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I burst into tears as soon as we make it through the throng of onlookers and crew members.
"Shh, princess," he whispers. "It's okay. I've got you."
Chapter Thirteen
Kaiden
Laura bursts into tears as soon as we're out of view, breaking my fucking heart. She worked her ass off today, trying to make the scene work despite Clarke. I want to put my fist through his face for fucking up the scene. And then I want to strangle him and Luca both for putting her in danger. And then I want to kick my own ass for announcing her pregnancy like that.
I've never had a kid, but I know enough to know announcements are supposed to be joyous, not bombs dropped in the middle of a fucking fight. But shit. My goddamn life flashed before my eyes when she fell. Abel is lucky I was already racing toward her at a full sprint. Had anything happened to her or our baby, I would have ripped this damn studio apart in fury.
I carry her up the steps to her trailer, slamming the door behind us to shut everyone out. Her hot tears soak my throat, her fingers wrapped up in my shirt. Holding her carefully in my arms, I sink down onto the sofa.
"I'm sorry, princess," I breathe. "I didn't mean to tell the world like that."
She cries harder.
"You're breaking my heart, baby."
"Y-y-you toldyoursecret."
"What?"
She takes a deep, shuddering breath and releases it on a sob. Christ, she's killing me here. I'd rather tear my own damn heart out than watch her cry. It's not fucking right, watching an angel weep like her heart is breaking. Especially when you're the bastard who broke it.
She lifts her head, tears falling freely down her face. Her stage makeup is ruined. The glitter Audrey put on her eyelids covers her cheeks and shimmers in her lashes along with her tears. She really is a shining star, twinkling as she cries.
"You told your secret," she says, her bottom lip quivering.
"Our secret."
"I'm not talking about the b-baby." She sniffles.
"Oh."
"Oh?" She dashes tears from her cheeks to glare at me. "That's all you have to say? Why, Kaiden?"
"Because of something you said to me on the day we met," I say quietly, rubbing glitter off the side of her face. "You told me that the Kaiden Huxley you heard so much about didn't give a damn what people said about him. You brought that man back to life." I expel a breath. "But carrying this secret around has gotten real fucking heavy, princess. I don't regret the decision we made back then. I'll never regret keeping a good man out of prison. But at some point, carrying that truth became so goddamn heavy that I got lost beneath the weight of it. It became an albatross around my neck."
"Kaiden," she whispers, a fresh wave of tears coursing down her cheeks.
"I'm ready to put it down, Laura. I'm ready to move on." The statute of limitations is up. Damen Montero can't be prosecuted for what he did. His little sister is an adult now, living in Europe. She's ready to tell her story. There's no one left to protect except the woman in front of me and the child growing in her belly. She brought me back to life. But it's up to me to live.
And I realized the other day that the only way I'll ever be free to do that…is if I let the past go. So I called Damen. I think he'd been waiting for that call for a while. He wasn't surprised to hear what I wanted. He didn't try to talk me out of it. He understood. I think maybe he's ready to let it go and do a little healing of his own.
It is the season for it, after all.
Huh. Maybe Christmas isn't so terrible.
"The press is outside the studio gates," she says, placing her hand over my heart. "My publicist called before Abel decided to have a breakdown."
"Okay."
"They're here for you."
"Okay."
She eyes me in awe. "You really don't care, do you?"
"Not particularly." I shrug. "They'll print what they want to print, and people will say what they want to say. It doesn't fucking matter." The truth is out, and the weight is gone. What people decide to do with it…well, I've got more important things to worry about now. I made my decision two days ago when I almost let malicious gossip sink me into the pit I had just crawled out of. My choice is Laura. My choice will always be Laura.
Besides, I have a feeling they'll be leaving with far more than they came for today. Thanks to Clarke's swan dive into a deep bottle, Damen's statement about an accident ten years ago probably looks like old news. My announcement about Laura's pregnancy probably won't rate that high either. I have a feeling that a fight with a director and a ruined shoot will rate higher than the two of us. And if that doesn't do it…well, there's plenty of other salacious gossip around here right now because Laura and I certainly aren't the only two fucking like rabbits all over this set.
