Page 85 of True Blue

“I don’t care what other people think.” I lean in. “Do you want to be with me and Axel?”

“Of course, I do.” Her voice breaks and she moves her eyes to the side, trying to look over at Axel too. “I love you.” Her eyes meet mine. “Both of you.”

“Good.” I release her chin, standing up. “Then we're staying together. This will blow over. We just have to wait it out.” I cross my arms, contemplating how far Christopher could have gotten and if my Mercedes could catch up to him.

“It’s not going to blow over, Bent. The minute any of us are seen together, it will just start up again. Christopher already got a photo of us on campus. How many other students do you think will cash in on a pic of us together? I'm sure your parents aren’t going to want to answer questions about your relationship status every time they’re interviewed for something.”

I shake my head. “Campus has strict rules on paparazzi and exploiting students for tabloid photos. They won’t let people take photos of us on campus without legal action. Plus no one around here wants to start that war. I doubt I have the most famous parents here. And I doubt the Coast won’t be looking into how that photo got taken.” I run a hand through my hair. “I’m going to call Molly and see what we can do.”

Axel pulls Janette closer, leaning his head against hers as I pull out my phone. “Don’t ever think we won’t fight to stay with you, Blue,” he whispers. His voice becomes harder with his next sentiment. “And please don’t ever give up on us like that again.”

She chuckles, more tears falling past her lashes. “I’ll try not to, promise. But I don’t see a way out of this. Everything outside right now can ruin this.”

The sound of my call trying to connect rings in my ear as I frown down at them. “Nothing outside of this right here can ruin it, sunshine. When this is fixed, I’m drilling that into you.” She stares up at me with wide eyes while I start to pace.

Molly finally answers my call. “Bentley? I take it you’ve seen the news?”

“No, actually. But I got a rundown of what’s going on. What are our options?”

Axel starts whispering to Janette as she releases her knees, leaning against him. Her phone starts buzzing on the floor near us, and I glance over, seeing a call coming in from her mom.

“Well, depends on the outcome you want.” I reach down, picking up Janette’s phone.

She sniffles, chin shaking when she notices the name on the screen. “Right when we started making progress,” she whispers, and Axel squeezes her shoulders.

“Can you give me a second, Molly?” I pull my phone away without waiting for an answer, swiping Janette’s phone to answer the call. “Ms. Davidson? It’s Bentley.”

“Is she okay? I’ve been trying to reach her, but she wasn’t picking up. We had no idea this was going to run.”

“She’s panicked. Christopher showed up to rub it in her face. He’s the one who took the photos and sent them in.” Janette buries her face against Axel’s shoulder.

“Son of a bitch,” Sandra murmurs.

“We need a new angle. Hold on I’m going to bring you in on a call with my parent’s PR rep.” I hang up Janette’s phone, pulling my own back up to my ear. “Hang on a second, Molly. I’m going to bring Sandra Davidson into the call.” I put the phone on speakerphone, adding Janette’s mom to the call.

“I have Pietro here with me,” she says once she’s connected. “He handles most of my press.”

“I was explaining to Bentley that we need to figure out what result we want from this situation. Right now, the media is framing Janette as a cheater, which I’m assuming you’re calling to try to change directions on?”

“Of course,” Sandra asserts. Janette’s head picks up. “My daughter is not getting branded by a ridiculous rumor.”

“Molly, have mom and dad filled you in on the actual situation?” I ask, keeping my eyes on Janette.

“Yes, I know you’re all together. We can try to spin this, but there’s only two options that I can see that might work.”

Axel nods. “What are they?”

“Well, we can try to bury the story. Give the press something juicier to latch onto.”

“I might have something,” Sandra pipes up. “And it would be the perfect way to untangle myself from Christopher and his father during this whole mess.”

“But if we do this,” Molly warns. “It won’t completely get rid of the attention on you three. And it won’t restore Janette’s reputation. You three would need to be careful in public and wait a few years before you could ever hope to have any sort of normalcy. This would just take the majority of the heat off you.”

“What’s the other option?” I grit out.

“You three go public.” Silence follows her words, the three of us looking between each other as my breathing cuts off.

“I’m thinking a social media campaign. Some posts about how you’re all together and whatever else you guys want to share, but the gist being that there is no cheating and you three wish to keep your private lives to yourselves beyond this. We can manage a press release, something encouraging from each of your families and close friends. But you three would do the brunt of it.” Axel and I each turn toward Janette. “There’ll be even more eyes on you and I’m not saying this will definitely garner support, but it’s the only way to kill the infidelity rumors.”

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