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But not inaccurate.

“Did you see the look on his face?” Margo asked after a moment. “When he said her name?”

Her knife, my stomach.

I pressed a hand there, half expecting to see blood.

“Yeah.” Tess’s voice was soft. “I think he loved her too,” she added. “That’s probably the worst part.”

They kept talking.

But I actively zoned out, not wanting to hear it, not needing any more reasons to feel guilty. Eventually, I must have slept because the next thing I knew, it was the middle of the night, and I was alone in the car.

“Hey, you,” Tess said as she came back with a coffee as big as my head. “Do you want me to get you something to drink? Eat?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Yeah, I remember that feeling well. We’re more than halfway home. We just stopped to fuel up and get some snacks. Do you need—ignore that,” she said as my phone rang, stopped, then started up again.

Despite her demand, my hand fumbled for it, fingers frantic, thinking maybe it was him, that he would give me a chance to explain, to apologize.

But it was Mr. Lane’s name on my screen.

“He’s been calling us all nonstop,” Tess said. She plucked the phone from my hand and powered it down.

“Wait…”

“He’s not going to call you, babes,” Tess, ever blunt, told me. And as much as a pathetic whine escaped me, I knew she was right. “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get you home, get you in bed, and let you have the rest of the weekend to purge all of this, okay?”

“Weekend?” I scoffed.

“We’re allowed to spiral. We’re not allowed to throw everything away, okay? I’ll call out for you Monday. But Tuesday, you are climbing out of this and getting life back on track.”

“You spiraled for months,” I reminded her, scrubbing at my tear-burned cheeks.

“I loved him for a lot longer,” she said, shrugging.

“And it wasn’t your fault,” I added, hanging my head.

“I’m not going to pretend to understand why you did it—”

“It was an accident at first. I was just so annoyed with him.”

“That tracks. But, babe, it’s been a long time.”

“They were going to cancel his show. But the ratings were starting to spike because of the feud. So I called in again and…and it just got out of hand.”

“Maggs, you were sleeping with him. With this big secret between you.”

“I know.” I sniffled hard. “Not that it matters now, but I was going to tell him after the con. I just wanted to get that stupid exhibition over with. Then I was going to come clean. But… but I screwed up.”

“Yeah, you did.” She reached out, tucking my hair behind my ear as Margo climbed back in the driver’s seat and pulled out of her spot. “Like, not just on a personal level.”

I knew that too.

God, what was Mr. Lane going to say? What would everyone at the station say? Was I going to be fired? Would I have to quit because I couldn’t take the sideways glances and talking behind my back?

“How bad is it?” I asked. I knew Tess and Margo would be all over the news. They were both chronically online. Their work demanded it. So there was no way they weren’t seeing the fallout.