I've Died Here Before novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Leaked

The woman behind the biggest gossip account in New York worked out of a glass office above a bagel shop.

She had posted the Linden Room video of me.

She had also written the caption.

"Spoiled Girlfriend Dumped," she read off her own screen when I walked in. "That one made me eleven thousand dollars."

"Good for you," I said.

"Do I owe you something?"

"You owe me the truth about your sources," I said. "But I'll settle for a trade."

I put my phone on her desk and pressed play.

Giselle's voice came out of the speaker, soft and pleasant, with a harp behind it.

"Holden will be mine by Christmas. A girl who understands money knows when to take it and go."

The editor's mouth fell open.

I let it play to the end, to the part where I said, "Say that again," and Giselle did.

"That's her," the editor whispered. "That's actually her."

"It's the tea she held for me on Saturday. I recorded it. The full thing is on a drive in a bank box."

"Why give it to me?"

"Because you posted me when I was down," I said. "Now you can post her when she's up."

"What do you want?"

"Forty seconds now. The rest on Friday at her engagement party, in the room, with a camera. And a plus-one on your list."

She looked at the phone.

She looked at me.

"You know this makes you the story," she said.

"I've been the story for ten days. Might as well be the end of it."

She was posting before I got to the elevator.

By noon, forty seconds of Giselle's voice had four million plays.

By one o'clock, a hundred and six accounts had put the words Holden will be mine by Christmas over footage of her ring.

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