Truth
“ No .”
“Excuse me?” Catriona’s eyes snapped up to stare at him, clearly surprised at what she heard. “You’re willing to throw everything away for that bitch? Ten years of hard work, all for a heroin addict?”
“That’s what this is really all about, isn’t it, Catriona? You don’t need to have me draped over your shoulder, although I’m sure it would help your career to be seen with me,” said Ashe, his eyes narrowing. He’d done the same dance himself when he’d started his rounds in Hollywood years earlier, when Collette would pair him with the hottest actress or celebrity in town for a movie premiere, a gallery opening, or a lunch date at The Ivy. “This is about Riley.”
“I don’t even want to know her name,” said Catriona, her face hardening. “It’s a mutually beneficial relationship that I want.”
“Which I do not want,” Ashe interrupted. “Not now, not ever.”
“But she’s a nobody,” Catriona spluttered. “Do you honestly expect me to believe that you’d give up your whole career for her?”
“I’m leaving now, Catriona. Goodnight,” said Ashe, walking past her to the elevator. Sammi’s appearance began to make sense; prompted, he was certain, by Catriona. He wondered what would have happened if Catriona hadn’t threatened him; if she had patiently gone through the normal channels of managers and publicists, would he have agreed to be seen with her? The answer would still have been no, but he was certain that their personal relationship wouldn’t have been so acrimonious.
“I made you, Asher Seán Hunter,” she seethed. Ashe stopped halfway to the elevator but didn’t turn to look at her. Her voice echoed through the lobby as Terence discreetly got up from his chair and slipped into the small office next to his desk.
“You were nobody when I met you,” Catriona continued, her voice filled with contempt, all sweetness gone. “Look at you now: so good at acting that you’ve managed to convince everyone, including yourself, that you’re someone you’re really not. They think you’re a posh British actor, an Eton or Harrow type, when underneath you’re just a simple country boy hungry for fame. I knew you before you were famous, when you were a nobody dagging sheep and shoveling manure, speaking with an accent that betrayed you for the country boy you were. Without me, you’d still be speaking like that,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief as Ashe turned to face her. “You’d be nothing without me.”
“You’re right,” said Ashe, his face betraying no emotion; one writer had described it as his resting bitch-face. “I’m nothing—as long as I’m with you.”
Catriona’s brow furrowed, though her smile remained intact.
He turned back toward the elevator, then stopped as if remembering something. “I hope your photographer got all the pictures he needs to accompany that piece of paper you’re so intent in leaking to the public. Just think long and hard before you do, because I won’t be the only one who’ll go down. Maybe both our careers and reputations will recover or maybe they won’t, but if we both go down it will be interesting to find out which of us will be able to get up again – won’t it?”
Catriona stared at him for a few moments, her triumphant smile replaced by a look of uncertainty. Ashe had sown seeds of doubt in her mind. Everyone’s ammunition of late had been seeds, cast about with precision; even his.
“You’re a fool, Ashe. No woman is worth losing your career,” Catriona said as Ashe pressed the button for the elevator, the doors sliding open in front of him.
Ashe nodded, turning his head to face her. “Nor is any man. Goodnight, Miss Marks.”
As the elevator doors closed, Catriona was still staring at him as if rooted to the floor. Behind her, past the glass doors of the building he called home, a familiar face became visible as the dark windows of a car were lowered: Collette Williams.
Ashe closed his eyes as the elevator made its way up. He wondered if Collette had known this was going to happen; had it all been her idea, too? Collette was the woman who’d helped him gain fame in Hollywood. She had guided him through the parties and dinners, arranged for him to be seen and noticed by the powerful men and women behind the production companies and studios. She was a powerful manager with three other stars under her wing, even after he and Gareth had left her upon learning that she’d been involved in kicking Riley out of the apartment she’d shared with Gareth three years earlier, bilking Clint out of $80,000 in the process.
Would she really involve herself in his downfall? If he lost all the movie deals that she’d helped him acquire, wouldn’t Collette lose her customary fifteen per cent as well?
Collette was the least of his worries. Ashe didn’t know if Catriona would go through with her threat of leaking their contract to the media, but he suddenly realized that he didn’t care anymore. For the last five years, he’d pushed her to the back of his mind, keeping himself busy with every new venture that came, every audition and read-through, and every screenplay he could get his hands on or write himself. He’d worked hard at getting where he was now, showed up on time to every job and remained as professional as possible. He’d paid his dues. Sometimes the thought nagged at him that it was Hazel who had paid for his rise to fame; wild child or not, she’d been his responsibility.
If he had to pay a higher price this time for his decision to put Riley above his career and the team of people who maintained it, then he’d live with the consequences of that decision.
He hoped that Riley would choose to remain at his side.