The Podcast

Chapter 35

Wednesday Afternoon

"Luna, put the phone down. We need to start our strategy meeting."

"I can't. I haven't officially quit yet. This is my last week managing Sumner's social, I promise."

Romi rolls her eyes. When she poached Sumner's team, picking them off one-by-one, she'd expected a more grand exit. Instead, they all seemed a bit scared to quit, like they really had some sort of allegiance to Sumner. Their hesitation makes her skin crawl but she waves her hand in the air as if dismissing it. She'd gotten their names on the dotted line for The Half-Jewish. If they didn't comply she and her legal team would eviscerate them. Slowly.

"What's this episode about anyway? I'm shocked with all the Reddit drama that Ina even let her podcast go live this week. Absolute dumpster fire." Romi flips her hair, her eyes squinting out into the distance. They weren't currently gathered in what she coined her chill room—a living room-like space on the second floor of her family's Beverly Hills mansion with her podcast's merchandise and swag that she occasionally blogged from for video episodes.

"It's called Starlett Slayer. It's about the 1980's Hollywood murders of some actresses named Melanie Fairtown and Juniper Lasset."

"Oh sweetheart," Benny chimes in, his eyes glassy with the painkillers he'd had alongside breakfast, "please don't act like you don't know who those women are."

"I don't."

"She's Gen Z, what did you expect?"

"Tragic."

"Pretty sure my dad fucked both of them." Romi spits flippantly, her eyes rolling. "Old news. Can't she do anything original?"

"Whoa," Luna breathes, her eyes widening a bit. "Your dad really got around, didn't he?"

Before Romi can quip back, Benny's rosé almost falls to the carpet as he clutches his phone to his chest.

"Holy shit. Oh Lord no, this cannot be real."

"What?" Akari looks up from her laptop, already working on brand deals for Romi even though she hasn't officially put in her resignation with Sumner yet either. She and Luna plan to do it together. Better than facing Sumner alone.

"No, no, no, no. Ohmygod."

"Benny, spit it out!" Romi shoves his shoulder. "You really are such a drama queen."

"Violet Russell and Natasha Wood, they're—" Benny stops himself, clutching at his chest. "They're dead!"

"Shut the fuck up." Akari leans over the couch and snatches Benny's phone out of his hand. Her skin turns pale and ashen as she scrolls furiously. "No fucking way."

"Hold on, let me see." Luna taps away at her phone, her latest glittering acrylics clacking against the screen. "Wait, this doesn't make any sense."

"Of course it doesn't make sense! It's a disaster!" Benny howls before holding his head in his hands. "Natasha Wood was living proof that God does indeed exist because she's clearly his favorite. That woman is a work of art."

"No, I mean how they died," Luna tilts her head, her expression concerned. "This can't be right."

"I'll make a call." Romi stands from her chair, getting a source on the phone in seconds to confirm the news.

"What's all the drama about?" Archer swings over the top of the L-shaped couch, his body still damp and sticky from the sauna built into Romi's balcony.
"Get off my sofa you heathen." Romi swats at his leg with her phone to her ear.