The family is in crisis mode. Press are camped outside every office, The Foundation headquarters, and even April’s dance studio. They’re like vultures preying on a caucus.
Harper is asked to withdraw from her course, the principal’s citing she’s sorry, but the unwanted press attention is not good for the university’s reputation. Going under her mother’s maiden name and even with her new look, with her face plastered all over the papers and TV screens her anonymity no longer held up against the investigative journalists.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Elijah so furious, but Harper simply said she couldn’t go back anyway, so it wasn’t worth him causing himself an aneurism.
Harper is currently hiding at my house with my mother. The Frazer home and all her siblings are under siege.
“What now?” she says, coming into the kitchen. “I can’t exactly hide away for the rest of my life.”
“No, I agree. But you can stay under the radar until it’s blown over. Your Mum and Elijah are working on taking the papers who published and distributed the material to court. Taking down all copies once they have been distributed—it takes time.”
I don’t want to add, it will be impossible. We remove one and it pops up on another three sites almost instantly. People may know it’s not Harper, but it isn’t preventing them from watching it, and it’s her innocent face they’re seeing.
“I made it onto daytime TV,” she says, although there’s a catch in her voice.
“I know.”
I walk up and wrap my arms around her. The women had sat and gossiped about the tapes and what had been released. We can’t sue as they were clever in making sure they pointed out the videos were fake, but it didn’t stop their character assassination of an innocent young woman.
She wraps her arms around me.
“I was trying to get my life sorted out.”
“I know,” I say, squeezing her tightly, as if holding her will make it all disappear. “We’ll get you back on track.”
She looks up at me and shakes her head.
“I don’t see how. I was incognito at uni. Now everyone knows who I am, and what’s worse they all think they know what I look like naked. Not great for me, even if the uni says they’ll allow me back. I’ll have them all staring and watching, speculating…you know the sayingno smoke without fire.”
My doorbell goes.
“Wait here,” I say, looking at the monitor on the wall. “It’s okay, it’s my mother.”
Unsure why she doesn’t simply use her key.
“Mum?” I say, throwing open the door.
Mum walks past me and into the hallway, unlocking and opening the internal garage door.
Franny steps out.
She wraps me in a hug. “Thank you for looking after my baby.”
“Mum, what are you doing here?” Harper says, appearing behind me.
Franny lets go of me and holds her arms out to Harper, who instantly bursts into tears. She throws herself at her mother, her bravado of the past few days finally crumbling. Franny rocks her and we leave them with some space.
Mum and I enter the kitchen.
“Before you ask, I drove into a multi-storey car park. Franny jumped into the boot of my car. We made sure she wasn’t followed.”
I stare at the pair of them before chuckling.
“Very spy thriller of you,” I say, earning myself a grin.
“I like to try.” Her expression becomes serious. “Franny needed to see Harper. She has a plan to get her out of the country for a while.”
“How?” I ask.
