Chapter 9: The Offer

The Kitamura Entertainment building had a lobby with a gold wall and a fountain.

Every girl the company had ever made famous had a framed poster there.

Kokone's poster was the biggest.

She walked past it in a cap and a mask with her chin up.

Emi walked behind her in her one good shirt.

Misaki took them up to the ninth floor in an elevator with a mirror, and nobody spoke.

The president's office was a corner room with a window the size of a wall.

Daigo Kitamura stood up from a desk the color of honey and smiled at them with both hands open.

He was fifty-four, with silver streaks in neat black hair and a charcoal suit.

"Kokone-chan," he said. "My treasure. Come here, come in. Is that your sister?"

"My stepsister," Kokone said. "Emi."

"Stepsister!"

"What a wonderful thing."

"A family."

He took Emi's hand in both of his and held it a moment too long.

"I'm so grateful to you for the care you've taken."

"Please sit."

They sat on a low white sofa.

Misaki stood by the door.

"Now," Daigo said. "The magazine."

"It's a fake," Kokone said at once. "I've told everyone. I've never met that man."

"I believe you."

"You do?"

"Of course I do."

"I've known you since you were fourteen."

He sighed, and shook his head sadly, and took a folder from his desk.

"But the public needs more than belief."

"The press, the sponsors, the fans."

"Do you know how many sponsors have called me this week?"

"No."

"Eleven."

"Three have paused your ad contracts."

He opened the folder on the glass table.

"Which is why I want to take care of everything today."

The folder held a thick contract with a yellow flag on page 19.

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