Page 26 of Sinner's Vow

Chapter Eight

KENNEDY

I sitin a room with half a dozen others, every single one of them on the phone. Gina. Tori. Tyler. Gabriel. Two lawyers.

They’ve been trying to get the pictures of me removed for the past twenty-four hours.

For twenty-four hours, those pictures of me have been live on dozens of media outlets. Thankfully, the more explicit ones are blurred out. But all of the articles say slanderous things about me. There’s speculation that I was a prostitute when Noah met me. That I’m a porn star. My name is trending everywhere and it’s one of the top Google searches right now.

And I’m sitting here with these people who are trying to get everything taken down, but I’m alone.

I haven’t seen Noah since I woke up. Gina and Gabriel said that Noah said he would take care of this, and then disappeared.

He hasn’t answered his phone all day. No one has been able to track him.

“Hey, guys, look at his,” Tyler says as he holds out his phone and turns up the volume.

“Photographer Nico Gasteon has been arrested on charges of child pornography,” the female news reporter says. “Just minutes after an anonymous source turned in a camera card containing dozens of images, the fire department responded to a call from the man’s home. His studio was on fire, and he is accused of attempting to destroy evidence. Just yesterday, Nico Gasteon sold images of Sinner’s Run frontman Noah Alexander’s wife, Kennedy Alexander. Nico is being held without bail.”

“Holy shit,” Tyler breathes as he looks back at the rest of us. “Noah…did Noah do that?”

“He set the man’s house on fire?” Gabriel asks with widened eyes. “And framed the bastard?”

I shake my head. “Nico is a total creep. I doubt Noah had to frame him for anything. Nico thought I was seventeen when he paid me to do those pictures.”

“Shit,” Tori says as she leans back in her chair. “What a disgusting dickhead.”

“Excuse me,” Gina says as she holds the phone up to her ear. “I have to take this. Private call.”

Tori nods, and Gina steps outside.

“I’m kind of shocked that cold-hearted bitch is here helping,” Tyler says as he glares after the door when it closes. “Didn’t think she cared about anything but herself.”

“You should have seen her when I asked her to help me find a nanny, when Sophia came and applied,” Gabriel growls as he too glares at the door.

Tori laughs. “You picked about the worst person possible for that one, Gabe. The woman hates kids. You know she had her tubes tied when she was nineteen, right?”

And those words make my stomach go cold. I sit straighter and my eyes snap to Tori. “Wait, Gina can’t have kids?”

“Hell no,” she says with a chuckle and the shake of her head. “Even saves herself a good dollar on insurance because of the procedure. Can you imagine? That woman, a mother?”

Bile rises in my throat. My brain feels like it’s spinning a thousand miles a minute.

Nineteen. Gina got her tubes tied when she was nineteen.

Gina is at least twenty-eight. Maybe older than thirty.

Gina hasn’t been able to have kids in nearly a decade.

“You lying bitch,” the words hiss over my lips. Red hot rage surges through my veins, and suddenly I’m on my feet. I charge to the door Gina exited through and shove it open, stalking out into the hall where I find her with a phone pressed to her ear. “You fucking bitch!”

I don’t slow as I collide with her, shoving her back against the wall. Her phone hits the carpet and bounces. And I slap her across the face. As hard as I possibly can.

Her head whips to the side, the sound loud, echoing off the halls as she lets out a scream.

“Kennedy!” Tyler and Gabriel yell at the same time and I hear them scramble after me. But I see nothing but a red tunnel of fury as I stare into Gina’s wide eyes.

“You complete piece of shit,” I seethe right in her face. “You chased after Noah, pursued him relentlessly. And when he didn’t declare love to you after you two slept together, you told him you were pregnant with his baby!”

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