A Cruel Summer

Chapter 30

Taylor wakes suddenly to the blaring sound of Rihanna's 'Work' blasting through the air. 'Tree, what the fuck,' she thinks, the song her publicist's personal ringtone. Without even opening her eyes, she can already tell it's early, too early, for a call from the redhead. With a groan, she rolls over, blindly reaching toward her nightstand for the device.

Her hand fumbles in the darkness, knocking over a water glass with a crash. The phone slips from her grasp, landing with a thud against the hardwood floor. "Great," she grumbles, finally retrieving the device and pressing the answer button.

"What?" Taylor mumbles into the phone as it connects.

"Good morning to you too," Tree responds with a laugh. "Are you still in bed?"

Taylor groans, rolling over onto her back and rubbing her eyes. "Obviously I'm still in bed. It's like 6 in the morning, what do you want?" Taylor murmurs through a groan.

"Are you with Karlie?" Tree asks, with no interest in entertaining Taylor's early morning complaints.

"No," she responds through a yawn, "I came home last night. Not doing sleepovers yet, 'cause of the kids," she explains simply, mumbling against her pillow.

"Oh, that's smart," Tree responds, "Kids at that age are so impressionable. It's best to ease them into things like this. You know, when I had my daughter, I –,"

"Tree," Taylor interrupts, "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but right now I'm barely conscious and not in the mood for a lesson on child psychology. Just get to the point."

"Alright, alright," Tree responds with a chuckle. "Do you want to good news or bad news first?"

"Bad news first, always," Taylor replies, her voice still groggy but laced with a hint of humor. "Rip the band-aid off, Tree. What's the worst that could happen?"

Tree lets out a sigh before speaking. "Alright... bad news is it looks like we might have to take more intense legal action with Kushner. Cease and desist didn't work. There's a photo that was leaked of you and Karlie, and –,"

"A what?!" Taylor interrupts, immediately shooting up in the bed. "A photo of what, Tree? Fuck, is it a nude? You said he wasn't going to do anything with those!"

"Taylor!" Tree exclaims through the blonde's rant. "Calm down, let me explain before you send yourself into a spiral. Breathe, sweetheart."

Taylor takes a deep breath, gently rubbing her temples in an attempt to ward off the sure-to-be incoming headache. "Okay – okay, sorry. Explain."

"Thank you," Tree sighs out. "There was a picture posted early this morning of you and Karlie to an Instagram account. Looks like a burner profile with barely any followers and no prior posts. And before you freak out again, no it was not a nu – it's not an explicit photo. It's just a selfie. And it's actually kind of... sweet?"

Taylor lets out the breath she had been holding in. "Okay... I'm not following. What does that have to do with Josh?"

"Well, it's very clearly a personal photo. I've never seen it, it's never been posted anywhere else. So, the question is – where did it come from? I made a few phone calls, cashed in a favor or two, and was able to find the IP address for the account. Had our cyber security team dig into it a bit more, yadda yadda. Long story short, we found where the account was generated from. Care to guess?"

"Where?" Taylor asks through a frustrated groan.

"The Thrive Capital office," Tree responds smugly, Taylor basically able to hear the smirk on her lips. "We just need to confirm that the photo did in fact come from Karlie's iCloud account, and once we do that, we have him red-handed."