“I promise I was going to call—” I begin, because I did promise. I said I’d call as soon as I left the hotel. She and Lachelle are both working today, and they’ve probably been waiting.

“Meg, you’re all right?” Her voice sounds unusual—concerned, but also somewhat impatient.

My brows lower in confusion. I’m not all right, but why does she sound as if she already knows that? Does she know someone connected to Make It Happyn, somehow? Did someone give her a heads-up it didn’t go well?

“I’m . . . look, it didn’t go great, I don’t think, and I will tell you all about it, but I have to—”

“No, I mean that . . . well, I’ve gotten a call about . . . about your name in the news?”

In a day full of ominous feelings, it’s almost surprising to know I’m capable of being even more deeply weighted with dread.

“My name?” I repeat slowly. My mouth somehow feels both dry and full of saliva.

“I’m going to send something over to you, okay? And then I think we should talk. When you can.”

I nod, even though she can’t see me. It doesn’t feel possible that I could know what’s coming, but somewhere deep down, I do.

“Okay,” I manage.

The link comes through only seconds after we disconnect. I sit on the couch, plugging my phone in to give it some much-needed juice. I recognize the site—a Manhattan-based gossip blog that occasionally gets national traction, but mostly covers stories focused on the rarified air of the city’s elite. Even a cursory glance at the words in the link text make me swallow in fear.

I click, and read it in full.

Coster’s Scorned Almost-Son-in-Law
Couldn’t Get Over His Ex

Everything about this article—if it can be called that—is like reading the earlier stories through a cracked, distorted mirror. Here, Reid is no genius, no nerves-of-steel hero. He’s a guy with a grudge, smart but vindictive, always insecure. “Everyone knew she was out of his league,” one of the article’s anonymous sources says. “He knew it, too. He was wrecked when they split.”

I keep scrolling, shoving the thought of Reid’s reaction to Avery—wrecked—two nights ago out of my mind, getting to the place where my name becomes a part of this horrible scandal.