Page 61 of Hot Mic

‘Robin Croft? It’s Marcus Bell from North Star Media.’

Robin blinked, leaning her hips back against the counter. ‘North Star? I think you’ve got the wrong number.’

‘Ms Croft, we’re booking a live video podcasting event,’ Marcus said. ‘Head vs Heart: The Real Story. And I do mean event. We’re talking millions of streams.’

‘Nope,’ Robin said.

‘Okay, I know this is a lot to absorb, but if you just give me a—’

‘Nope on a rope,’ Robin breezed.

‘We’re offering an appearance fee of fifteen thousand pounds,’ Marcus said plainly.

Robin froze.

Fifteen grand. She’d be back in the black and then some.

‘Fifteen thousand,’ Robin repeated, keeping her tone flat. ‘To do what?’

‘To tell your side of the story,’ Marcus countered smoothly. ‘Look, Robin, we know Gemma Bates backed you into a corner with that polygraph stunt. The public knows it too. They want to know what really happened.’

‘What about Vance?’ Robin asked sharply. ‘She won’t do this.’

‘Sienna Vance has already agreed to appear,’ Marcus said quickly.

Robin’s heart skipped. ‘She what?’

‘She signed her release an hour ago,’ Marcus replied.

Robin sighed. ‘Look, if this is some staged, trashy reunion where you put us on a sofa together and ask us if we’re… Forget it. I’d rather go into bankruptcy,’ Robin said sincerely.

‘Sienna said something similar, but don’t worry. You’ll be in separate studios. You won’t see her; you won’t record together.’

Robin stayed dead silent.

Sienna was doing this and had asked not to see her. Made sense. Robin was a mess Sienna was tired of cleaning up.

But if Sienna was doing it, then Robin didn’t have to be stoically poor. She needed the money.

‘Send over the contract,’ Robin said. ‘Tell your finance team I want half the fee up front.’

Fifty-Two

Sienna stood in Green Room A on the third floor of the North Star Building at six forty-five in the evening, adjusting her collar in a smeared mirror with fingers that wouldn’t stop trembling.

She had fifteen minutes to kill before she went in. She eyed the snack table. Nothing appealed. She probably couldn’t keep anything down until this whole ordeal was over anyway. She’d stick to bottled water for now.

Then Sienna heard footsteps travelling past the door. She froze, mid-sip. Could that have been Robin?

Unlikely. Marcus had made certain it was a strictly separated, back-to-back schedule, Robin after Sienna. He had promised they wouldn’t cross paths. Robin probably wasn’t even in the building yet.

Sienna took a slow, deliberate breath, trying to calm her racing heart. She isn’t here.

Anyway, today wasn’t about Robin. It was going to be about Gemma Bates’ conduct and the ethics of what Sienna had been forced to submit to.

Still, they wouldn’t leave the topic of Robin alone completely, would they?

But it didn’t matter what they asked. Sienna knew what she would and wouldn’t say. Her pulse wasn’t being monitored today; she was free to lie her head off if she fancied. And she’d have to if she wanted to avoid embarrassment. More importantly, she didn’t want to embarrass Robin. She’d never tell anyone, podcaster or otherwise, what happened on that wet street after the last episode of Head vs Heart went to shit. That was locked in the vault and always would be.