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Khloe's brain raced to remember as much as she could about the low-talent, highly-sought-after actor who'd come out of nowhere in the last few years. The only thing she could remember about him was that his son was sick with some terminaldisease.
"Whatever happened to his young son? Did he pull through? What was his illness again?" The questions spilled from her mouth as they popped into herhead.
They should be easy questions for the actor's agent and publicist to answer, yet the Kaplans sat silently, each refusing to look her in the eye. Her uneasy tummy churned again with an odd sense of dread that she didn'tunderstand.
It was Trevor who answered her. "It was supposedly leukemia, wasn't it? The last press release was that he had been miraculously cured. I remember seeing Robby making all of the morning news programs to talk about the miracle of how God had cured his baby, shedding his crocodile tears. I have to hand it to him. He did at least put on a believable performance there, if not on the bigscreen."
She was missing something. Why would Trevor be so angry that a young child was cured? She replayed his words.Supposedly. Crocodiletears.
Khloe's uneasy feeling escalated. She hated the thought that had popped into her brain. Before she could ask a question, Trevor barged forward with what she could clearly now see was less of a conversation and more of an interrogation of the older couple sitting across fromthem.
"If you don't want to talk about Robby, then maybe you'll share your overwhelming success with launching Justin Lange's career after he suffered the loss of his wife in that horrific car accident in the Hollywood Hills. It was so unfortunate that she was killed in that single car accident, and yet Justin was able to walk away unscathed. You have to hand it to him. I'm not sure how he was able to pull it all together to make the rounds with every entertainment news program to talk about his terrible loss. Then again, I rewatched some of his interviews recently. I was amazed by his ability to overcome his grief and talk about his upcoming movie projectsinstead."
The Kaplans and Trevor were in a visual showdown as they sat silently glaring at eachother.
"What are you trying to say, Trevor?" Khloe prodded her friend for answers that it felt like he was withholding fromher.
Trevor never took his eyes off the Kaplans as he replied. "I don't need to say anything. Justin'sdeadwife has been doing all of the talking with the Mexican authorities after she was tracked down by the insurance agency's private investigator. Seems they got an anonymous tip that she might still be alive. Looks like she'd been blackmailing Justin for more cash to keep the secret that her accident had been a publicitystunt."
Natalie Kaplan's eyes widened so far it looked like they might fall out of her head. In contrast, Bernie slumped to the side, leaning against the interior of the limo as he closed his eyes and clutched at hischest.
Khloe's brain struggled to put the pieces of the puzzle together. She turned their words around, trying to make sense of it all. Trying to come up with something... anything that wasn't as incriminating as the accusations beingleveled.
She shook her head as she pressed for answers. "I don't understand. You manufactured a child's illness? Why would anyone do that? And the accident?" Khloe turned the facts around, examining them from every angle before pressing forward. "You faked a woman's death without a care to how it would affect her family? I mean what kind of people would..." Her voice stopped abruptly as her brain pieced the final puzzle pieces together. The answer came out in a whisper. "My God... you did this tome."
Trevor confirmed her worst nightmare. "It was all a hoax. We know you're Khloe'sstalker."
His words were like a knife to her heart. Surely if she looked down, she would find blood flowing onto her expensivegown.
Natalie incredibly boasted. "We're in the entertainment business. We feed the media what it needs, that's all. We've learned how to give them what they want, and in exchange, our clients get what they want. Exposure.Fame."
"Jail time," Trevordeadpanned.
Natalie's high-pitched laugh made her sound insane. "Don't be ridiculous. No lines have been crossed. This is show-business."
"See, that's where you're wrong. You knowingly helped Justin Lange defraud his insurance company. You helped arrange for his estranged wife to receive her payoff and even helped book a charter plane for her flight to Mexico. And don't even get me started with the questions surrounding exactly whose body it was that burned up in Justin's car that night, although I'm pretty sure the police are going to want to ask you a few questions aboutthat."
Bernie let out a low groan as he continued to clutch at hischest.
Trevor ruthlessly continued with his verbal assault. "And the charity foundation that collected all of the donations for Robby Goldberg's son's recovery fund was very interested to hear that the young boy had actually never been diagnosed with so much as a common cold, let alone leukemia. It didn't sound like they were too happy about being used as a patsy to collect funds for a group of liars. I'd be expecting a call from their lawyers, too, if I wereyou."
"You sonofabitch. I don't know where the hell you're getting your information, but you have no clue what you're talkingabout."
"All we had to do was follow the money. The money trail neverlies."
It was Ryder's voice that filled the car. Khloe had been so enthralled listening as Trevor painted the tragic picture of how unethical the Kaplans were that she hadn't seen the smoky glass partition separating the passengers from the front seat of the moving limo slide open. Her heart thumped hard as their eyeslocked.
Natalie let out a shriek as she cowered away from the opening in theglass.
Ryder started adding missing details. "Axel and I have been digging into this for the last few days. We have some grave concerns about the actions of your publicist and agent, Princess. We've confirmed they had access to every location threats were left, including keys to your New York apartment. They were stupid enough to send the threatening emails from their personal laptop, allowing us to trace the accounts to their IP address. They were even cocky enough to deposit the $25,000 check the studio gave them into their personalaccount."
In a few brief seconds, she got answers to questions she hadn't even asked yet. Ryder and his friend Axel had dug into the case, and within a few days, had uncovered the ugly truth about people she'd trusted to help her career. More answers started clicking into place for her. How they'd pushed to use the stalker details for fodder with the press to gain Khloe additionalairtime.
But why? They were so successful. Why would they stoop to illegal activities at this stage in their career? She had toknow.
"Why did you doit?"
"Do what?" Nataliespat.
