The doors open and I hear her gasp in shock to see close to twenty camera lenses being pointed in our direction outside of the main lobby windows. I want to grab her hand so badly, but that will only add more speculation to the gossip.
The clicking of the cameras and questions come flying at us once we make our way out of the comfort of her building. We quickly make our way to my parked car and I don’t think we take a breath until we are safely inside. I watch Jenna turn around to look behind us and she’s transfixed by all of them scattering like ants to jump into their cars and taxis to follow us.
“Jenna,” I say in a stern voice and her gaze reverts to me, but not before I see the fear in her eyes. “I need you to let the driver know the address of where we are going.”
“Yes, sorry, that would really be helpful, wouldn’t it?” she nervously giggles and gives Marco the address to her lawyer’s office. He starts to drive away, but soon the paparazzi have caught up with us in their own cars.
“How do you get used to this?” she questions with a dazed look on her face.
“It will die down, Jenna. These paps don’t like being outside in the cold weather,” I tell her, hoping my answer will make her feel better, but instead she just looks even more confused.
“Winter isn’t for another couple of months—they’ll stay here that whole time?”
Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have told her that.
“Afraid so. Just always keep your head down, let them get their shot, and don’t tell them anything.” She nods at me and turns to continue looking out the window. I don’t think my answer was to her liking, but I don’t want to lie to her either. I want her to be fully prepared during the times I’m not able to be around and protect her.
We pull up in front of her lawyer’s building and our car is immediately boxed in with paparazzi.
“Jenna, let me get out first and then come out on my side instead so I can help you navigate through them, okay?” She nods her head and I get out of the car.
I smile and wave at them to divert the attention from Jenna to me. I turn around and extend my hand to help Jenna out of the car. As soon as she’s out, she lets go of my hand and I lead her ahead of me by placing my hand on the small of her back. We reach the doors that security is holding open for us and proceed to be greeted by our lawyers who are waiting to escort us upstairs.We exchange introductions to our respective lawyers and follow them to the meeting room to start the proceedings of making Avery officially mine.