Chapter 10: Who Wrote Their Lines?

By Thursday night, the video had two million views, and I had stopped reading the numbers.

The crew gathered in the living room of the house with bowls of soup, and the cameraman plugged his laptop into the television.

"You have to see this," he said. "A fan made it."

The screen filled with a split frame.

On the left was a Hearthlight clip from three years ago, Cecelia and Cormac on a rooftop.

It held the line that had gone viral all over the world.

"I don't need the whole sky. I just need the one star that stays."

On the right was a screen recording of a blooper reel.

Off camera, in my own voice, tired and patient, I said, "No, wait, try it again."

Then my voice said, "Say it softer. Say it like you're telling one person."

The two clips played together.

The fan had put a title across the bottom.

"HE WROTE IT. WATCH."

Nobody in the room said a word.

Under the video there was a list, and the list went on and on.

Every line Cormac had ever delivered sat beside a line from my old notes.

The fan had found them in a year-old livestream, where I'd left a document open on my desk.

My handwriting was in the corner of each screenshot.

"Oh," I said.

"They put together a master list," the cameraman said. "Dozens of their famous lines. Every one was yours."

The producer leaned forward in his chair.

"The company will put your name in the credits of everything you shoot here," he said.

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