Page 56 of Chandelier Enthralled
“You earned this, too,” I said flatly. “You are an inspiration for so many.”
She looked doubtful. “Being out of touch with the people you’re meant to connect with is a disadvantage. Our audience struggles, and they like to hear that we struggle, too.”
Ouch.
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard this, but each time, it hit a little harder. There were moments when I felt disconnected from the world, as if I were drifting through it with a strange, quiet grace.
“This was why being here is so important to me,” I admitted. “I want to make a difference. Do it on my own merit.”
She glanced at her wristwatch, and I could see it was a Hermes Cape Cod. The fact I knew this proved her point.
“You’ll cover my story?” I asked. “Do a segment on it?”
“It needs more.”
My face flushed at the thought I’d revealed my eagerness, and the article, too soon. I’d had one chance to impress her and missed the mark by too much. I’d let myself down, as well as those I might have helped by getting this story out there to a larger audience.
It made me question whether I was the right person to pursue it. Perhaps I wasn’t equipped to understand the complexities of what it meant to be a woman without the same resources.
Self-doubt made my belly ache.
If anyone found out I moved through the world sometimes with a security detail, all credibility would be lost. I’d believed that if I had a story run by Julia Sterling on national news my brothers might see the wisdom of me keeping this job.
Her steely gaze met mine. “There’s something I need.”
My lips curled into a slow smile, a sense of pride rising in my chest. Perhaps this new story of hers was the break I needed, a way to prove myself so she could see my value.
I was on the verge of sayingyes.
Then she leaned forward and rested her hands on the desk, her eyes sparkling with intrigue. “An interview.”
My smile froze. “With whom?”
“Henry Cole.”
She’d spoken his name like it was nothing, like she hadn’t just crushed my hope of being here on my own merit. The reason she’d called me into her office suddenly became glaringly clear, brighter and more painful than her stark florescent lighting.
“Your brother?” she added.
“Right.”
Her gaze locked onto mine, intense and unblinking, as if she were unraveling the mystery of what it must have been like to grow up in the shadow of the Cole family, surrounded by legendary older brothers whose charisma consumed the world, leaving their ordinary little sister to fade into the background.
Me.The girl with nothing but a burning desire to prove herself, and no way to make it happen.
She beamed at me, and it was disarming. As if she could feel the weight of all the things I’d never been able to say, all the things I had never been allowed to be.
“It would please me, Willa.”
“Ms. Sterling, my family members areveryprivate people.”
“Call me Julia.”
“Julia, I—”
“I already know so much, it won’t take long to speak with him personally. Henry, the elusive CEO. The magnetic billionaire.” She glanced at the wall as though able to see through the brick and mortar toward the very building my brother was in right now—Cole Tower. “Is he really marrying a dominatrix?”
What she couldn’t know was that Henry’s fiancée, Charlotte, was one of the most beautiful and kind women I’d ever met. And she was perfect for Henry. She was so much more than a caricature.
