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They both flanked us as we walked from the car to the reception, giving them our names. We're handed visitor passes and within seconds the lift pinged, and a small, older woman stepped out, calling our names, asking us to follow her.
We’re shown to a huge boardroom, with glass walls that let us look out on the world, while the rest of the office could look in on the meeting that was about to happen. Addi and I sat on one side of the huge boardroom table while Matt stood behind us, looking menacing.
Three men walked in, along with Hazel, who’d I had seen briefly the day after we got married, and a younger woman, who avoided eye contact with us all, hanging back from everyone.
Mr. Tate-Hill, nice to meet you. Addison, a pleasure, as always.”
“Ethan, please.”
“Ethan, I’m Jaxx Harmon. Head of Dark River Records. This is Mathew Povey from our legal team and Rae Sumner from PR. You know Hazel, who is only here at your request and is no longer an employee of the label. We’ve also brought one of our secretaries to take notes of the meeting, which we will send you copies of for your records. Now, shall we begin, so you can tell us why it was so important to meet today?”
Addi opened her bag, pulling out the paperwork she’d brought, placing them in a neat pile in front of her.
“Ethan, you asked to meet, so maybe you start,” Jaxx suggested, leaning back in his chair, pressing his hands behind his head, looking smug and relaxed.
“Fine. I’ll come straight to the point and then I'll give you all the reasons that you will agree with me.”
“I’m sorry?” Jaxx spluttered back.
“You should be. Someone you employed walked into the Cosmic God’s space and started bullying one of its members. She took his phone, his passport, his wedding ring. She manipulated him, threatened him, questioned his sexuality, tried to annul his wedding without his permission, made him fake a relationship and images where he looked like he was having sex, so the press would think he was ‘normal.’ That behavior saw my husband on a ventilator in hospital. It nearly killed him. So, you will listen to what I have to say, and you will agree with me, otherwise, I'll see to it that it’s your life that falls apart, and it's you that the press has a field day with.”
I felt Matt’s hand on my shoulder, reminding me I needed to stay calm and try to remove my emotion, so I could do this. I took a deep breath, and he stepped back.
Jaxx leaned forward, clasping his hands in front of him on the dark wooden table. “Ethan, I don’t think you’re in any position to come in here making threats. You have no idea what you’re stepping into. Aren’t you a self-employed graphic designer with a kink for threesomes? I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot, but we have more power than you.”
“I’m going to ignore that comment and the weakly veiled threat because in about ten minutes, you’ll be redacting all those words from the notes your secretary is taking. Shall I begin?”
Jaxx nodded, his face tense with rage.
“Wonderful. As you know, Addi and I are here to discuss the Cosmic Gods, not just Gray. I would like you to give them the option to end their contract with you, without a financial penalty. I want you to let them walk away—if that’s their choice. No slandering them, no threats, nothing that can harm the band or the people that work with them. You will let Addi walk with them if that’s what they choose.”
He laughed loudly, but he had no idea what I had to say next.
“Ethan, that’s hilarious. The Cosmic Gods are our biggest grossing band. We have their lives mapped out for the next five years of their iron-tight contract and we have zero plans to let them walk. It’s lovely that you tried, but the answer isno.”
He moved to stand, the lawyer and the PR man standing too, dismissing us. I nodded at Addi, so she pressed play on her phone and a recording echoed out in the silence of the room.
You are disgusting. Vile. What you did with those two people is wrong. My job is to sort your mess and you are a mess, Gray. A dirty mess. I mean, who wants to sleep with two people? It’s a sin. The whole band is rotten to the core, but you are the worst. You should be scrubbing the sin from your skin whenever you get the chance because you’re dirty. Soiled. The whole world can see it. Every time you get on stage, the world can see your sin and my job is to help cleanse you of your disgusting story. I have your passport, your wedding ring, I have your phone. You have no way to leave. No way to escape. You’ll do as you’re told, and you’ll do it with a smile on your face. I will not let you ruin things for the band or for me.
I nodded at Addi again and she stopped the recording because hearing Hazel’s vile words made me feel physically sick. I turned to stare at her. “I don’t normally speak to women the way I’m about to speak to you, but you fucking disgusting bitch. You took your own agenda and you bullied him for months. You… you are the reason he ended up with a razor to his wrist in that shower.”
Hazel’s face twisted as she looked at me. “He would have been better off killing himself. What you do… the three of you… it’s disgusting. It’s not right. It’s not normal." She spat out her words as if speaking to me was beneath her. "He had a job to do, a person the world expected him to be, and sexual deviant wasn’t it. You ruined him. Your sin. Your lustful ways. I mean, marriage is between a man and a woman. Same sex marriages are bad enough, but you three were an abomination heading straight to hell.”
“Hazel, enough. Stop speaking now. You’ve done enough damage,” Jaxx yelled at her, causing her to physically shrink into her chair. “Mary, you can stop taking the minutes now and leave us.”
“Mary, you can keep taking the minutes, noting everything we talk about, please. I want all of this recorded,” I replied, offering a warm smile to the nervous secretary.
“We will admit that Hazel took it too far, which is why we fired her. She has nothing to do with the band or the label now. We gave them six months off as an apology. That break cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. We’ve already paid our compensation with their time off. I don’t understand how you think this recording would make us agree to change our contract with the band. Where did you even get the recording?”
“The recording was obtained legally by the independent security team you agreed to let Addi bring in. They were testing some equipment and heard the conversation. They were so disgusted by what was being said they recorded it. But it was well within the remit of why you brought them in to look after the band. We’ve also played it to a lawyer who thinks we have reason to take this further. Start legal proceedings against your label and press charges against Hazel. Sexual discrimination, withholding his passport, bullying, and harassment, and that’s just for starters. I mean, if Gray had been a woman and a man came in and talked and behaved like Hazel did, you wouldn’t have been able to get away with it, but what, it’s suddenly more acceptable to let this happen because he’s a man?”
“No, Ethan. We sent Hazel in to clean up the mess in the band, not talk to him like that.”
“But you admit that cleaning upthe messwas you trying to destroy our relationship because it didn’t fit your agenda?”
He shrugged. “You’re right, it doesn’t, which is why we won’t let it happen, but we can use other methods to stop it, like fining the band or threatening their contract. We have ways to pull their strings without making it as obvious." Jaxx paused, looking at his colleagues on either side of him, a wide, smug smile spreading across his face. "You thought you had a way to blackmail us, Ethan, but you have no idea. If that’s all, then I need to go. I have a label to run.”
I motioned to Matt, who walked to the conference room door, opening it for Noah to step inside. Noah moved to stand behind us, slipping his hands casually into his suit trouser pockets, exposing the two guns holstered underneath.
