Stay tuned. A set this messy isn’t going to stay quiet for long. Hopefully Annalise Kovács can keep it down the next time she’s gone missing in a closet. (Remember, we can’t be sued for defamation when we’re telling the truth.)

The entire cast and crew gawked at her. Anna shut her eyes. A putrid wave of dread washed over her. Never in her life had she felt so exposed. Nothing could have prepared her for the way her heart pounded like she was running for her life even while standing still. Her hands felt clammy, and her throat dry.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Anna opened her eyes, stared at Sofia’s phone, and tried to come up with a plan to deal with this situation. She was used to the press’s treatment of her. A woman in a man’s job always had to put up with snide comments and insults, but this article’s viciousness was unprecedented. She took a deep breath.

Glancing about the room, trying to figure out how to get from this moment to the next, she caught John’s eye. He looked up from his phone in horror. He took a step forward, but Anna shook her head. She could feel everyone’s eyes on the two of them. There was no way she was going to let this bullshit derail this project so close to the end of shooting.

“We have work to do.” Anna cleared her throat. “We have a scene to shoot,” she said, louder this time.

After a brief pause, Pauline called for her assistants to get back to work with the extras. Anna had never been so grateful for the older woman’s professionalism. Sofia smiled and squeezed her arm before moving to help the costume designer.

Anna reviewed the schedule, confirmed Cole was ready, and did her best to keep things on track. Immediate needs taken care of, she stood to the side of the set, staring at the same page on her clipboard for five minutes without reading it.

She struggled to get her breathing under control as the rest of the crew readied for the scene. Her thoughts raced. Would John be horrified by the way he was characterized? She had thought she was ready for press scrutiny, but she hadn’t thought about how it would affect him. Had she been a fool to think they could date when they got back to LA? While the story’s implications for her future dating life looked grim, she had another, more immediate, problem.

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