"We can't leave this alone." He slammed his hand on the desk. "The board's already calling. Investors are getting nervous. Your reputation affects the entire company and you're dragging us all down with you."
I stared at the image on that paper and felt conflicted. Lainey's face was still hidden but I could see her body language, the way she leaned into me, the way her hand rested on my chest. The last thing I wanted was to hurt her, but fallout from a shocking wedding story wouldn't be nearly as bad as if the press ran with asexual assault narrative. How would she react to that? Or if they spun it and made her the manipulator and me the victim?
His plan made sense, but I hated it.
"There's no other way?" I asked, already feeling the knot of guilt tighten in my gut.
"No, son. You waited too long."
"Run the story," I said. "Tell them the annulment was always the plan." I met his eyes. "Say it was a stupid thing a drunk man did in Vegas, and we're handling it quietly." Every word made my heart hurt more.
Dad sank into his chair and Mom offered a concerned look, but I walked out, slamming the door behind me. It seemed even with the best of intentions I was still a failure at everything I tried to do. Only this time, Lainey was the one who stood to get hurt by it.
I had to get to her before the press released that story, and I had to make her see how foolish I was. There was no way out but through, and this fire threatened to consume everything I had left.
26
LAINEY
I sat on my parents' couch with tears streaming down my face and my mother's arm around my shoulders. Wren sat across from me looking worried, and my brother hovered near the TV with his phone in his hand. After that airing last night I never went home. I'd slept on my parents' couch and Dad woke me up with a tabloid in hand and so many questions.
"I slept with him," I said through the sobs. "It was impulsive and stupid and I never should’ve done it, but..." There was no excusing my behavior anymore. I should’ve known better than to think the shocking choices I'd made with Kade would go unnoticed. He was a celebrity. Paparazzi literally followed him around to get juicy gossip. Of course this would all blow up like this. Who was I kidding?
My father stood by the window with his arms crossed. "You married him to get back at Brandon?"
“Yes.... Well, no... I don’t know." I wiped my face with the tissue my mother handed me, though more tears came than I coulddry up adequately. "We were going to get it annulled. That was always the plan. It was stupid. I know..."
"My god, Lainey," Dad practically groaned. I heard how much of a disappointment I could hear that I was in his tone, but it was gentled by the fact that I knew his heart. "What else are they saying?" he asked Nate, whose thumb flicked through social feeds so fast it made my head spin.
My brother grabbed the remote and flipped the TV to MTV, while Wren pulled out her phone and started scrolling through her socials.
"Oh god," Wren muttered. "This is everywhere." Her face was pale when I looked at her. It wasn't very encouraging.
My mother squeezed my shoulder. "It'll blow over, sweetheart. These things always do."
But I couldn't stop crying. This was humiliating, and none of it was supposed to have happened. I couldn't blame Kade for being famous or in the news, but he hadn't exactly protected me from the reporters that asked him directly who I was to him. It stung, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about what he said.
“Mom, this isn’t going to blow over. Don’t you get it?” I felt devastated. My whole life was about to be turned inside out by Kade’s paparazzi following. It didn’t seem fair. I wasn’t the sort to be a public person anyway. My life had been structured and quiet before meeting him.
“Okay… take a breath, sweetheart,” Mom said, curling her arm around me more tightly. The gentle tone of her voice was comforting. I’d expected them to be angry with me over the whole thing, not so understanding.
“Okay, so you’ve filed for annulment?” Dad asked, stalking to the TV like he was going to shut it off, but Wren’s voice squawked out a god-awful sound and we all turned to look at her.
“Oh God, you’ve got to see this…” She turned her phone toward me and I saw the horrible headline first.
It read: “Boulder City Woman to Annul Marriage to Kingston Heir.” My gut twisted, and my jaw dropped. This couldn’t be happening.
Now they knew where I lived? How had they figured that out?
“Mom,” I whimpered and she pulled my head into her chest.
“I think you should lie down, baby. Let me and Dad worry about this for a while, okay? You just had a bad day, and you made a few bad choices and nothing is wrong with that. Everyone makes bad choices sometimes, honey."
She smoothed her hand up and down my shoulder while anxiety roiled in my gut right alongside morning sickness. I never went home, which meant I never got a change of clothing or my medication, and I felt so sick this morning. Getting more bad news had only made the nausea worse.
"You don't understand," I whimpered, while I buried my face in her shoulder.
"Alright, sweetheart, it’s okay." Her hand kept rubbing, then I felt someone else's hand rubbing my back in a small circle and knew it was Dad.
