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“Should we go delete the pictures off the camera?” I started to head toward the road, but Rhys stopped me.
Resigned, he said, “I don’t think it would be worth it. I’ll let George know and see if there’s anything he can do to suppress the shots or any articles that come from it. What we don’t need are any harassment charges filed against us. Not right now. I think we were lucky we didn’t get in trouble for the other night at the pizza place.”
It took every single drop of will power to turn away from that leach. No matter what happened with colleges and where our career paths took us, I wouldn’t let Astrid capitalize on people’s privacy like that, and with my journalism, neither would I.
I was through the doors of the school when I realized that they had a clear shot into the front of my car once we parked. Rhys was wrong. We should have made them delete the pictures.
My alarm blared through the room, jolting me out of a deep sleep. No, wait, that was my phone. Thatcher’s ring tone.
Maybe.
Shit, I didn’t know. I just wanted to go back to sleep.
The ringing stopped, then started back up again in seconds. Groaning, I pulled a pillow over my head. I didn’t have to worry about waking Astrid up since she’d stayed in her own room last night with Beck.
“Rhys! Answer the damn phone!” She called through the door.
Never mind, apparently I did. When we all eventually moved in together, we’d need actual insulation between rooms. Not only for instances like this, but I didn’t want to hear them fuck like bunnies if I wasn’t in the room with them.
Stretching across the bed, I grabbed my phone off the charger and hit the send button. “What?” I croaked.
“I would say good morning, but it fucking isn’t a good morning,” Thatcher chirped in a fake cheery voice.
“I’m not even awake yet. Call back in…” I peeked one eye open to look at the time. Even with my blurry vision I knew it was too damn early for this phone call. “An hour.”
“Sorry, no can do, friend. I need you up to try to figure out how you’re going to break this news to Astrid.”
That was all the ice water I needed to throw myself from drowsy sleep to wide fucking awake. I pushed myself to a sitting position and leaned back against the headboard. “Please tell me it’s something to do with you personally and not actualnewsnews.” I had to clarify, but it was pointless. After the photographer stalked us at the school yesterday it was only a matter of time before something hit the papers.
My conversation with George had been useless. He said he’d try to stop it but unless it was outright slander, they were allowed free press. I’d hung up on him after that. What was the point of meeting with him if he was only going to try and protect my father?
“Bingo. The one saving grace here is the story didn’t pop up on any mainstream media. No ABC, NBC, or Good Morning America for you guys. It’s all gossip magazine shit. I just sent you the link in the group chat, the one sans Astrid. Read it.” He didn’t wait for me to open it and kept talking. “Details on your dad’s crimes aren’t published yet, but because he’s arrested, there’s heavy speculation. Whatistroubling, are the shots they took of you guys yesterday.”
Bile rose in the back of my throat as I read the caption.
RHYS BENNETT, ONLY SON OF MANUFACTURING MOGUL, CAUGHT IN SCANDALOUS LOVE AFFAIR
Underneath it was a smaller subtitle that caused me to almost bite my tongue off.
IS POLYAMORY A SIGN OF REBELLION FOR THIS YOUNG MAN?
“Mother fucker!” I tossed the phone on the bed next to me where it bounced off and landed on the floor.
The door burst open, banging against the wall as Beck stormed in wearing only a pair of briefs. “What the hell is that?” He shouted as he turned the phone around to show me the article, as if I hadn’t already seen it.
“The start,” I ground out.
“The start of fucking what?” He paced around the room wearing a hole in the carpet.
“The shit storm that’s going to surround my entire family until my father is imprisoned.” I kept skating my gaze toward the door, waiting for Astrid to come storming in. This was going to cause her stress levels to go through the roof.
“She jumped in the shower after she yelled at you. We have a few minutes,” he answered my unspoken question as he fell in my desk chair. The leather creaked as he leaned back. “How bad do you think this is going to affect her?”
“I have no idea,” I said absently as I continued to watch the door. Even though she wasn’t on the text chain, I still expected her to come running through screaming about the articles.
“Maybe no one at your school reads this trash,” Beck mumbled as he looked back down to his phone. The hesitancy in his voice made me laugh. He didn’t believe his own words.
“All it takes is one.” Then it would spread through the school like wildfire over a dry plain. Within two days the night shift janitors would know all of the gossip. That was what I hated about small towns. Everyone was in everyone’s business.
