Page 59 of Most Eligible
I could tell her about Monica’s interview experience, how the producers pushed her about her anxiety, but for some reason, that feels worse than airing Roland’s dirty laundry. And if I told Serena, I’d be no better than Lainey. “Not really.”
“Hmm, well that’s okay,” she says. “If we can get more intel on the cover-ups, that’ll be enough to really sell this. Especially given what I have.” She pauses dramatically, waiting for me to ask for more information.
“What do you have? Something about Roland?”
“No,” she says. “It’s about Rhett.” Her tone makes me uneasy. It’s the same one she used to pull out at college parties when she wanted to send a piece of salacious gossip pinwheeling across the room. For the first few years of our friendship, I ignored her tendency to publicize any secret she was entrusted with. After all, she never shared my secrets, only other people’s. It was what made her such a good journalist. But now I’m not so sure.
“You know he and Cassidy were only married for a few months, right?” she continues.
“Four and a half months,” I say without thinking. “Or something like that.”
“Yeah.” Serena says. “People thought they divorced when they announced the breakup publicly in, like, May of last year. But I have a source saying they didn’t actually get divorced until months later.”
My breath hitches. That would mean that Rhett was still married when I met him. But why would it matter to Serena? There’s no way she could know. “Don’t those things sometimes take a while to process?” My own parents’ divorce took almost a year before it was final.
“Well,” she says in that same sickening voice. “I have a photo of him making out with a woman at a club right after the public breakup.”
“Journalism is about uncovering the truth. You just have to be ruthless enough to get it. Most people aren’t cut out for that.”
—Serena Romero, pop culture editor ofVividmagazine, Instagram Live
Chapter Nineteen
My heart skips a beat, and I sink into a squat against the fence.
“Why—why now?” I manage to get the words out, though my mouth has gone dry.
“Dude,” she laughs, “we’re gettingfloodedwith stuff about him ever since he was announced as the new host. The tip line has like six hundred unread emails.”
I shudder at the memory of my first few weeks temping atVivid, when it was my job to sort through the tip line inbox for anything that looked noteworthy.
“Most of it’s junk,” she continues. “For example, I’m pretty sure ‘Is There a Heaven for Horses?’ isn’t a flat-earther anthem. But I did some digging and this picture seems real.”
“But…” I bite my lip, grasping at straws. “Wouldn’t it be in the news already? Everyone loves a celebrity hookup. They must’ve tried other places too, right?”
“I thought the same thing,” she continues. “But there’s not a peep. So I did some digging, and it turns out that they paid big bucks to keep it out of the press. I mean Rhett was still technically married, so what else could they do?”
“Wait—what?”
“Love Shackpaid off the press,” she says. “Or the network did.It doesn’t really matter who—either way, they paid alotto keep it quiet.”
I’m silent for so long that Serena says, “Hello? Are you still there?” I only grunt in answer. All the layers of the situation settle over me and I rub my arms against the chilly breeze.
“But…” I’m grasping at straws now. “If he and Cassidy were broken up, or separated, I guess, then it doesn’t really matter, does it? They’re notLove Shack’s golden couple anymore.” Even as I say it, I feel a twinge in my gut. Not so much about Rhett having still been married, but because I might’ve been just a rebound.
“You’re the one who wanted leverage,” Serena says. “I think that’s pretty good as far as—”
“Do they know who the woman is?”
“No—I’d kill to find out.”
I almost laugh at the absurdity of it—the fact she’s on the phone with the very person she’s so desperate to find. Unless… Unless I wasn’t the only one.
“It must’ve been alotof money,” she continues. “I wonder if the women were celebrities or something.”
“Wait,women? How many others?”
“I don’t know,” she says airily. “There were at least two payoffs. I guess they didn’t want theLove Shackbrand to be tainted. But this is perfect, right? Something to use against him to see if he knows something about Lainey?”
