Page 203 of My Real Love Affair

The airbrushing scandal would be child’s play compared to what Summer was planning. it was going to get ugly. Even if Cash managed to pay her off, it would always be hanging over our heads. She would use it to continue to blackmail us. How long would we have to deal with her bullshit?

The honorable thing would be to end it now. Cut her loose before the storm hit. Tell her it was fun while it lasted but wewanted different things. Make it quick and clean so she could walk away with her reputation intact.

I could take the hit. I’d been taking hits my whole life. What was one more? Melody deserved better than being dragged through the mud because of me.

I opened my mouth, the words forming on my tongue.This isn’t going to work. We should end this now. It’s better this way.

“I have to tell you something,” Melody said, rolling over to face me.

I closed my mouth, the words dying unspoken.

She propped herself up on her pillow. Fuck. Maybe she was going to dump me. I knew something had changed. If she ended things, it would gut me, but it would save me from having to break her heart—and my own.

“Okay,” I said carefully.

She took a deep breath. “This morning, when I went to get coffee, there was an envelope on my doorstep. It had your name on it.”

My stomach dropped. “Okay.”

“I know I should have told you right away, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.” She paused, gathering her thoughts. “I opened it. And inside was this whole dossier. Contracts between Cash and Summer. Text messages. Bank statements. And a letter from Summer telling me that you were using me, that your family arranged everything, that I was just another tool for your PR.”

Each word was a knife. Summer had gotten to her first. Of course she had.

Then I remembered the email while we were on vacation.That bitch. She had been stalking Melody. She was the one harassing Melody. It had already started.

“I didn’t know what to believe,” Melody continued. “Summer’s letter was convincing. She made it sound like you had done this before, like this was just what Bancrofts do.”

“Melody, I can explain.”

“Wait, let me finish.” She held up her hand. “I spent all day freaking out. Questioning everything. Every moment we’d shared, every word you’d said. I met with Summer this afternoon.”

I tensed. “You what?”

“I met with her. At a tapas bar in the West Village. I needed to hear her side, to see if I could trust her.” She looked at me steadily. “And, Austin, I couldn’t. Trust her, I mean. The whole time we were talking, something felt off. She made all the right arguments, said all the right things, but it felt… icky.”

Despite everything, I almost smiled at that word. “Icky?”

“Cleo always says to trust your gut when someone makes you feel icky. And Summer made me feel that way from the moment she walked in. She was beautiful and charming and seemed so reasonable, but underneath it all, something was wrong.”

“What did she say?” I asked.

“That your family hired her to babysit you.”

“I told you about that,” I said.

“I know. But she started to pitch the idea that you tossed her aside to use me instead because I would be desperate—and free.”

“Melody, fuck that!”

She ignored my outburst. “She was trying to convince me we were both victims of Bancroft manipulation.” She sighed and shook her head. “I started to think about everything. Obviously, we both agreed to this fake thing. I’m not going to pretend I didn’t. But then we parted ways and I was doing my best to move on. Austin, you just showed back up and wanted to pick up where we left off.”

My stomach was suddenly feeling very unwell. “Melody?—”

“Wait,” she said. “I started to think back over every day we were together. And then the pictures from Tahiti. People are eating up the fact we’re together. I would venture to say your image is definitely improving.”

I didn’t dare say anything. She had clearly been thinking about what she wanted to say. I had to let her get it all out. My heart was thrumming hard. Nerves were making me feel twitchy.

“I thought about us going out to the theater, which was obviously going to get us seen. And photographed. It seemed sweet that we were keeping our relationship on the down low. I thought it was cute, but then I started to think it was more about stirring up mystery. People were even more curious about us and our relationship since we weren’t talking about it.”