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“It’s about time you remember that you have a job,” Atlas chuckled, making me flip him off.
Chapter 26
Lux~
Jalen Buckman was six-feet of good-looking. He had walnut-brown hair, startling hazel eyes, a set of full lips, and those damn dimples. Sitting across from him at dinner, it was easy to see why he had such a huge female following.
With the waitress having already taken our order, as soon as she was out of earshot, I said, “Okay, Jalen, tell me your version of events.”
He had the grace to flush a bit. “It’s not my version,” he said. “It’s the truth.”
“Okay, so tell me the truth,” I rephrased.
“She said that they weren’t together,” he said.
“And you believed her?”
Jalen nodded. “I don’t follow NASCAR, so I had no idea that Morgan was just out of the country on some promotional tour. I guess NASCAR is trying to be more visible overseas, I don’t know.”
“Belamy has been very vocal about this not being her fault,” I pointed out.
“She’s lying,” he replied, a little bit of bite in his voice. “She’s not a victim inanyof this. She cheated on Morgan and used me to do it.” He leaned back in his seat. “I’m also willing to bet that I’m not the first.”
“So, what do you want to come out of this? The truth?” I asked. “What do you want people to know?”
“That I don’t fuck with married women,” he hissed, his anger at the situation finally making an appearance. “I might be a lot of things, but I don’t mess around with married women, Lux.”
“Okay, okay,” I said calmly. “Then we’ll make a statement using the truth, no gimmicks or no word play. We’ll stick to the facts.”
Jalen ran a hand through his hair. “I feel bad,” he confessed. “I can’t stop thinking of how Morgan might be feeling over all this. Yeah, there’s no guarantee that he’s faithful to her either, but I don’t know that, do I? As far as I know, he’s a great husband.”
“I get that, I do,” I quickly assured him. “However, we need to focus on what we can control, and your guilt isn’t the priority right now. If we can arrange a private apology later, then we can do that. I just think that you’re probably going to have to be realistic about Morgan’s opinion of you right now.”
“I just…I just want the truth out there,” he said. “I don’t like that she’s making this seem like it’s my fault or Morgan’s. She told me that he filed for divorce, but they were keeping it hush because he didn’t want it to distract from his upcoming race.” Jalen shook his head in disgust. “If I knew anything about NASCAR, then I’d know that there aren’t any upcoming races right now.”
“How much of the truth do you want to tell?” I asked.
His brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Are we giving a blanket statement, or are we giving details?”
“I only hooked up with her that one time,” he said. “However, I have all our DM exchanges, and they donotpaint her as the victim in all this.” He let out a troubled sigh. “Still, I don’t want to make them public if I don’t have to. At least, not without talking or communicating with Morgan first.”
“Something that I’m sure any person can appreciate,” I said, the guy earning a little bit more of my respect.
“Well, I’m sure you understand,” he replied flatly. “After all, you have your own drama that you’re dealing with.”
That’s where he was semi-wrong. Aubrey Leighton’s vomited confession was all over the place, and there was no escaping it, even if you didn’t follow soccer. However, her confession wasn’t anything compared to Rachel Malaki’s admission, and that woman had ruined her life with each word out of her mouth. Instead of coming clean and throwing herself on the mercy of the public the way that Aubrey had, Rachel had blamed stress and emotional turmoil at the hands of her boyfriend for what she’d done. Taking no accountability for her actions, she had gone for the sympathy angle, and that backfired when her boyfriend decided to make a statement of his own. By the time that the sun had set on the day, Ted Lomack and Aubrey Leighton had teamed up to reveal just how horrible and narcissistic Rachel Malaki really was, and it really was unfortunate that a baby was involved in their mess.
What really sucked was how Titan hadn’t reached out to me all day, and how I’d been too much of a coward to reach out to him. I had told myself that he was busy with Orion and Atlas, but that little voice in my head had been calling me a coward all day long.
“Actually-”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Startled, Jalen and I both looked up to see a furious Titan Miller glaring down at us. “Are you seriously on a fuckingdatewith another man?”
I automatically looked around for Atlas or Orion. “Titan, what are you…what are you doing here?”
“I’m not here on a motherfucking date,” he bit out.
