Page 51 of And They Had a Great Fall

While he slept, she calmed her mind by working on the revised forecast for holiday production cycle. She could do these forecasts in her sleep, so it was a welcome diversion from the situation with Jake. As she was double-checking her calculations, her phone chimed in rapid succession, pulling her attention away from her spreadsheet. She picked up her phone.

E: OMG.Wow!

E:Those pics are so beautiful.

E:Did you know??

Kat cocked her head and wondered if Emily was texting the wrong person. She was typing a reply when a text from Linda flashed on the screen.

L:Call me when you get a minute …

Below Linda’s text was a link, and she immediately clicked. Her mouth fell open. She let out an audible gasp at the headline in front of her.

ANEW LOVE AND NEW START FOR JAKE LAURENT.And there it was. All of it. She scrolled through the article and read through it as fast as she could. It was the first site to deliver breaking news of Jake’s new relationship with a woman named Kat, a young widow of a New York firefighter and single mother of an adorable and precocious child. The details were all there: they had been family friends for years; she was currently with him in Copenhagen and had helped him through a mental crisis brought on by stress; it explained the rumors of his meltdown on set and every detail in between. She gritted her teeth as she forced herself to read every word.

She put her hand over her mouth when her eyes landed on the gallery of photos. There were three photos, capturing them the morning in the fog after they’d committed to try to bring their lives together. They were shots of them kissing under the store awning, Jake’s lips on hers, their hair damp from the mist. It even included one with her hand on his cheek at the exact moment they’d decided to stop running. The pictures were stunning and looked like they could’ve been part of an actual photoshoot. It was their most intimate moment, and now the entire world couldsee it.How could this have happened?The photos. The details in the article.

“It’s done” reverberated in her mind. Kat felt sick to her stomach.

She slid off her chair and walked the few feet into the bedroom. She walked slow, knowing once she opened that door, if Jake had authorized the article, there was no going back. She turned the knob and silently pushed open the door to the bedroom. She looked at Jake sitting on the bed, knees raised to his chest, phone in his hand, eyes red, and she knew. She stood in the doorway and held up her phone, the article filled the screen.

“What did you do?” she whispered. “Why?”

“I didn’t know.…” he said, and she could hear the panic in his voice.

She shook her head back and forth as her disappointment began to transform to anger. It flooded in fast, making her ears buzz. “It’s not possible you didn’t know. The details they have … the timing.…” she said, her voice rising. She was hoping he wouldn’t lie to her.

“I didn’t know it was going to be … this,” he said, his voice resigned.

“You didn’t know what they would leak? Are youkiddingme? They work foryou, Jake,” she yelled, her tears burning her eyes. “They shouldn’t do anything you don’t approve first. I saw Cindy’s text. ‘It’s done.’ I’m not a fool.”

His hesitation told her everything she needed to know.

She stormed into the bedroom, yanked her suitcase out of his closet, and began shoving clothes into her suitcase. She wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. For a second, she thought about just running right out the door, leaving all her stuff and Jake’s entire world behind.

She paused for a moment to look at him. He hadn’t moved an inch and just watched her, seemingly paralyzed.

“So that morning under the awning was staged? Two lovers, in the mist, on the stone streets—you must have known those would be gorgeous photos.” She stopped to wipe her tears. “Good job, Jake, they’re fucking cinematic. I’d think they were beautiful if they didn’t make me sick.”

His eyes flashed with anger. “No!” he hissed. “Do you think so little of me that you’d believe I would stage those photos?Thatmorning, of all mornings?” His voice was angry, and he clenched his jaw tight. “That morning, after we … That you would even think for a minute—”

“But you knew they had photos,” she said, cutting him off, “and they were going to release them?”

He looked resigned and nodded, so imperceptible she almost missed it, but Kat already knew the answer. She just wanted to see if he would be honest with her.

“There was an email. From Garren to the studio about replacing me. It was the kind of thing that woulddestroymy reputation. Cindy traded the story so they wouldn’t release the email. Honestly, I didn’t know they had pictures of that morning. It was the last resort, and even Roger said it was the only leverage we had to keep the email from going public. I thought she was going to release minimal information.

“I have to trust them. They know this industry better than I do and have always taken care of me. Kat, I believe she did it for us. If she hadn’t changed the narrative, my career would tank at twenty-five. Where would that leave me, leave us?” He was rambling, and instead of having its usual charming effect, it grated on her.

“Tell me this: did you give Cindy all those details? Did you know how deep the article was going to go? They mentioned Becca. And Ben, for fuck’s sake. He has a family. How do you think that is going to affect them? This isn’t just about us now!” She was yelling now, but she didn’t care.

“No! Kat, I swear. Cindy told me she had information and photos, and I trusted her to do the minimum to bury the email. I didn’t see it before it broke. I really thought this would be a quick alert, a paragraph or two at most. I know Cindy didn’t mean to do anything to hurt you, to hurt us.” He tried to move closer to her, but she moved to the other side of the room.

She was reminded, again, of how young and naive he was. Starting his career as a teenager, he had developed a blind trust of those who played parental figures during those formative years. He’d yet to grasp the business behind his art and was easily manipulated. It would make her sad if she wasn’t so angry.

“Jake, grow up. Your entire team exists to make money selling a product. And their product isyou. Don’t kid yourself. You’re their golden ticket, and they would destroy us—destroyme—in a second if it meant keeping you in the spotlight.”

He had his head in his hands. He rubbed his hands over his face and looked up. “Kat, at some point, we would’ve been a story. At least now we’re controlling it. Using it to our advantage. It’ll blow over, be a blip in the news, and then everyone will move on. We can get through this. I know we can.”

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