Although…

“What pictures, Jack?”

“You and Grace. In the maze? Being all cute and ish!”

“Did Grace show you?” Jack shook his head. Something didn’t feel right. “So how did you see them?”

Jack reached for his laptop. “All right, Agatha Christie. They’re all here.” He opened up a photo library and scrolled down. There were hundreds and hundreds of photos. From the events. From the red carpet. From Liverpool. Edinburgh. London. Selfies of crew. Posed pictures with the cast. Even ones where Stormoo had stolen the phone and was chewing the camera.

“What are all of these?!”

Jack nodded. “The production phones. They all sync straight to here…” He carried on scrolling. “To be honest, I don’t think most of the crew even know, but that’s because they don’t bother reading paperwork. Still, makes for a good giggle.”

He stopped on a selfie of a camera operator doing a full-on pout. But I wasn’t laughing. I couldn’t.

“Would you mind…” I reached out, my hands shaking.

But there they all were.

The photos of me and Grace in Edinburgh.

The photo of me and Harry from the pod. That had gone on the SleighAllTheDaysFans social and outed me as Elf Girl.

The photo of me and Ru on the bridge.

The photo of Maeve and Joseph that had been in all the papers today.

“And who has access to these?” My stomach clenched.

“Me. Cos I’m nosy and got added by mistake.” Jack laughed. “The press team. And…” He shook his head. “No, that’s it.”

And that’s when I knew.

I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew Elijah had some serious explaining to do.

CHAPTER

25

I banged on the press door so hard security ran over.

I didn’t care if Tim was inside having a meeting with the whole press team. I needed to find out what was going on.

“Molly?!” Elijah spotted me through the tiny window and flung the door open. “We’re kind of in the middle of a brainstorm here.”

“Can. We. Have. A. Word?” I said firmly. I was not being brushed off. “I think you know what about.”

“Not now,” Elijah hissed, looking back into the Portakabin to check no one was listening. “This is literally my last chance to impress them!”

Fine. Let’s do this the hard way.

“I know it was you who leaked the photo of Joseph and Maeve. The blurred one of me too. And I’m not leaving until you tell me why.” He went to speak, but I carried on. “No spin. I want the truth.”

Elijah looked up to the sky and with a heavy sigh, shut the door.

“Two minutes, that’s all I’ve got.” But that’s all I needed. I marched us over to an alleyway where we couldn’t be overhead.

On the outside I was so cross, I’d switched into icy calm, but on the inside my heart was pounding.

“First up. Did Joseph give you that photo of him and Maeve?” I needed to hear it the truth. “Or the one of me?”

Elijah rolled his eyes. “Not exactly.”

“Not exactly?” What did that mean?! “I’m going to need exacts.”

“Look. I’m sorry, OK? It just got a little out of hand, that’s all.”

“Out of hand?!” Deep breath, Molly. “I’ve spent weeks doing your stupid events, letting you call the shots, trying to avoid your plan to reveal me as ‘Elf Girl’.” My mind was racing. “But none of it makes sense. And I know you’re up to something?!” I thought back. “Day one, I met Joseph. And someone gave him my number.” Which I didn’t message, but then I’d bumped into him. Or had I?! “Then in Liverpool someone made him find me to give me my elf hat back. And hinted where I’d be in Edinburgh. And…” A new thought hit me. “Wait. A mysterious friend even arranged for a meal for the two of us, with full press, to happen in London?” Had Elijah been pulling strings from day one? “And not to mention, along the way, thanks to private photos being shared online, my entire town slash world has started calling me Elf Girl again?” Elijah didn’t react.

If he even tried to tell me I was overreacting then he would see what overreacting really was. This was messier than a tangle of Christmas lights and it was time Elijah stepped up and helped me unravel it.

“Like I said, it got out of hand.”

“What did, Elijah?”

He sighed again and sat down on the tiny wall. “You really want to know?”

“Every single thing.”

“Fine.” He sighed again, and rubbed at his normally perfect hair. “It was me who put those photos on the fan account. I run it. And that photo was one I made Maeve and Joseph take this week when I was getting the cast to recreate ‘movie moments’ for some online content we were filming. They never kissed, the angles made it look way closer than it was. I wanted the guys to see how good the shot looked. I got it off the production account.” He shrugged. “Joseph seemed to have no idea I even had access to it? But I had all the pictures, from all the phones.”

“So…” I let it sink in. “The kiss wasn’t real?”

And Joseph hadn’t given anyone the photo of me?

Elijah raised an eyebrow. “C’mon, Molly. You of all people should know they’re not together. Never have been.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean.” He cracked his neck. “You’re right. I did try and get you two together. Well, at least give you the space to like each other. I could see how much he liked you from day one at the premiere. He thought he was being discreet, but he would not stop hassling me for your number. For what you were up to.” Sorry what? Had Elijah really been playing some kind of cupid? This made zero sense. “But I also knew you’d freak if you knew who he really was.”

“Sorry, I’m struggling to believe you were bothered about my love life?” Or Joseph’s for that matter. All Elijah ever seemed bothered with was that stupid music video. His job. Christmas number one.

“C’mon. The up-and-coming actor, notoriously private, doesn’t do press, dating the girl who happened to be the cute Little Elf Girl from the theme tune. What’s not to love?”

Could he hear himself?! He did not care one bit. He was just using us to get something to fuel gossip columns? This guy got worse and worse.

“I’m not a prop, Elijah! Some cardboard cut-out! You do know this is my actual life you’ve been messing with.”