Page 23 of Now Their Starlet

Cameron’s hand is shaking when he puts it on speaker.

There’s a beat of dead air.

Then it’s there. Her voice.

I don’t breathe for the twenty-one seconds of it. None of us do.

“Hi—hi, this is going to sound insane. But it’s Andi. I’m—okay. I’m not hurt, I just⁠—”

Her voice cracks, trembling like she’s terrified she’s going to get caught. After seeing those photos of her, I can picture it now. Her, frail in a way that shouldn’t be possible after such a short period of time in her mother’s custody, making this secret, desperate phone call.

“It—it’s me, I promise. Remember all those galaxy-ception jokes? Anyway, I—I just wanted to say I didn’t do it. I swear. Please, I—I know you have no reason to help me, but I need your help. I—I have to go.”

The line clicks dead.

Her words wash over me.

“She thinks we need to be convinced to help her,” Everett mutters.

“I think that’s indicative of the conditions she’s being held under,” Cameron adds softly.

I don’t trust my voice yet.

“Play it again,” Edison rasps. “Please.”

Cameron does. All four of us lean towards that tiny speaker like it’s the only light in the room.

Those twenty-one seconds are all we get. It’s not enough. But it’s more than we had an hour ago, and right now, that has to be enough.

I take a deep, steadying breath as Everett hands my phone back to me.

“When was the voicemail left?” I ask Cameron.

The time he shares matches ‌the time the charity gala was taking place.

“She must’ve had an opportunity to sneak away and find a phone. I can’t imagine Gina or Stuart would be willing to give her access to one,” I offer.

“It looks like it’s a number from the hotel,” Cameron says. “Maybe she found access to a service phone.”

I stare back down at my screen, at the video clip of Andi and Ezra playing on loop. They pose for a few seconds, just long enough for the photos, before they create distance between themselves. His hands stay polite, in respectable places while her hands remain posed on her own body. If anything, their body language is communicating that they aren’t together.

“At least she says she’s okay. Ezra doesn’t seem particularly handsy with her,” I say.

But that doesn’t really matter to me right now. Or to any of us, it seems. What matters is the fact that they’re there together at all.

“What event is it?” Edison murmurs, his brows drawing down as he squints to try to read the text on the background of the red carpet.

“A charity gala of some sort. One for organ donation,” I answer, already having read the headlines of the photos. “Apparently, it’s linked to Jonathan Fletcher’s latest movie.”

“Why would Gina Sterling allow Andi’s first sighting back in public to be something like this?” Everett mutters, stroking his beard in thought.

“It’s unsurprising if Jonathan Fletcher is involved,” Edison says, his expression tight.

The three of us cut our gazes towards him, each of our expressions a different placement on the spectrum of surprise and intrigue.

“Why is that?” Cameron asks. “Was it because you knew about her relationship with Ezra, the son?”

“I only knew of the son because he made appearances in Andi’s vlogs,” Edison says with a shake of his head. “But I know Jonathan Fletcher on a... personal level. When Gina used to be unfaithful during our marriage, he was her longest-standing affair.”