Panic rushes to my head. “Do what? Is she okay? What’s happened?”
“Watch.” Amanda drags me in front of the TV as the others crowd around and behind us. My jaw trails the ground when I spot my girlfriend on the screen, and I have a feeling I know what she did. A flurry of emotions swirls inside me, and I swallow hard over the lump in my throat.
The reporter clears her throat, glancing between the camera and the scene going down behind her in front of the police building in downtown L.A. “Breaking news in the sensational allegations made by model Vittoria Russo against Jared Dempsey. In an unexpected development, a woman has come forward providing an alibi for the Ruminate drummer. She’s just about to make a statement, and we’re bringing this to you live from LAPD HQ.”
A hush descends on the press crowd assembled in front of Sydney as she steps up to a microphone. Two unfamiliar men in charcoal-gray suits stand to her left and two cops in uniform on her right.
My heart is pounding in my chest as Sydney clears her throat and begins. “Good evening, my name is Sydney Shaw, and I am a longtime friend of Jared Dempsey. Jared and I have known one another since we were born as our families were close growing up. We recently reconnected after several years of no contact. I met Jared and Vittoria Russo in Florence at the time of the MTV awards. Back then, Vittoria and Jared were engaged, and I was in a relationship with another man.”
That’s not technically true. Syd had explained how she’d broken up with the pretentious prick prior to their subsequent one-night stand. I doubt the guy would come forward to dispute it. He was bang in love with my girl, and it’d only be splitting hairs anyway.
“I moved to San Fran a couple of months later,” she continues. “It was a big surprise to discover Jared had bought a property close to mine and to find out he was no longer engaged to Vittoria or in a relationship with her. We resumed our friendship, and it recently became more. At no time did Jared ever cheat on Vittoria. In fact, he has gone above and beyond to provide for her and his unborn baby. He will be fully involved in his child’s life, and he has already signed a co-parenting agreement with his ex.”
She looks up from the page in her hand, staring directly into the camera. Her face shines with determination and confidence, and I’ve never been prouder. She’s so fucking beautiful, and my heart swells with the knowledge she is finally all mine. We’ve been given a second chance, and I don’t intend to waste it. I’m going to devote the rest of my life to worshipping this amazing, brave, selfless woman and ensuring everyone knows it.
“I know the kind of man Jared is,” she says. “He is caring and compassionate, and he protects his loved ones with his whole heart. He wouldneverassault any woman, and he did not assault Vittoria Russo because, at the time of the alleged attack on her, he was with me at my home. I have provided the police with video evidence from my property as well as a sworn statement confirming he was with me for the duration of the time the assault is alleged to have occurred. I don’t know Vittoria at all, so I can’t claim to understand her motives, but I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that Jared Dempsey was not the man who assaulted her. Thank you. I have nothing more to add.”
The gray-haired man at her side nods, and then he takes her elbow and escorts her away from the building as the press bombards Sydney with questions. The cameras trail her all the way to a blacked-out Land Rover, and I only relax when she’s safely inside the car and it’s peeling away from police HQ.
“I’m fucking marrying her if you don’t,” Linc says.
“Get in line,” Wilder adds, smirking.
They’re such assholes. “If it was up to me, I’d have a ring on her finger right now, and I’d be marching her up the aisle as soon as I could get a license.”
“You’re going to turn me gray,” Amanda exclaims, turning around as the TV is turned off. She jabs her finger in my direction. “Do not go and marry that girl until this circus has died down. I have enough fires to put out already.”
“Sydney just did you a huge favor,” Ryder says, coming up to us. “But I hope to fuck the fans appreciate the gesture for what it is.”
“I want to make some additions to my press release,” I say. “Get me it and a pen.”
ChapterThirty-One
Sydney
“Iguess it’s official now, huh?” I say, snuggling into Jared’s side on the couch. He held a press conference shortly after my statement was aired and confirmed he was in love with me in front of a packed crowd. Can’t lie. It made my heart beat like crazy and my pussy ache with longing.
“Yep.” He nuzzles his face into my neck as his arms tighten around me. “The whole world knows you’re my girlfriend now.”
“Cay says everyone is going crazy and opinion is pretty evenly divided.” For my mental health, I am going nowhere near social media.
“You won a lot of support standing up for me.” Jared’s hands sweep up and down my side, his fingers brushing against the edge of my breast in a way that makes it difficult to concentrate. “Our fans love you protected me from Toria’s lies. And several high-profile women’s charities have denounced her for making false allegations. The people who are sticking up for her, despite no charges being brought and the case being dismissed, are not true fans. They can’t be if they are claiming we’re the ones lying.”
“Some people are nuts,” I rasp, clenching my thighs together as he peppers kisses along the column of my neck, and delicious tremors coast all over my body. “It’s obvious she lied in a very malicious way. How can anyone believe a word that comes out of her mouth now?”
That lying cunt made a statement a few hours after Jared’s press conference saying she is under enormous stress, her hormones are all over the place, and she’s heartbroken to have been cheated on and abandoned by the love of her life. She says the trauma made her delusional and that’s how she was convinced it was Jared who assaulted her outside the yoga studio. Now she’s claiming it’s a Jared lookalike. If Dr. Phil was still airing, I’m sure she’d be making an appearance on the show. They’d lap that crazy shit up big time.
“There will always be people who overlook shit staring them in the face. Those are the people focusing on how I abandoned my pregnant fiancée for another woman even though that’s not how it went down.”
“Is it enough to go after her legally for full custody?”
Jared sighs against my ear, and his hands stall on my body. “I don’t know. That will be my next battle.”
I scramble off his lap and stand. “Take your shirt off and lie down.”
He waggles his brows and licks his lips. “I like where this is going.”
“I’m going to massage you. It’s been a stressful few days, and I want to help loosen some of that tension in your muscles.” I wiggle my fingers and smile. “You’re not the only one with magical hands.”
