Page 63 of The Ruin
“I don’t want to see this. Change the channel.”
My eyes are filling with tears again as I reach for the remote, but Mateo won’t give it up.
“Just listen,” he says. “Please. It’ll be for your own good.”
A tiny sob escapes me. “I can’t do it, Mat.”
I start to move away so I can run into the guest room and throw myself on the bed, but Mateo pulls me back against him.
“Calm your tits,” he says. “Just…watch.”
On TV, the show’s jingle plays, and then the host says, “Welcome back! We’ve got an exclusive interview with Luka Zoric this half hour. He’s ready to speak out after recent allegations surfaced suggesting his wife, Brooklyn Moss, was involved in a plot with rival agency Elite Image to steal insider secrets and orchestrate a coup. Luka, thanks for coming on.”
“Thanks for having me.”
The sound of his voice is magnetic, and suddenly I can’t tear my eyes away—even though I know this is about to be a total disaster.
The host continues with, “The last time we spoke, you and Brooklyn were, by all appearances, a happy, young couple very much in love. Was that the real Brooklyn and Luka, or was it all for show?”
Luka clasps his hands together and pauses, seeming to think it over. He’s sitting in a leather chair wearing a gray dress shirt, the top buttons undone. No tie. His go-to slim black pants. His hair is perfect, as always, but I notice the shadows under his eyes.
“It wasn’t for show,” he says. “That was real.”
“Mm-hmm. Having been on set with you two myself, I’d say the chemistry certainly wasn’t fake. Did you know that your wife was up to something at that point?”
“You know,” Luka says, leaning forward, “I think the best thing might actually be for me to tell the truth about all of this in my own words, without all the questions. May I?”
There’s a slight pause as the host seems to confer with someone off-camera. My heart leaps into my throat.
“Of course, please do,” she says with a nod.
A fresh glass of wine appears beside me. I grab it from Mateo’s hand and take a huge gulp as Luka takes a breath.
“I think it’s important to address the rumors that are out there right now, so I’ll start off by saying that everything Brooklyn admitted to is true. Except for one thing. Ididknow about her contract with Elite. Not from the start, but she showed it to me on our honeymoon. I also know, without a doubt, that she never intended to go through with the deal. Those papers sat around, forgotten and untouched, for weeks. She never signed the contract, and she never carried out any of these alleged spying activities.
“Look, I’ll admit that our marriage was a sham. We absolutely entered into a marriage of convenience. She was going to help me clean up my image and turn DRM’s reputation around, and in return, she’d get a career boost. But it wasn’t Brooklyn on her own in the sham, and it was never about her being a gold digger or trying to trick me.”
My throat goes tight. Oh, Luka.
“If what you’re saying is true,” the host prods, “then why would she say the things she did? Her side of the story is that she lied to you and everyone at the agency all along.”
Luka spreads his hands and looks at the camera. His gaze catches mine and I swear I can feel him trying to reach me through the television.
“To protect me, I think. She wanted to take the entire fall to spare me any backlash. Because that’s how she is. Always ready to take a bullet for someone else.”
The interviewer nods. She smiles. “You’re making her sound very selfless.”
“She is,” Luka says firmly. “It’s one thing I learned very early on. She’ll admit when she’s wrong, and she’s not afraid to suffer consequences if it’ll protect the people she loves.”
“So…what I’m hearing from you is that you two had sparks initially, and then you both agreed to this marriage for your mutual benefit. And that you were aware, relatively early on, that Brooklyn had involvement with Elite Image. But ultimately, when it came to the portrayal of the relationship in the media, it was all acting? None of it was, in fact, real?”
Luka slowly shakes his head. “No, that’s not right.”
“Which part?” the host asks.
“I mean yes, our marriage started out as a mutually beneficial relationship, but that’s not where it ended up.”
“How so?”
