Chapter 17: Send Me the Time

I put Bree on speaker and set the phone on the shed's windowsill.

Garner stood on one side of it and Elliot on the other.

"Sadie," Bree said, warm as ever. "You must be upset."

"You posted my daughter's voice."

"That was an intern. A terrible mistake. It's coming down right now."

It was already gone from the page.

I could see the black screen vanish while she spoke.

"I'm sorry, honestly," she said. "I'd never want Poppy hurt."

"You told her to sing into that lamb."

A very short pause followed.

"I told her it was a toy that loved her," Bree said. "Nobody was hurt."

"Why are you calling?"

"Because I'd like to fix this, and you'd like your life back."

Garner opened his mouth, and I put a finger to my lips.

"Here's what I'm offering," Bree said. "Come to the studio Friday. Be yourself, say your half of the sign-off, and let Garner say his."

"Then?"

"Then I sign the account back to you. Your name on top, sixty million people, every dollar."

"I'd stay on as producer, quietly, like always," she said. "No one has to know about any of this."

My heart was going very fast.

Elliot had gone still.

"And Poppy?" I asked.

"Off camera, forever. Written down. You'll have it in a contract."

"And the lamb? The audio?"

"Deleted. Every file. I'll watch you do it."

It was a beautiful offer.

I think it would have worked on the woman who stood in that courtroom six weeks ago.

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