“Do you believe her?” Chad’s incredulous expression made it clear where he stood on the issue.

From where he still stood holding the door open, Rami said, “Bro. He fired you. Get the fuck out.”

Chad stormed across the room and retrieved his leather satchel. “You’re gonna throw a decade of partnership away over this? I made you. No one who matters will touch you after this.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

He shook his head looking betrayed, but I didn’t care.

When the front door slammed, Rami exhaled heavily. “About fucking time.”

“Seriously,” said Asha without looking up from her screen.

My phone wouldn’t stop buzzing and every time it did, I checked just to make sure it wasn’t Elena before rejecting the call.

“No breakup statement,” I told Asha. “Not right now when Elena needs public favor. If she issues it, I can’t stop her, but it’s not coming from us. As far as anyone is concerned, she’s still my girlfriend. That might slow a few of the shots at her down, but it won’t be enough.”

Rami said, “Why did she go public now? Did something happen?”

I was pretty sure it was my fault. I let out a heavy sigh, dragging my fingers through my hair in frustration. “Doesn’t matter now. I’m pulling out of the film.” I was starting to realize how far reaching the implications of this were.

“Do we do that now or wait and see how things look when the dust settles? What if they pull Max off?” Rami said.

“Unlikely. But even if they do, it’s one more way I can show support now when people are still forming opinions. Issuing a statement doesn’t cost me anything. Dropping out of a film everyone knows is important to me is putting my money where my mouth is and showing them how serious I am about it.”

I checked my phone and rejected the same number again.

“I can work it all into one statement supporting her,” Asha said, still typing.

I rubbed my forehead, wishing the throbbing would stop long enough to think clearly.

“He’s already responded,” Rami said, sounding pissed. He turned his computer so we could see it.

Max was threatening to sue the magazine for defamation and essentially called Elena a lying, fame-hungry whore. He’d illustrated his point by including a picture of her from some kind of fetish shoot in which she was clad in latex and a male sub on a leash was licking her stiletto. He’d framed me as the latest victim of her machinations, making it sound like I’d been blind to her real motives in dating me. Exactly what I’d accused her of that night.

He’d taken the legs out from under us so that any defense from me would only make her look worse because people would feel bad for me for being naive.

Knocking his front teeth out was sounding better and better by the minute.

“Well, he came out swinging,” Asha blew out a breath. “He’s so aggressive and there are enough veiled threats in here and references to industry people who’ll back him that this is going to make this much tougher. We know Elena, so we want to help her, but if she was just some woman to us, I’d be advising my clients against getting mixed up in this right now. She won’t look reliable to the public. I’m not saying we leave Elena out to dry, but it might be better for her to try to keep this from escalating.”