My voice breaks off as my throat tightens.
She takes my hand and squeezes it. “He what?”
“He brought up Henry.”
Her whole body stiffens, fury flashes in her eyes.
“He didwhat?”
“Yeah,” I say bitterly, scrubbing a hand over my face. “He dug into my life for pain he could package with a bow for this fucking documentary. Asked if I play harder because of guilt.”
Addison is practically vibrating with rage.
“Oliver. Listen to me,” she says, her voice low and fierce. “He doesn’t get to hold your grief, okay?”
I close my eyes, letting her words settle into the cracks inside me. This woman heals parts of me she didn’t even break.
“And so what?” she continues. “You fucked up an interview? Who cares.”
I let out a strangled laugh. “That’s interesting, coming from the PR Queen.”
“I mean it,” she presses. “I know exactly who you are. I told you that back in Stratton Wood. You are not defined by the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. You’re not a soundbite he can twist around. You’re Oliver fucking Bradshaw.”
I grab her hips, hauling her into me like I’ll fall apart without her.
“Addie,” I breathe, voice shaking as my forehead drops to hers.
I just stand there holding her until everything—Matt, the interview, the guilt—all fades away.
42
reading the game
VAMPIRE BY OLIVIA RODRIGO
I don’t see him until it’s too late. I turn the corner past the elevators and nearly barrel straight into Matt. I could smell his aftershave before I even saw him, like the most pompous Pomeranian prancing around with a jingle collar no one asked to hear.
“Addison,” he drawls, like we’re old friends. “Always a pleasure.”
“I have somewhere to be,” I say flatly, brushing past him.
“Alan’s office?” he guesses, stepping into my path like he’s not crossing a line. “That’s where I just came from.”
Great.
That’s probably why I’ve been summoned to Alan’s office. Matt probably just told him everything—from what he saw at the gala to his wildly inaccurate version of our shared history together.
I reach for his sleeve and yank him back a few steps into a shadowed corner, just out of view from the lobby of the training facility.
“If you wanted to be alone with me, all you had to do was ask,” he says smoothly, flashing a grin he probably practices in the mirror.
“Would you shut up?” My voice comes out icier than I mean it to. Or maybe Idomean it.
Matt raises his hands in mock surrender. “Easy, tiger.”
God, fuck him. Even that tiny gesture is intended to make me feel like an irrational, angry woman.
I step in closer, toe-to-toe with him. “What you did to Oliver during that interview? That was disgusting, Matt. Even for you.”
