Chapter 7: Bring Sonia Back

Beck had been scared enough to say anything.

That was what I told myself in the car, with the sun coming up over the East River.

A man with a letter opener against his knuckle will name whoever he thinks you want.

I didn't want to think about the other possibility yet.

I wanted to do something with my hands.

So I called my lawyer and told him what I had kept in a locked file for six years.

Every payment Northlight made to Sonia through side contracts.

Every fee her agent had skimmed off the top.

Every paycheck she had taken in cash and never put on a tax form.

I had never reported it.

I had told myself I was protecting her.

"Wes, if I file this, she goes to prison," my lawyer said.

"Then file it."

"You'll look like the man who put his girlfriend in prison."

"I already look like the man who stole her youth."

He filed it at nine.

At two that afternoon, federal agents walked onto the red carpet at the premiere of her next film and took Sonia Rhodes out of the crowd.

Two hundred photographers caught it.

She did not cry on cue.

She looked straight at the nearest lens and said, "Wesley Thornton did this."

Jace ran after the car with his hands over his face.

By evening, the story had turned over in my hands.

NORTHLIGHT CHAIRMAN JAILS EX AFTER SHE LEAVES HIM.

It was true, and the way they printed it made it sound like a crime.

My real name was now on every screen.

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