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“Three,” I said.

“Threemen wrapped around your finger, and they’re just... happy about it? They don’t mind that you’re not committed to any of them.”

I shook my head. “I’m committed toallof them,” I said. “I’m not sleeping around.”

Naomi snorted, and for the first time, it wasn’t a friendly, or even a disbelieving, sound. It was the same snotty kind of noise I could remember the mean girls from middle school making. “Kind of sounds like you are, babe,” she said. “Do you know who the father is?”

In all truth, I didn’t. There wouldn’t really be a way to know until we got a paternity test done. If that’s what they wanted. “I know it’s one of them.”

She let out a cruel laugh, and I saw my friendship crumble before me. “That’s kind of slutty,” she said. “Who are these men?”

I shook my head. “You wouldn’t know them,” I said. “It doesn’t matter.”

Naomi didn’t look convinced. “The truth will come out eventually, Alex,” she said. “Might as well own up to it now.”

Now, I understood why my men couldn’t stand her. “I don’t know if you’re judging me or if you’re jealous of me or something, but don’t threaten me.”

Naomi’s smirk took on an even crueler edge. “I’m not threatening, Alex,” she said and patted my arm. “I’m just telling you what I know. The truthalwayscomes out.”

What happened to my friend?I turned on my heel and stalked out of the bathroom, intent on telling Thomas exactly how right he was about her, but the minute I landed in the corridor, I stopped. Telling Thomas about Naomi would mean telling him about the baby, and as much as Ishoulddo that, I didn’t want to just yet.

I didn’t think that I could just yet.

23

THOMAS

Hunter Bailey certainly could scream. He had been yelling at Jake for the better part of thirty minutes—we could hear it out in the corridor—but none of us had gotten a reason why just yet. “Look at fucking TMZ!” Hunter shouted. “I needed someone scandal-free to win this case for me, and now, you’re absolutely useless.”

I glanced at Zach. We had been asked to wait outside while Jake and Hunter “talked”, but this sounded bad. We went back inside, despite Natalia’s pleading with us to stop, and the first thing I saw was Jake standing behind his desk with a look on his face that I couldn’t quite place, but I knew that it meant something bad was going to happen.

“Jake,” I said.

“What the hell are you two idiots doing in here?” Hunter whirled around on us.

“You’ve fired us, right?” I asked.

“Oh, absolutely—”

“So, shut the fuck up and get out,” I said.

Hunter blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Leave,” Zach said. “If we’re no longer representing you, you don’t get to continue to scream at us.”

“I’m going to the Board about this,” Hunter snarled and stalked from the room. He slammed the door behind him, and Natalia yelped.

“Pain in the fucking ass,” I muttered, but my focus was already back on Jake, who hadn’t looked away from his computer. “Jake, what’s going on?”

We went around so that we could see the computer. He had TMZ’s website pulled up. The headline across the top of the page stopped my blood cold—Actor Ryan Jacobs’s Father Caught in Affair with Younger Woman, Pics in Gallery. Jake had been hovering over theReadMorelink, obviously too afraid to look.

I reached over and clicked the mouse for him. Both he and Zach looked at me like I was a pervert, but I just shrugged. “We have to know how bad it is. If it’s not clear that it’s Alex in the pictures, it might be embarrassing, but not career-ending.”

They quieted down, and I found the picture gallery in question. The first picture was just of Jake and Alex on the patio at his house. It was obviously during Thanksgiving. I remembered Alex’s cute sweater dress. Her face wasn’t clear. “That’s not too bad,” I said and clicked the next picture. Now, Alex was kissing Jake. Her arms were clutching him to her body. It wasn’t great, but her face was still unclear. “Maybe we dodged—”

In the next picture, Jake had stripped off Alex’s dress and turned her around. Whoever took these pictures got an absolutely clear shot of her face and her breasts. My stomach twisted into knots, and I quickly shut it down. “We don’t need to see the rest,” I said and ground the heels of my hands into my eyes until I saw stars. “What the fuck are we going to do?”

“I’ve got to call Ryan,” Jake said. “That stupid article mentionedhisname. The media are going to be all over him.”


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