Page 103 of Counterfeit Connection

I take my thumb and brush the tears away from under her eye. “Fine. I won’t say I’m sorry. Instead, I will say my heart is breaking because yours is broken. Let me get us your favorite wine and a basic meal, some comfort food if you will. Then, if you don’t finish, we will have some comfort to take with us. Hell, maybe we should eat dessert first.”

The mention of dessert makes the corners of Kaitlyn’s mouth turn up slightly. “Chocolate layer cake?” she asks.

“Order one of everything. Calories don’t count today. Only your happiness.”

Maybe food is the answer to everything?

For the entirety of the meal, things feel better, feel normal.

She smiled while she ate the chocolate cake. She laughed when she twirled pasta on her fork. She reached over and laid her hand on mine while she finished the last of her wine.

After paying the bill, walking to the door, and thanking the waitstaff, I have a sense of hope growing in my chest, but the moment we step into the night air, that all disappears. I’d hoped the small crowd of trolls would have evaporated. Unfortunately, they only multiplied.

We hear voice after voice coming at us from all directions and distances

“Kaitlyn, is it true that you’re pregnant?” a reporter I’ve known for years yells from my left.

“Griffin, have you accepted any offers on the sex tape? We hear there are over a dozen!” another reporter yells from Kaitlyn’s right. I pull her in closer, trying to shield her at my side.

“Slut!” The word echoes around us. My head is on a swivel, trying to find the source and shut it down when the worst comes at us.

“Stop trying to screw your way to the top and go back to America where you belong!”

Some large man with an even larger lens on his camera shoves it in our face, hoping to get a reaction, and he gets one quickly. Without even thinking, I yank it from his hands and smash it into the ground. “Back thefuckoff! Everyone. Back. The. Fuck. Off!”

The valet brings the car to the curb as I wrap my jacket around Kaitlyn so the sobs I hear are between us and not for tomorrow’s pages. Once she’s belted in the car, I stalk around to the other side.

“Someone call the police!” I hear someone yell. “He destroyed that man’s camera!”

In a moment of anger and the desire to get the fuck out of here, I pull my wallet from my pocket, grab a hefty stack of banknotes and toss them at the photographer. “For your property.”

I take my key from the valet and slip behind the wheel. It’s no longer a secret that Kaitlyn is crying and it fucking kills me.

“How can they say such horrible things about someone they don’t even know?” she whispers as I try to pull the car forward, but am hindered by the people still swarming around us.

“They’re scum of the earth arseholes who get off on making other people miserable so they can feel better about their pathetic lives.”

I’m finally able to pull free from the valet stand and back out onto the street… and for a moment, we’re all right.

Until we aren’t.

Lights shine brightly behind us as a car quickly approaches.

“Fuck,” I whisper. “Kaitlyn, make sure your seat belt is tight.”

“Wha…what?” she sobs.

“They’re following us and I might have to drive in a way you won’t like.”

“What?” Kaitlyn turns her head toward the rear window as the dark sedan gets within inches of our bumper.

“Hold on.” I yank the wheel to the right, diving between lanes and cars to gain some distance. It works for a moment until the headlights are back in my mirrors. “What is this fucker playing at?”

“Griffin, I’m scared.”

“I know.” I reach across the console to take her hand tightly in mine.

We sneak onto the motorway and weave into traffic. I’m dodging in and out of cars like it’s a chess game. I’d hoped the fading light and the number of dark SUVs would confuse our would-be stalker, but to no avail. Within a kilometer or two, the frightening episode shows a sequel.

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