“Aww, you two engagement trendsetters.” I turned to find her flipping away her side bangs as she sat down across from us. She shook her head at my left hand resting on the table. “That is seriously beautiful. Although I think you could’ve afforded to go up a carat just for the paparazzi hell you’re putting this girl through.”
“She’s been handling them like a champ so far,” Drew said, massaging the back of my neck. Ugh God. Yes.
“As long as they stay far back enough and they’re not yelling at me, I’m good,” I chuckled while trying not to actually melt under Drew’s touch.
“Well, you’re a good sport. I told Iain I’d end up backhanding anyone who followed me down the street,” she said, making Drew snort. “And I’d just like, burn down the offices of every newspaper if they interviewed the idiots from my hometown and made them talk shit about me.”
Both Drew and I paused, and I could tell we were both wondering if Keira was making up a hypothetical situation. She muttered to herself for a second before squinting at our quizzical faces.
“Oh Jesus. There was an article today. You didn’t see it?” she asked. But the curious part was that she wasn’t looking at Drew as she said it. Oh God. My heart dropped when I realized the article wasn’t about him.
It was about me.
My hand flew to my phone. I wasn’t even listening anymore, but I could hear Drew’s hot irritation with Keira as they went back and forth for a bit. He asked why the hell she even read that shit, she said something about Iain and then I found the headline.
COLD-BLOODED COUPLE: FUTURE MRS. MADDOX LIVING LAVISH WHILE MOM LIVES ON WELFARE.
“What the fuck,” I murmured, my wild eyes scanning the article.
It mentioned my “unemployed sister” Kaylie, and included quotes from former high school classmates that I barely knew, who claimed I had always “looked down” on others and that I “didn’t bat an eye” over the fact that my mom and sister “went hungry.”
Seriously?
I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.
Because of Drew, some scumbag had dug into my life, aired out my dirty laundry and added bullshit details to make me look completely despicable. And unlike Drew, I wasn’t a celebrity so when I eventually dropped out of the spotlight, this horrible story would still be out there about me. It wouldn’t be pushed aside by years and years of new headlines – it would exist forever to humiliate both me and my family.
I was so livid I was shaking.
“This is disgusting,” I whispered, twisting away from Drew when he tried to cover my phone.
“Evie, please stop reading it,” he urged in a murmur as Keira flipped her bangs again.
“Look, don’t even sweat it. They’re just white trash, and you did good leaving them behind.”
“Take it easy, alright?” Drew warned her in a low mutter.
“What, D? Anyone on welfare is going try to use her to get to your money. You know too well how that goes. Protect yourselves.”
“This is not the time, and you don’t know the full story, so drop it,” Drew snarled despite the fact that I knew he didn’t believe his own words. He himself knew the full story about my mother, and he’d told me to cut her off too, but tonight I knew he could feel my hand shaking in his.
And though I recognized that he’d just had my back, I still felt a pit of fury inside me grow bigger for him.
“Hold on,” I heard Emmett say to Iain before calling down to us. “What’s going on? You guys okay?”
“Yes, everything’s fine,” I replied fast, shoving my phone in my clutch and refusing to ruin his engagement dinner with this.
And when Aly returned giggling about something or another, I forced myself to flash a big smile and act fine for her, because she didn’t deserve to spend her big night consoling me, being mad for me and talking me down from my emotions.
So I held it all in until we got home, and I knew full well that Drew’s eyes had barely left me throughout the car ride.
“Evie.”
I was still and catatonic the whole way back, but upon getting into the house I made a blind, angry beeline for the kitchen.
“Evie, what are you even doing?” Drew asked, his voice coming closer behind me.
“I’m making myself tea.”