Kate was on set before the morning media circus woke. Her hands shook, and the tears were a constant ache behind her eyes. She had become a robot, venting her grief as Janet without allowing her own pain to surface.

Harry was waiting in her trailer at her ten o’clock break, his face grim. “I think you should stay home tonight.”

“What? Why?” She was scheduled to attend a high-profile charity gala tonight. Truthfully, she’d been dreading it ever since her argument with Doreen went viral yesterday, but to hear Harry tell her to stay home? That got her back up.

“The headlines this morning are nasty. You don’t want to be out there. Not tonight.”

“So I should hide my head in shame?” It was what she wanted to do, more than anything. But it went against every instinct she possessed.

“Hold your head high, honey, but do it at home. Just tonight, until we’ve had a chance to manage this. I hate to say it, but you need to release a statement.”

She tensed. “No.”

“As your manager, I’m obliged to tell you that it’s the smart thing to do. We need to get the truth out there before your mother has a chance to spread more lies. You need to tell your side of the story.”

He paused, and their eyes met as the meaning of his words hit home.

“As your friend,” he continued, “I want to give you a big hug and tell you how sorry I am that this is happening. You don’t deserve it, not what’s happening now and sure as hell not what happened to you as a child. I feel responsible for bringing Doreen back into your life.”

“You didn’t…you’re not.” Her voice was little more than a whisper, her throat painfully tight.

He sighed, his expression weary. “At this point, there’s no undoing what she’s done, but the longer you stay silent, the more rumors and lies will spread. Promise me you’ll consider releasing a statement, and soon.”

She nodded to appease him, but she couldn’t do what he was asking. Why should she be forced to share her most painful secrets with the world? It was like being raped all over again. And there was no guarantee the public would take her side. What if they believed Doreen instead? She couldn’t do that to herself. It was just too painful.

“After you wrap filming tomorrow, we’ll get you to LA and figure out a plan for damage control.”

She turned away. “Fine.”

Jenn knocked and entered the trailer, a cup from Olive’s in her right hand. She set the cup down and walked straight to Kate, pulling her in for a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you.” Kate hugged her back briefly, then straightened. She knew Harry and Jenn meant well, but she really needed a few minutes alone to pull herself together before she had to go back out in front of the cameras.

“That cell phone video from the café…” Jenn’s brows drew together. “Doreen said—”

“I can’t…not right now.” Kate cut her off.

Jenn nodded. “Well, I just needed you to know that I believe you, Kate, and I am absolutely sick that Doreen didn’t.”

“That goes for me too.” Harry walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve got your back on this.”

Kate struggled to draw breath, but her lungs felt like they’d collapsed. She managed to nod, stupidly relieved when she heard the knock calling her back onto the set, saving her from answer.

As Janet, she bared her soul before the other girls, revealing what Pen had done to her and how he’d bullied her into silence. At least one of them would come out victorious. There wasn’t a dry eye on set by the time she’d finished. When the final take was complete, she retreated to her trailer until the car arrived to take her home.

She’d told Josh she would be going straight to the charity gala. Instead, she went home and curled up on her couch with her cell phone. She’d waited all day to see the headlines.

Katherine Hayes: Good Girl Gone Bad

America’s Sweetheart Not So Sweet After All

Katherine’s Scandalous Past

They blended together before her eyes.

“She was a typical cheerleader, flaunting herself around school thinking she was better than everyone else,” the anonymous source, someone who claimed to have attended high school with Kate, was quoted. “I’m not surprised about what she did to her mother. Her mom had a lot of boyfriends. I heard Kate was jealous. She got bored with boys her own age and wanted to prove herself with older men.”

“She did have a reputation for being easy,” another source said.

Kate’s fingers clenched into fists. Tears burned, but she refused to let them fall.

Easy?

Nothing about high school had been easy. She’d worked her ass off waitressing and stocking shelves at the mall to be able to afford the same clothes her friends’ parents bought for them. She bought her own cheerleading costume and got herself to practice on time every day. She’d even done reasonably well in her classes. Maybe she hadn’t made the honor roll, but she’d come close.

And the plays. That was where she’d shone. She’d taken any and every role she could get, dancing and singing and performing. When she was onstage, she could be anyone she wanted to be. The troubled girl without enough money to buy a school lunch ceased to exist.

At first, she would look for her mother in the crowd. Doreen always had an excuse; she’d picked up an extra shift, her schedule had changed, she had a date. Eventually, Kate quit looking. Her friend Leah often performed alongside Kate, and Leah’s mom always brought flowers for them both at the end of a performance.

Kate appreciated the gesture, but she hadn’t wanted a substitute. She’d just wanted her mom.

And yes, there had been boyfriends. Kate lost her virginity her sophomore year with a football player named Tommy Tortola. She’d been heartbroken when he went off to college at the end of the year and never called again.

It was the first time she suspected what her mother said was true. Men didn’t fall in love with girls like them. She was good for sex and a good time, but not forever.

With trembling hands, she put down her phone and reached for the remote control for the TV. She needed to hear the sound of another voice. Someone. Anyone. Anything to make her feel less alone. One of the evening entertainment shows was airing red-carpet footage from the gala Kate was supposed to be at, and her temper spiked.

Fuck the headlines. She should have gone anyway. Why had she let Harry convince her to stay home? This wasn’t like her. She walked to the bar, opened a bottle of wine, and poured a glass straight to the rim. Marin Starr worked the red carpet in a scrap of a dress that looked like someone had attacked it with scissors. Disgusted, Kate plopped onto the couch and flipped the channel.

The face that filled the screen brought her heart to a screeching halt.

It can’t possibly be.

Leah’s blonde-streaked curls were gone now, replaced with a sensible brown bob. She wore a blue sweater and jeans, the picture of a middle-class American soccer mom, which for all Kate knew she probably was.

“My name’s Leah Buffo Gardner. I was Katherine Hayes’s best friend in high school.”

You too, Leah?

Kate swallowed a gulp of wine and felt the burn of betrayal slide through her.

“I don’t know if this is the right thing to do, speaking on TV.” Leah wrung her hands and glanced nervously at the gossip reporter seated across from her. “I should be saying it to her in person, but I don’t know her anymore. I haven’t seen Kate since…”

Since that night.

“Since we were seventeen,” Leah finished.

“It’s okay, Leah. The world wants to hear what you have to say.”

Leah took a deep breath. “I spent a lot of time with her in high school, and the headlines aren’t true. Kate didn’t sleep around. She had boyfriends, but she was a good kid in a bad situation. That guy Jim, the one her mom says Kate slept with? He scared the hell out of me. He was a cop, a cop with a drinking problem.”

Oh, Leah. What do you know? What the hell are you doing?

“The last time I ever saw Kate, we were at her house. It was the day after Christmas. We were in her room, taking pictures of ourselves to send to some guys we’d met online.” Leah grimaced. “We thought we were so cool. The pictures we took…they were the ones that came out a few months ago in that nude photo scandal. I can tell you a hundred percent the nude photos are fake, because I took the originals, and Kate was wearing her cheerleading uniform.”

“Why didn’t you come forward at the time?”

“She got the word out pretty quickly on her own, and I wasn’t sure if she’d want to hear from me after all this time. We used her mom’s camera, so I can guess where the fakes came from.”

“You think her own mother did that to her?”

“I think she did worse. That night…Jim came over unannounced. Kate’s mom was at work. He was drunk, slamming stuff around downstairs. I was scared.”

“Go on,” the reporter urged, sensing she was on the verge of TV ratings gold.

“Kate walked me to the door. I had a bad feeling. I should have insisted she come home with me.” A tear trailed down Leah’s cheek. “I called her later, but she didn’t answer her phone. When school started back after Christmas break, she wasn’t there.”

“What did you think had happened?”

“Something terrible,” Leah whispered.

Oh God, Leah. Don’t say it. Not on national television.

Kate stopped breathing.

“I went to her house every day until her mother finally answered the door. She told me Kate didn’t live there anymore. Rumors were starting to go around school by then. No one knew what had happened or where she’d gone.”

“You must have been so worried,” the reporter said.

“I was so young, so naive.” Fresh tears welled in Leah’s eyes. “I was hurt that she hadn’t confided in me.”

Kate’s lungs burned.

“I’m fairly sure I know what happened to Kate that night, but I won’t speculate about it on TV. It’s for her to tell. But I can say that, as someone who knew her better than anyone, there is no way she had consensual sex with that man.”

Kate pressed her hands over her ears.

His whiskey-laced breath prickled against her throat. The icy steel of his service revolver bit into her temple. Terror washed over her in a cold, sticky wave.

Please make it stop.

Leah was gone, but the reporter was still talking.

“An anonymous source at the Southern Connecticut Medical Center has confirmed that a young woman matching Katherine Hayes’s description was treated and released on the night in question for undisclosed injuries. A rape kit was also collected.”

Stop, stop, stop.

The bottle of wine tipped over. A red stain spread across her jeans.

Blood. So much blood.

She scrambled from the floor, her bare toes sliding through the sticky liquid. Choking back a scream, she ran up the stairs and closed herself in her bedroom. She sat in the middle of her bed, sucking in deep breaths until the room stopped spinning. Then she picked up her cell phone and dialed.

“I need you,” she whispered when he answered.

“I’m on my way.”

---

Fifteen minutes later, Josh was knocking on her door. It opened, giving him a brief glimpse of Kate in black leggings and an oversized sweatshirt, her hair loose over her shoulders, and then she’d flung her arms around him. He closed her in his embrace and held her tight. For a long time, they just stood there like that, holding on to each other, her face buried against his shoulder. At first, her breaths came in rapid gasps, gradually slowing as some of the tension inside her seemed to ease. When she finally looked up, tears glistened in her lashes.

“I’m sorry for calling you over like this.” She swiped angrily at her eyes.

“I’m not.” On the contrary, he was so ridiculously grateful that she’d reached out to him tonight when she was hurting instead of trying to handle it alone like she usually did. “Why aren’t you at that charity thing?”

She blew out a breath as she backed out of his arms and led the way to the couch. “I let Harry convince me to stay home, but I should be there. It was stupid.”

“Well, maybe it’s not a bad thing for you to lay low tonight, but you definitely shouldn’t be alone.”

She sank onto the couch, her face turned toward the window. “I’m pissed about it, but you’re probably right. They’re talking about me on every channel on TV right now. The press would have eaten me alive.”

He sat next to her, resting an arm over her shoulders. “I wish I could do something to fix it for you. I’d go on TV myself if I thought there was anything I could say to make this better.”

“You have made it better, Josh. I don’t know how I would have gotten through this without you.” She leaned in so that her forehead pressed against his, their lips touching, arms around each other, holding on as if the whole world might shatter around them if they broke that connection. His heart seemed to swell inside his chest, pumping hard and fast, flooding him with emotion. He would do anything for this woman, absolutely anything.

There was a knock at the door. Kate sucked in a harsh breath, her body tensing beneath his fingers.

“Let me,” he murmured. He pressed a kiss to her cheek before standing. She turned away, her face hidden behind the curtain of her hair. He walked to the door and peered through the peephole.

Doreen stood on the other side.

“Kate, go upstairs,” he said as rage clawed inside his rib cage. The nerve of her mother showing up here tonight after everything that she’d done.

“Who is it?” Kate stood, facing him, chin up defiantly against his request.

“It’s your mother. Let me handle her.”

She shook her head. “I’ve already done enough hiding today, don’t you think?”

“You don’t have to do this, not tonight.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “It won’t hurt any less tomorrow.”

He sighed. “Well, if you change your mind at any point, just do that thing you do for Jenn where you touch your earring, and I’ll send her packing.”

The ghost of a smile touched her lips. “I’m not wearing earrings. Let her in so we can get this over with.”

And so, against his better judgment, he opened the door and allowed the woman who’d done her best to destroy Kate to walk into her home. Doreen promptly burst into tears and flung her arms around her daughter. Kate went stiff as a pole, her face completely devoid of expression.

“What are you doing here, Doreen?” he asked, clenching his fists against the desire to yank her away from Kate before she was able to hurt her any more deeply.

“I’m so sorry,” Doreen sobbed, “for everything.”

“Too little, too late.” Kate pushed her away and walked to the windows, her back to them.

“I saw Leah on TV earlier,” Doreen said. “She said Jim raped you.”

Josh stiffened. Who was Leah? Someone had gone on TV tonight and said Kate was raped? Good God, no wonder she’d been so distraught when she called him.

“And what, you believe her but not me?” Kate turned around, and the look on her face knocked the air from his lungs. She was equal parts fierce and broken, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“No…I…you have to understand what it was like for me back then,” Doreen pleaded, clasping her hands in front of herself.

Josh shook his head in disbelief. “Actually, Doreen, right now you need to understand what it was like for Kate.”

“He hit me too,” Doreen said, her eyes locked on her daughter’s. “I was so strung out. I was working two jobs, and I was taking drugs…uppers…to keep me going. Jim got them for me. When I came home that night and he said you’d seduced him, I just lost it. I thought you were trying to one-up me or something.”

Kate let out a sound like someone had just punched her in the gut. He crossed the room and wrapped his arm around her, drawing her in against him.

“I was…I was high and desperate and stupid,” Doreen said as more tears slid over her cheeks.

“I told you what he did to me, and you called me a liar. You called me a…a whore.” Kate’s voice cracked. “You disowned me.”

Doreen sat on the couch, staring blankly at the floor in front of her. “When I came here in September, you asked me if he ever held a gun to my head.”

Kate flinched, and Josh held her closer, horrified by the things he was hearing. What the hell had gone on in that house, and why hadn’t Doreen ever done anything to stop it?

“The answer is yes, he did.” Doreen looked up, all pretenses stripped from her expression. For once, she looked sincere. “I’m sorry I didn’t have the courage to tell you that before.”

Kate buried her face against his shoulder. “Oh God, Mom.”

“I knew then that the only reason you’d ask that question was if he’d done it to you too, but I just…I’m not strong like you, Kate.”

“He held a gun to your head?” Josh looked down at Kate, appalled.

She nodded, her expression distant. “So that I would stop fighting. He choked me until I passed out, then he carried me upstairs to my bedroom and used his gun to keep me quiet.”

“Good God, Kate.” It was so much worse than he’d imagined.

She pushed out of his arms and walked over to sit beside her mother on the couch. “Did he…did he rape you too?”

Doreen shook her head, still staring at the floor. “I never tried to resist.”

“That doesn’t mean you consented,” Kate said quietly.

“I did. I enjoyed pleasing him.”

“I don’t understand,” Kate said, swallowing hard. “Just yesterday, you went on TV trashing me. What’s changed?”

“Fred convinced me to do it,” Doreen said, her tone wooden. “He said that you would stop supporting me now that we’d fallen out, and I needed the money.”

Kate’s head shot up. “I would never—”

“I know,” Doreen said. “When I saw Leah on TV tonight, something just… I remember you girls so well. You were inseparable. If she wasn’t at our house, you were at hers. And there she was, doing what I was too weak, too ashamed to do…sticking up for you.”

Or maybe, Josh thought bitterly, you were just afraid that tomorrow the public’s sympathy would switch from you to Kate, so you decided to beat them to the punch.

“I don’t know what to say.” Kate sat there staring at her mother like she’d never seen her before.

Josh knew the feeling. As much as he wanted to be grateful for Doreen’s sudden clarity, he mostly just wanted her to get the hell out of Kate’s condo. Leopards never truly changed their spots, and Kate had enough to deal with right now without her mother’s never-ending drama.

“Say you’ll forgive me.” Doreen looked up, desperation etched into the lines of her face.

“I will,” Kate said quietly, “but not tonight.”

Doreen nodded, her expression bleak. “I’m sorry it took me so long to come to my senses. The drugs made me so paranoid that for a long time, I truly believed you’d made it all up to hurt me. And by the time I realized my mistake, well…I just couldn’t bring myself to admit that I’d been so wrong.”

Tears coursed silently over Kate’s cheeks, and he could see her fighting to hold on to her composure. “It’s time for you to go now, Doreen,” he said. “Kate’s been through enough today. She needs to rest.”

Doreen turned and flung her arms around her daughter, and this time, Kate hugged her back, just for a moment before pulling away. Josh ushered Doreen out the door and turned back toward Kate.

She stood in the middle of the room, arms wrapped around herself. “I should feel relieved, or maybe even angry, but right now I just feel…nothing.”

“Then let me feel it for you,” he said, running a hand down her back and drawing her in against him. His chest burned with rage and pain and anguish over everything she’d had to endure and was still expected to endure. “Let me feel it for you.”

---

At eight o’clock on Wednesday night, Josh stood on the sidewalk across from Kate’s building. For once, no paparazzi gathered around the entrance. Had they moved on? Had the microscope above her lifted? Somehow, he doubted it.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Christmas was just under a week away, and Central Park was a beautiful sight with its twinkling trees. Holiday music drifted with the air, adding cheer to what would otherwise have just been a cold night. The holiday season had been bittersweet for him the last two years, without Noelia. This year, it was beautiful again. Because of Kate.

She was late again tonight. He’d parked at her building earlier, then gone for a walk while he waited for her. His skin prickled with restless nerves. He’d finished finals yesterday. Kate had wrapped filming today. He’d spent the day making careful plans he hoped might help ease her burden before it became too great for her to bear.

Plans that could either be perfect…or disastrous, depending on Kate’s reaction.

Her name had top billing on every entertainment show, blog, and magazine in America right now. Since her friend Leah’s bombshell last night, the tide had turned in her favor. The media was just as quick to weep for her today as it had been to slander her yesterday, but he had some serious concerns about her ability to cope with this latest development. He thought of her words that night at Tosca.

“Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if my darkest secrets went public, because these things happen in my world, you know? If the whole world knew…”

She was living that reality now.

He watched for a break in traffic, then jogged across the street.

The silver Mercedes pulled to the curb ahead of him, and Kate stepped out, wearing jeans and a long black coat. Before he could call to her, the sidewalk exploded with bright lights and shouted questions. Men in dark clothes rushed from every shadowed corner and behind parked cars, cameras raised and clicking.

An ambush. If they’d lurked around the entrance, no doubt she’d have gone in through the back. They converged around her like a pack of hungry predators going in for the kill. She hurried toward the door, her head down, as her bodyguard began clearing the area.

Josh pushed his way through to her side.

Her boot caught on the top step, and she plummeted face-first toward the polished marble. He gripped her arm just in time, steadying her. Flashes strobed in the night air.

Kate recovered her balance, rushing past the doorman into the lobby, her expression grim. “Just fucking perfect.”

“What?”

“Tomorrow’s headline, right there. Katherine Hayes Near Collapse. You want to know how those photos with Ted Wilhelm happened? We just gave them the same shot. Don’t trip when the world is watching.” She headed for the elevators, her hands clenched. Tears shone in her eyes. She was wound so tight, he feared she might snap if he touched her.

“Want me to kick their asses and steal their film?”

She stopped to stare at him with wide eyes. Then the corner of her mouth hitched in what was almost a smile. “Memory cards, Josh. Get with the twenty-first century.”

“Right. I can steal memory cards. Film would be more fun, though. You know, I could rip it out and stomp on it.”

She did smile then, just for a moment. But it brightened the shadows on her face and gave him a glimpse of the Kate she’d been until her world came crashing down two days ago.

Mick caught up with them at the far end of the lobby. “Really sorry about that. I should have had Anton pull around back regardless. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” She touched his arm with another small smile. “Thank you.”

Mick nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” And he walked away.

The elevator arrived with a ding, and they stepped inside.

“So how are you really?” Josh asked as the doors slid shut behind them.

She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. “Tired.”

That was an understatement. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. And since he’d lain beside her in bed the last two nights, he knew it wasn’t far from the truth.

“How was your last day of filming?”

“Cold. I was lying on a slab in the morgue for most of it.”

The doors opened, and he followed as she crossed to her condo and let them in. “Hell of a way to finish.”

“Yeah.” She shrugged out of her coat and hung it in the closet.

Ben and Jerry pattered down the stairs. They paused a few feet from Kate, ears pinned to their heads as if held at bay by the waves of sadness rolling off her.

Josh rested his hands on her shoulders. His heart felt like it was caught in a vise that kept squeezing tighter. “Kate, do you trust me?”

She looked down at her boots. “Yes.”

“Then go upstairs and pack a bag. A day, or a couple of days, you decide. Bring the boys. They’ll enjoy it. Pack warm clothes, but bring your swimsuit.”

Her eyes widened with each word.

“What?” Her voice came out a harsh whisper.

He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Just trust me.”

“Josh—”

“Go. Pack.” He turned her toward the stairs.

She stiffened, her eyes narrowed to argue. He steeled himself because he wasn’t taking no for an answer. She had to get out of this condo and away from the press for a little while. She needed space to breath, to get her feet back underneath herself.

She opened her mouth, then closed it. With a jerky nod, she trudged up the stairs.

His shoulders slumped in relief. He crouched down, and Ben and Jerry leaped into his arms. “You guys want to go for a ride?”

Two warm, wet tongues licked his face. He stood and walked to the patio door. He opened it and shooed them outside to use their doggy grass. While they took care of business, he went to the pantry and scooped out a bag of dog food. He placed it, and their bowls, into a shopping bag.

Ten minutes later, Kate came down the stairs with a black duffel bag slung across her slender shoulders. He reached out and took it from her, then grabbed the supplies he’d gathered from her kitchen.

“Come on.” He led her toward the door. She looked dead on her feet, and they still had a long drive. Maybe she could sleep on the way.

“Where—”

He pressed a finger to her lips. “No questions. Not yet. I’m not giving you a chance to talk yourself out of this.” Instead, he grabbed Ben’s and Jerry’s leashes and clipped them onto the two excited Maltese. He handed their leashes to Kate, retrieved her coat from the closet, then opened the door and motioned her into the hall.

She followed, her brow furrowed. “Josh…”

They stepped into the elevator, and he punched the button that would take them directly to the parking garage. “You have no idea the strings I had to pull to get Carlos the parking attendant to let me park the Xterra in the garage.”

“You rented a car?”

He nodded. “Turns out his sister’s son is in my Cervantes class. Plus, I don’t know, apparently you’re famous or something.”

She smiled softly. “You’re not going to tell me where we’re going.”

“Does it matter? I have food in the car. You must be starving.”

She shrugged as she stepped into the passenger seat. He settled Ben and Jerry onto the back seat, then retrieved a bagel and a bottle of water, which he handed to Kate.

“Start with this. I’ll get you something better in a few hours.”

She took it, picking wearily at the bagel as he pulled onto Central Park West. By the time they entered the Queens Midtown Tunnel, she was asleep, the bagel forgotten in her lap. Two hours later, he pulled into the driveway of the house he’d rented for the rest of the week. She jerked upright, her eyes droopy and unfocused.

“We’re here.”

She peered through the darkness at the brown clapboard cottage before them. He cut the engine, allowing the distant roar of the ocean to reach inside, washing over them. She turned to him. “Where the hell are we?”

“East Hampton. I know the guy who owns this cottage, and he let me have it for a few days.”

Her mouth fell open. “Holy shit.”

Josh couldn’t fight the smile on his lips. “Too late to turn back now.”

It was already past eleven, and like it or not, they were spending the night in the Hamptons. This time of year, there weren’t many people around, and this cabin was secluded on a wooded lot, a five-minute walk to the beach.

Here, she’d be safe.