Page 53 of Forbidden Romeo
McCay’s head tilts as she studies me. “What’s wrong?”
I literally don’t know how to answer this question. She certainly knows about Megan. She was here the night Missy brought her to the theater to blackmail Holden. She was here and did nothing to stop the blackmail. If anything, maybe she was in on it…
Wait.
Was McCay in on it?
Would that be so crazy? I’ve seen her sabotage her own show in the past. But never at a professional level as big as Broadway. And not when her husband is producing and it’s starring her stepson.
I narrow my eyes at her. “Have you been online lately?”
She nods simply, just once. “I have.”
“So you saw…?”
“Of course I saw,” she states. Then with a snort, adds, “I arranged the story.”
Stunned and motionless, my mind races with disbelief and confusion. I can’t move. My new LaDuca shoes suddenly feel like they're made of lead, anchoring me to the floor. Lifting my heel off the floor is like gravity has suddenly doubled. “You… you arranged it? How could you do that to Holden? Me, sure. I know you’ve never liked me, but Holden was your prized student.”
Her eyebrows furrow, and her lips slightly part as she speaks. "I thought you'd be relieved," she says softly, her tone laced with confusion. Her eyes search my face for a reaction, but I remain stone-faced, not giving her the satisfaction.
“Relieved? Relieved?! Why would this ever relieve me?”
“Because I fed that picture to your landlord in exchange for the rent you owed her!” McCay snaps.
“You… you knew about that?”
“Of course. USEA contacted me the same time they did you. There wasn’t a lot I could do to help, but if we didn’t find a way to pay that back, you would have been out of the show. So I fed Ms. Greene that picture and she sold it to pay off your debt.”
Yet again, it’s my fault. Indirectly, sure. But my ineptitude was causing pain in the people I love the most. “We could have found another way that didn’t involve putting an innocent little boy and a single mother in the spotlight when they didn’t want to be! I mean, for God’s sake, Laurie, we don’t even know Holden is his father! For all we know it’s Erik’s!”
The words escape my lips like a bullet, piercing the air with an unrelenting force.
Laurie's complexion drains of all color, her cheeks hollowing as she looks at me with a mix of horror and disbelief. "What… what did you just say?" Her voice trembles with anger, her hands shaking as she struggles to process the shocking words I uttered.
It didn’t occur to me that she didn’t know. “I-I figured Erik would have told you or mentioned it or… or something.”
“Mentioned what exactly?”
“That the boy might be mine,” the deep baritone of a man’s voice echoes from the stage right wings. As Erik approaches Laurie on stage, Holden follows closely behind him.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper to Holden. “I didn’t know she didn’t know?—”
“It’s okay, Rose,” he says with a small, but encouraging smile.
“You’re definitely not to blame here, Kate,” Erik says, then looks directly at Laurie. “I had an affair with Megan years ago when Holden was still dating her. But I paid her well to disappear. I was just meeting with my lawyers upstairs to nail her for breaking the NDA clause when I heard you talking through the microphone monitors. Turns out, if she was lured here under a false pretense thinking I or someone in my family had invited her, it nullifies that NDA. Thanks to you, this mess has gotten much messier.”
Laurie's eyes narrow into blazing embers of fury as she glares at him with pure hatred.
“You knock up your son’s girlfriend and somehow I’m the problem here?” Her words drip with venom and disbelief as she struggles to contain her fury.
“It was years ago. Before you and I were ever a thing.” Erik’s voice is the exact opposite of Laurie’s; calm and in control. Like a police officer talking a person off the ledge of a high-rise.
“You still should have told me, Erik.”
“And you shouldn’t have leaked a picture to the goddamn press, Laurie. Perhaps we’re even?”
Holden snorts and crosses to me. “As far as I’m concerned, you two are a match made in fucking hell.” He gathers me into a hug, whispering against my hair, “It’s going to be okay.”