“Lily, you know me better than that. I’d take Baird no matter what he does for a living. Though, stripping might bother me.” I made a face at Beth, who chuckled.
“What if his swimmers don’t work and he can’t give you kids?”
I frowned and shrugged. “We’d adopt.”
She raised an eyebrow. “A tabloid printed a story in the paper saying he’d cheated on you?”
My heart lurched at the thought, but I couldn’t imagine a world in which Baird would do that. He was big on loyalty. I knew now how tabloids could twist lies into fake truths. “I’d give him the benefit of the doubt,” I answered with true honesty.
“His mum got ill and needed to stay with you?”
“Then she’d stay with us. I’d hope he’d feel the same way if it was my dad or Grace.”
Lily smiled. “I think you sound like the kind of fiancée every guy would feel lucky to have. Listen back to everything you just said, Maia … and can you honestly tell me you don’t deserve Baird? That you wouldn’t be the right choice for him if he had to choose?”
I gaped at her as Beth laughed quietly at my side. “You are very sneaky, Lily Sawyer.”
“She’s going to make a hell of a therapist.” Beth beamed at her proudly.
Lily’s olive cheeks flushed but she shrugged. “Sometimes we get something so stuck in our minds and hearts, we can’t see the woods for the trees.”
Slowly, I nodded, letting her wisdom sink in. “I … I still think I need to end the campaign. Baird deserves the chance to have more time to decide without the pressure of something that seems so shallow now.”
“Your career was on the line,” Beth reminded me. “That’s not shallow.”
“Now his is. And maybe … maybe ending the campaign will be enough for the club owner. Once everything dies down …” Hope blossomed in my chest. “We’ll be able to be together again.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
MAIA
The last few years, I’d allowed my career, Will, and my own confusion over my future distance me from the family I’d been adopted into at fifteen years old. I’d made friends at uni in London, and we still texted and called each other now and then. Leigh, my old high school friend, and I still kept in touch, but it wasn’t a deep friendship anymore. I’d started to feel like there was something missing from my life. I’d watched how close Grace had become with Aunt Shannon, Joss, Liv, Ellie, Hannah, and Jo, and I’d always hoped that one day I’d have friends like that. Not the casual acquaintances of work colleagues or uni friends or even Leigh.
As Beth and Lily abandoned their own schedules that morning to wait with me as I showered and dressed to visit Pennington’s, I felt bolstered by their love and support. Even January with her blunt tough love made me feel cared for. I realized that I already had what I’d been looking for in these girls. We might not be in one another’s lives every minute of every day, but they showed up when it mattered, and I vowed from this day on to show up for them.
They even walked me to Pennington’s, offering to wait for me. I told them I’d be fine, and they should get back to their own schedules. We hugged one another tight, and I thanked them for being two of the best people I knew.
Once they left, my knees shook as I took the staff entrance into the department store. Colleagues nodded at me with curious, questioning stares, and I knew they’d all seen the story. I tried not to let it make me feel sick with humiliation. Because Beth was right. It was time to stop allowing public opinion to affect me so much. The only opinions that mattered were the ones that directly impacted me.
My stomach roiled as I took the lift to the office floor. I’d dressed in armor—a pale blue, long-line blazer with matching wide-leg trousers, a cropped pale pink cami, and stilettos. Beth had helped me with my hair and makeup so that on the outside, I’d never looked more put together. It might seem shallow to some, but it helped glue all my shattered pieces together.
I’d already called ahead to ask to meet with Christina and Hilary, so I went straight to Hilary’s office. Her assistant let me in, and I gritted my teeth at the sight of Becky. I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t. Instead, I greeted my bosses and took the seat they gestured to.
Informing them that I wanted to end the campaign was probably going to end my career.
“So, we should start with this morning’s latest article and how it impacts the company,” Becky announced in a no-nonsense tone.
I stiffened. Not looking at her, I turned to Christina. “What article?”
“You don’t know?”
Oh God. What now? I shook my head, sweat prickling under my arms.
“It seems that someone found out about your father’s time in prison,” Hilary offered quietly.
The room tunneled around me.
No.
