“Park, man, we need to talk,” Jasper whispered in my ear.
Fear shot through me. He’d just interrupted a conversation I was having with the label executives after my show finished. I knew that there was no way that Jasper would bust in like that unless it was important.
Really fucking important.
I nodded at him and turned back to the suits. “I just need a minute with my manager, something’s come up.”
They all gave me their nods of approval and I looked back to Jasper.
He inclined his head in the direction of my dressing room, indicating that we should talk in there, rather than out here, and I swore under my breath.
This was bad news.
If we needed privacy, it meant I was going to hit the god damn roof.
The minute the door was shut behind me I let out a loud string of curse words. “What the hell is it, J?”
“It’s bad news, man. You’re not gonna like it,” he warned.
“Just fucking give it to me, I can’t take this suspense bullshit… you know that.”
He sighed and reached into his pocket for his phone. He pushed a few buttons, looked at me in compassion and handed it over.
I shook my head at the photo in front of me and frowned. “Katie?” I asked in confusion. “What the hell has this got to do with anything?”
“Look at when it was posted, and check out the caption.”
I skimmed over the details.
What the hell?
Posted today?
What the fuck is going on?
“That fuckin’ bitch!” I roared when I realized what was going on.
She was trying to ruin me and Charlotte. She may not have posted the image herself, but it didn’t take a fuckin’ rocket scientist to figure out how Shelley Corbett, the gossip queen, had gotten her hands on it.
“I’m gonna end her for this.” I paced the room, wanting to throw the phone across the room, only holding back because it wasn’t my own.
“I think you’ve got bigger problems right now,” Jasper told me quietly.
I froze and felt the colour drain from my face.
Charlotte…
“She doesn’t think it’s true, does she?” I stalked across the room to get in J’s face. “Holy shit, man, have you talked to her, or to Han?”
He clamped his hands down on my shoulders. “Calm the fuck down,” he instructed. “I spoke to Hannah.”
I let out a relieved breath.
He grimaced and I felt my stomach nose dive again.
“It wasn’t good. She told me to tell you she was going to cut your balls off and feed them to you with a knife and fork, and then I heard Charlotte yelling at her in the background to get off the phone.”
I stared at him.
“I didn’t get a word in before she hung up, and now I can’t get hold of either of them.”
I felt my world crumbling down around me.
“Get me on the next plane home, J, please.”
“Already booked,” he told me.
I closed my eyes in relief. I’d never been happier to have my best friend by my side than I was right now.
“Get your shit, Park, these suits will have to manage without you… we gotta go, right now.”
I couldn’t get Charlotte or Hannah the whole drive to the airport. It had rung the first few times, but not now.
Straight to voicemail.
Every. Single. Time.
I’d stood on a stage, all alone, in front of more people than I could possibly imagine, but I’d never felt as nervous as I did during this two-hour plane ride. I would have taken the private jet, but we weren’t scheduled to leave until tomorrow and it wasn’t here, even with the wait time to board, flying commercial had still been our fastest option.
“She’s not like other girls, man, she’ll believe you,” J told me quietly from the seat next to mine.
I nodded my head in agreement. Charlotte wasn’t like the other girls that had passed through my life. She was so far from it.
That was why I was so scared.
She has to believe me.
Charlotte was the game changer for me. She was sweet, forgiving, loyal and she wasn’t easily fooled either.
That’s what I’m counting on.
She was also fierce, and she wasn’t going to take this shit lying down once she found out it was fake.
IF… if she finds out it’s fake…
I jiggled my knee up and down nervously. I just had to hope I got the chance to make her believe me.