Page 199 of Sinful Desires
Chapter
Forty-Eight
“Don’t waste your time with explanations:people only hear what they want to hear.”
? Paulo Coelho
Scarlett
“…?a tape featuring international pop icon Scarlett Harper and her personal bodyguard, Théo LeRoy, leaked last night during her father Lucius Harper’s elite all-white pre-Oscar party, setting the internet on fire. The explicit footage, uploaded anonymously, appears to show Harper wrapped around LeRoy in a dark forest. The voice is unmistakable, and the final whispered “I love you, Théo” has already gone viral. Additional leaked security footage shows the pair kissing outside Harper’s penthouse, fueling rumors that this secret relationship has been going on for years behind the scenes. Fans are livid, spitting words like ‘commoner’ and ‘parasite’ between perfectly filtered posts, especially since Harper has been publicly dating actor Nicholas Preston for over a year?…”
The second the video replayed, I stabbed the remote and shut the TV off. The screen went black, but it was too late. I was already shaking.
I curled deeper in the bed in the middle of my Beverly Hills suite, wrapped in a blanket that smelled like shame and guilt. Tissues were scattered everywhere, some wet, some crushed. Mascara streaked down my face, and my stomach felt like it had dropped to the twelfth floor an hour ago.
My throat burned.
That was it. The secret I’d held so close now belonged to the world.
No longer mine. Just something for them to chew on.
Victoria stood frozen halfway across the room, holding her phone in both hands like it might explode.
Nicholas didn’t move either. His eyes stayed locked on the black screen, his jaw clenched so tightly I could hear it pop.
“Is that?…” Victoria blinked, then looked at me. “Tell me that’s not real.”
The silence rang louder than the television had.
Nicholas’s voice came out rough. “Holy shit.”
They were stunned. Actually stunned. And that terrified me more than the video.
Because if they were shocked, really shocked, it meant I wasscrewed.
Not scandal screwed.
Career-ending, reputation-torching, get-on-a-plane-and-vanish screwed.
Victoria’s voice cracked again. “Scarlett?… That’s really,reallybad.”
Nicholas finally exhaled, reaching for his phone. His fingers trembled.
“Twitter is on fire, sunshine. The views are in the millions already. People are screen recording and reposting it from burner accounts.”
His thumb hovered above the screen, and then he went still.
“If they found out about this, they’re definitely going to find out about?…”
He didn’t finish. The silence cracked open inside me.
Matthew.
Oh God.
My throat locked. I couldn’t breathe. The pressure behind my eyes burst, and a sob punched out of me so hard I choked on it.
I shoved my palms to my face, pressing them hard, like I could black it all out. As if I could crush the thoughts, the guilt, the panic right there in my skull.
