Not even Mason, who was angry with Reese, was on my side about this. Reese was breaking the law for crying out loud! And he was acting like the law didn’t apply to him.
He was only upset that there was evidence of his wrongdoing and that someone would find out.
My anger flared again, and I reached for my journal.
I couldn’t believe that I could associate with all these guys — guys that I thought were good people. None of them seemed to have a problem with any of it…
I turned to the pages where I’d written down all the qualities I wanted in my heartmate. The colored marks I’d made around each word pairing it with each guy — each starboy, as Crim described them — were bleeding across the page. The journal must have gotten water-damaged or something.
I gritted my teeth, cursing myself for being so naive. All of them were crooked — all of them had flexible morals. They had no trouble bending the truth to their will so long as they could come out on top.
Starboys, I thought angrily, crossing out each of their names in turn with a thick, black sharpie. I even grabbed a ruby red pen and wrote Crimson’s name down so I could cross it out too.
But by the time I was done, it wasn’t enough. I needed to purge all of these men from my heart. And the best way to do that was with fire.
I tore out the pages to my journal and stuffed them into my pockets. With any luck, the fire pit on the beach still had some embers in it from the crew’s bonfire earlier.
Just as I pushed open my trailer door to leave, I stopped in my tracks.
Alina stood before me, her arm outstretched and ready to know. Her roots were as black as the mascara running down her face.
We exchanged a look, her eyes shiny and filled with tears.
There were no words.
I pulled her into a hug as she began to sob. All of my anger melted away, and my heart welcomed this one, last friend.
“Shh, it’s okay,” I said, running my hand through her hair.
“She… she left!” Alina cried, balling her hands into fists around the fabric of my shirt.
“What do you mean, honey?” I asked.
Alina pulled away from me, wiped her eyes, and said, “Rachel… she left with her husband.”
“From the set?” I asked. If I was remembering the script right, Princess Valentine still had at least seven more scenes to shoot here in Italy.
“From the show!” Alina cried.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That doesn’t make any sense… did she just… breach her contract?”
“There was another… scene today,” Alina said. “You weren’t there. But Leo and Rachel — Prince and Princess Valentine — they had a sex scene today.”
“Her husband saw? I thought he wasn’t allowed on the set.”
“He must have found out about it. I don’t think he even saw it… but he demanded that she leave with him.”
Alina closed her eyes. “She went. She left with him without question.”
I examined her face, which was now fixed in an expression of shock.
“It’s not your fault,” I said, guiding her into my trailer.
She sat down on the couch gingerly. “I know it’s not… I had nothing to do with it.”
I offered her a glass of water, trying to mask my disapproval. It was difficult to reserve my judgment, as Alina actually did play a role in all of this.
She was sleeping with Rachel — a married woman.
But now was not the time, nor was I the person to hold her accountable. Now, my job was to listen and console her. Especially now that our friendship got a new breath of life and was hanging by a thread.
I offered her a glass of water and a box of tissues.
“Thank you,” she said as she accepted them.
I sat next to her and put my hand on her shoulder, soothing her as she sniffled.
After a few moments, she said, “This makes things complicated.”
“More complicated than they already were?” I asked with a weak smile.
“We’re going to have to do another rewrite; write her out of the show or something,” she said flatly.
“How do you know she’s gone for good?” I asked.
“She told me,” Alina said with a hiccup and a sniffle.
“She can’t just walk out of her contract like that and disappear,” I said, thinking of Crim. He would do that no problem, with no hesitation or consideration about how it affected the rest of the cast.
“She can. Her husband has that tape on me, remember? And he’s got something on Reese, too.”
Now I knew what he had on Reese — it had to be some kind of evidence about him smuggling illegal immigrants into the country.
“Are you worried about the tape?” I asked.
She nodded, blowing her nose. “It could destroy me.”
“Is there any evidence of you being younger than eighteen in the video?” I asked.
“It wouldn’t take someone long to investigate the timestamp and find out,” she said tearfully.
I pulled her into a hug, my strict sense of justice ebbing. Perhaps it would be okay if, this one time, there was some sort of loophole. Even though she insisted that she was in her right mind at the time, she still made that decision as a child. It wasn’t her fault; she was the victim.
If I was honest with myself, I probably would have done anything for fame at that age, too. Anything to be liked.
“Do you know if he has the only copy of the video?” I asked.
“I don’t know… he could have sent it to anyone,” she said breathlessly.
I leaned back, thinking. Then, like lighting, an idea struck me. “You said this guy’s involved with film too, right?” I asked.
Alina nodded, her eyes glassy.
“So he probably has
