Page 99 of Heartbreaker

Other than a handful of people in this club right now.

How have I allowed myself to become so isolated?

I’m incredibly grateful for Royal and this newfound friendship with his family, but that doesn’t excuse me from putting myself in this position. At some point, I have to think about that.

“Maddie’s calling,” Royal says, putting her on speaker phone.

“What the hell is going on?” she demands.

Royal introduces her to Atlas, and they have a conversation like Royal and I aren’t even here.

“We should bring Kate in on this,” Maddie says. “Hang on, let me add her to the call.”

A moment later, Kate’s voice fills the room.

“I’m sorry to bother you this late at night,” Royal tells her.

“That’s what I’m here for,” she says. “My husband and I just got back from a day at an indoor water park with the twins—so I might be out of the loop. What’s going on?”

“Hang on, let me text you something,” Madeline tells her.

Ugh.

How many more people are going to hear that recording?

Oh, wait.

The whole freakin’ world.

My face flames all over again.

“It’s going to be okay,” Royal whispers. “Breathe.”

“Ohhh.” Kate’s voice is all business now. “Okay. So this is bad, but not horrible.”

Not horrible?

Easy for her to say.

“What do you suggest?” Madeline asks her. “From a crisis control standpoint. We’ll handle the legalities.”

“At the end of the day, there’s nothing we can do. The recording is real, not doctored or made with AI. And if there’s proof that Jade knowingly sent him the recording, even if it wasby accident, you can’t go after him that way. The best course of action is to take ownership.”

“Take ownership?” Royal repeats, glaring at the phone. “What does that mean?”

“It means, if we behave as though we’ve done nothing wrong, people will believe it. Ooopsie, that wasn’t meant for the public. But we’re so in love…and we’re working on new music. Guess what? ‘Midnight Snow’ is coming out on Valentine’s Day—how do you guys feel about new music from Jade Cantrell and Royal Ewing? You know, that kind of thing. Otherwise, we feed into the narrative that the two of you making love is dirty, wrong somehow.”

The room is eerily quiet.

“I don’t like it,” Atlas snaps.

“Atlas.” Madeline’s voice is patient. “Sit back and think for a moment. This is what Kate does. There is no one better in the entertainment industry for this type of thing. If you, or anyone else, has a better idea, let’s hear it.”

And of course, they don’t.

“I’m fine with it,” Royal says abruptly. “I am not ashamed that I make love to my girlfriend. Yes, we apologize for the mistake, but when it’s all said and done, we didn’t mean any harm. It was supposed to be a text between friends, not some dickhead trying to get her back for not hiring him to produce her next album.”

“Ohhh.” Kate’s voice fills with glee. “No one told methatpart. Yay! This is awesome. I will vilify Rico in the press. Leave this to me. I’m going to write a statement, okay? All the things I talked about a second ago, and you two can sign off on it. There will be an apology, but only because she never wanted to embarrass her young fan base with something like that. We’re not apologizing for being in love and having sex—just that something so private got out. Period.”

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