“Wait, what did you do?” Petrov asked, his dark brows pulling together.
“He leaked their arrangement to the press.”
“No, that was not me. That was my giant twat of a father.”
“Your dad did that?” Trick asked. “Do you need another drink?”
“Actually now that you mention it, I could use one.”
“Why would he do that?” Elles questioned, still angry but softer now.
“Because he’s an arsehole. Do you need more reasons?”
“I guess not. So he told the press you two had made a deal?”
“Aye, and she was very hurt.”
“How did he know?”
“I shared it with my sister because the lass is more intuitive than she has a right to be.”
“So you shared it with your sister, and your sister then shared it with your father.”
“Aye, who then sold our story to the tabloids.”
“You made her the center of attention in a very bad way. What did she do?”
“She kicked me out, broke my fucking heart. I deserved it. Wouldn’t you do the same thing?”
Elles shifted back and forth uncomfortably. “Yes, I would.”
“I humiliated her. I didn’t want that to happen. Tell me how to fix this, Elles.”
“This isn’t about the story. It’s the fact that you told your sister that she was basically nothing more than a bargain.”
“What are you talking about? I never said that.”
“That’s not what she told me. She said on your last day there, your sister had some choice words for her right before he left for the airport. She warned her, in no uncertain terms, that if Becca was just using you for fame, she would never forgive her. And then, what happens after the two of you have a fight?”
I sighed and ran my hand over my face. “The story breaks.”
“The story breaks, and you went to see a divorce attorney. So I don’t know if it was your dad or her, but what I do know is you broke my friend’s heart, and now she’s alone, pregnant, and she doesn’t know what to do because her husband is too much of a baby to just talk to her.”
My stomach lurched as I ignored the bit about a divorce attorney. I could deal with that later. There was another very important word she’d dropped like a bomb in my lap. “Excuse me. What did you just say?”
All eyes locked on Elles. “Nothing. I said she’s alone.”
“No. The other part. The pregnant one.”
“Oh, that. I don’t know. I wasn’t really thinking when I said it.”
Frustration boiled very near the surface. “Elyse. I like you very much, but if you don’t quit your yammering, I cannae be responsible for what happens next.”
“I don’t know if she’s pregnant. She’s late. That’s all. She’s late. I went over yesterday, and I brought some wine. She wouldn’t drink it. So then I started giving her a hard time, and she mentioned she was late.”
“She didn’t think this was important news to share with her husband?”
“What news? There’s no news .”