Joey spent a few days holed up at home, turning the whole mess over in her head a million different ways. In the end, she realized one thing loud and clear: she had to face this head-on. If she didn't, she'd regret it for the rest of her life.
The past was the past. It didn't get to decide her future. The old Joey was gone, and she refused to be scared of her own history anymore.
Once she'd made peace with that, she picked up the phone and called Renee.
Renee was shocked Joey was calling so soon. "Whoa, you already know what you're gonna do?"
Joey's voice didn't waver. "Renee, set up another meeting with Colin."
Renee hesitated. "…What's the plan, Joey?"
"I haven't figured out every detail yet, but one thing's non-negotiable: I'm not giving him the lead in my movie. That's a line I won't cross with my own work."
Renee lowered her voice. "Maybe talk it over with Hughes first?"
Joey froze. "How does he even know?"
"I… might've told him."
Click. Joey hung up. She was so pissed she could've thrown the phone across the room.
Right then the doorbell rang. She checked the peephole, sighed, and opened the door.
The second the door cracked open, Hughes grabbed her wrist, hard, and pulled her inside like she weighed nothing.
Joey yanked her arm back, rubbing the red marks he'd left behind. "What the hell?"
Hughes's dark-brown eyes looked almost black, like a storm about to break. The words came out through clenched teeth: "You. Did. Drugs?"
Joey didn't flinch. She met that icy stare dead-on. "Yeah. I did drugs behind your back. I'm sorry I let you down."
He grabbed her wrist again, lifted it between them, and stepped closer until she had nowhere to go. His eyes were pure fury and ice at the same time, like he wanted to tear her apart and piece her back together all at once. "Do you even know why I'm this mad?"
"Because I broke my promise. Because I lied. Because I told you you were the person I trusted most in the world, that I'd tell you if I ever murdered someone or set a building on fire… but I hid this."
"No." His jaw was so tight she could see the vein pulsing at his temple. "Because you threw yourself away. Because you didn't give a damn about your own life."
Joey dropped her gaze. He was right. She hated that he was right.
Suddenly he let go, shoved his hands in his pockets, and turned toward the window. He stood there taking deep breaths, trying to cool off. The silence stretched forever.
Joey stayed quiet behind him.
Finally he turned back around. The rage had dialed down to something colder, calmer, and way more dangerous. "You know what you do next?"
"Not really," she admitted.
He ran a hand through his hair, straightening himself up. "You call Katherine, your agent. You tell her everything. Then you let her pull every string she's got, dig up every skeleton in Colin Gallo's closet, and make sure he never dares open his mouth."
Joey blinked. "You're saying I should tell Katherine?"
He gave a short, humorless laugh. "That's literally what agents are for, crisis PR."
She nodded slowly. "Okay. I'll call her."
He was already heading for the door. "I'm out. Wait for my call."
"Wait, what call—"
But he was gone. A second later she heard his car roar to life and peel out of the driveway.
She immediately dialed Katherine. When Joey finished spilling the whole ugly story, Katherine was speechless for a solid five seconds.
"Jesus Christ, Joey. That guy played you like a fiddle. He's ten times more calculating than you or your sweet little friend combined."
Then she switched into full agent mode: "This is urgent. I need to think. Sit tight, do NOT make a move until you hear from me, got it?"
So now both of them had told Joey the same thing: "Wait for me."
Apparently everyone thought she was helpless and couldn't handle her own mess, so they'd just take over.
She had no idea what Hughes or Katherine were cooking up, but they were the pros, so she figured she should probably listen and stay put.
Except sitting around waiting was torture. Katherine checked in now and then, but it was always "still working on it, nothing solid yet."
And Hughes? Radio silence. Total ghost mode.
A whole week passed without a single word from him.
Katherine was out every night wheeling and dealing for Joey, but progress was slow. Joey kept offering to help; Katherine kept shutting her down "Just stay home and stay quiet."
As for Hughes, she couldn't even get him on the phone. Typical. The guy was a force of nature who made decisions for everybody and never felt the need to explain himself.
That week was pure agony.
Still, at Katherine's insistence, Joey kept working on her next script, because the movie train couldn't stop. The new story was built around the financial crisis that was about to hit in late '08. She'd seen how Slumdog Millionaire cleaned up in her past life during tough economic times, people crave rags-to-riches fairy tales and feel-good chicken-soup-for-the-soul messages when the world feels like it's falling apart.
So Joey's version was different: her protagonist was an Asian-American woman born in the projects decades earlier. Awful childhood, sick parents, heartbreaking breakup, constant sexual harassment at work because of stereotypes about Asian women, then fired after she reported it. Life crushed her, until one day she wins ten million dollars in the lottery.
Instead of blowing it, she invents a revolutionary new scrubbing pad, reopens her dad's bankrupt factory, and becomes the Scrub Queen of America.
Instant wealth, overnight success, but also hard work, grit, and the message that dreams still matter even when everything's dark.
Joey was betting this movie would do exactly what the original Slumdog did, become the world's comfort food during the recession, while also showing mainstream America that Asian-Americans work their asses off and stay humble even when they hit the jackpot.
Once the script was done, she leaked the news through United Artists: Joey Grant is about to start casting Millionaire in the Projects.
Hollywood was going to lose its mind all over again once casting opened.
But Joey barely cared right now. Because the Colin bomb was still ticking, and if it went off it could torpedo the entire movie.
So she sat there, phone in hand, waiting for Katherine or Hughes to finally call and tell her whether her career, and her life, was about to blow up or not.