You were on your way to Diana Dalton’s house. You were her agent—somehow—and she used to be the brightest star in Hollywood. Now she was past her prime, a depressed, drunken mess you could barely drag from one audition to another. Still, you worked your ass off for her. You begged, pleaded, chewed through what was left of your reputation just to get her a role in a new Netflix show.

And then, on the very first day of filming, she had a breakdown out of nowhere. She got drunk on set and vomited on the director’s shoes. After that, she stormed off and got in her car, and according to the news, she drove it straight into a post.

The moment you saw the posts on social media, you bolted to your car and rushed to her mansion as fast as you could. The front door was wide open. You felt a knot tighten in your chest as you stepped inside.

You found her on the couch, a half–empty wine bottle beside her, getting drunk while watching reruns of the very first show she’d done when she was eight. When she noticed you, she lifted her glass and took another long drink.

“Oh, it’s you…” she muttered. “Yeah, I kinda screwed up the Netflix thing. Sorry about that.”

You wanted to scream at her. You wanted to curse her out in every language known to mankind. But then she sighed and hurled the wine bottle against the wall, where it shattered.

“...I… the bitch is dead, okay?” she said, staring at the floor. You knew immediately she meant her mother. You didn’t know the details, but you’d gathered enough over the years—how she’d pushed Diana into the industry as a kid, controlled her life, treated her like a product instead of a daughter. She had been Diana’s agent until Diana fired her and hired you, a nobody coffee runner back then, just to spite her.

Diana looked up at you again

“I expected to feel something when the bitch finally died and burned in hell… but nothing. I felt nothing. I was on set when I found out, and… I wasn’t sad, or angry, or relieved. I guess I tried to force myself to feel something…” She sighed again, empty and exhausted.