Page 93 of Forever Fighting
I’m a normal girl who happens to have wealthy and famous friends.
But as the Boston skyline grows bigger out of the oval windows, I have a feeling this will be different. Thus far, the press hasn’t been all that flattering about me and neither have the comments. It’s been painted to look like I left Adam and ran off with his best friend. Adam’s infidelity hits at like the second paragraph of whatever snippet article, if it even shows up at all. It’s all reading as if I were going behind Adam’s back and not the other way around.
So now I’m the bad guy.
The harlot who broke a devastated billionaire’s heart to chase another’s. The woman who metaphorically left one guy at the altar so I could marry another.
I’m trying not to care. I truly am. I’m also trying not to go on any social media. But it’s eating at me. The lies being spread. The hateful comments by strangers.
Roman hasn’t said much since we left the resort. He’s been on his phone a lot, texting and occasionally getting up to go to the bedroom in the back to make a phone call he doesn’t want me to hear. There is nothing more isolating than becoming the center of attention.
I have no home. No sanctuary. I’m staying with Roman, and I want to be with him, but now everything feels tainted. Like it’s falling apart before it could even start.
Typically, I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl, but right now, that glass feels empty. I feel empty. I just want to crawl under the sheets until all this blows over. It’ll make going back to work hell. It’ll make simply trying to be with Roman hell. How can a relationship start and build when it’s under a microscope? When everyone wants us to fail?
Ugh.
Roman takes the seat beside me and buckles up as we get ready to land. His hand meets my thigh, but my focus stays out the window.
“There’s press outside my building,” he says quietly, hiswords carrying just loud enough to be heard over the hum of the engine.
“Lovely.”
“Adam has also come out as the tearful ex, making a statement about how he’s brokenhearted by everything and loves you and feels endlessly betrayed by our actions.”
My eyes close. “What an asshole. Let me guess, he never mentioned Corporate Barbie.”
“No.”
I bluster out an annoyed breath and shake my head. “You know, in all the years I’ve known Adam, never did I ever think he was capable of anything like this. The cheating and lying and manipulation. The morning of the day I caught him, if you had asked me if he’d do any of this, I would have sworn under oath that he wouldn’t.”
“I never saw this coming with him either. Anytime we ever spoke about you, it was always him telling me how he couldn’t wait to get married and how much he loved you. Despite how I feel about you, it’s honestly why I had so much guilt other than the fact that he is—was—my friend. People make mistakes and second chances are sometimes warranted, but not in this case. Not with him.”
“I just want to be a nurse.”
“I just want to be a chef.”
I rest the back of my head against his shoulder. “We can’t get a divorce now. It’ll look so bad and keep all of this in the press longer than it hopefully otherwise will be.”
He kisses my hair. “I don’t particularly want a divorce anyway. As far as I’m concerned, you and I are meant to be.”
“You’re the silver lining.”
“You might change your mind about that. The only reason people care about this is because I’m Roman Fritz.”
He’s right,of course. The press lining the front of his residence proves that. Thankfully, the Fritz security team takes us into the underground garage of the building and we don’t have to wade through them. The doors of his penthouse open and we drag our suitcases inside, but before I can even release a relieved breath, I’m practically body slammed by a pregnant woman.
“You’re here. You made it!” Skylar gives me a fierce hug. “This is so insane but thank you for taking the heat off my wedding to Aston.”
I cackle a bit at that. Skylar Fritz Davenport and Aston Hughes got into a marriage of convenience for a multitude of reasons. But she’s a Fritz and he’s a Hughes—another big billionaire name in this city—and with that, their fake wedding made front-page headlines about a month or so ago. It seems mine has now eclipsed all of that.
“Happy to help.”
She pulls back and puts her hands on my shoulders. “Don’t stress it. We’re all here and we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“Everyone’s here?”
Roman throws me a wink and we leave our suitcases in the foyer for the time being as we go and meet our people in his living room. Hayes, Quinn, Crew, Forest, Aston, and obviously Skylar are all set up with food and various types of drinks and even laptops set up. It’s like a UN summit but better.
