The Second Bloom Kindle Edition

Los Angeles, CaliforniaThe camera flashes were a blur of white heat, a chorus of shouts chasing Julia Sinclair down the red carpet. At fifty-six, she’d walked more carpets than she could count, wore every designer worth knowing, memorized every reporter’s name worth remembering. And yet, tonight was different.“Julia, over here!”“Who are you wearing?”“Is it true you lost the part in The Serpent Queen to Evie Clarke?”Evie Clarke. Twenty-eight, fresh-faced, with that effortless, infuriating glow of youth. Julia smiled, a practiced, bulletproof thing, and kept walking.Inside the Dolby Theatre, the ceremony passed in a blur. The roles she’d fought for, lost to younger women. The headlines speculating if she’d “aged out of leading lady material.” Julia’s face appeared on the giant screen during the Lifetime Achievement Montage, wedged between actresses long retired or long dead.A chill slid down her spine.When her driver pulled up to the private entrance after the after-party, she climbed inside, peeled off her heels, and said the words she’d rehearsed silently for months.“Take me to the airport.”“Where to, Ms. Sinclair?”“Amalfi.” Read more