Page 105 of Worth Every Game

“Jack.” Her voice is sharp and desperate, and she’s still bent nearly double. “Did you delete them or not?”

Panic rages through me. I can’t think. Can’t fucking work out how to fix this. Every good thing in my life hinges on the answer to this question, and I don’t have the right fucking one. “No,” I admit, and she wails, tremors running through her body, my heart clenching at the sight. “El, please. I don’t know how this happened. I would never have shared them. Never. You have to believe me.”

I reach out, wanting nothing more than to take her in my arms and ease her distress, but she backs away, waving me off with thrusts of her hands.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” she spits.

“El, please,” I beg, and my voice sounds like it’s breaking.

“Jesus, Jack. The photos. All the photos.” She covers her face. “Oh, my God.”

Her terror spears me, searing pain following in its wake, which I do my best to ignore. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” I promise, even though I don’t know that it is. “We can manage this. We can—”

“We can what? What can we do? Shut down the fucking internet?” Her words tremble in the air, hopeless.

“Shit,” I mutter.

She lets out a pitiful whimper. “I knew it. I knew getting involved with someone like you was a mistake. I knew it.”

Someone like me. What does that mean?“I did not do this… I didn't... I have no idea how they got out.”

“You made me do it.” For a second I think she means I made her pose for the photos and I’m about to object, but she continues. “You made me start the social media crap. You put those videos up. You pressured me to put myself out there. To open myself up to this kind of scrutiny. This is your fault.” Her voice is high and screechy. She doesn’t sound like herself.

“El…”Shit. I can't calm her, can't bring her down this time. “I swear I didn’t share the photos with anyone. And I didn’t make that video.”

She slams her hands against my chest. “I don’t care if you made the fucking video or not. This is your fault. Those pictures are out there because of you. You lied to me. You said you deleted them.” She staggers back and scrapes her nails down her cheeks, leaving angry welts. “You fucking bastard.”

“El, please. Shit.” I don’t know what to do, what to say to stop her spiralling. “I didn’t do this. I swear.”

She continues as though she hasn’t heard me, driven forward on a wave of anger as she fists her hands and thrashes them down at her sides. “I would have stayed at the Marchmont. That was enough for me… but it wasn’t enough for you, was it? You wanted me to be more than I was. You needed it. You needed it so I would be good enough for your fucking mother.”

“Fuck. No.” I rake my hands through my hair.How the fuck did this get so twisted up? “That’s not what—”

“Yes, it was. I wasn’t good enough. Special enough. Because God knows, Jack Lansen couldn’t possibly date a waitress, could he? Fuck you.” She presses her hands to either side of her head like she means to crush her skull between them.Desperate. “And now… it’s all out there. All of me. All over the fucking internet, proving your mother right.”

“Fuck, El. No. Don’t do this. You have to be bigger than this shit. Do not let that”—I point at her phone, still lying where shedropped it—“ruin this. This is your moment. Fucking seize it. You’re on the cusp of changing your whole life.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t want it.” Her eyes glimmer with unshed tears as she bends to pick up her phone and shakes it at me. “I don’t want any of it. I can’t handle it. This feels likeshit, and you fucking led me here. I knew… IknewI didn’t want to do this, and you came along trying to fix me, telling me how great I was and turning me into some kind of product—”

“Product?” I cover my face with my hands and groan. “What the fuck are you talking about? No one cares about the photos. Not really. You’re a beautiful, naked woman, and that’s it. No one will care. It’ll be forgotten about tomorrow.”

She puffs a quivering breath, her face shifting into a mask of devastation, and I know I’ve said the wrong thing. “Not by me it won’t. I care. I fucking care,” she spits, her cheeks turning a fiery red. “This is my life. My reputation. Those pictures… those are you and me, Jack. That’s what I gave to you, and I was a fool to do it.”

Guilt rakes through me, tearing my insides into shreds.

“And the videos are horrendous. The things they’re saying about me…” She slams one hand over her heart, still clutching her phone in the other. “I’m deleting my profile. I’m taking it all down.”

“Don’t do that.” I hold my hands out as though I’m trying to stop her jumping off a ledge. “You can’t let them win. You’re this fucking close to breaking out, El. The photos might even help—”

Slam. Her palm hits my cheek with a brutal sting, making my eyes water.Jesus. This shit is out of control.

“Fuck you, Jack. Fuck you. Did you do it? Did you release them as PR? Is this another game for you? Another fucking play?”

Her words sting more than her slap. “God, no. How can you think that?”

“I know what men like you will do for success. I know how hard you push for it. How fucking ruthless you are. You don’t care what it might do to me, do you?” My head is spinning, but Elly’s thoughts seem to have taken a dark path, and I don’t know how to guide her off it. “And you dare to stand there and tell me it’s a good thing—”

“I’m sorry. Fuck, I don’t think that. But it is what it is. It’s done. We have to make the best of it.”

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