Page 45 of Under Ground

Anna stares at me as I cross the room and place my bag on my desk. I pick up my coffee mug. Her eyes bore holes in me until I look up to meet her intense gaze.

I frown. “Is everything okay, Anna?”

My stomach flips as her brows knit. Tension creeps into my shoulders—the silence is unnerving.

“What is it? Has something happened?”

She nods slowly.

“For God’s sake, Anna. Just tell me what it is. It can’t be that bad.” Can it?

“You’re on TMZ,” she says.

Huh? “What’s that?”

Anna wrinkles her nose. “You don’t know what TMZ is and you’re dating Alex Stone? It’s a celebrity news site.”

My heart sinks. “What?”

“Come and have a look.”

It’s a photo from an afternoon last week. I picked up Casey from day care and we started to walk home only to find Alex waiting for us in the park with a big smile on his face as he’d finished for the day.

There’s me on one side, Alex on the other, and my chest squeezes at the sight of Casey in the middle. She’s staring up at Alex, awe written all over her face.

“What’s this site?”

“I can’t believe you don’t know.” Anna crosses her arms. “It’s just one of the biggest entertainment sites in the world.”

My throat tightens. “Really?”

“Are you okay, Lana? You’ve gone really pale.”

I stagger back, grab hold of my office chair and sit down. “How big are we talking?”

She shrugs. “Millions of viewers. I’m not sure how big it is here, but it’s huge in the States. It says he’s having a big romance while he’s here, and they’re speculating about how your daughter is related to him. Probably because the same thing happened to Josh Carter and that turned out to be his daughter.”

Anna keeps talking, but I switch off. Nausea sweeps me. I didn’t want attention, and I told Alex that. I thought he knew what he was talking about when he said we’d avoid it here and that his career wasn’t big enough to attract it.

And yet here we all are on a website. I don’t even know what the story attached to it says yet. I guess technically it’s correct—as far as I’m concerned, Alex and I have been falling in love. But the last thing I want is Casey plastered all over the Internet.

I bury my face in my hands.

Click.

I know that sound.

Gareth’s office door squeaks as he pulls it open, and he’s the last person I feel like facing today. I wonder if it’s too late to pull a sicky.

“Lana. Could you please join me in my office? I want to give you the criteria for some reports I need.”

The door closes with a click.

Sure. Whatever.

Slowly, I rise from my seat. If he wants to talk to me about the website Anna’s just shown me, at least I’m prepared for it. Though, given that I haven’t really processed it yet, I’m not sure what my response will be.

Anna screws up her face. “Good luck. I know how much work you do on those reports. As if you need more.”

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