Page 46 of Filthy Rich

“But will she be fired?” I arch one eyebrow. “Because she was probably just trying to defend me, if it was her. You heard the things Patrice was saying. I understand why she wanted to do it.”

“No, we won’t fire her,” Stu says, “but she needs to know that some people in Hollywood are hard to work with, and that’s just how it works.”

“So we should let people like that get paid tons of money in spite of being horrible human beings?” Jake asks.

“I try not to judge others,” Adam says.

“As long as they’re padding your pocketbook,” Jake mutters.

“Call her.” Stu points at my phone. “Call her, and ask her if she’s dating someone named AJ, and ask her if she posted the videos. No matter what she says, you’ll be off the hook for now.”

“She’s already off the hook.” Jake frowns. “Innocent until proven?—”

“This isn’t a court of law,” Adam says. “Call her.”

I think about it for a moment, but in the end, we do need to know who’s been posting all these videos. I’d hate for the movie to be cancelled. I dial Morgan.

“Hey Octavia,” she says. “Is it a bad sign you’re calling me so early on date night? Did Jake get called in for some reason? Acting emergency?”

“Sort of,” I say. “Actually, some work people came by and they were asking weird stuff.”

“Oh?” Morgan snorts. “Like what?”

Stu’s gesturing for me to put her on speakerphone.

I glare. “They wanted to know whether I was dating someone named AJ, and whether I had posted the videos about Patrice.” I cringe, and then I hit the speakerphone button. “I thought maybe you might have some insight.”

“Insight?” She swears under her breath. “So you know it’s me. That’s what you’re saying?”

“Why would you do it?” I ask.

“My brother—you never met him, but he’s got a cleft palate, and my family couldn’t afford fancy surgery for him. No plastic surgeon for us, so his scar’s noticeable. In fact, it’s bad enough that no one would sign him as a singer, even though he sounds great.”

“Oh.” I did not expect her to say that.

“I’ve been watching him deal with small-minded bullies like Patrice my whole life.” The way she says her name, it sounds like she’s swearing. “I guess when I told my boyfriend how upset I was, and he mentioned that he’d seen it too, I freaked out.”

“Your boyfriend, AJ?”

She grunts. “Who’s there asking?”

I look up at Stu, and he nods.

“Listen, you’re going to be hearing from some people. I’m not quite sure who.” I grimace, not that she can see me.

“I figured,” she says. “I’m sorry if I put you in hot water, O, I really am.”

“It’s fine,” I say. “I appreciate what you were trying to do.”

“I knew you would,” she says. “But I know it got you some unwanted attention, and I’m sorry for that, too.”

I take her off speaker and drop my voice to a whisper. “They swore they wouldn’t fire you. If you threaten to post more stuff on your site, you can use it as leverage.” Then I hang up.

“Really?” Adam tilts his head. “Leverage?”

Turns out they have pretty decent hearing. “She’s my friend.”

“And you have your culprit,” Jake says. “Which means you can?—”

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