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Her tone said that wasn’t a question, so Daphne didn’t answer.
“Please tell me you wrote it, and your boyfriend agreed to play the role of your pseudonym.”
Daphne glanced over.
Sakura shrugged. “If that’s the case, I hope you had an iron-clad contract drawn up, one that confirms you wrote it and all rights remain yours, but if that’s the situation, it’s better than the alternative.”
“Which is?”
“That you guys ‘wrote’ it together.” Sakura air-quoted “wrote.” “Meaning you actually wrote it and he helped brainstorm ideas, and for that he wanted author credit, and you didn’t say no, either because you’re blinded by love or you honestly think he’s entitled to call himself an author for doing what a lot of writers’ partners just naturally do.”
“That’s—”
“Then there’s scenario three, where he’s a guy you met at a writing conference, and he convinced you to ‘cowrite’ this book with him, meaning you did all the writing and he plays the role of author.”
“No,” Daphne said. “It’s not that. One person wrote this book.”
“That person being you.”
Daphne said nothing.
“You do realize the position you’re putting me in?” Sakura said as they walked past their third coffee shop without pausing.
“Yes, which is why I’m not confirming anything that might get you into trouble with your employer. Unless you’re asking for confirmation to take to your employer, in which case, I’m also not giving it. If there is an arrangement, and if Chris didn’t actually write the book, then everything has been handled legally. However, we are aware it could be an ethical issue and are already making plans to fix it.”
“When?”
“After the tour.”
“Good. That would be my suggestion,” Sakura said. “It’d be a shit-show if it came out now. There are only three stops left. Once you’re done, I would strongly suggest you fix this immediately.”
“We plan to.”
Sakura exhaled. “Okay.”
“I’m honestly sorry this puts you in a bad position,” Daphne said. “Can you dump Zane as a client? Say he did something and you no longer want to work with him?”
“Only if that ‘something’ is an unwanted sexual advance or an overtly racist comment.”
“Oh.”
“Yep. I’m sure there’s a morality clause in your contract. They all have them these days. I wouldn’t make a false accusation even to save my own career. I can’t refuse to work with him midtour for a minor annoyance, and everything except harassment would be considered a minor annoyance. I could say he expects me to deliver his food and feed it to him, and as long as he wasn’t being kinky about it, they’d tell me to just get through this tour and then they’ll handle it.”
“What can we do to make this better?”
“Well, what you could have done is warned me. I know why you couldn’t, but I reserve the right to be pissy. I started suspecting something was up yesterday. In person, there’s no trace of the guy I was dreading having to work with. He’s a little too prepped with his writing answers, which made me nervous. And he checks in with you a lot. Talking to readers, booksellers, sales reps… He checks to be sure you’re okay with his answers. It’s discreet enough that they don’t notice. But I did.”
“Okay,” Daphne said. “So be more careful about that.”
“A little, yes. Mostly, though, I just need to know so I can be prepared in case the shit hits the fan.”
“Okay.”
Daphne must have sounded nervous, because Sakura’s expression now held the first hints of sympathy.
“It won’t,” she said. “We just have a few days to go, and this website is the only concern I’ve found. Even then, if they realize Zane is actually Chris Stanton, they’ll presume Chris Stanton is the guy behind the pen name. You have time.”
“Okay.”
