Page 120 of The Truth of Us

The Affair Allegations That Rocked the Montgomery Family

From Scandal to Secrecy: Why Alexander Montgomery Hid His Daughter

There it was. The words that could twist a cautious, grief-stricken father into a monster who hid his daughter away. Like I had been locked away in a tower.

My hands started shaking so badly that the screen blurred. Then I saw another name that made my breath catch.

Elliot.

Harper Montgomery and Elliot Vale: Secret Romance or Strategic Alliance?

For a moment, the room went silent in a way that felt unnatural. Then my pulse roared in my ears. I clicked, and there were pictures of us at galas, fundraisers, cocktail mixers, walking into restaurants, his arms cradled around me.

A caption underneath one photo read:

Before the Montgomery reveal, Harper Lane appeared at several public events with Northwell’s Elliot Vale. Sources now speculate Vale may have known her true identity.

Sources. What a joke. I hated that word; sources could be anyone. A waiter, a disgruntled employee, or someone’s bored cousin. Any person with nothing better to do than whisper into a reporter’s ear and call it truth. Another article linked beneath it.

Every woman Elliot Vale has been seen with before Harper Montgomery

My stomach rolled. I knew I shouldn’t. I fucking knew, but I clicked anyway, and there were countless photos of him with women. Blondes, brunettes, models, actresses, socialites, and then her… my eyes narrowed on the images of Elliot with the women from that night, Natalia.

My lungs seized. Because some of her pictures weren’t recent. One was from some charity thing last year. She was smiling up at him like she knew exactly what he looked like when he came apart. I shoved the phone onto the counter as if it had burned me, then grabbed it again.

Comment sections. I never read comments because I knew better. Everyone knew better. I read them anyway.

He definitely knew who she was.

Of course he went after the Montgomery heir.

Upgrade from his usual roster.

She looks cold.

He got bored.

She dumped him when she realized he’s trash.

Billionaires dating billionaires, how tragic.

Wonder if Alexander approved.

Wasn’t her mother involved in a cheating scandal? Like mother, like daughter?

Is that why they haven’t been seen together? Elliot Vale got bored... Go figure. Maybe if she didn’t look like an ice princess…

My knees hit the floor as I continued to read the comments, and tagged videos and pictures of Elliot with more women than I could count. I thought I understood who he was before we met, but then that Elliot bled into my Elliot, and I realized maybe he was never truly mine.

A sound left me; I didn’t recognize. Not a sob or a scream, more like my body trying to eject a memory. I pressed both hands over my mouth. Because for a moment I could hear it, an old noise that had haunted my dreams for too long. Camera shutters, the awful, hungry way strangers said our names like they owned pieces of us, the sound that came out of my father's home office when he got the call about Mom and Will.

My father came into my line-of-sight fast. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, hair still damp from the shower, expression already carved into something that looked like fear disguised as control.

“My angel.”

I shook my head. “I...”

He was on the floor beside me immediately. “I know.”