“Plenty of time to work on the tan,” I say.
They laugh, and I pass Theo back when he starts to fuss.
Paige sets her cup down, and something shifts in her expression—subtle, but there. Like she’s bracing herself.
“It’s just not fair,” she says. “Everything you went through… and now you’ve got all this media stuff on top of it.”
I frown. “The reporters?”
Paige hesitates. “Babe… I’m talking about the photos of you and Dane in the pool.”
She says it as if I should already know. Like I’ve seen what she’s seen.
“What photos?”
They glance at each other, quick and loaded. The kind of look that says I’ve missed something, and I’m about to find out.
Paige reaches for her phone and turns it toward me.
I look. And everything in me goes still.
The pool.Ourpool. The garden dark around it, the water lit from underneath—and us.
There’s no mistaking what we’re doing.
“Honestly, Charlotte… the fact that someone would use AI to make something like this after everything you’ve been through is disgusting. People are actually sick.”
“AI? I don’t know what that is.”
“Right—you wouldn’t know.” Paige shakes her head. “It’s artificial intelligence. It can generate images. Make things look real when they’re not. People use it to create stuff like this.”
Relief hits me so quickly it almost makes me laugh.
I understand immediately what’s happening here. They think the photos are fake. Because the only other explanation is unthinkable.
“It’s awful,” I say. “I can’t believe someone would do that.”
“There’s not really anything you can do about it.” Paige shakes her head. “Once it’s out there?—”
“It just spreads,” Zoe finishes. “People share it. No one thinks about the actual person in it.”
I hand the phone back, remembering last night.
Our first night home, and someone was already peering over the fence with a camera.
What is wrong with people?
We gave them nothing. No interviews. No story. No access. And they took it anyway—standing in the dark, pointing a lens over a fence, stealing something that was never theirs.
I realize they've both gone quiet. They're watching me.
“I’m really sorry. I can see you’re upset,” Paige says. “I didn’t think before I spoke. I thought you already knew. I wouldn’t have said anything if I?—”
“No, Paige.” My voice comes back steady. “I needed to know. You were right to tell me.” I meet her eyes. “I mean that.”
She reaches across and takes my hand. “You know we don’t believe that rubbish.”
“I know,” I say quietly. “It’s just a lot.”
