Page 18 of Second Chance Husband

Now I apparently needed to get rid of this matchmaking service.

Not that there was anything wrong with that business. However, two days after my divorce wasn’t the time to speak of it.

“I’m not quite sure why my relationships have anything to do with the matchmaking one. It wasn’t as if I met my ex-husband through this service. They’re not going to connect the two. I don’t know what you are worried about.”

Though I did. We all did.

Dawn shook her head. “Maybe we should wait on it. I’m sure the owner will understand.”

“I think we should continue on as we have. Leaning into what the media wants to flame isn’t going to help. After all, if we move on as we always have, they will ignore me. I’m not worth talking about. Our business is. So let’s keep on track, shall we?”

They both nodded, and though I knew I sounded harsh, I didn’t want to talk about this.

We had things to do. And dealing with what the media thought was appropriate wasn’t it.

I sighed, wondering exactly how my life had gotten to this point. Although I guess it was my own fault. I had made the poor decision to marry the man. And while selling a matchmaking company while a divorce was being settled probably wasn’t the smartest idea, there wasn’t anything I could do in that moment. We just had to buck up and move on.

At least that’s what I kept telling myself about it.

At least nobody told me to try out the matchmaking company. Of course, if I continued down this path, they would probably mention it. So I pushed for the next agenda item and kept moving on.

My phone buzzed more than once, and while some messages were from my mother, others were from my friends.

The news had broken, and I hadn’t been the one to tell them.

That was possibly childish of me, or just cowardly. But I wasn’t quite sure what else I was supposed to say.

I didn’t want to tell them I was a failure.

By the time I found myself alone, knowing that I needed to meet the lawyers to finish signing the paperwork for the matchmaking company, my phone was ringing off the hook. I would have to call Devney and Addison back, but they weren’t the only two getting through. My two administrative assistants were fielding as many calls as they could, but they couldn’t catch them all.

It seemed the media had truly caught wind of the divorce, and the firestorm was just settling in.

I ignored my calls and went to my emails, knowing that I couldn’t ignore those.

Everybody wanted a statement on the divorce, wanted to know the whys of it, wanted details. It was none of their damn business. However, I knew I wouldn’t be able to just leave it to Jacob.

I quickly called out for my publicist. “Clark—”

He didn’t even need me to finish my sentence. “I’m on it. We have the three statements that we prepared just in case. Do we want to go full tilt, vague, or down the middle.”

I already saw the headlines, as it seemed Jacob’s team was taking a firm stance. “We’ll go down the middle for now. No mention of cheating, or even the phrase of irreparable differences. We just move on. Like we need to.”

“You’ve got it.” He paused for a minute, and I let out a breath.

“What is it, Clark?”

“Are you okay? I know you don’t usually let me ask. But you don’t have to do this alone, you know. Jacob’s an asshole. We need to make sure that the world knows.”

“It’s not my place to tell the world he’s an asshole. They’ll see it soon enough.”

He snorted. “He’s a politician, honey. People are going to vote for him because he’s an asshole.”

That made my lips twitch. “So me telling the world that he cheated on me isn’t going to help. They’re going to be able to figure out the timeline soon, connect the dots. I won’t be the scorned woman in their eyes. There’s no need for me to ice down the narrative where I sound like a jealous bitch.”

“That is true. But you know that I’m in your corner, right? You’ve got people.”

His statement made me smile. “I do. Thank you.”

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