Chapter 4

By ten the next morning, Emma is sitting next to Oliver onstage like she’s been doing this for years.

I’m backstage with Martin and Nora.

The moderator is supposed to be talking about Stillwater.

Instead, it’s Emma, Emma, Emma.

Breakout star. Big year. Great chemistry with Oliver.

Emma keeps doing that little embarrassed smile.

“Stop,” she says when the moderator calls her Hollywood’s new favorite.

The audience laughs.

Oliver does too.

Then the moderator turns to him.

“You two go way back now. Did The Hollow Room make this movie easier?”

Oliver nods.

“Yeah. We already knew how to work together.”

Emma looks at him.

“He means I knew how to annoy him.”

Oliver laughs.

“That too.”

The moderator grins.

“And you guys almost got replaced on The Hollow Room, right?”

Emma nods.

“Yeah. That was a fun week.”

Oliver shakes his head.

“It was not fun.”

Emma laughs.

“You were ready to quit.”

“I was pissed.”

“You were impossible.”

“I was having a bad week.”

“You were dramatic.”

The room laughs again.

Then Emma shrugs.

“We did the read again. It worked. We stayed.”

The moderator leans in.

“So that chemistry basically saved the movie?”

Emma smiles.

“I mean... I’m not gonna say that.”

A beat.

“But it didn’t hurt.”

More laughs.

I don’t.

Then they move on to Stillwater.

The moderator asks Emma what pulled her into the story.

She opens the folder in her lap.

The one I gave her.

She starts talking about the lead trying to reconnect with his daughter.

I look at Martin.

He looks right back at me.

That storyline was cut almost a year ago.

Emma keeps going.

“That’s really the heart of it for me. Him and his daughter, all that stuff he can’t fix—”

Oliver turns to her.

“There’s no daughter.”

Silence.

Emma looks at him.

“What?”

“That was an old draft.”

Her face changes for half a second.

Then she laughs.

“Oh my God. Right.”

The moderator smiles awkwardly.

Emma waves it off.

“Sorry. I’ve read way too many versions of this thing.”

Martin mutters, “Sure you have.”

I almost smile.

After the panel, Emma comes backstage fast.

“Mrs. Jones.”

I look up.

She holds up the folder.

“Seriously?”

“What?”

“You gave me the old notes.”

“I gave you production notes.”

“You knew.”

“Knew what?”

“That I’d use them.”

“You did use them.”

Her mouth tightens.

Oliver walks in.

“What’s happening?”

Emma turns to him.

“Nothing.”

I laugh.

Oliver looks at me.

“Rachel.”

“She just found out she was talking about a character that got cut last year.”

Emma crosses her arms.

“I messed up one detail.”

“One detail?”

“Yeah. One.”

Oliver sighs.

“Okay, can we not do this?”

I look at him.

“She’s out there doing press for a movie she barely knows.”

“She’s been on it three weeks.”

“Exactly.”

Emma looks down.

“Sorry I’m not perfect, Mrs. Jones.”

I stare at her.

“That’s not what I said.”

“I know.”

She gives me this tiny smile.

“That’s just how it feels.”

Oliver’s face softens immediately.

Of course it does.

Emma heads for the door.

He looks at me.

“Did you really have to do that?”

“Do what?”

“Set her up.”

I laugh.

“She opened the folder.”

“Rachel.”

“What?”

He rubs his face.

“Just... stop.”

My phone buzzes.

A headline is already up.

RACHEL JONES SET EMMA DAVIS UP TO BOMB ONSTAGE, SOURCE SAYS

I show him.

He says nothing.

Then Martin texts me.

Everybody in that room knows she didn’t know the movie. Don’t worry about the internet.

I lock my phone.

The internet can believe Emma.

People who’ve actually worked with me know better.