She sighed. “I told you, I don’t like people staring at me.” And demanding autographs and pictures, she added silently.

“Dani, you’re an actress. You’re hot. You’re it right now. Take advantage of it while it lasts. Once you hit thirty, it’s all downhill from there. How many times have you heard that?”

So in less than two years she should be home free, she thought wryly. She stared at the modest house she was renting. “You’ll get the locks changed while I’m gone?”

“Yes, I told you I would. And I’ll look for something else for you.”

“Something small, quiet. Gated community would be good.”

“I know, I know.” Shelly shook her head. “But why rent? Why don’t you just buy something? You’re on the verge of superstar status, Dani. I don’t know why you refuse to act like it.”

Danielle blew out her breath. Superstar status? No, she wouldn’t go that far. And it would do no good to tell Shelly that she didn’t want to be a superstar. That would be blasphemy.

The truth was, she didn’t want to be an actress at all. She wanted to be anything but an actress. Yet here she was, about to head to Dallas to prepare for a new role…and her fifth movie. She hadn’t told Shelly. She hadn’t told anyone—not even her agent—but it would be her fifth and final movie. She simply couldn’t continue to live like this.

She’d had no aspirations of stardom. No aspirations of living a public life. She had always been a very private person, even when she was a child. She always guarded her feelings, her emotions, her thoughts. Private. Yet there was nothing private about her life now. In fact, she had no life. The friends she’d had before all of this were gone for the most part. She rarely saw or even spoke to her parents. Even with her sister, she remained distant. Because the world she lived in now…it wasn’t real. She wasn’t real.

No. She was this caricature created by the movies, by the parts she played. She wasn’t Rachel from The Cruise. She wasn’t Brianna from Manhattan Dance. She wasn’t Clair from Shores of St. Clair. She wasn’t even Danielle Stevens.

“Are you okay? Has this stalker thing really gotten to you that much?”

Dani gave her a half smile. “I thought you didn’t believe me.”

“The police don’t believe you. I do. I’ve seen the dolls.”