The problem was, absolutely none of it was true.
Eris kept calling her, but she kept shooting the calls to voice mail. Was James really that big of an asshole? Was he so butthurt at her leaving him after he cheated that he had to go and slander her entire reputation to the entire nation? And what was Ash thinking right now? She knew it couldn't be good. The only reason she knew those text messages were fake was because she was one of the parties called into question. But even Kallie had to admit that the messages looked real. Whoever James got to fabricate those insane things was good.
But Kallie never deleted Eris’s messages.
All she had to do was show Ash that she hadn’t talked to Eris via text message at all. Only on the phone while she was on the island.
Kallie ignored another phone call from Eris before she dialed Ash’s number. But he didn’t pick up. She hung up and called again, but this time it sent her to voice mail. She opened up a text message—ironically enough—and messaged him. And she saw that he read them. But he didn’t respond.
So she called one last time before she began to panic.
Something was wrong. Which told her he’d seen the interview. And if he wasn’t picking up, that meant that James was somewhat making sense to him. She had to get to him. She had to take a page out of his book and go to him, front and center. She closed her laptop after putting on her “out of the office” notification on her email, then slammed out the room. She ran down the stairs and darted across the street, horns honking and cars slamming on their brakes. She ran into the parking garage and hurried into her car, then wasted no time getting to Ash’s place.
She was going to confront him with the truth if he wasn’t going to pick up.
She smoothed her hands over her blouse, then rang his doorbell. She shuffled on her feet with her phone in her hand, prepared to show him the last message she sent to Eris. She was in the airport about to take off, then there isn’t another message from her until after she landed back home again. She had her call logs ready to show him their phone calls, but there were no text messages in sight.
It took a long time for Ash to finally be heard behind the door. And to Kallie, it seemed as if he considered not answering.
He opened the door and relief flooded her veins until she saw the cold look in his eyes. Instead of stepping off to the side, Ash blocked her from his apartment. Looming over her with a dark look on his face.
This wasn’t good.
“Hey, Ash. Could I come in?” Kallie asked.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said.
“I really don’t want to talk in the hallway. Please?”
“No.”
“Ash, none of what’s going on in that interview is true. James is a spurned lover and he’s being petty. Those text messages? They aren’t real. Look.”
Kallie handed Ash her phone, but he didn’t take it.
“Okay, fine. I’ll hold it,” she said. “Look. The last text message I sent to Eris was before I left the airport, and the only other message I sent to her was after I landed, once I left.”
“So they’re deleted,” Ash said.
“No, look. My call logs. See?”
Kallie swiped through them, scrolling through the few times Eris and she had talked on the phone on the island.
“I called Eris if I ever had to talk with her. I didn’t text message her. All of those messages on the television are fabricated. Every last one of them.”
Kallie looked up into Ash’s eyes and silently begged to see their light. To see her playful, boyish Ash come alive. Her entire reputation was being slandered. People were splattering disgusting things about her on the one social media page she did have. She knew her business was going to tank, there was no question about it. And she needed Ash to believe her.
Ash was the only thing she would have left once James was done with his tirade.
“Don’t you believe me?” Kallie asked.
Kallie watched his face turn to stone. Immovable. Unwavering in his glare. She felt herself melting into the floor. She could see all of the sternness in his eyes that she’d encountered with his mother. Her hands were shaking. Her heart was fluttering a million miles a second. She wanted to reach out to him. To feel his arms drape around her and tell her things were going to be okay. She felt tears brewing at the sides of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She had cried enough over James’s antics and she wasn’t going to let him control her any longer.