Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 132649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Colby reached over and squeezed Iris’s knotted fists.
“You don’t have to explain, Iris. She’s not coming across as very convincing. Or sincere. Or likable.”
“What?” Iris’s head swung around to stare at Colby in disbelief. “She’s got them hanging onto her every word. You’re biased because you know me.”
“I’ve got really good at reading people since working at Brand EPS. She’s trying too hard to be coy and sweet. Instead, she strikes me as cloying and insincere.”
“You’re just one—albeit very astute—person. And, don’t get me wrong, I’m really grateful that you see through her but everybody else seems to be buying her act.
“I’m not so sure.” Colby shook her head, her expression thoughtful. “I’ve watched Mike Holmes’s show a few times. I’m familiar with his interrogation techniques…”
“Interrogation?” Iris repeated with a startled laugh. “Interview, you mean?”
“I said what I said,” Colby said with a slight grin and a lift of her chin. “Anyway, he’s building up to something.”
“And you and Miss Hughes—Iris—collaborated from the very beginning on this Trystan Abbott interview?” Holmes’s question yanked Iris’s attention back to the disaster unfolding on-screen. She recalled, with an unpleasant jolt, that this wasn’t happening live. That everything she was watching right now, had already happened.
Evan had force-fed the world these lies already and Iris knew that any attempt she made now to fix it would be futile. She’d had so many opportunities to tell her own story, to possibly temper the catastrophic impact of this interview while mitigating the damage already done with the article and the leaked excerpts from her journal. But Iris had been too proud and too afraid to defend herself. Proud because she believed that those who loved her and knew her would surely not need to be spoon-fed the truth, while the rest did not matter. Meanwhile she’d really been terrified that nobody would believe her if she actually spoke up. Why would they? When Trystan hadn’t.
While Iris had remained imprisoned at home, hiding from the world, the public had gone and made up their minds about the type of person they believed she was.
“Yes,” Evan said in response to the man’s question. “She approached Mr. Quinn, Trystan Abbott’s manager. He agreed to the interview and we decided fairly early on that the article would be published by Looker.”
“Because of your connections at the magazine, of course,” Mike Holmes said with a sage nod and Evan smiled.
“Yes.”
Holmes’s eyes narrowed and he tilted his head, affecting a look of confusion.
“Now hold on. You make Iris sound like a bundle of neuroses and anxiety. Why entrust such an important interview to her? Especially—as you said—she lacked experience. Why didn’t you do it instead?”
“Uh…” Evan’s relaxed smile slipped a notch, before she fixed it firmly in place. “Well, I would’ve loved to, of course. But I had commitments at work. I couldn’t just up and leave. Iris just does some freelance editing. It’s easier for her to swan off to exotic destinations than it is for me."
"But surely your then-boss at Looker would have granted you some time off to pursue a story like this?”
“Iris and I decided that the fewer people who knew about this the better. I didn’t trust my then-boss not to take the story from me.”
“I understand your boss was fired and you have her job now?” Holmes inserted smoothly, with a warm little smile. Now Iris could see what Colby had meant. There was something watchful—almost predatory—in the host’s dark gray eyes.
“I do. Yes.”
“Congratulations,” Holmes said and Evan smiled.
“Thank you.”
“This story has been good to you. Recognition and respect at work, I assume a substantial pay rise, plus whatever you earned off the article—and you’ve become a recognized name in the entertainment journalism industry. Not bad for one as young as you.”
“I may be young, Mike, but I’ve worked my arse off for every opportunity.”
“I’m sure,” he said amenably. “And Iris? She’s been cagey with the press. Not a single interview. Did Looker offer her a position? I’m sure you must be champing at the bit to have her working with you?”
“Iris isn’t interested in working at Looker,” Evan said, her voice as flat as the line of her mouth.
“Why not?”
“Who knows?” Evan’s response was curt and dismissive. “She’s a strange one.”
“I agree. I do find it odd that someone would land the scoop of the decade, then not bask in the aftermath. She hasn’t been seen in public much. Her family has closed ranks. It’s like she fell off the face of the planet.”
“Maybe she’s embarrassed she slept her way into a story and that the entire world then got to read about it in her journal,” Evan said snidely, then recognized that she’d miscalculated when a low rumble of mutters swept through the audience.
“Speaking of the journal… a lot of the information the excerpts revealed were deeply personal and not always flattering to Iris. I was baffled as to why anyone would want such intimate thoughts exposed to the public.”