I raised an eyebrow.

"They can find me a new publicist. I'm done with him."

I waited while she fumed.

"Do you know what he said?"

"I can guess."

She didn't hear me. "He didn't even ask if I was okay. He said that this is the best thing that could've happened. My new book will soar to the top of the lists and my author signings will be even more packed." She was shaking with anger. Or was it anger? "Do you know what I'm going to do?"

"I do."

She didn't hear me again. "I'm going to cancel all my signings. It'll be a circus now. People won't come to hear about my book. I bet most of the people couldn't care less about my book. They'll just want to gawk at the famous woman who killed a guy. And do you know what else?"

"Yeah, I do." Why did I even bother? She was in a different zone. The fact was, I knew precisely what was coming into her life.

"They're going to learn about my past. It might not be tomorrow, but it'll be soon. They'll be looking at my life with a microscope." She looked at me with tears in her eyes. "I don't mind them finding out about all that. I was prepared for it. I knew the coverage would be pretty intense, but with you in my life, I knew I could handle it. But not this. Not now. I've killed a second man. They'll all be vultures. People will come out of the woodwork. 'Entertainment reporters'"—she made quotation marks in the air while making a face—"will be hounding me, not for my books, but for the 'story behind the story'."

She sat next to me, her body language saying she needed a massive hug. I obliged. All the trust issues she had been so valiantly working on had just gone out the window.

"What can I do?" Her voice had taken on a pleading tone. I had to answer, and I had to say what she needed to hear.

"Cancel your signings for this book. All of them. Hey, you have a perfect excuse. You've just been through a traumatic experience. Then you announce your past."

She looked at me in alarm.

"The suspense of it all is killing you. You know they are eventually going to find out—you knew it before all this—so meet it head-on. Tell your story. You don't have to do it yourself. Let your publisher do it. Give them as many facts as you think pertinent. And then have your publisher also announce that you will not be available for interviews about it. Put it to bed. Let them also announce that you won't be doing any book signings for the foreseeable future. It'll never go away, but over time it will dissipate. Maybe to the point of someday resuming your signings."

She was silent. I let her think. After a couple of minutes, she gave a little smile.