“Avery.” Oren’s tone stopped me dead in my tracks. “If you’re getting out, I’m getting out first.”
Remembering our little one-on-one that morning, I decided not to test him.
Beside me, Grayson unbuckled his seat belt. He reached for my wrist, his touch gentle. “Oren’s right. You shouldn’t go out there.”
I looked down at his hand on mine, and after a heartbeat, I looked back up. “And what would you do,” I said, “what lengths would you go to in order to protectyourfamily?”
I had him there, and he damn well knew it. He drew his hand back from mine, slowly enough that I felt the pads of his fingers skim my knuckles. My breath coming quickly now, I opened the car door and braced myself. Drake was the biggest story the press had on the Hawthorne Heiress front because we hadn’t given them anything bigger. Yet.
Chin held high, I stepped out of the car.Look at me. I’m the story here.I walked down the drive, back toward the street. I was wearing boots with heels and my Country Day pleated skirt. My uniform blazer pulled against my body as I walked. The new hair. The makeup. The attitude.
I’m the story here.The chatter tonight wasn’t going to be about Drake. The eyes of the world weren’t going to be on him. I’d keep them on me.
“Impromptu press conference?” Oren asked under his breath. “As your bodyguard, I feel compelled to warn you that Alisa is going tokillyou.”
That was Future Avery’s problem. I tossed my wave-perfect hair and squared my shoulders. The roar of reporters yelling my name was louder the closer we got.
“Avery!”
“Avery, look over here!”
“Avery, what do you have to say about rumors that—”
“Smile, Avery!”
I was standing right in front of them now. I had their attention. Beside me, Oren raised a hand, and just like that, the crowd went silent.
Say something. I’m supposed to say something.
“I… ummm…” I cleared my throat. “This has been a big change.”
There were a few small laughs.I can do this.The instant I thought those words, the universe made me pay for them. A fight broke out behind me, between Drake and the cops. I saw cameras starting to angle away from me, saw the long-distance lenses zooming in on the gates.
Don’t just talk. Tell the story. Make them listen.
“I know why Tobias Hawthorne changed his will,” I said loudly. The response to that announcement was electric. There was a reason this was the story of the decade, one thing that everyone wanted to know. “I know why he chose me.” I made them look at me and only me. “I’m the only one who does. I know the truth.” I sold that lie for all I was worth. “And if you run a word about that pathetic excuse for a human being behind me—any of you—I will make it my mission in life to ensure that you never, ever find out.”
CHAPTER 44
Ididn’t process the magnitude of what I’d done until I was safely inside Hawthorne House.I told the press that I have the answers they want.It was the first time I’d spoken to them, the first real footage anyone had of me, and I’d lied through my teeth.
Oren was right. Alisa was going to kill me.
I found Libby in the kitchen, surrounded by cupcakes. Literally hundreds of them. If she’d been an apology baker back home, the addition of an industrial-grade kitchen with triple ovens had basically taken her nuclear.
“Libby?” I approached her cautiously.
“Do you think I should go for red velvet or salted caramel next?” Libby was holding an icing bag with both hands. Blue hair had escaped her ponytail and was matted to her face. She wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“She’s been at it for hours,” Nash told me. He stood leaning back against a stainless-steel refrigerator, his thumbs hooked through the belt loops of his well-worn jeans. “Her phone’s been going off for just as long.”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here.” Libby looked up from the cupcakes she was icing to narrow her eyes at Nash.
“Yes, ma’am.” Nash smiled, wide and slow. I wondered how long he’d been with her—whyhe’d been with her.
“Drake is gone,” I told Libby, hoping Nash would take that as his cue that he wasn’t needed here. “I took care of it.”
“I’m supposed to take care of you.” Libby shoved her hair out of her face. “Stop looking at me like that, Avery. I’m not going to break.”
