The six-week-old recording was buried in the studio archive under a folder Rhett had labeled “test levels.”
It was forty-one minutes long, and I played every second of it.
Most of it was Rhett and Aubrey talking like two people who had all the time in the world.
They talked about the show like it was already theirs.
They talked about me like I was a problem to be solved.
And then, about twenty minutes in, Rhett said it plainly.
“We let her catch us,” he said.
“That’s the whole point.
She walks in, she sees it, she loses it on tape.
We get the audio, we get the sympathy, and we launch with the story everyone wants to hear.”
“And I just play the victim?”
“You play the victim,” he said.
“I play the fool.
Celina plays the villain.
It writes itself.”
I stopped the playback and sat there in the dark.
Then I played it again.
By the third time, I wasn’t crying anymore.
I called my attorney, Diane, at seven in the morning, and she told me to bring everything to her office.
I called Simone at seven-fifteen.
She was at my door by eight.
We sat in Diane’s conference room with the door closed and the blinds down, and I played them both the recording.
When it ended, Simone looked at me and said, “He coached her.
He planned it.
This isn’t a mistake, Celina.
This is a scheme.”
Diane leaned forward.
“I need to know about the money.”
I hadn’t thought about money.
I’d been thinking about my marriage and my daughter and my show.
“What about it?”
I asked.
Diane slid a folder across the table.
“I pulled the business accounts last night,” she said.
“There’s an account I’ve never seen before.
It’s tied to a company called Northstar Media.
Rhett opened it eight months ago, and there’s been steady movement into it from the podcast’s operating fund.”
I stared at the numbers.
“How much?”
I asked.
“Eighty-four thousand dollars,” she said.
I felt my face go hot.
That was money we’d saved for Maya’s college.
That was money we’d set aside for the studio lease.
That was money I’d earned with my own voice.
“He moved it?”
I asked.
“He moved it,” Diane said.
“And I can get it back, but only if we do this carefully.”
Simone reached over and put her hand on mine.
“What do you want to do?” she asked.
I thought about the kiss.
I thought about the red light.
I thought about the waveform on the screen and the way I’d said, “Every second.”
“I don’t want to air the kiss,” I said.
“That’s what they want.
That’s their launch episode.
If I put that out, I’m giving them exactly what they planned.”
Diane nodded slowly.
“Then what?”
“I want to do a season about betrayal,” I said.
“Real betrayal.
With real paperwork.
With consent releases and attorneys and every fact checked twice.
And I want the first episode to be the story of a guest who lied.”
Simone looked at me.
“You want to invite Aubrey back.”
“Yes,” I said.
“She thinks she’s the one holding the cards.
Let’s see what happens when she has to play them in public.”
Diane started writing.
“I’ll need time to prepare the releases and the legal review.
Two weeks, maybe three.”
“Then we have three weeks,” I said.
That afternoon, Rhett came into the studio while I was packing up my notes.
He stood in the doorway with his hands in his pockets, and he didn’t look sorry.
He looked like a man doing a job.
“I hear you’ve been talking to Diane,” he said.
“I have.”
“You don’t want to do this the hard way, Celina.”
“I don’t want to do any of this,” I said.
“But here we are.”
He leaned against the frame.
“The new show launches the same day as your season premiere.
I thought you should know.”
I looked at him.
“And one more thing,” he said.
“Aubrey has some files.
Old sponsor contracts, the original guest list, some of the early recordings.
She has the only copies.
If you try to go around her, you won’t have a show to premiere.”
He walked away before I could answer.
I stood there with my heart pounding and my phone in my hand.
Then I called Simone.
“He thinks he’s won,” I said.
“But he just told me where the fight is.”
Chapter 8 – Live From the Control Room
The next three weeks felt like building a house while the foundation was on fire.
Diane drafted releases for every guest, every audio clip, every sponsor mention.
Simone rebuilt the studio schedule and told the staff nothing except that we were doing a special season.
