Page 71 of Talk About… Secrets
Of course, the guys were obsessed with making sure I stayed hydrated. It was nice to have them here. I don’t know if I would’ve been able to get through this alone.
I’d finally heard from my sister, too. She was excitedly telling me every detail of her wedding and trip, sending me all the pictures to the point that I didn’t even get a chance to tell her I was pregnant.
Now that it had gone on this long, I knew she was going to kill me when she found out I’d kept it from her.
It was on my list of things to do this week, along with about a million other things.
The guys had been so worried about our pictures being posted, but I hadn’t received many negative comments. I guess because I was still a nobody in most people’s eyes. Sure, there were the occasional petty bitches complaining that some of the most eligible bachelors were taken, but those were to be expected.
My hands were full of laundry as I walked out of my room, my phone ringing in my pocket. I ignored it for now as I headed down the stairs toward the laundry room. It was one of the first purchases we had to make as a pack. With five people, the dirty clothes piled up fast.
Beck, Spencer, and Cade were elbow-deep in getting the local office up and running for PackSense. Beck made sure the guys had an office before going back to work so he could work from home, too.
Drew was retired now, and though the work on the house was hard on his body, he kept at it. Now that the guys weren’t there to help, we had to hire a few people to get the job done. Thanks to the pregnancy, we had a looming deadline.
Now, the bedrooms were done, we had offices and a fully fixed kitchen.
The living room, some landscaping outside, and a few rooms downstairs were still in progress, but it was all starting to come together.
I had just put the laundry basket down when my phone started ringing again. Pulling it out of my pocket, I saw Sidney’s face lighting up the screen and answered quickly.
“Hey, Sid, what’s up?”
“I’m going to guess that you have not seen,” she said, almost breathless.
My entire body tensed, but I tried to play it off. “No… what should I have seen?” I asked.
Before she even spoke, I knew damn well what it was.
“The pictures.”
“Some of the shittier tabloids have gotten a hold of you specifically,” she admitted. “I’m sending some links over so you can see them. Do you want me to stay on the phone?”
“No,” I said. “It’s fine. Just send them over.”
Then I hung up. I didn’t want to break down in front of my best friend.
The messages pinged through a second later. I sat down in a chair in the kitchen as I passed through, opening one up and clicking the link.
I was greeted with possibly one of the worst pictures of me of all time. It was like they’d taken a video and paused it at one of the most awkward moments. I was making a face that made no sense, and the way it was blurred made me look like I had no definition in my face, it was just a blob.
To say it was unflattering would be a vast understatement.
I started to read through the article, my stomach sinking. They talked about my work as a graphic designer and how I hadcoercedthe pack into being with me. They made up lies about how we met, saying I orchestrated the whole thing. This is what the pack had been worried about. I said I’d be fine, but apparently, the hormones decided otherwise.
With a sigh of defeat, I opened the second one. It was more of the same, almost identical to the first. Though this photo was clearly from my college days, I was standing with men that werenotmy pack, and I was obviously years younger. You could see it in the length of my hair and everything else.
Then I saw the comments. People saying it had to be an arranged mating and that no one would want to be with a nobody like me. The insults went on and on, everything from my education, to my looks, to my town.
I wanted to vomit.
Drew was in the room before I even realized it, scooping me into his arms and sitting in the chair, placing me on the table so he was standing between my knees, leaning forward and wrapping his arms around me.
“Don’t you fucking listen to that shit. Youknowit’s bad. Those are all lies. Nothing they say about you changes how we feel about you, or how you feel about us.”
“I know, I just—” The tears fell before I could get the rest of the words out.
“It’s like they picked every insecurity I’ve ever had and just blasted it online. People are going to read this, Drew. We’re going to walk into events together, and I’m just going to tank their image by just existing.”
