Soon I had my setting: the secluded Hollywood estate of a movie mogul. And I had my characters: Zanne and Phoebe, both caught between their ambition and the sacrifices demanded of them, and Holly, who knows that when men’s follies are brought to light, it’s the women who pay dearly. Through them, I could explore in a work of fiction the emotional truth of the stories of those who’d been mistreated. It wasn’t hard to imagine a line crossed here, a rule broken there, and suddenly you’ve been humiliated (or worse) by someone with more power than you’ll ever have, enough to have been kind, enough to have known better. Soon that bargain you made with yourself—do this to afford that—starts to look like a deal with the devil. And there are so many devils to choose from.