Fifteen Days to Divorce novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: The Headline
By four minutes past midnight, Malachi's phone had rung repeatedly.
He let it ring.
The kitchen island held three phones, a cold pie and a headline.
Portia stood at his shoulder with her arms wrapped around herself.
Frances had gone to put the kettle on, because she did not know what else to do.
When the phone buzzed again, it was his agent.
Malachi picked up.
"Don't talk," his agent said. "Listen. We say it's research for a role. We say a gossip site faked the video. I have a statement. You say nothing until I call back."
"No."
"Malachi."
"I'm not saying it's fake. It's not fake."
"You'll lose the sequel."
"Then I'll lose it."
He heard himself say it, and it was clean.
Every word of it.
He hung up and put the phone face down on the marble.
Nobody in the kitchen said anything.
Then Portia reached out and turned his phone back over, and scrolled through the comments with her thumb.
"Look," she said.
Some of it was cruel, the way strangers are.
A lot of it was not.
"My brother stutters. He's never seen anyone like him on a screen."
"My dad cried when he read this."
"Whatever he does on Saturday, I'll be there."
Malachi read them all to the bottom, and then he put his forehead down on the cold marble and stayed there.
Portia's hand came to rest on the back of his neck.
"Hey," she said.
"I haven't been afraid of the stage in years," he said into the counter. "I'm afraid of it now."
"I know."
"I'm afraid of it, Portia."
He lifted his head.
The words came slowly, with gaps in them, and he let the gaps stay.
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