so as well. “There’s no need to get nasty, Seven. It’s nothing personal, and you’d do the same in my shoes. I’d say we can stay friends, but you know how it goes. The story is juicier if we hate each other. Bye, boys, good luck with Carriage now.” Her nasty, little chuckle before she hung up told me shealsobelieved my career was in the toilet from this.

“Fuck!” I exploded, leaping out of my chair and clenching my fists. I wanted to hit something so badly, but I couldn’t risk messing up my hand when I still had a few days of shooting left onDeath Missionbefore it was done.

“Wow,” Ollie murmured in a sigh. “She is a piece of fucking work. Bullet dodged, bro. Seriously. I’m kinda glad she’s gone.”

I spun around to glare at him, incredulous. “Ollie! I was supposed to fucking marry that woman and she’s…she just… What thefuck?!”

Gem was oddly quiet, and I swung my gaze to him. My emotions were all kinds of conflicted because he didn’t do this deliberately. He didn’t ask for any of this and had expressed his discomfort with fame in a multitude of ways over the years. We’d started out acting together as children, swapping out in the same roles to share the workload while we were still young, but the older we got, the less enthusiastic he’d been to take new parts.

Several years back, he’d quit acting entirely and slipped into the shadows as a stuntman and body double. As far as the media was concerned, though, Gemini Harrison was no longer an actor and he liked it like that. Except, of course, I was going fromstrength to strength on the silver screen and we, unfortunately, shared a face.

“I’m sorry, Sev,” he said quietly. “I should have thought it through.”

Mentally, I forced myself to calm the fuck down. He looked so crestfallen, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he felt entirely responsible for what had just happened with Clara Belle.

“It’s not your fault, Gem,” I gritted out, scrubbing my hands over my face. “It’s not on you. This is the paparazzi fucking with our futuresagain. Filthy, soulless bottom-feeders.”

Ollie grunted his agreement, no stranger to the paparazzi treatment himself. “Whydidn’tyou think it through? You’re normally so careful.”

My twin’s face flushed pink, and he ran a hand through his hair that matched mine so perfectly. Our arrangement with him working as my stunt double was invaluable. No one could match what we had, which was why Carriage Pictures had even taken an interest in me for their new action-hero franchise. I couldn’t do it without him, and I wouldn’t want to. He was my other half, and it just fucking sucked that he couldn’t be his own person.

“Uh, well…I’d had a few drinks,” he mumbled, seeming sheepish. “And this woman…Jesus she was something else. Knew immediately that I wasn’t Seven, then nearly kicked my ass at pool…” He trailed off with that weird, little smile on his lips again.

Ollie grinned, clapping his hands together. “Shit, dude, you’re fucking smitten! What’s her name? Are you seeing her again?”

Gem screwed up his face, looking regretful. “Uh…”

I rolled my eyes. “She sold pictures of him to the tabloids, Ollie. Of course he isn’t seeing her again. Right, Gem?”

He shrugged. “Couldn’t even if I wanted to. I never got her number and she was gone before I woke up.” Then he cleared his throat and ducked eye contact as he added, “And I didn’t get her name either.”

My jaw dropped, but Ollie cracked the fuck up.

Before I could give Gem grief for his irresponsible decisions, the doorbell rang, then rang again and again. I rolled my eyes, knowing full well who I’d find even before I sauntered over to open it.

“Morning, Jerry,” I drawled, letting our manager in with the weight of dread across my shoulders, “welcome to the shit show. Clara Belle broke up with me, and Gem didn’t even get that chick’s name.”

Our manager stared for a moment, so hard I worried his eyes might pop out of their sockets. Then he glared at Gemini. “So I take it you didn’t have her sign the NDA? That explains a lot. So much. What thefuckdid I do in a past life to deserve this?” His slightly sobbing question was sent heavenward, and I bit back a smile. Jerry was a drama queen.

He’d fix this all for us, I was sure of it. He was the best in the business, so if Jerry Thompson couldn’t untangle this mess, no one could and we were all fucked.

chapter

five

Stella

Nothing made me happier than seeing my bank account sitting in the black for the first time in too damn long. Even after paying off all the crucial bills, such as power and water, and chipping away at Dad’s in-home care bills, I still had money left. Not a lot, mind you, but enough that I could treat myself to a drive-thru Starbucks on my way through downtown LA.

My phone rang as the barista handed over my venti brown sugar oat milk shaken espresso with vanilla sweet cream on top. It was 100 percent a splurge drink, and I felt expensive as hell for even ordering it.

“Hey, Dad, everything okay?” I asked after accepting the call on speakerphone in my lap. There was no Bluetooth in my ’57 Chevy Bel Air but she was divine to drive and had ample space for camera equipment, so I wouldn’t trade her in for the world.

“I saw the pictures, Shutterbug.” His voice slurred slightly, which was a result of his head injury. The injury may have ended his career as a paparazzi, but it had saved his life. Without those brain scans, they never would have found the tumor until it was too late to operate. Now he was bed-ridden and required in-home nurse care, but he was alive. That was the important part.

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