Grant stared at the twenty-foot projection of his own messy handwriting. The charming, practiced smile he used to win over millions of viewers didn't just fade. It snapped. His jaw went slack, and the color drained rapidly from his cheeks.
"Recognize the penmanship, Grant?" I asked.
My voice boomed through the stadium speakers, vibrating in the floorboards.
Grant whipped his head toward the control booth glass. He pointed a shaking finger at me.
"Cut the feed!" Grant yelled, completely dropping his smooth television persona. "Marcus! Get her off the microphone right now!"
"Marcus is currently standing three feet away from me, calculating whether his career can survive a public leak of his unedited green room footage," I said.
I glanced over my shoulder. Marcus stood frozen near the heavy steel door, his fists clenched at his sides. He didn't say a word.
"This is a stunt," Grant told the audience, forcing a hollow, desperate laugh. He waved a hand at the giant screen. "My wife has a very dramatic sense of humor, folks. She loves a good prank."
"I'm not laughing, Grant," I said.
Theo squinted at the massive document behind him. He stepped closer to the glowing LED wall.
"Dad, what is this?" Theo asked, his voice echoing through his lapel mic. "Is that my signature under yours?"
"It's fake," Grant snapped. He grabbed Theo's arm, trying to pull him away from the screen. "She forged it."
"A forensic analyst would disagree," I replied, tapping a key on the soundboard. "You used your favorite blue fountain pen. The one your agent bought you for your fortieth birthday."
Grant let go of Theo. He glared directly at the nearest camera lens.
"I signed standard non-disclosure agreements," Grant insisted, speaking to the millions of people watching at home. "Standard network paperwork."
"I handed you a red folder," I corrected. "You were too busy picking out your wardrobe for the promotional shoot to read the header. You didn't even glance at the first page."
"You told me to sign it!"
"I told you it was an Exclusive Lifetime Image Authorization Contract," I said. "You laughed, told me to stop boring you with legal jargon, and flipped straight to the back page."
Brett slammed his hands onto the edge of the console beside me.
"Vivian, you can't enforce a fraudulent contract," the director hissed, keeping his voice low so the headset wouldn't pick it up. "The network lawyers will bury you."
"It's fully binding, Brett," I said, not looking at him. "They initialed all forty-two pages in front of a licensed notary."
"I'll pull the main power breaker," Marcus threatened, taking a heavy step toward the utility panel on the far wall.
"The backup generators kick in automatically," I said, keeping my fingers hovering over the master controls. "The stream stays live. But if you touch that panel, Marcus, I will upload the audio of you calling the network president a brainless hack."
Marcus stopped dead in his tracks. He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"You're insane," Marcus whispered.
"I'm producing," I said.
I turned my attention back to the stage monitors.
"Ten years, Theo," I said through the PA system.
Theo spun around to face the booth. "What?"
"That is the term length you both agreed to," I explained. "For the next ten years, every television appearance, every brand endorsement, every social media post, and every public interview you do is legally bound to the counterparty on that document."
Grant's chest heaved. He paced back and forth across the stage, running a hand through his perfectly styled hair.
"We are the talent!" Grant shouted, his voice cracking. "The network pays us directly! We don't owe anyone anything!"
"The network pays the holding company," I corrected. "And the holding company controls your distribution."
I scanned the grid of monitors on the wall. I needed a specific face.
"Camera two," I ordered. "Pan to the VIP section. Front row, seat four."
The camera operator on the floor hesitated.
"Do it," I commanded.
The heavy camera swiveled on its mount. Monitor two flashed, shifting from a wide shot of the audience to a tight, high-definition close-up of a woman in a crimson designer dress.
Carmen.
"Put her on the big screen," I said, hitting the display toggle.
The towering LED wall behind Grant split in half. The contract remained on the left. Carmen's face appeared on the right, twenty feet tall.
She stiffened. Her manicured hands gripped the velvet armrests of her chair.
The live audience erupted into a frenzy of whispers. People in the second row turned around to stare at her. The sympathetic murmurs they had offered Grant ten minutes ago evaporated, replaced by the hungry buzz of a crowd smelling blood.
"You look pale, Carmen," I said, my voice echoing through the silent studio.
Grant stepped forward, shielding his eyes from the stage lights. "Leave her out of this, Vivian! She has nothing to do with our marriage!"
"She made herself part of this family three years ago," I replied.
I watched Carmen's chest rise and fall rapidly on the monitor.
"You introduced her to me as a brand consultant," I said to Grant, making sure the audience heard every word. "A family friend. She drank expensive Merlot with you until two in the morning. She taught Theo how to surf in Malibu while I stayed home and managed your bankruptcy filings."
"She is a professional!" Grant yelled.
"She is a parasite," I countered. "Over the last four seasons, she somehow secured more confessional interviews than I did. She got the magazine covers. She got the red carpet invites."
Carmen stared directly at the camera lens. For four years, she had maintained a mask of effortless, smug superiority. She always played the cool, supportive best friend who just happened to look perfect next to my husband.
That mask was gone.
Her jaw locked. Her lips pressed into a thin, bloodless line. The panicked twitch in her left eye was visible to four million viewers.
"You thought you were so clever," I said directly to her. "You thought you could just push the boring, invisible wife off the stage and slide right into my spot."
Carmen opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She sank lower in her seat, trying to escape the glaring spotlight.
I tapped the spacebar on my console.
The contract on the left side of the stage screen scrolled upward, zooming in on the very first page. The bold black text of the header filled the space.
"You didn't read the fine print, Grant," I said. "You never do."
Grant turned around. He squinted at the glaring white letters.
"Counterparty," he read aloud, his voice trembling. "Apex Media Holdings LLC."
He shook his head, looking back at the booth.
"I don't know who that is," Grant said. "My agent handles corporate negotiations."
"Your agent works for whoever pays his monthly retainer," I said.
"This is garbage!" Grant shouted, pointing at the screen again. "Apex Media is just some shell corporation! I'll sue them into the ground! I'll void this entire document!"
"You can certainly try," I said, keeping my tone perfectly flat.
I leaned closer to the microphone, watching the realization slowly crawl across my husband's face. He was arrogant, but he wasn't entirely stupid. He was starting to put the pieces together.
"So," I said, my voice cutting through the heavy silence of the auditorium. "Before we talk about exactly who owns this contract—"
Down on the stage, Theo moved.
He lunged across the polished floor and snatched the spare handheld microphone from the presenter's podium. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the heavy plastic handle. He glared up at the control booth glass, his chest heaving, his face twisted in a mask of teenage fury and sudden panic.
"If you really own the company, why did you let Dad—"
