Page 57 of First Comes Revenge

I’m not sure what I expected from her, but this isn’t it. She looks reserved and cautious. She also hasn’t pulled the classic mean girl “I stole your man and look how much prettier I am move”. She looks like she barely put on makeup and she’s dressed casual in workout clothes with a ponytail. It almost feels like a subtle peace offering.

“I’m going to just get straight to it,” I say. “I want to hear your side of things. Why did you agree to pretend to write my book?”

She lets out a breath, nodding. “I don’t know if you’ll believe this, but I didn’t know the truth. And before I say more, I should tell you I broke up with Vaughn when I found this all out. I thought about reaching out to you and apologizing, but figured you wouldn’t want to hear from me.”

“You did?” I have to admit I’m more than a little stunned.

“I did. I didn’t even know he was in a relationship when we were dating. And yeah, I found out about that and decided to give him another chance after you came into the picture. But he lied about how long you two were dating and painted you out to be some villain. He said you were always belittling him for not being worthy of his family name and not finding more success as an agent. And then when all the pranks started, it seemed like it was completely in character for what he described. He made you out to be a bully.”

I grimace. “Do you still believe I am?”

She laughs a little. “No. And even if you were, I think he deserved it. He’s a prick. And a liar.”

“At least we can agree on that.”

She sips her drink, eyes down on the table. “I’m not entirely innocent with the book thing, either. I mean, it wasn’t anything illegal like stealing your book–but he told me he had this new idea. He said real authors were boring, moody, and hard to work with. He said the next big thing would be finding people who were more like actors or models and having them take credit for ghostwritten material. It would be like an author influencer. The perfect person picked to represent certain kinds of books–like crack for fans. They’d get a great book and a great personality to rally behind, or something like that.”

“So he chose you to be the better personality to represent my book, I guess?”

She grimaces. “I’ve worked as an actress and I was trying to find work when I met him. He said it was the perfect job for me, and he said he already had a ghostwriter who was almost done with a story. I thought it was all voluntary.”

I have to sit back in my chair and digest that for a few moments. Vaughn seriously thought my personality and look wasn’t good enough to represent my own book? His solution was to trick me into using an app so he could steal my rights and hire some pretty actress to pretend the book was hers? Naturally, he decided to cheat on me with her in the process.

Suddenly I’m not so sure I got enough payback on Vaughn. If he was here right now, I think I might actually throw something at him or scream like a feral animal.

I do a pretty good job of pretending to be calm, though. I nod slowly. “That is…wow,” I say. “I can see you’re not the cartoon villain I assumed you were, but Vaughn is even worse than I thought, which I didn’t know was possible.”

“Yeah,” she says, smiling a little. “And you’re not a cartoon villain like he made you out to be, either. He actually said you told him his dick was small and called him a hobgoblin.”

I choke out a laugh. “I never said his dick was small.Out loud,” I add.

We both laugh.

“And I definitely didn’t call him a… hobgoblin. He’s pathetic.”

“You should see him now. He’s in shambles after the breakup,” Aubrey says. She leans forward, and I can see she’s excited to have a chance to share what she’s about to say. “His father has been more and more on his case ever since his whole ghostwriting idea. Griffon thought it was stupid, but he was giving Vaughn the leash to prove his idea. When the copyright claim came out, Griffon looked like he wanted to murder Vaughn. Landmark has lost several authors already. When authors heard about Vaughn’s stunt, they backed out of book deals and contracts. It’s a huge mess, and I’m not sure if being Griffon’s son is even going to be enough to save Vaughn this time.”

“Wow. What about Gray Wolfe? Are they doing any better after all this?” I hate myself for asking, just a little bit. I’ve very purposefully been keeping my head in the sand about any of the publishing stuff since breaking things off with Jameson. It all feels too connected to him, and anything connected to him just hurts.

“Oh,” she says, forehead creasing. “Jameson hasn’t been keeping you updated?”

“I broke things off last month. He lied to me about something, and after Vaughn, that was a non-negotiable. So, yeah…”

“I’m sorry. You two looked really good together at the mixer. I was honestly so jealous. Vaughn just kept complaining about your costume and you guys all night. I felt invisible, but it was like Jameson didn’t have eyes for anyone else in the room.”

I smile a little wistfully, because she’s right. I remember it perfectly well. Except he was already lying to me that night, so what does it matter? “Yeah, it was a fun night,” I say.

Aubrey and I spend a while sharing small talk, but I think we both feel like we said what we needed to say. I see her in a new light now, but the conversation feels like it’s ultimately more of a transaction than a step toward anything. She wanted a chance to enjoy my reaction to hearing how bad things have gone for Vaughn. She wanted to clear her name.

She makes an excuse about having to run for an audition, and I happily let the meeting end. My mind feels like it’s buzzing with too much to keep talking, anyway.

As I’m walking home, I’m struck by how it feels like all these loose ends in my life are finally tying themselves up. One by one, the messy parts are getting cleaned up. It should feel like a huge relief. It should make me happy.

And yet I still feel this gnawing emptiness I can’t shake. I could take an easy guess at what that emptiness wants to be filled with, but I refuse to acknowledge it.

It’ll pass.

I’ll find someone to publish my book, move on with my life, and that echo of Jameson will eventually fade away into background noise.

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