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Nico detaches my hand from the plaster, pulling me into a suffocating hug. “I think we should call Luca or my dad and ask them for advice. They’re lawyers. I’m sure they’ll be able to help—”
“No.” I scramble out of his grasp. “We can’t tell anyone. I haven’t even told Avery anything about Zoe Mona yet. It will kill me if this is how she finds out.”
“If I propose a hypothetical, they won’t even have to know.”
“I saidno.” My throat clears as I struggle to regain a semblance of calm. “Villa Printers will have to take it down. I have enough proof now.”
I stalk over to my laptop before pulling up my case number from the Villa Printers email.
Nico leans over the counter, stretching his arms. “But what about all the money this guy stole from you? You’ve got to get him back, Lil. He has to pay.”
“If there’s a lawsuit, I’ll probably have to use my real name, permanently linking Lily Rodin to Zoe Mona. That damn blog and the novellas will be tied to me forever. Try getting a good job when all the people on the hiring committee know you write erotica on the side.”
That specific hypothetical may be a bit of a stretch, but planning for the worst-case scenario is how I’ve always functioned. The number of fail-safes I created to keep distance between my two different lives won’t collapse around me because some middle-of-the-road creative writing teacher stole my work.
“What are you talking about?” He palms my laptop screen shut, and I’m ready to bare my teeth at him. “Why are you hypothetically interviewing for a job? You love writing. Why would you stop?”
“I haven’t written in weeks,” I admit. “It’s time for me to move on from that part of my life anyway.”
I’ve been ruminating on the decision since I saw my book at that bookstore. I know I’m starting to gain sales momentum, and the amount of money I’ve made could do so much for me. But my mind can’t seem to navigate from one thing: I don’t want to be Zoe Mona anymore. Despite all of the positives it has brought me recently.
I want to write—maybe in the future, after the violation of this dissipates—but I can’t just drop my plans and goals for a degree, to dream up smut stories all day. I don’t want to continue lying about this other life.
All the guilt and deception have been weighing so heavily on my conscience that I think it’s time to put Zoe Mona to bed.No pun intended.
“Move on?” Nico swipes his hand against the crease forming on his forehead.
“Yes. Move on. Who’s to say this won’t happen every time I write something new? Am I really going to let my life be consumed by lawsuits?”
In my heart of hearts, beneath the rusted metal chains creaking around my chest, I don’t know how I’ll ever return to being Zoe Mona again.
Zoe Mona wasn’t the kind of woman who felt love. Her heart didn’t flutter every single time a man she admired looked at her, the way mine does with Nico.
“There has to be a system to fix this, Lily. If not, I’ll build an app that can help. Let me do this. It could be my own saving grace. A solution for an industry that needs it.”
“It’s too late. I just wanna get the book taken down. I need to be done.”
“I’m going to build it—”
The melody of my ringtone bursts through the room. I answer my phone. “Hello, this is a representative from Villa Printers. Can we speak to Zoe Mona?”
“Speaking.”
It’s bizarre acknowledging myself as my alter ego after all these years.
“Your request to removeCoastal Flingfrom our archives has been received. After consulting the original party, we’ve come to understand they own the international copyright.”
“That’s impossible,mycompany owns all the copyright.” The tremor of a headache breaches my skull once again.
“If that’s the case, we’ll need to escalate this to our head department. Please have your legal team touch base with our lawyers.”
“What?”
No.
“An email with the next steps should be hitting your inbox soon. Enjoy your day.”
The line goes blank. My mind follows right after.
