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“I think we should ask your stepdad that question.” Shy crossed his arms. His muscles pushed against the dark red polo he wore. “We’ve been having some issues with photos being sold to the tabloids, and I’ve been trying to figure out who’s the one involved. I really thought it would be impossible to figure out, but then Luna got that text message.”
“Are you accusing me of something?” The stepfather—Henry was his name—took a step forward. I puffed my chest, ready to throw a fist if it came to it. Luna also tensed. I could tell she was getting ready to jump in, but was still listening intently. Her mom stood to the side, confused as all hell.
“Why did you run from me at the sweater party? After I had seen the flash go off on your phone?”
“I didn’t run anywhere.” Henry spoke with a heavy Spanish accent. “I needed to find the bathroom.”
Shiro tilted his head back. He didn’t believe him, and neither did I. “You bolted, and you went away from the bathrooms. You were clearly trying to lose me in the crowds.”
“So what? If I want a picture of the party, I can get one.”
“Show me your phone.” Shiro held his hand out.
“No.” He put his hands in the pocket of his cargo shorts, as if blocking us from reaching in.
“Show us your phone and it’ll solve everything.”
Luna shook her head. “This is a little crazy. I don’t think—”
“Show them the phone, Henry.” It was Luna’s mom, Theresa. Her lips were held in a tight line, almost as narrow as the eyebrows she’d drawn on. “I’ve been seeing strange numbers on his phone.” She was speaking to us, Henry looking at her with a dumbfounded expression. “I’ve noticed him taking a lot of photos. More than usual. I didn’t think he was selling them, but… Show us the phone, Henry.”
“¿En serio?” he asked her.
“Very serious.”
For a hair of a second, I thought he was going to run again. I half expected him to bolt, making Shiro and I run after him. He must have been hit with common sense at the last minute since he stayed put and pulled out his phone. With the way he was resisting, I knew we were about to find something. If it wasn’t a stash of photos he had taken of me, then it would probably be a stash of nudes he’d been collecting from a mistress. One or the other, Henry acted guilty before he even unlocked his phone for us.
Luna grabbed it first and went straight for the text messages. “There’s nothing here. He didn’t send that picture to me.”
“Maybe he deleted the text,” I suggested.
“Or,” Shy said, taking his turn with the phone, “he’s got it hidden somewhere…” He poked at the screen, thumbing through the pages of unorganized apps filling up the phone. It didn’t take him much longer to go, “Aha.” I watched all the color from Henry’s face drain. He was caught, and he knew it.
“Look at this.”
Shiro handed me the phone. It was an app that generated new numbers for anyone using it. In it was a text message sent to a contact, and that message contained a photo of Shy and me. It was the same message Luna had received.
“Fucking bastard.” I showed the phone to Luna and Theresa, both of them looking at Henry with intense disappointment in their eyes.
“Why, Henry?” It was Theresa. “You know the kind of hell Nicholas goes through. Why would you be one of the leeches who puts him through it? And on a vacation that Luna tells us is supposed to be private?”
“It was good money.” Henry let his shoulders slump. He had nowhere to run now, and he had no more photos to sell. I’d make sure of that.
“Well,” I said, turning to face the ocean, “use that money to buy you a new phone.” I let the phone fly, throwing it as hard as I could. I watched it splash into the ocean, the tide tugging it deeper into the darkness. Henry shouted a curse but didn’t run after it. He just put both hands on his face while Theresa gave him a slap over the head.
“And that’s too bad. You probably would have wanted to capture this up close.” I turned back to Shy and grabbed his head in my hands. I gave him the sloppiest kiss I could have, making sure it was clear that tongue and spit was involved. It may have been a little over-the-top, but fuck it, I felt like this was the perfect way to end this messy paparazzo saga.
Besides, there was nothing else I could do. Maybe legal action, except the damage was already done, and I also didn’t want to negatively affect Luna or her mom either. Let Henry learn from his lesson and be banned from the palace for the rest of his life.
