“Just for the next few days, Lexi,” Stacey said, “Keep your distance from him.”
Shit. How the hell could I do that when I lived with him?
My apartment was almost empty, since I’d moved most of our stuff out.
“Actually, scratch that,” Brian said, staring at his phone. He held it out. “I’m guessing this is your old apartment?” he asked showing me a red door to a building that was definitely mine. Someone had sprayed graffiti on it, with the wordgold diggeron it.
I hung my head. I couldn’t go back there anymore. I wouldn’t feel safe.
“Come home with me,” Stacey said. “You don’t want to spend tonight alone, believe me,” she said with a knowing look. “You’ll spiral. I’ve spiraled, and it wasn’t pretty.”
I nodded. “Okay, I will.”
I felt a new wave of emotion wash over me at the word gold digger. “This whole article makes me feel sick. It’s not just the gossip or the photos. It’s what Jonah might think.”
Stacey frowned. “What do you mean?”
I exhaled. “You know, my mother used to use me for money. She’d cry on cue, making me feel guilty. I was barely sixteen and giving her most of what I made at my part-time job.”
“That’s abuse, Lexi.”
“I know.” I hesitated. “I’m scared Jonah will think I’m like her. That I’m using him.”
“You’re nothing like her.”
“This article paints me exactly like that. Like I’m some gold-digger. But this is exactly how it started with her. She used love as currency. And I’m terrified that Jonah’s going to look at me and see the same pattern. That he’ll think I’m with him for what he can give me.”
“Lexi, if you wanted someone to bankroll your life, you wouldn’t have worked so hard to build your own. We can see that. I bet Jonah already knows that. Besides, the man is besotted with you. We saw him when you were down with the flu. It was the third day of the flu, Lexi, but Jonah was hovering around you like you were on death’s door.”
Brian nodded.
“Trust Jonah. I think you both are going to be okay. He’ll take care of this situation like he always does.”
The problem was, Jonah wasn’t answering my texts, and I wasn’t sure if I could call him right now.
I wasn’t sure where this whole mess left us.
61
JONAH
Isank into my leather chair, running a hand through my hair as I skimmed the ridiculous article my assistant had notified me about.
The author was right about some of the lurid details. Lexihadbeen a breath of fresh air in my life. But the rest of the details about how she’d seduced me, and how we’d hooked up following that, were utterly ridiculous.
Normally, I’d tell my assistant to file a lawsuit, suing for defamation whenever anything about my personal life was printed. But this was an attack on Lexi and Evie, and I wasn’t going to answer it with business jargon.
I wanted to go out for blood.
Our relationship had been a risk, but one I had been willing to take. But now, seeing the start of public knowledge about our relationship affecting her, I simply couldn’t bear the thought that she would suffer more.
I reached for my phone to ask her how she was feeling, and saw that I’d missed a call from her.
When I called her back, she didn’t answer. Hours passed without her response, each one more agonizing than the last. Icouldn’t go down to check on Lexi right now, but I needed to get to the bottom of this. This scandal could ruin Lexi’s career, and if she was being hounded by the paparazzi, it was definitely over for this journalist and the media company that had published this drivel. I’d make sure their company tanked if that was the last thing I did.
My phone rang, jarring me out of my anger. It was Lexi.
Breathing out a huge sigh of relief, I answered. “Where are you?” I asked.
