He snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“It’s true! I talked to Zoe a couple of weeks ago and told her I couldn’t continue like this, deceiving you. She asked me to write one more article and then it was going to be over. I’ve been moved back to the home and lifestyle section of the magazine.”
“The section you told me you worked for in the first place.” She’d lied to him from the start.
And that hurt like hell.
Her gaze met his for the briefest moment before she looked away. “Right, I know, I lied to you and I’m sorry but I didn’t know how to tell you I was writing an article about us.”
“About our freaking sex life, Stephanie. So you told your editor who I was and then you all decided to go ahead and publish this? Do the big reveal about the injured baseball player and all his kinks? His vulnerabilities?” Justin shook his head, thrusting a hand through his hair in frustration. “I was such an idiot to trust you. I’ve never really trusted anyone until I met you and look where it got me.”
“No, Justin, you don’t understand! I never told Zoe who I was with. I have no clue how they figured it out!”
He wanted to believe her, he really did. But he’d been duped before and the thing that bothered him the most was he thought he could trust her.
Unfortunately, he’d been completely wrong.
“Well how did they find out then? And they were in New York, Stephanie. Those pictures were taken when we were together in New York. Did you tell them you would be there with me? Did you give them some insider information so they could get their photos for this article? No one would believe you without proof, right?”
“No, I never told her anything I swear to God!” Tears streamed down her cheeks, the sight of them tugging at his heart but he pushed that emotion aside.
Fuck the heartstrings, the woman had been tugging on them since he first met her and it had all been complete and utter bullshit.
Using him per the norm. Every person who’d ever been in his life had used him in some form or another. Even his beloved grandmother, bless her heart, had used him to a point. And he’d gladly let her since she’d given him her love in return.
But no one else had ever given him any type of love. Or any type of emotion for that matter. They just took and took and took, expected everything from him while he was supposed to get nothing out of the deal.
Finally, he met a woman who he thought was different and she ended up just like the rest. Only even worse because she exposed everything they shared in a fucking magazine. Made what they had into something cheap and sleazy.
He’d never felt so stupid, so goddamned crushed in all his life.
“You’re a liar,” he finally said, his voice tight, his words clipped. “Maybe you didn’t know who I was when we first got together but you figured it out pretty fast afterward. And you continued it, documented every single thing we did and made it look cheap and shitty all to see your name in the magazine.”
“No, my name wasn’t in the magazine, I wrote the article under a pen name! No one knew who I was and that’s the way I wanted it.” She went to him and tried to touch him but he flinched away from her seeking hands. “You have to believe me. Somehow, some way Zoe and Caleb figured out what was going on and they followed us and got the pictures of us. Then they wrote this article about what I was doing and exposed our names, our faces, everything.”
“Right. You got exactly what you wanted, automatic fame. I hope you’re happy.”
“Justin, please listen to me.” She was full-on crying now, sobbing really, as she tried to catch her breath and explain. He held strong, kept his mouth tight, didn’t want to show any type of reaction to her outpouring of emotions.
Because deep down inside he wanted to haul her into his arms and offer her comfort. He wanted to hold her close and touch her, tell her how much he loved her anyway and that everything would be all right.
But everything wasn’t going to be all right, not between them. She’d broken their trust, done the ultimate betrayal and he felt so completely foolish he didn’t even want to face the public for the next few days.
Most likely, it would get worse before it got better. The national publications would catch wind of this and run with it.
Just fucking great.
Chapter Thirty-One
He’d kicked her out. Justin hadn’t wanted to hear her explanations. His handsome face had been a stony mask and he’d shot her a cold stare as she stood before him with tears streaming down her face. His body held rigid, his arms crossed in front of his broad chest, he’d let her talk until she was nearly blue in the face and then told her in a cold, calculating voice, “Get out.”
That had been two days ago. She
hadn’t heard from him since. Though City Magazine certainly had.
The shit had hit the fan immediately. Justin’s lawyers made contact with both the managing editor and the publisher first thing Monday morning, she’d heard through the grapevine. Stephanie had called in sick to work, unable to face anyone, needing to stay home and figure out what to do next.
Her sisters had called, they’d actually ganged up on her on speaker phone so they could harass and question her. After enduring it for too many minutes to count, she’d hung up. And she’d told the both of them to screw off if they couldn’t stand by her during this difficult time.