Page 41 of Rebel Moon

10

MADELEINE

Ifound Rhett in the lodge, alone at a table by the window with a laptop open in front of him. I did not say hello.

“Outside.”

He looked up. Whatever was on my face, he read it in about half a second, because he closed the laptop without a word and followed me out onto the porch and shut the door behind us.

I shivered. I’d forgotten my jacket. I was too angry to care.

“It was supposed to stay between us,” I said. “You promised me.”

“Madeleine—”

“You swore to me.” My voice came out low and shaking, almost unrecognizable. “I don’t ask people for things. You know that about me.”

“I know what I did.”

“Then why.”

He didn’t answer right away, which was worse than if he’d tried to. He put his hands on the porch rail and looked out at the snow.

“You told Blake Bennett,” I said. “You told a filmmaker. With a camera. For a movie that four million people are going to stream on a Tuesday. Judging me from their couch.” My hands were shaking, so I made fists of them. “Do you understand what you’ve done? It’s not a secret now. It’s footage. And I can’t control it.”

“You can’t control it,” Rhett repeated quietly. “That’s the real rub, isn’t it?”

“Don’t you dare make this about me.”

“That’s what’s got you. Not that they know. That you can’t control the narrative, as you’re so fond of saying.”

“Don’t psychoanalyze me, Rhett Lawson. I am not in the mood.”

He turned around and looked at me. His eyes were bloodshot, and I realized with a lurch that he looked terrible. Rhett never looked terrible.

“I don’t really care what kind of mood you’re in,” Rhett said. “It was time to tell people what happened. It’s time the guys know how much they owe you.”

“You know I hate that word—owe. I don’t want anyone owing me anything.”

“Think about what you put up with from Knox. Ten years of his nonsense. Calling you a machine, a shark, a woman with a marketing plan where her heart ought to be. And you’d just ignore him and keep doing the work that changed all our lives.” He shook his head. “Ten years, and not a word about what you did for us.”

“Because I didn’t want him to be nice to me just because of that.” I could barely get it out. “That was our deal. No one but us knew the truth.”

“Yeah, well, I’m over it. I’ve watched a man I love talk about a woman I love like she was garbage, and kept my mouth shut, because a promise is a promise.” His voice cracked. “And I could not stomach it for another minute. Blake asked me a question about the tour and it all just came out. If you want to hate me for it—go ahead and hate me. But I would rather you hate me than let one more person in this world think you’re the villain of a story you’re actually the hero of.”

The wind came across the porch. My eyes stung. Stupid weather.

“You had no right,” I said.

“I know, but I don’t care.”

“It was my story to tell.”

“I know it was.”

“It was not yours, Rhett. Not yours at all.”

“I know,” he said. “I’d do it again.”