"What the actual fuck? Are you going to talk to me through your publicist, then? Is that how this is going to go? Of all the petty, immature bullshit...after six years, you don't have the balls to say it to my face, you're just gonna have your people go to Tree and my lawyers and threaten defamation? If anyone should fucking sue, it's me. Remember that. I could have told the full truth so fucking easily. Maybe if you were half a man, you would have picked up the motherfucking phone instead of avoiding my calls, you piece of shit."
Taylor slams her phone down, watching it bounce against the pillows and onto the hardwood floor but she can't bring herself to focus on anything else but her fury.
The anger takes her by surprise. She'd managed to let go of most of it. Even with the album being released, the feelings dredged up were more of a complicated grief, but mostly catharsis. Expending any further emotion on him, especially when her life was exactly the way she wanted it now, seemed almost wasteful.
But this...this was something else.
"Tay?"
She whips around to see Travis in the doorway of the bedroom, his face a mask of concern. He'd been there the day she'd gotten the calls in succession; from Tree, warning her of the impending one from her lawyer, Doug. Joe's team had gotten in touch with her first and when she'd basically told them to go to hell, they'd gone over her head to Douglas, threatening to sue for slander.
"They have no case," he'd reassured her. He possessed an extremely calm, cool demeanor, something Taylor found comforting, but he was an absolute shark in the courtroom, which coincidentally, she also found comforting. If he said there was nothing to worry about, there was nothing to worry about.
Tree, was decidedly less collected about the whole thing, cursing so loudly that she'd had to hold the phone away from her ear.
"I'm sorry, Taylor. This fucking guy...I don't get it. I really don't. Maybe it's his agency or his publicist's doing...they're afraid the album is going to make him look bad, so they're scrambling to turn it back on you. I should have predicted this shit, seeing all the fucking pap walks he went on months before the release date, the stupid Daily Mail statement. They were trying to cover their bases and I know I said we'd keep quiet about it, mind our own business. I should've released a statement, I should have fought fire with fire..."
Very rarely does Tree second guess herself and when she does, it makes Taylor feel awful. "No, no. You were exactly right. Why stoop down to that level. Guess we have no choice now but to say something."
It'd rocked her to her core, not so much that he was hurt (he was a classic retaliator) and wanted to strike out or that his team was trying to protect what they saw as a "tarnished image" but the fucking idea he couldn't say it to her face, that they'd come to the point where he had to go through channels to speak to her as though it'd all been some kind of business transaction.
"Whatever you do, Taylor, please, please...don't try and handle this yourself. It's best you remain no contact with him, alright? Promise me."
She had promised, knowing fully well that her impulsivity might make it difficult. As much as she loved and respected Tree, there was a fucking fire lit under her; she had to understand why he hadn't had the respect to let her know what was going on, why he felt he had to go above her head and be nasty instead of civil. Did their time together mean nothing?
"Tay," he says again, stepping inside and settling down next to her on the bed. "What's going on? Heard a crash."
Taylor points to the ground. "Dropped my phone."
He sighs. "You called him again."
There's no judgement at all, that isn't how he operates, but he's definitely worried and that's precisely why she hadn't shared her intentions. He'd kept her secret from Tree because he loved her; she had little doubt he would.
