Chapter Twenty-Two
I watched Greer’s journey on the friend finder app on my phone, and as she got closer to the house, I left the bedroom and quietly made my way downstairs. After my shower, Reed had left me alone and returned to the kitchen to figure out how he was going to handle this situation. His lawyers had already been called and were likely on their way, and he had Mina. My bosses were two of the most powerful people I’d ever met, and I had faith that together, they were a force to be reckoned with.
The guilty party, whoever they were, would pay for their crimes. I didn’t doubt that.
What had me so sick to my stomach I could barely drink water was the fact that I, too, would have to pay for mine.
I’d thrown away the internship of my dreams by falling for the boss.
I could kiss my publishing career goodbye.
The photos would eventually become yesterday’s news. People would forget about me.
But the ripple effect had begun, and that couldn’t be changed.
I didn’t sit through four years at Vassar and six weeks at Columbia to be with a publisher. I’d done all that to become one. And now I would just be the intern who fucked her boss. Who would even hire me?
I glanced down at the little blue dot in the map on my phone and hurried through the foyer, opening the door before Greer could have a chance to knock or ring the bell. I needed a few moments with her without everyone else.
When she saw me, her face crumpled and she moved on me so quickly she nearly knocked me down. She wrapped her arms around me and the tears returned, streaming down my cheeks onto her shoulders.
“Oh, Ry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
I shook my head, then pulled back. Greer wiped my cheeks, then sighed. “It’s my fault.”
“What?” I laughed through a sob. “What are you talking about? Of course it’s not–”
“If I hadn’t taken you to White Rabbit and forced you to get a job, then dragged you downstairs because I wanted to see Lacey…”
My shoulders slumped and I cupped her face. “Greer, stop it.”
She cupped my face too and looked at me pointedly. “Listen to me. I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I should have never forced you out of your comfort zone.”
Reed cleared his throat behind me and I closed my eyes, his presence washing over me, a reminder that at the end of all of this, he and I were in it together. I opened my eyes and Greer’s flicked back and forth between mine.
Smiling through the tears, I whispered, “This was inevitable, G. He was inevitable.” I shrugged. “It's not your fault.”
I dropped my hands and motioned toward Cabot. “Greer, meet Cabot Reed.” I looked at him and pointed to Greer. “My best friend, Greer Clements.”
He offered her a tight-lipped smile and she walked past him with a huff.
Right now, he didn’t have much more in him than that tight-lipped smile, and she, well, Greer would need time to warm up to the man who’d, in her eyes, tied me up on stage and made it possible for this to happen to me.
And, depending on what Lacey had told her about him… well, who knew what she thought of Cabot Reed.
“Girl, what,” Greer called over her shoulder as she strode through the sitting room. “Who lives here? It's hideous.”
I looked up at Reed and offered him a watery smile, shrugging because Greer was right.
He pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Poor Grams.”
My shoulder shook on a laugh and I pressed my nose into his neck, breathing deeply.
“We’re going to get through this,” he said, running his hand down my back.
“I know.”
He pulled my head back and held my face. “Do you trust me?”
Swallowing hard, I nodded.
Three hours later, I poked at the spaghetti carbonara in front of me, still unable to eat. Takeout containers littered the table and part of the counter top, but no one seemed to be eating.
Greer sat beside me, actively listening but remaining rather quiet–a rarity for her.
When he wasn’t pacing the kitchen like a caged lion, Reed sat on the other side of me, keeping his hand on my leg beneath the table.
Two lawyers from Reed Publishing had shown up an hour ago, and a lawyer for White Rabbit and the Rabbit Hole was here as well. Mina’s business partner from Los Angeles was considering flying out, but she’d told him to hold off for now.
Not a lot could be done at this point, after the fact.
The pictures were out there.
We weren’t running damage control, we were discussing clean up.
Between Reed and Mina, they’d narrowed it down to Stella.
But, did it really matter who took the photos?
Outside of breaking a pretty strict privacy rule at White Rabbit–I still wasn't quite sure what the punishment for that would be–she’d really just broken some moral codes. Legally, Reed and I could go after her for slander or defamation or something–assuming we could prove it was her–but other than that, Stella would get off scot free.
“Well… then we’ll do a press conference.” Reed squeezed my knee and I set the fork down, swiveling my head to look at him.
“What?”
“Monday morning. I want to do a press conference.”
I searched his eyes for an explanation because what was coming out of his mouth didn’t make sense. There was no way this very private man had just suggested a press conference.
His hand flexed on my thigh. “Did you hear me?”
“Yes?.” I shrugged, then stared at my noodles again.
“Rylan.” His voice was firm, commanding.
I snapped my head back up to look at him.
“We will do a press conference. From Reed Tower.”
It took a moment for those words to sink in. “We?”
“When we go to work on Monday morning,” he said slowly, “I want to do a press conference.”
“I’m not…” I frowned. Was he serious? I looked around at the other people at the table, but all of them just watched me like they didn’t see that Reed had lost his mind. “I’m not going back there.”
“What?” Reed’s voice had an edge to it that normally, under any other circumstances, I would find slightly terrifying and more than slightly sexy.
Today, not so much.