Page 92 of The Cottage in the Highlands

The blood in my veins froze. I gripped the phone tighter to my ear.

I snapped my head round in a blind panic to look at an unsuspecting, handsome Flynn only feet away. How the hell did she know? How had she found out? This wasn’t happening.

“His alter ego is the artist Flynn Talbot, isn’t it?” she giggled. “Oh, go on, stop teasing me!”

She breezed on, ignorant of my horrified, gut-wrenching silence. “It’s a bit of a disappointment he isn’t someone more high profile to be honest, but we can work with it. Now, I want you to do a write-up about it and how you infiltrated the family.” She let out a tinkle of self-indulgent laughter. “You really should have alerted me to this earlier, you naughty girl, but I’ll let you off on this occasion.”

I felt the colour ebb away from my face. Flynn was grinning at me.

A sick feeling squeezed at my insides. “No. You’ve got this all wrong. I… I didn’t infiltrate anyone,” I stammered, my throat dry.

From a few feet away I could see Flynn standing there, observing his grandfather and Lily, oblivious to the mess unfolding on the phone.

My stomach plummeted to the floor as the consequences of all this played out in front of me. Flynn and his grandfather thought they could trust me. They wouldn’t now. They would think I had betrayed them to further my career. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Flynn had been involved in a relationship with a reporter before. She had betrayed him. Would he think it was happening again? The idea of Flynn thinking I could do such a thing… My mind churned in panic. “How… how did you find out?”

“Oh, some clever detective work on behalf of my niece.”

Athena’s answer struck me in the chest like a hot blade. Kerry? How the hell had she found out?

Anger and confusion bolted through me. I raised my eyes to look across at Flynn. My heart twisted. What a mess. Oh God. If this came out… No, scrub that. When this comes out, Flynn will think I betrayed him. He will think I went behind his back, all for an exclusive.

My heart galloped into overdrive.

“So, see you Monday morning and we can get all this sorted out. Ciao!”

The phone was still hot and pressed to my ear, even though Athena had ended the call.

I slowly lowered the phone, my heart lodged in my throat.

“You ok? Leonie?”

I jerked my head up. Flynn was towering over me, his brow knitted.

Queasiness swirled like a typhoon in my stomach. How the hell had Kerry found out? I hadn’t told her anything. I knew I had been so careful. Had someone else in Flynn’s family told her?

That seemed very unlikely. What would they gain from doing something like that?

Bewilderment morphed into anger. How could Kerry do this? How could she do this to me after all the help I’d given her? I hadn’t told her a thing about Chandler or Flynn Talbot and yet she’d managed to uncover it and had gone straight to Athena, instead of confiding in me about it.

Why would she do that?

“Leonie? What is it?”

I gazed up and into Flynn’s light eyes. My heart clattered against my ribs.

I had to tell him. How could I not? The news about his grandfather’s secret identity was going to be splashed all over my magazine pages.

My mouth opened and closed for a moment like a ventriloquist’s dummy. I didn’t want to tell him. I didn’t want to shatter what was flourishing and growing between us.

This was like one of those bloody games of Jenga, where you find yourself constructing what you think is a solid tower of brick, only for one of them to dislodge and bring the whole thing crashing down in front of you.

I tried to compose myself. “That was my editor,” I managed, wishing I could will away what had just happened.

“Yes, you said it was her a few moments ago.”

“Oh, right. Yes, I did, didn’t I?” I pressed my lips together, almost suffocating under the despondent, sickening sensation pressing down on my shoulders.