I might’ve even been able to follow Mom’s lead by burying my head in the sand about an affair with anyone else.
Literally anyone else in the world.
But Gloria?
She was the worst. A selfish, conniving user who only cared about herself.
Mom and the OGs had always been insanely nice to her. They’d included her. They’d given her the benefit of the doubt.
Andthatwas how she repaid Mom?
I didn’t say goodbye to Josh. I didn’t keep up the ruse of playing nice.
I hung up the phone before climbing to my feet. And then I hurried down the path.
I needed to go home.
I needed to talk to my mom.
CHAPTER ONE
THIS NEPO BABY B-LISTER’S SMALL BIRTHDAY BASH TURNED INTO THE EVENT OF THE MONTH. HIS RISING STAR IS BURNING BRIGHT AND FAR FROM AN… OLD FLAME.
TRIPP
ONE MONTH LATER…
Ihate them.
Standing on the flat roof of the short building, I took another swig straight from the bottle I’d stolen from behind the bar.
I hadn’t been subtle.
I’d hopped the gleaming wood, grabbed the unopened bottle, and jumped back over.
The party down in Golden had grown beyond the small get-together I’d wanted with my closest friends. People had brought people who’d texted more people. I didn’t know most of them. And they clearly didn’t give a shit about me beyond being able to brag that they’d attended my birthday party. Because despite thepacked room, no one had noticed my bottle swipe. No one had asked where I was taking it. No one had paid attention.
As long as their drinks were flowing for free, no one gave a shit.
I didn’t blame them.
I didn’t give a shit, either.
I set the bottle on the ledge before lifting the camera I had in my other hand. I aimed the lens out across beautiful Los Angeles to the Hollywood Sign in the distance. I should feel… something. I was in the land of glitter and dreams. The land of fakes and plastics.
The few A-lister haves and the many Z-lister have-nots.
But all I felt was dull antipathy for all of it.
There was something about the toxic town that sucked all the happiness from a person’s soul, leaving it an empty shell of dried nothingness. And then it took that, too.
And for what?
More money, of course.
A bigger house when most of it went untouched already.
More kiss-asses and hangers-on to pile fake praise on me every time I wiped my own ass.
