Chapter 0297
I slipped into bed with Logan, who roused awake at the slight jostling of the bed.
“Hazel?” he asked.
“It’s me.”
Rolling toward me, he opened his arms. I quickly took my place in the space between them.
“Do you feel better now?” he asked, his voice groggy with sleep.
“Infinitely,” I replied.
“Good.” His eyes started to close.
Listening to the steady beat of his heart and the soft rise and fall of his chest with his breath, I too felt like I might fall under sleep’s embrace at any moment.
But then, in the quiet dark of the bedroom, Logan whispered, “I wouldn’t blame you, you know. If you left.”
“Left what?” The apartment?
“Me,” he said.
“Logan… You can’t be serious.”
Logan held me tight enough that I couldn’t lean back to see his face. Because of this, I could only assume that he had indeed meant it, even if it was the musings of a mostly–asleep man.
“My grandfather has tremendous influence, and money to make anything possible…” Logan said. “He told me he’d rather burn down his own legacy than see it fall into my hands. He wasn’t joking. He’s going to try to take me down…”
“We’ll stop him,” I said, keeping my voice strong with purpose, hoping he could feel my sincerity, as well as my devotion. “I’m not going anywhere Logan, so you can get that thought right out of your head.”
He hummed. “Good…” The word was slurred, and quickly his breathing evened out. He snored lightly, his breaths ruffling my hair.
Quickly, I followed him under.
When I opened my eyes again, morning was creeping through the windows, warming me, even as the bed beside me was now cold.
“Logan?” I asked, sitting up. I glanced at the bathroom, but the door was opened, the light turned off.
I rolled out of bed and crept toward the door to the bedroom. Opening it, I heard voices echoing up from the living room downstairs.
“So it’s a war, then,” Dylan said. “He’s going to destroy his legacy. How do you think he’ll do it?”
“I have no idea,” Logan said. “But we need to figure it out, and fast. You didn’t see the look in his eyes, Dylan. It was almost dead. He’s fanatical about this. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before!”
“He groomed you to be his perfect heir,” Dylan said. “You can’t fault yourself for not seeing something you
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Chapter 0297
were brainwashed never to notice. You see it now, and that’s enough”
“If I’d known sooner
“You’d still be in deep shit,” Dylan said. “This is the hand we were dealt, let’s play it out.
I cleared my throat as I came down the stairs, not wanting them to think I was eavesdropping.
Both men looked up. Logan stood and came to the bottom of the stairs.
“Hey, sleepy head. We didn’t wake you, did we?” he asked.
“No. I woke up on my own.” I rubbed at my eyes. “Did anything new happen last night?”
Logan and Dylan glanced at each other, and then back at me.
“Logan… Don’t lie to me.”
“Show her,” Logan said to Dylan.
“You
sure that’s a good idea,” Dylan said.
“She deserves to see,” Logan replied.
Nerves in my throat, I came down the rest of the stairs and then walked into the living room. Logan stayed beside me every step, but didn’t touch me.
Dylan leaned down, plucked the remote from the coffee table, and clicked on the television.
I don’t know if by chance or if this was the station they had looked at before they turned it off, but one of the twenty–four hour news channels appeared on the screen. On it, a newscaster was making some kind of report – only, the image in the corner, showing what she was reporting on, was me.
Dylan unmuted the volume.
“Shocking news in the high society scene as sources have revealed a seductress, Hazel Whitaker, has come between Logan Hatfield and Tina St. Louis. The socialite Ms. St. Louis is reportedly, quote, absolutely devastated that the man she trusted so implicitly could betray her like this.” End quote.”
“That’s my picture…” I say belatedly. “That’s my name…
“Unfortunately, this is national news,” Dylan said, “Whether it was Tina who released the story to the press, or Hatfield Senior, we don’t know. I tried to get them to stop the story when it first broke, but it was too big. Too many clicks.”
“Your name is out there now,” Logan said.
If I’d still had my phone, I imagined it might be blowing up. Maybe it was a blessing it got left in that car on the side of the road.
What was the saying? Be careful what you wish for? I wanted to be Logan’s one and only, and now I was. Granted, the only way people saw me was as a temptress and a harlot, not as Logan’s actual wife….I guessed beggars couldn’t be choosers
“It’s okay…” I said weakly.
“It’s not,” Logan said at once.
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“It’s not,” Dylan agreed, but not as assuredly.
Logan and I both looked at him.
“You have a plan,” Logan said.
Dylan hummed. “The starts of one.”
“Maybe if we talked it through,” I suggested.
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“Alright.” Dylan muted the television, Thank God, because I was already getting sick of hearing my name on the speakers. “So far, we have totally lost control of the narrative…”
“That’s true.” Logan crossed his arms.
“What if we reclaimed it?” Dylan said.
“How so?” I asked.
Dylan put up both hands, gesturing to Logan with one and me with the other. “We tell them the truth.”
My stomach dropped. “No–way,” I said. “How much truth?”
“All of it,” Dylan said.
“That’s crazy. No one would be interested in a story like that… right?” I looked to Logan to back me up. Instead, he seemed almost… thoughtful. “Logan?”
“I need time to think about it,” Logan said. “We’d have to be perfect in how we portray it, to really bring the people over to our side.”
“We can hire a PR firm. I have a few friends. People we can trust, who won’t be bought out by your
grandfather’s money,” Dylan said.
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up my hands. “You are actually thinking of countering all this stuff about me by telling the world… what exactly?”
“That we are already married,” Logan said.
“A whirlwind love affair,” Dylan chimed in.
“We got drunk married in Vegas. For a while, you thought you’d married my sister,” I reminded him.
He winced. “Maybe we don’t need to share that part.”
“We’ll have to be ready for it though,” Dylan said. “Natalie is likely waiting in the wings to swoop in and get her five minutes of fame again. She’s the worst.” He glanced at me. “No offense, Hazel.”
“We hate each other,” I said. “It’s fine.” I took a breath. “We just have to think about this okay? I don’t want to run out there, spreading all of our secrets just to have them thrown right back at us again.”
“Fair point,” Dylan conceded.
“Alright,” Logan said, Turning to me, he took my hands in his. “We’ll take our time. We’ll figure out what exactly to say. But Hazel, I’m not hiding you in the shadows anymore. You are my wife, It’s far past time the world knows it.”