The Accidental Bestseller (49 page)

Tanya felt sucker punched. She’d known she’d taken a risk when she offered to work on
Sticks and Stones
, but she’d never imagined things turning out so badly. Kristen’s next words didn’t help any.

“Stop tape for a minute,” Kristen said, looking directly into her camera. She moved away from Kendall, leaving her sitting alone on stage. The house lights came up.

Kristen paced the opposite end of the stage, apparently trying to figure out her next move. Then she looked into the camera again, presumably addressing the director and others in the control room. “This is what we’re going to do.”

The studio audience fell silent as they waited to hear Kristen’s plan.

“Let’s re-do the open and drop the celebrity look-alike surgery segment so that we can add more background and go with this in its entirety. And I think we should get a statement from each of their publishers—especially
Scarsdale
—that I can read on air at the end of the show just before the close.” Kristen shot a “take that” look at Naomi Fondren then addressed the studio audience.

“You’ll have to admit this has been an interesting hour,” Kristen said. “And it’s going to make great television. But I do want to apologize to all of you. I recommended this book in good faith. It’s a great read. And it is an even greater story of friendship—very misguided friendship—than I originally realized.” Kristen’s tone was bemused. “But I don’t know that I’d call it fiction. And I’m kind of appalled at the way these four hid the true authorship of this book, not to mention the legal agreements they ignored to do so.”

And then without further comment Kristen waved good-bye to the audience and left the stage with her posse surrounding her.

40

—J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

 

 

 

The studio emptied, the audience studying the four of them as they filed out in the same way a driver might slow to look at an especially awful car crash. The production staff went about putting the set to rights, moving and parking cameras, turning off stage lights, coiling cables.

Kendall felt as if she’d been caught up in the crest of a tsu nami, tossed about for an eternity, flung to the ground, and then stomped on. Repeatedly. She expected she should be relieved to be alive, but she was too dazed to feel relief. Her career, which had already been in ruins, was now completely demolished. The women she considered her closest friends had stood up for her, but in the process she’d discovered that she barely knew them at all. Even worse, if she didn’t move quickly, her children were going to find out about her and Calvin via national television. She knew she had to do . . . something, but she couldn’t imagine what.

Mallory, Faye, and Tanya appeared equally dazed. They sat in the nearly empty studio staring at everything but each other. No one spoke.

As in a dream Kendall watched Naomi Fondren approach. She came to a stop in front of Kendall, her assistant and Lacy Samuels on either side. She addressed her comments to Kendall, but her words were meant for all of them.

“I have never witnessed such a complete fuckup in my entire life,” she said. “How we managed to put out a book cowritten with three noncontracted authors I can’t even begin to imagine. Nor can I believe that I have to call New York and try to explain this . . . disaster . . . to them.”

Kendall stared blankly at her. The enormity of what had happened hung over them like a shroud, dark and oppressive.

The publicist drew a breath, clearly trying to steady herself, but anger shimmered off her like a beacon. “This whole . . . debacle . . . is completely indefensible. But if I were you, I’d put my heads together and try to come up with some sort of statement. You’re going to need it.”

Kendall’s brain noted the variety of descriptive nouns—fuckup, disaster, debacle—and wondered idly how many Naomi Fondren could come up with. She hadn’t used
tragedy
. Or
catastrophe
. Or the good old-fashioned
calamity
.

“And a lawyer might not be a bad idea, either.” Naomi spun on her heel then walked quickly away, her assistant behind her. Lacy remained, her gaze fixed on Kendall, her disillusionment and disappointment written on her face. “I really believed in you,” she said to Kendall. “I fought for you.” She swallowed and Kendall realized she was struggling to hold back her tears. “And I hate that Jane Jensen will use this to prove she was right about you.”

Without waiting for a reply, Lacy turned and left. Even before they were out of the studio, all three Scarsdale employees had their cell phones pressed to their ears. Within minutes the tom-toms of the New York publishing world would be spreading the word.

A few hours from now, Kristen Calder would tell everyone else.

Kendall spent much of the drive back to Faye’s house alternately staring unseeing out the windshield and trying to get through to Melissa and Jeffrey, though she hadn’t yet figured out what she would say if she reached them.

There was almost no conversation between the four of them; and although there were a lot of surreptitious glances, they were very careful not to get caught looking at each other as they tried to come to terms with how little they’d known about each other and how the only thing they now shared were collapsing careers.

It was a beautiful spring day and sunlight reflected off the glass-fronted skyscrapers and warmed their slabs of marble and granite and limestone, but the atmosphere in Faye’s car on the way back to her house was frigid. Passed in silence and hurt feelings, the drive to the north shore suburb felt interminable.

In Faye’s kitchen they fixed sandwiches that no one ate. Kendall continued calling the kids, frantic to reach them before the show aired in Georgia. It was possible they wouldn’t actually see the show right when it aired, but Melissa was a huge Kristen fan and an enthusiastic TiVoer and had promised Kendall that she’d record her appearance. And even if Melissa and Jeffrey didn’t watch today’s show they were bound to hear from friends who had. With each tick of the clock, Kendall’s panic grew. She could feel Faye’s escalating, too.

Unable to sit still, Faye busied herself putting the cold cuts away and tidying the kitchen. She’d considered calling Sara and Steve and the boys to warn them, but yet again had been unable to bring herself to place the calls. Sara was unlikely to answer, given last night’s altercation in front of Borders. And Steve, who was still out in California? She hadn’t been able to tell him the truth when it was still possible to keep things quiet; how could she tell him now?

When there was nothing left to wipe or arrange, she joined the others at the kitchen table. She wanted desperately to talk this out with Mallory and Tanya and Kendall, but her secret keeping had taken its toll there, too.

Faye stole a glance at Mallory, make that Marissa Templeton, and could tell that they, like her, were still reeling from the morning’s appalling revelations. By this afternoon those revelations would be airing on television sets across the country.

“We looked like complete morons,” Tanya said. “And lying morons to boot. She was loaded for bear from the moment Kendall stepped out on the stage.”

“Yeah,” Kendall said. “And she’s a good shot.” She glanced down at her watch again. “And in a little while, everyone in the universe, including my children, will know that I’m a pathetic washed-up writer whose husband dumped her and who had to ask her friends to help her write her book.” She shook her head as if still unable to believe it. “Did you see the expression on my face when she accused me of plagiarism?” Her voice broke and she wrapped her arms across her chest. “How could you let me go out there knowing all those secrets could be used against us?” She stood and began to pace, her arms held tightly against her body. “And how could I have considered you my best friends and not known that one of you wasn’t even who you said you were and the other was the notorious Shannon LeSade?”

Kendall stopped in front of them. “The audience must have been laughing themselves silly when we kept talking about what close friends we were!”

“We were good enough friends to put you on the
New York Times
list!” Mallory retorted, clearly stung. “You think that just because Faye and I kept some aspects of our lives to ourselves that we weren’t really friends?”

“A few aspects?” Tanya snorted. “Everything we knew about you was fiction. It’s just too bad
Sticks and Stones
wasn’t! I can’t believe I’m the one who suggested this stupid collaboration.” It was her turn to stand now. “I trusted and respected you all. I thought we were there for each other. My career is going to end as soon as Darby or somebody else at Masque hears about our
Kristen Calder
appearance. And you never even trusted me enough to tell me who you really were.”

“This is not helping anything!” Faye couldn’t stand how they were turning on each other, but she, too, felt betrayed and out of control. “Our secrets were not intended as a personal insult to you!”

“You know, my mother’s been a huge disappointment my whole life,” Tanya said. “But at least she never pretended to be something she wasn’t.”

“Tell me that you’re not holding your mother up as a model of behavior!” Mallory jumped up from her seat and distanced herself from the rest of them. “Not after all the stories and complaints we’ve heard all these years.” She shrugged, but the movement was anything but nonchalant. “Maybe she didn’t have to pretend because she had you there to pick up her pieces. I did what I had to do and I don’t appreciate being attacked for it. You have no idea what it took to rebuild my life or the pressures I’ve been under.”

“Well of course we don’t,” Kendall said, jumping into the fray. “Because you never bothered to tell us!”

“Yeah,” Tanya added. “If you’ve been this secretive with Chris, I don’t wonder that he left you!”

Mallory gasped in outrage. “Did you actually just say that? You, who can’t even open yourself up to that poor cook because you’re afraid of needing anyone?”

“Well I let myself need you all and look where it got me!” Tanya bit out.

There was a shocked silence as all of them realized that they’d gone too far. But after all the emotion of the day and all that they feared was to come, no one seemed able to retract or apologize. The foundation of their friendship had been severely compromised. The wrecking ball of their attacks on one another reduced it to rubble.

Tanya’s cab to the airport arrived. “I’ll pay you back for the ticket and the flight-change fee,” she said to Mallory as she gathered her things. “You won’t be out another penny on my account!”

Nobody tried to stop her.

“I can’t spend the night now,” Kendall said. “I’m going to catch a ride with Tanya. I’ll call Calvin on the way to O’Hare and ask him to meet me at the airport in Atlanta so that we can drive up to Athens and talk to Melissa and Jeffrey. I just can’t worry about anything else until we’ve explained things in person to them.”

Mallory, too, felt a need to get back to New York. “I’ve got to sit down with Patricia first thing tomorrow and Zoe’s already left three messages on my voice mail.”

At Faye’s door there were none of the usual hugs or talk of how soon they could get together. Everyone seemed aware that too much had been said, but instead of taking anything back, they each wrapped themselves up in their hurt and anger and turned their backs on the others.

Faye followed them out to the driveway knowing she shouldn’t let them leave like this, but she was unable to summon the conviction needed to plead or implore. Not one of them had shown the slightest interest in what the revelation that she was Shannon LeSade would do to her; they had only voiced concern for how it impacted them.

All of them were about to face the consequences of what they had done together, but for the first time in a decade, they would be facing those consequences alone.

The taxi driver put their bags in the trunk. Mallory grasped the handle of the passenger door while Tanya and Kendall moved around to the back. “It seems pretty clear we won’t be issuing a joint statement,” Mallory said. “But everyone had best give some thought to one of their own.”

Faye stood in the driveway and watched the taxi pull away. She felt as bruised and bloodied as if she had fought and lost a major battle. She didn’t know where she’d find the courage for the war to come.