Chapter 36
NOAH
Somehow I managed to pretend like my curiosity and fear weren’t getting the better of me while the guys got ready to leave, acting like I’d already forgotten Xavier’s outburst about the comment troll.
Somehow, I pulled it off, and no one mentioned anything more about it.
But the moment the company-driven vans exited our driveway, I logged into my new CB burner account faster than my phone knew how to handle.
AceHartsHeart was the username of the viral commenter, and Xavier hadn’t been exaggerating when he said they’d spam commented under every single one of the group Bytes.
On my own page it looked like he—or she—had hit every single Byte with at least a handful of comments, but the newer ones were flooded.
I know your secret.
I know your secret.
I know your secret.
I know your secret.
I know your secret.
I know your secret.
I know your secret.
Dread pooled in my stomach as I scrolled through the Bytes quickly. No one seemed to have taken the bait to respond to any comments, seeing them for the troll commenter they clearly were. But the concerning part was that they’d taken to commenting on the boys’ individual accounts, too.
I know Noah’s secret.
Most of the team would ignore it, but would Xavier? When he got nothing out of me directly, would he engage with the troll?
Fucking hell! what if AceHartsHeart really did know my secret? What if they exposed me to Xavier of all fucking people? Disaster.
Maybe I needed to get ahead of it all and come clean to Ace myself.
At least if Ace knew the truth, then he could make his own decisions about how to handle the information.
He was a good leader, and I did think I could trust he wouldn’t kick me to the curb for lying.
Especially when technically I never lied, I just allowed them to assume and never corrected anyone as to my lack of Y chromosome.
Somehow I doubt the distinction would make a difference. I misled them, and my gut told me that Ace wouldn’t take the breach of trust with a shrug and smile.
Chewing on the edge of my thumb, I exited out of ClikByte and searched for my manager’s number. If anyone could point me in the right direction, it was Jared.
“Oh, hi, stranger,” he said with warmth on answering my call. “I was starting to think you’d fired me.”
I smiled, my phone to my ear as I turned on the patio and pool lights and headed out to sit on the edge of the pool. Not in the pool, just near it.
“Nah, just respecting your paternity leave time. How is mini-Jared doing, anyway?”
He barked a laugh. “You mean mini-Noah? How the hell my daughter looks more like you than either of her parents, I don’t understand.”
Warmth rushed through me as I grinned up at the ceiling.
He’d been sending me photos, and realistically, it was just his baby’s bright blue eyes that made her resemble me.
Other than that, she just looked like a baby.
All babies looked like babies. Well, her eyes and the fact that she started rolling over at three weeks old, nearly giving Jared a heart attack while changing her diaper.
“Aw, here’s hoping she doesn’t start crawling early, too,” I teased. “Or you’ll really have your work cut out for you.”
Jared groaned, and from the background I heard his baby let out a cry.
“Give me a second, Noah. I’ll just check if Kelly needs anything.
” I waited patiently as he put the phone down and checked on his wife and baby, then came back a minute later with an exhausted sigh.
“Okay, I’m back. What’s up, kiddo? Are we safe to chat or… ?”
“We’re safe,” I confirmed. “The team all left a few minutes ago to do a photoshoot for some underwear line.”
He gave a surprised grunt. “How’d you get out of that one?”
“Ace excused me, citing my contract restrictions. Good thing he did or that would have become really uncomfy, really fast.” Speaking of uncomfy, it probably wouldn’t hurt to take my binder off so long as I was wearing an oversized hoodie, surely.
I reached under my shirt to undo the Velcro and swallowed back a groan of relief as it came loose.
“Anyway, I wanted to get your advice about…everything.”
“Everything?” he repeated as I rolled up my binder and secured it with its own straps. “That sounds ominous. Is this about your comment troll?”
“Yessss,” I hissed on a heavy exhale. “Good to know you also noticed.”
“How could I not? I’ve got Olympus PR team working on reporting the comments and getting the profile deactivated from ClikByte, but—”
“But what if they know?” I finished for him, my anxiety damn near choking me. “What if this isn’t just an annoyance?”
Jared didn’t answer for a moment, clearly considering what I was saying before blowing out a sigh. “And hence the reason for your call. You think you need to get ahead of this?”
I chewed the edge of my thumb nail again. Did I? “Yeah, kind of. Except dickhead Leight will lose his shit, won’t he?”
“I don’t know. I’d have to review the exact wording of your contract before you made any moves, but I’d really want you to consider the bigger picture consequences of revealing that you’re actually a girl. The blowback from Olympus fans, the media storm, not to mention—”
“The team will be pissed,” I groaned, rubbing my eyes.
Jared gave a short laugh. “I was going to say not to mention the possibility of being linked to Peaches, but yeah, your team won’t be happy about this.
Unless they would be? Gossip mill seems to suggest you’ve formed a few close friendships despite your disguise?
” His tone was teasing and inquisitive, and I rolled my eyes.
“Stop it, you know that shit is all for Cliks.” But…would Minho hate me or would it maybe be a good thing? What about Torin? I got the feeling he was into me, but he’d never made any kind of move, so maybe he wasn’t as attracted to guys as Minnie was?
Fucking hell. What would Xavier say?
“Look, I’m just saying not to do anything too hastily,” Jared continued, oblivious to my inner turmoil.
“I need to make sure we aren’t opening ourselves up to any nasty repercussions or…
I dunno. Just give me a couple days to run it past legal and our own PR consultants, all right?
But you’ll likely find this troll will get banned from CB and it’ll all dry up with no harm done. ”
I nodded despite the fact he couldn’t see me. “Yeah. Maybe. But sooner or later this is going to come out, and I would feel a hell of a lot better if it came from me rather than some random obsessed fan who’s run my face through an AI filter.”
“I agree,” Jared said with a grim voice. “Let me work out a strategy that minimizes risk and I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, are you okay there at the house? Is the shared room situation becoming a problem or are things still running smoothly?”
A pang of guilt vibrated through my chest, because I hadn’t told him that Skye knew all about my secret identity already and had done since basically day one. “Yeah it’s all fine. Skye’s the perfect roommate. Very into privacy and respectful of boundaries.”
“Good, that’s good to hear. You two have gained a lot of Cliks on your recent collabs too. That’s a great partnership to hold on to even after these games are over. Actually, on that topic…talk to me about Xavier Stone.”
I winced, because he’d just put on his recently acquired dad voice, and I already knew he wasn’t fooled by the illusion Xavier and I were even remotely friends, let alone anything more.
“There’s nothing to tell, Jared. Apparently we get good interaction from fans, but I could quite comfortably push him off a cliff with no wingsuit and never give it another thought. ”
Jared barked a laugh. “Good to hear. I remember how you used to feel about—”
“Ancient history, Jared!” I quickly cut him off. “Ancient fucking history. Teenage girls are fucking stupid, didn’t you know?”
Right as I made that very firm statement, a shadow filled the doorframe from the house, and I gasped so hard I nearly choked on my own breath.
“Noah, you okay? What happened?” Jared’s voice was full of concern, so I forced myself to laugh despite how hard my heart was thumping in my chest.
Shaking my head at how badly I’d just panicked, I lifted my hand in a weak wave. “Yeah, sorry. Ace just scared the hell out of me. I thought…” I thought I was about to be murdered like Cat Kay. “Nothing. All good. I should go, but you’ll get back to me and, uh, tell me what the fuck to do?”
“Of course. In the meantime just block the troll and ignore, all right?”
“Got it,” I murmured. “Thanks for chatting. Give my love to Kelly and Isla.”
“Will do. Call Miles when you can, too. He’s worried about you.” His dad voice was back, and I didn’t like it. Still, I quickly mumbled that I would, and ended my call as Ace sat on the sun lounger beside me with a yawn.
I gave him a curious look, taking in the fact he was still dressed exactly as he was when the team left the house. No makeup, hair still exactly as it had been. “Aren’t you supposed to be modelling underwear right now, Boss?”
His lips kicked up in a half smile. “They were running way behind schedule, so Z and I dipped out. We’ll do ours tomorrow instead.”
I glanced toward the house. “And Z is…?”
“Gone to visit his girlfriend,” Ace replied with a small grimace.
It made me curious about this girl that they all seemed to know about, despite the strict Olympus contracts forbidding “unapproved” relationships. It made me think of what Minho had said about always appearing available.
“You don’t like his girlfriend?” I asked, shifting to sit cross-legged and hoping my sweatshirt was baggy enough to maintain my disguise.
Ace shrugged, lying back on the sun lounger with an arm under his head. “It’s not that… She’s nice enough. It’s complicated.” It was a clear implication of not my story to tell, so I let it drop.