Page 54 of The Ruin
Now, after months of rebuilding the company’s PR status following family patriarch Konstantin Zoric’s arrest and subsequent criminal trial for trafficking, it seems the future of Danica Rose Management is once again on shaky ground.
I can’t read any more, my eyes blurry with tears and my blood pounding in my temples. My phone won’t stop vibrating with messages and notifications, so I turn it off and drop it into my purse. Emzee is still staring at me, a mixture of heat and judgment in her eyes.
Luka had to have told his family about the Elite contract he’d found with my name on it. Didn’t he?
“Is this true?” Emzee asks coldly.
“Em,” I say pleadingly.
“Did you sign that contract with Elite?”
“God, no.” I see her shoulders slump with relief, and then the guilt of my half-truth slams through me and I know I have to spill it all. “Can we sit down for a second?” I say.
We find a picturesque bench under a tree, and I drop onto it and take a few deep breaths.
“Look,” I tell her, keeping my gaze steady on hers. “Elite called me in after I auditioned with them in LA last year, and they offered me a dealifI’d get them intel on DRM. And yes, I said I’d think it over. I took a copy of the contract with me when I left their offices. But—”
“How could you?” she interrupts, crossing her arms and doing nothing to hide her anger.
“Wait! I never signed that contract, I swear to God. And you know what? After I met with Luka, I stopped feeling like spying for Elite was my only way out.
“It was my original plan, true, but I decided not to go through with it. I burned that document on our honeymoon. Luka knows all about it already, and things between us were shitty for a while because of it…but we’re better now.So much better.”
I stop to catch my breath. Emzee is still nodding, processing everything I’ve said.
“So my brother is fully aware of this.”
“Yes,” I say. “Water under the bridge.”
She taps her chin. “But…it still looks really bad to everyone else.”
“Yes,” I admit. “And I have no idea how to tell the rest of the world the truth.”
Emzee goes quiet for a moment. “This is not good for DRM’s image.”
“No.” I shake my head, so choked up I can barely speak. “And it’s especially not good for the state of our marriage. Things were finally feeling really solid. He…said he loved me.”
Her head whips toward me, a grin splitting her face. “He said that? He said the words?”
“Yeah.” I can’t help smiling back.
“What a marshmallow!” she squeals gleefully, throwing her arms around me. “This is amazing. You’ve turned my big bad brother into a teddy bear. I love it.”
“Yeah, but…when he finds out about this, he’s going to hate me. What if this messes up everything?” Panic sets in, and I pull back. “After all our hard work to build DRM’s reputation back up, Monica had to go and tear it back down. Luka’s never going to forgive me. I mean, the whole point of this marriage was to improve the company’s image. Not destroy it.”
“This doesn’t destroy anything,” Emzee insists. “I guess you might look like a gold digger, and maybe Luka looks like he got tricked, but in the end people will see that your relationship is really real and that Elite doesn’t actually even have anything on our company.”
“I’m not sure Luka will see it that way,” I say with a sigh.
“Girl, please,” Emzee says. “He loves you, and he’ll understand you had nothing to do with this.”
“But I did! My original plan was to go through with it. I can’t change that. And now the whole world will be talking about it, and about us. And not in a good way.”
“Who cares? The important thing is that youdidn’tgo through with it—that’s what matters. And Danica Rose is going to be fine. Listen, let’s divide and conquer. I’ll call Stefan now while you go see Luka at work and talk it out. I promise everything’s gonna be okay.”
She squeezes my hand, and I squeeze back. “Okay.”
I wish I could believe her.
