Page 101 of Never Forget

“I will say that you’re not very good at your job. I probably did them a favor as well as you.”

“In what way were you doing me a favor?”

“I heard everything, Mr. Riley. I heard you beg, not for your job, but for him to love you. It was quite touching.”

“How dare you⁠—”

“Do you see it now, Scott? Do you see what they’re like? They didn’t even give you a chance to prove your innocence before they kicked you to the curb.”

“It’s not the job I cared about.”

“Clearly, which makes this so much worse.”

“What do you mean?”

He lets out an irritated huff. “You’re so blinded by your infatuation with Naz Lester that you haven’t gotten it through your thick head, have you? Whatever relationship you thought you had with him—with any of them—was a one-sided fantasy. He never cared for you, he said it himself. You were just there until he got bored.”

“He was just angry.”

“Scott,” he tsks. “I know these people. I knew them when they were nobodies, and I made them stars.”

If I wasn’t so blown away by the audacity, I might laugh. Not only because he’s full of shit– Lest Is Moore are stars in their own right. They were born stars, it’s who they are. But because he just gave himself away.

Not realizing that he just gave me what I need, Francis keeps talking, ranting about how awful the guys are and what they did to him.

“They used me, used my connections and my talents, worked me until I was a mere shell of myself, and then they used me as a scapegoat for their indiscretions. All the drug use, the sex parties, the other people they used and discarded. Not only did I have to work night and day to cover it up, but when they got caught, they blamed it all on me.”

He’s breathing hard, all worked up from his ranting. With this much hate and vitriol built up inside him, I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t escalated to actual violence yet.

“When it was all said and done, they had the audacity to threaten me with completely unfounded legal charges if I didn’t sign their bogus paperwork. And even after I complied with everything they told me, they made sure I was blacklisted from working in the business ever again.”

“How could they do that?” I ask, feigning outrage and worry that the same could happen to me.

“They can, and they will. I guarantee the same thing will happen to you.”

“They wouldn’t⁠—”

“They would!” he shouts. “They’ve done it before, and they’ll do it again. Have you learned nothing from everything that’s happened?”

“I just don’t want to believe it.”

“Well, start believing because it’s happening. Right now. Take a good, hard look at where you are right now. Let me guess, they dumped you in some cheap hotel with a plane ticket home to Nebraska or wherever you’re from?”

I make a choking sound. “Uh… A motel. And a bus voucher.”

He curses under his breath. “That’s even worse! You know what your problem is, Scott? You have all that size and muscle, but you let people walk all over you. How could you let them treat you like that?”

“I didn’t know I had any choice in the matter.”

“You always have a choice, Scott. You don’t have to take this.”

I let a long silence stretch between us, keeping the receiver close so he can hear my breathing and know I’m still there. He can probably hear the nervousness in my voice, and I let him. If anything, it’s making him think he can intimidate and manipulate me.

“What do I do?”

TWENTY-SIX

NAZ