The phone rang aloud in the room. Charlotte had asked me to put it on speaker phone and I’d agreed, on the condition that she stayed quiet. I didn’t want her losing her shit and giving Katie the satisfaction of knowing that this little stunt had hurt her. And I knew it had hurt her – no matter how strong or level headed she had been, seeing me with another woman, even if it were in the past, had hurt her.

“Hello?” a frazzled-sounding voice answered.

“Hello.” I frowned. “Is this Katie?”

“Speaking,” she replied.

“It’s—”

“Don’t you dare throw that in the house!” she yelled, obviously holding her hand over the mic and speaking to someone on her end of the phone.

I shot Charlotte a ‘what the fuck’ look and she shrugged in return.

There was a series of bangs and then she spoke again.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that, who is this?”

“It’s Parker,” I told her quickly.

“Parker?” she asked, confusion colouring her voice. “As in Parker Sloan?”

“Yes, Katie, it’s Parker Sloan.”

“Parker? Really? Um… hey?” she replied. She seemed distracted, like she had something important going on in the background.

I had no idea what the hell was going on here, but this conversation wasn’t going as I’d expected it to. I’d been expecting a smug, ego-filled reply. But that wasn’t what was happening.

“We need to talk,” I told her sharply.

“Can you give me two seconds?” she asked, and I heard her put the phone down before I could give her an answer.

Unbelievable…

There was some yelling, some crying and the sound of footsteps before the line went quiet.

“Are you still there?” she asked.

“I’m here.”

“So… hi…” She sounded confused. “What can I do for you, Parker? I haven’t heard from you in a really long time. Is something wrong?”

I felt my anger rising, I wasn’t in the mood for playing games. Charlotte must have sensed I was running out of patience, because she reached out and took my hand in hers, stroking the side gently with her small thumb.

I took a deep breath, her touch calming me. “I think you can figure out what we need to talk about, Katie. I don’t have time for this shit.”

I heard her suck in a breath. “What the hell are you talking about?” she demanded.

Even Charlotte couldn’t placate me now. “Cut the shit, Katie. You and I both know that you released that photo to fuck with me and Charlotte.”

“What?” she screeched. “I don’t have god damn clue what you’re talking about… Parker, I don’t even know who the hell Charlotte is, let alone why I’d want to ‘fuck with’ you both.”

“It’s all over Facebook, you can’t pretend—”

“I don’t have a Facebook account,” she interrupted me, her voice rising with agitation now too. “I don’t even have internet in the house.”

What?

Now I was confused.

“I don’t understand,” I stated dumbly.

“No, Parker, I don’t understand. You call me, totally out of the blue, when I’m busy with my husband and my children, and then you start throwing accusations around that are totally outrageous.”

I felt like a scolded child.

“You have children?” I asked, unsure of why I was surprised.

“Yes, I have a nearly two-year-old and an eight-week-old with my husband, Jack,” she replied, sounding tired.

Shit, shit, shit.

I knew from the tone in her voice that she was telling the truth. She wasn’t responsible for this.

“I think I should explain,” I offered.

“I think that would be a good idea, Parker.”

 

 

“Well… that was… interesting?” Charlotte said it like a question.

I was more confused now than I was when I’d gotten on the phone in the first place. I’d let myself believe that it was Katie being a shit-stirring bitch, even though I hadn’t heard from her in years. Now that it was clear she’d played no part in it, I didn’t know what to think.

Katie was not only completely in the dark about the whole situation, but now she was fuming mad too. She had as much, actually more to lose than I did. Charlotte and I had even spoken briefly to her husband, Jack, who happened to be a lawyer, about what could be done about this image being posted without our permission. I had my own lawyer, or course, but the guy was a douche and I didn’t like to ring him unless I had no other option.

I’d gotten off the phone after promising to do what I could to find out who was responsible. I didn’t like Katie much after what she’d done to me, but it was obvious she’d turned her life around and was doing her best to be a good wife and mother.

So, what now?

I couldn’t even figure out where that photo had come from, or how someone had gotten their hands on it. It had been on social media once, but that was years ago, and I’d pulled it down after we’d broken up.

That had to mean that someone had kept that image, all this time.

And for what purpose? Just to fuck with me?

I’d given J the job of calling every social media site that had posted it, and threatening to sue if it wasn’t pulled. There was no way it was ever going to disappear now, but at least we could try and minimise the exposure.

Jasper was one hundred percent convinced that Nelly was responsible for this, but I had my doubts. She had nothing to achieve by being a bitch, she had already been fired and there was no way in hell I would ever offer her a job working for me again. There was nothing for her to gain by doing this – and if I knew one thing about Nelly, it was that she was only out for what she could get for herself.

The last thing she’d want was me coming after her with a lawsuit.

None of this made much sense… but I was famous – I got it. Weird shit happened to famous people. But it wasn’t as though I had some scorned ex-lover, or some feud with some other musician. There was no genuine reason for somebody to want to mess  with me and Charlotte. She had her own demons from the past, but from what I understood, Stephen was married, on the other side of the world, and hadn’t bothered her for years.

We were right back to square one, and I was well out of my depth playing detective.

 

 

We spent the better part of the day trying to figure out what the hell had happened, and the longer we took, the more the view, like and share count grew on both Charlotte’s post, and also on Shelley’s.

This thing was blowing up big time.

Being without a publicist currently was terrible timing, I’d probably never required damage control quite as much as I did right now. Jasper was doing his best, he’d spoken to what seemed like hundreds of people, and I’d heard him making some pretty creative threats.

I think he’s enjoying himself a little too much.

The one person we really wanted to speak to – that silly bitch, Shelley – wasn’t available to talk, or so her assistant told us. She was the only person that was going to be able to offer any real insight into where the photo had come from… and she wasn’t talking. Chances are, she would never reveal her sources anyway.

I did know one thing, if she didn’t call back soon, I was going to get my asshole lawyer on the phone and have him sue her for defamation.

She might have been a big deal in the world of reporting, but she would not want to go head to head with me over this thing – I had more money than sense, and I wasn’t afraid to use it.