ETHAN
The photo studio smells like coffee and expensive perfume. I've done fifty interviews like this, maybe more. Rising stars trying to control their narrative. PR teams hovering in corners. The whole machine of image management grinding away.
But Vivian Ashford's different.
She's late, for one thing. Twenty minutes past our scheduled time. Her publicist keeps apologizing, offering me water, coffee, anything to keep me from leaving.
"She's been through a lot this week," the publicist says. "The headlines, the scandal. I'm sure you understand."
I understand that Chase Sterling destroyed her best friend's family for sport. That the entire internet watched it happen. That Vivian's trying to salvage a career before it even starts.
That's why Vanity Fair sent me. They want the story behind the scandal. The human angle. "Rising Star or Revenge Casualty: Vivian Ashford Speaks."
When she finally arrives, I almost don't recognize her.
