Prologue

“This can’t be right.” I blinked away tears. “Now he’s missing?”

“What’s happening?” Daniel asked, coming into the kitchen. “She’s actually crying over this? Roz, you’re an idiot. You—don’t—even—know—the—loser.”

“Hey, ease up,” Mel snapped at my younger brother. She sat next to me at the table and rubbed my back.

What should’ve been a fun night at home with my three best friends had suddenly turned to distress; the evening entertainment news had just broken their top story of the night, which left me numb with disbelief.

As I sat in shock, my friend Carter took to her phone to search the Internet for additional details on the headline.

“Roz,” Ally chimed in, her legs swinging down from the countertop. “I love you, I do. You know I love you. But . . . you’re being too sensitive. I thought you were over this guy?”

“It’s a waste of emotion,” Daniel said, and Ally nodded.

“He’s right. How can you invest an ounce of energy—”

“Guys, honestly,” Mel hissed. “Stop.”

“You know what?” I said, wiping the corner of my eye. I was over him. I was so over him. “They’re right. He’s not worth it.”

Avery Chase was garbage—the lowest of the low on the totem pole of Hollywood actors, and it devastated me to admit that. Once upon a time, I was in awe of him, and even Carter had had a major crush on the teenage heartthrob. But she, just like thousands of others, had stuck up her nose in recent weeks.

Avery had earned a lot of contempt from his most loyal fans after a drug conviction nearly landed him in jail last month. And this fell on the heels of his first ever publicized scandal. Just days before his arrest, photos came to surface of Avery on the beach, locking lips with his young, beautiful, married PR rep, Evie Lawson.

Drugs. Infidelity scandals. I had no idea who this guy was, but he wasn’t the man I’d once admired.

This was the final straw, as far as I was concerned. I’d lost all faith in him and vowed to forget he’d ever existed. I was angry—hurt that he hadn’t made better decisions. He was yet another person I’d looked up to who’d fallen short, and the choices he’d made had proven once and for all that he was just like the rest of them—shallow, weak, and tempted by the lifestyle of the rich and the famous.

A month had passed since Avery’s conviction, and I’d tried not to follow the news, but it was everywhere. It hadn’t taken more than a passing glance at a magazine in the supermarket to learn that he’d escaped jail time, and instead paid a massive fine on the charge of misdemeanor drug possession.

Even after paying his debt for the crime, the press was far from over his transgressions. They couldn’t dig up anything more scandalous than the uncharacteristic behavior of their quintessential sweetheart. A couple of bad decisions had become enough to outweigh all the good he’d done in and around his community.

Suddenly no one cared to recognize the long days he’d spent reading at the Children’s Hospital every month, or how he’d led the cause for wildlife cleanup after an oil-drilling disaster last year. Forget about the dozens of no-kill pet shelters he’d kept funded, or the various eco-friendly foundations he’d gotten involved with to help fund essential research. He’d always used his money, influence, and power for good, but none of that seemed to matter anymore.

It was as if the whole world had long awaited the day Avery would finally screw up, succumbing to the pressure of Hollywood. And now that he had, the media refused to back down.

What a hard, fast fall from grace . . .

The negative attention showed little sign of fading, and another magazine reported he was issued a five-episode suspension from his hit cable TV show, Where You Belong.

And here we were, three days later, as reports surfaced on his disappearance.

“Zero social media interaction.” Carter browsed through an online article. “His phone’s disconnected. His car was found abandoned in a parking structure two miles from his LA apartment. No flight records. No sightings. He’s had no known contact with friends or family since Wednesday.”

“Any reason to suspect foul play?” Mel asked.

“No,” Carter said, still reading the article. “There’s an interview with one of the investigators; she said the case doesn’t look like an abduction or anything serious, and that it has all the telltale signs of a man on the run. If he’s not popping up or checking in, then he doesn’t want to be found. She says, in most of these cases, the missing person usually turns up in a day or two. But it won’t last that long. The detectives and the paparazzi are on a frenzied search to track him down.”

“Track him down?” Ally asked. “Where in the world would he go?”

“Anywhere to get his next fix.”

“Screw you, Daniel,” I yelled, slamming my hands against the table. “Exactly who the hell do you think you are—”

“Let’s not do that, Roz.” Mel grabbed my outstretched arms. “Deep breath. Find your center.”

Ha! Right. I’d been out of touch with that for a while now, so fat chance it would magically appear out of the blue. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt any sense of peace or calm. Life had become one chaotic train wreck after another with no end in sight, so there was no “center.”

Carter looked up from her phone. “Roz, what do you think? What’s your theory?”

I scoffed.

My theory? My theory was that I didn’t know Avery at all, and that I’d wasted so many years looking up to this guy, and for what? He was just another letdown in a series of washed-up role models. He was just one more loser out in the world, another guy pretending to be something he wasn’t. My theory was that he was a hypocrite who’d abused the trust of everyone who’d supported him, and that made him the worst kind of human being.

“I don’t care.”

“Of course you do,” Mel said. “How can you say that?”

“I—don’t—care,” I said again, punching each word for emphasis. “I honestly don’t give a—”

“We get it,” Ally said.

Mel settled back in her chair. “I’m kinda shocked by what I’m hearing here. It’s not like I expected you to cry for hours on end, or anything, but . . . I thought you’d at least be concerned for his well-being. Don’t you want to know that he’s safe? Don’t you care if he’s happy and well?”

“No,” I said, fighting tears as I glanced out the far window. “I don’t. I don’t care.”

Avery Chase wasn’t any concern of mine. Not anymore. Never again.