Page 74 of Hot Mess

“Have you seen May Rogers’s Instagram?”

“No, and I have no intention of seeing it. I’m sure she will feel the need to share when I return to set.”

“When did you find out about the photos?”

I took a moment to gather my thoughts. “I was made aware of the photos about thirty-six hours prior to their release. At that point lawyers and investigators were brought in and made aware of the situation. I was angry when I learned of their existence. So, you can imagine how I felt when I woke up this morning to the news they were released to the press.”

“Why are you so angry about this?”

I glared at the reporter. “You tell me how you would feel if you found out someone was blackmailing your fiancée, and then went ahead and released the pictures anyway?”

Everyone started talking at once. There were more questions about Kayla: was she really my fiancée, where was she, how did she feel about all of this?

“She’s upset and embarrassed. And yes, I’m in love with her. Now if you will excuse me I have to catch a plane.”

31

KAYLA

Jessie had a smug expression on her face and Mom looked horrified as I entered the kitchen.

“Kayla, I think you need to sit down,” Mom could barely contain her anger, she was shaking.

I rubbed sleep from my eyes and looked between them with confusion. What had Jessie told her?

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh Kayla, I’m so sorry. Is this why you never wanted to talk about Nick Sadler? Did he assault you?” Jessie’s voice oozed with fake concern as she pushed her phone toward me.

I couldn’t be seeing what I was looking at. I grabbed her phone.

“How the hell did you get this picture?” I glared at her. Had it been her all this time?

She plucked the phone from my hand and swiped to show me the gossip website it was on. “It’s all over entertainment news this morning.”

“What exactly were you doing in LA?” Mom asked.

I sank into a chair at the kitchen table and buried my hard in my arms. Tears didn’t come, but I fought to breathe, and it felt a lot like sobbing. I had given them all the money I had. Everything that I had been paid, everything from my savings account. And it hadn’t been enough, it hadn’t stopped them.

I gulped air, I needed to think, I… I… I didn’t know what to do.

“I can’t believe this is happening. I’m so glad I was here with Aunt Michelle when it was on the news.”

“It was on the news?” I asked.

“Yeah, the news feed on my phone. Unless it's a slow world news day I don’t think this will be picked up by the local news. It’s a good thing no one knows who you are. At least not by name. A few of the reports identified you as the woman who had been showing up with Nick Sadler at red carpet events.”

I was numb.

Sound around me got muffled and I couldn’t see very well. Mom kept asking questions I couldn’t answer. Jessie kept making statements full of thoughtful moral righteousness, that were nothing more than empty sayings from motivational posters.

I wanted to crawl back into my room, but not the one here, the one in California where Nick could wrap his arms around me and make this all go away.

“I was in California because if I didn't, those pictures would have been released. And I tried to make that not happen, but I failed. Just like I fail at everything,” I started crying. I had let myself down, I had let my mom down. I had failed everyone I cared about.

“Kayla, was that man blackmailing you?” Jessie asked the stupidest question.

“Kayla? Is that true?”

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