Chapter 46
Morning After
Light bled pale across the marble. For one suspended second I thought he’d be gone. He wasn’t. Logan’s arm was heavy over my waist, breath tick-uneven against my shoulder.
Phones detonated.
His . Mine. Both at once,screens strobing headlines:
● LOGAN CREAMS & PENNY HAVEN: SECRET ROMANCE REVEALED
● Exclusive: Maddison Parker’s Hospital Records Leaked
My stomach dropped.
“They know I moved in,” I said, scrolling a flood of mentions. “They know everything.”
Logan went still,ice radiating off him, not at our exposure but at hers. Maddison’s records were splashed online like gossip, unstable and delusional bolded for clicks.
Later, I sat at his steel worktable with his laptop glowing cold. I hadn’t meant to dig. I couldn’t stop.
The leaks weren’t random. They were curated. Personal.
I followed burner accounts across encrypted threads, fingers flying, heart sinking.
The name hit like a gunshot.
Remy.
Maddison’s best friend. Fittings. Fries. Three a.m. calls.
Remy had been feeding the press for months.
“Fuck,” I whispered to the empty room.
I could’ve closed the laptop and pretended I hadn’t seen it. That wasn’t who I was. I grabbed my jacket and went straight to Maddison.
She opened the door in silk shorts and Lucas’s hoodie, mascara smudged. “Here to tell me I look like hell?”
“No,” I said. I stepped in and shut the world out. “I’m here to tell you something you don’t want to hear.”
“What?”
“It’s Remy.”
Silence stretched taut.
“Bullshit,” she snapped,then faltered at my face.
“It’s her, Maddie,” I said, voice breaking. “The timing, the files. She doesn’t think you deserve your fairytale.”
Maddison’s expression crumpled, hardened, shattered again. “She’s my best friend.”
“She was.”
Her eyes flamed. Tears burned. “If this is true, I’ll kill her.”
I didn’t flinch. I just stayed. Steady. Letting her world crack in my hands.
Better she heard it from someone who loved her than read it in a headline.
I tore the bandage off with clean hands.
Some wounds needed truth to heal.