Page 61 of Game Changer

Chapter25

Zara

The incessant knocking on my front door is getting louder the more I ignore it, but I can’t even bring myself to answer it. I feel utterly destitute and having anyone else here will only compound the fact that I am beyond help.

A knock on the window of my living room startles me and I look up to see Nessa peering in.

“You’re going to have to let me in Zara, cos I aint going anywhere and I’ll just annoy you and your neighbours.” She presses her cheek on the glass, side eyeing me like a mad woman.

I roll my eyes and get up to answer the door. I don’t need to be attracting any more attention to myself. I wrap a throw round me as if it’s some sort of safety net and open the door. I’m shocked to see it’s not only Nessa that’s there. I take a deep breath as tears flow down my face and my brain takes in all the faces on my doorstep. Nessa, Joe, Blair, and my parents. And there’s one other face that I don’t recognise. A middle-aged man in a smart suit.

“I’m so sorry,” I sob, and Nessa stands on her tiptoes to pull me into her arms.

“Now you stop that. You have nothing to apologise for,” she soothes, rubbing my back.

“What are you all doing here? Is this one of those interventions you see on TV?” I ask as I straighten back up. I move back and let them all in.

“My beautiful girl, we’re here to help you,” my mum says, taking my hand and leading me into the living room.

I sit on the sofa next to her and she pulls me into her as she always did when I was feeling sorry for myself as a child. Everyone else sits down and I look at the stranger.

“This is Niall,” Nessa says gesturing to the man. “He’s one of Dan’s legal team. When I told him and Nikki what had happened, they offered every bit of help they could. We’re gonna get you through this, I promise.” She smiles at me and as I look around at everyone here to help me, I realise I’m not as lonely as I thought I was.

“Nice to meet you,” Niall says in a very eloquent English accent. “This is quite a bit of a predicament you’ve found yourself in. But please don’t worry, I’ve certainly dealt with worse.”

“Guys, thank you for this but I don’t know how I can come back from this. Have you seen what’s been said about me? How is anyone going to trust me ever again?”

“Honey do you honestly think the majority of people care about what those imbeciles say?” My dad runs his hand through his salt and pepper hair and gives me a smile.

“We didn’t mean to bombard you Zara,” Nessa says. “We only wanted to show you that there are plenty of people who have your back.”

“Too damn right,” Blair pipes up. “And I’ll tell you right now, every member of your staff is one hundred percent behind you. We’re all absolutely disgusted that anyone could do this to you. To us even. I don’t think they realise how many people they’ve potentially made unemployed.”

I look at Joe whose face is like thunder. “You okay Joe?” I ask.

“I’m going to string that bastard up by the balls.”

“Joseph Archer. Do not use that language in front of company,” mum scolds him. He sits back in his seat folding his arms across his chest, exactly as he used to do as a kid when he’d get into trouble.

As much as this situation is dire and I’m at the lowest point I’ve ever been, it warms my heart to know that I have backup.

“Joe this isn’t Buckie’s fault. Unfortunately, idle celebrity gossip is a big thing in his industry. For the most part he’s managed to steer clear of it but he’s not bulletproof. Things like this happen more than you think. You know better than anyone that what’s reported in the papers and the news is nothing near the real story.”

He nods his understanding. There were often very badly reported incidents from the Middle East when he was serving. It didn’t shine a great light on the armed forces and a lot of it was overhyped or sensationalised for ratings. No journalist, regardless of how close to the action they got, could ever know what those soldiers went through. They probably didn’t care what their dodgy reporting did to them.

“Okay. I get it, but my God could they not have left you out of it? Why did they need to do this to you?”

“Because I’m an easy target and it makes for a juicy story. I mean come on. The movie star who’s supposedly engaged and has a brothel owner mistress. Who wouldn’t want to read that story?” I smile at him and realise that things could have been worse for me.

My brother suffered terribly with PTSD after his tours in the desert. At one point we were convinced he was suicidal. He’s by no means cured, but his life is very different now that he has Nessa and his beautiful daughter. My predicament is nothing compared to what he went through.

“I want to go over everything with you Zara,” says Niall, breaking the tension a little. “I need to know everything that’s happened in the last month and we’ll take it from there. If someone is slandering your name, they will have the full force of our powers down on them. It won’t be hard to find out who is behind this.”

“Thanks very much, and I’ll be sure to thank Dan profusely for offering your services to me.”

“We’ll get going and allow you both to talk. They won’t get away with it, Zara.” Nessa stands and takes Joe’s hand, pulling him up off the chair and all my visitors start to leave.

Mum and dad hug me tightly. “Please don’t worry yourself sweetheart. You’ll be fine. You still have us,” my dad says as he and mum head out the door.

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