Page 63 of When Stars Fall

“Ellie—it’s Vincent. I’m fielding calls left and right about Wyatt, about Haven, about you. There are fires, and I’m putting them out. We’re bleeding money. I’ve reminded people about NDAs. But I’ve got to warn you, I’m not sure I can contain the truth. I’m trying. One of the reporters from TMZ said they had a birth certificate naming Wyatt as the father. Please call me back and tell me you weren’t that dumb nine years ago. Call me. Anytime. Whenever you get this, okay?” No point in deleting his message. The worddumbbangs around my skull.Yes, Vincent, Iwasthat dumb. But my mother made sure her birth certificate was sealed. Very few people could have leaked this. I close my eyes and drop my head onto the table.

Nikki gets up and comes over to give my back a rub. “What’s up?” she asks softly.

“I’m screwed. I’m so, so screwed. Matt tried to contact me because reporters called him. Reporters were at Wyatt’s hotel tonight. Calshae tried to get in touch with me. Vincent, my manager, left a message. TMZ has Haven’s birth certificate.”

That last sentence reverberates in my mind. The worst outcome.

“Oh, shit,” Nikki breathes. “Mom sealed that.”

“Unsealed now.” Bile rises into my throat. “Why did I put Wyatt’s name on it? Why? How could I be so stupid?”

“Because you didn’t want to hide the truth from Haven.” Nikki’s expression is pained.

“But I haven’t told him yet. If this breaks, he’ll—what will he do?”

My phone pings. I check the incoming message, and I suck in a sharp breath.

“What?” Nikki peers over my shoulder.

“Wyatt.” The blood leaves my head in a rush. Black spots appear at the edges of my vision. I’m going to faint. A heart attack might not be so bad.

“What’s it say?”

“Call me, now.” I stare at Nikki. My body is weightless, but the hot and cold flashes won’t stop coming.

“If your people were calling you . . .”

“Someone might have called him or one of his reps for comment. That’s where you’re going, right?” I can’t sit here. I rise, but I’m dizzy. The room swirls, and I grip the back of the kitchen chair.

“You can’t tell him via text message. And you can’t tell him over the phone. If the first question he’s going to ask is if it’s true, you need to be there.”

“He’s going to be so angry with me.”

“Maybe. Maybe. He might be reasonable. You said he’s different, right?”

“Yeah. And I didn’t tell him.”

“Why didn’t you tell him tonight?”

“I was going to. I was so close. Then his addiction person called and said Anna had disappeared.”

“His sister?”

“Yeah. His sister and her son live with Wyatt. I had no idea. I think—well, you know how I feel about Anna. Wyatt was hiding her from me. She’s still an addict, unstable, sometimes violent. I—I can’t put Haven in that environment. I left him because I didn’t want her in that environment.”

“Wyatt won’t turn his back on his sister and her son.”

“I can’t blame him for that.”

My phone pings again. Another text from Wyatt. He knows. The phone rings, shrill in the silence of the room. It’s him.

“Go,” Nikki says. “Just go. See him in person.”

“Don’t take her to school today, okay? It’ll be a circus.”

“We’ll stay around the house. Do you want us to go to yours instead? We can wake her and take her now.”

I shake my head, and I grab my bag off the floor. At the moment, I have no idea where I’ll be. Protecting Haven from the fallout is the most important aspect of all this.

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