SEVENTEEN
Cece
Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.
My mind keeps looping around a random collection of words from the article I saw an hour ago.
Marital clause.
Exclusive photo.
All-too-familiar embrace.
Former flame.
But it doesn’t matter. It’ll blow over. Itwill.
And I will make sure to not make any public appearances for the next three to four weeks. Perhaps Levi would need to be convinced because this affects him too. And he’d need me to stick with for the sake of our entwined image. But I can convince him.
My hand wanders to my phone again, like it has been for the past 62 minutes. But this time, I open my notes app. The pinned note of my to-do list glaring atme.
I watch the tremor in my fingers impassively, frowning them to submission—as if I could. Then I quickly type out the two bullets that I need to add.
Inform Sebastian Blackthorn about the news article leak
Message my PA to cancel public meetings for the next month
I stare at the items I added. They don’t feel enough. Nothing feels enough. What else can I do? My life is tactfully streamlined into work, family, hobbies, and… love.
But everything is colliding with each other and my thoughts are a dynamic labyrinth of things I can’t control anymore. Constantly moving, shifting—slipping.
The rapid synapses of every single piece of thought fires off before I can catch it. Sebastian will take care of the leak. Maybe. My absence in public will help… help… what?
My knuckles start aching and that is when I realize I’ve abandoned my phone and am currently standing, digging my fist into the wooden desk.
I flinch when a knock sounds on my already open door. My head snaps up to stare at my PA, Amanda.
“Ms. Wentworth, you have a visitor? It’s… Mr. Astor.” Her voice is so careful, almost gentle.
My jaw clenches at the fact that it’s pity. They know. They all probably know.
Suddenly my brain is sadistically hoping for a different Mr. Astor. Perhaps Thomas. I could even take Gareth over the possibility of Levi showing up.
But it’s him. I don’t know how long before Amanda leaves and Levi arrives, but I’m staring at him, leaning against my now closed door, shoulders slightly slumped. Andfullydefeated.
The silence, for once, is welcome. I don’t want either of us to acknowledge how that single article desecrated our relationship. I don’t care much about the image, but I do know that this was an impressive attempt by his parents. Maybe even a successful one.
“I’ll… fix this, Cece.”
I know it’s him speaking, but his voice is muffled against the wool clouding my every sensory system.
