Page 47 of My Damaged Protector

“You have siblings now? Who are you, and what have you done with my friend Sarah's life?”

I laugh at her words. I'm still trying to catch up with the whole thing myself.

“How are you holding up?” she asks, her voice concerned now.

I sigh and drag a pillow with my legs. When it's close to me, I put it behind my back, and let myself slide down the bed until I'm comfortably rested on the pillow.

“I'm as good as anyone who just recently found out they have a dying father and two grown-up siblings can be.”

I picture her shaking her head as I speak, a pity look coming over her face. Maybe I shouldn't be talking about this with her or anyone else. I don't need to bore them with my issues.

“I should probably let you get back to work,” I say, cutting off whatever sympathetic speech she's planning to give me.

“I'm actually at home, but it's fine. I should let you get settled in, too. Just know that I am here if you ever need to talk to someone, alright?”

“Sure, thanks, Mandy.”

“It's alright. See you tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

“Great, I can't wait to see you. I wish it was under a different circumstance but still…”

“I know, I'm excited to see you, too,” I assure her. It's been years since we last saw each other.

When she ends the call, I put my phone down, but the way it immediately starts to buzz with messages has me picking it back up.

I unlock the phone, wondering what the hell is going on only to find out… No.

Someone leaked it that I'm helping Neville.

Who would do that?

I haven’t even told anyone about this except Mandy, and she certainly wouldn't do this to me. She probably called because she found out about this on the news. Oh yeah, she did mention it. I was just too disoriented from sleep to understand.

Crap.

If there's one thing I hate more than spiders, it's the media. I hate how they take a very simple situation and spin it into different webs of lies.

This is why I've done my best to keep my life private. For years, they didn't have any information on me except what I chose to share. Until now.

Someone did this.

My mind immediately goes to Lauren, but I try to brush it off. She can't be that bad. What would she gain by doing it, anyway?

Nothing. Now that almost the whole world knows I'm trying to help my father, it'll just bring unnecessary attention to the whole situation.

But what if that was the aim?

What if this was indeed Lauren’s doing, and she did this so I wouldn't be able to back out now that it's out there in the open?

Damn, all the fiction I've been writing must finally be getting the best of me.

It makes no sense that Lauren or anyone would try to manipulate me into this. And the media isn't even painting me in a bad light.

Thank God for that. I still would very much like it if they never found out.

There's no saying for sure who did this, but my mind keeps pointing toward Lauren.

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