Page 62 of Sky Full of Stars

“I did not get her pregnant, Bianca. She’s lying. We went out a couple of times. I didn’t even have sex with her. She wants her five minutes, she doesn’t give a fuck it’s messing with my damn life. I don’t need you believing this bullshit, you’re supposed to be on my team.”

“You sure?” I whirl on her, my eyes full of rage. “Okay,” she holds up her hands. “Legal are on it but it’s out there now. They’ll want to talk to you, make sure we can make a case against her. We need to discredit her. Can you prove you didn’t sleep with her?”

“How the hell am I supposed to do that? It’s her word against mine and the press are going to town on it. No one will believe me, it isn’t sensational if it turns out to be false.”

“We’ll get someone checking into her history.”

“I want this fixed, Bianca. I’ll go on TV and call her a fucking liar myself if you can’t.”

I tell her to leave and rake my hands through my hair. I had to call my parents and sister as soon as I saw the news. I texted Jenna, she’d be asleep with her phone on silent so I wouldn’t wake her up, telling her to call me before she read anything in the news about me. I know she has read the text and I know she will have been in work for a few hours. She hasn’t called me yet. I can only imagine what she is thinking right now. I don’t want to pressure her or come across as desperate trying to prove it’s all a lie.

My phone has been ringing off the hook, but she’s the only one I want to hear from. When the guard buzzes to let me know he is on his way up, I check the cameras and watch Archer’s car pull into the driveway. I let him in and he follows me into the living room in silence. I get us both a scotch over ice, he arches his brow at the heavy liquor so early in the day but takes it anyway.

“How many kids are we up to now?” he laughs.

“It isn’t funny, Arch.”

“It’s always been funny before. We just wait until they crack and admit they’re full of shit, they’re threatened with a lawsuit, or the label pays them off, although I’m pretty convinced the one skank they did pay off actually did have Jordan’s baby,” he laughs. “The lawyers will file suit, it’ll blow over.”

“Yeah but the damage is done. And I’m not laughing this time.”

“Is this about New York?” I look over at him. “You hooked up with her didn’t you, the chick from the night club?”

“We didn’t hook up. But I was with her,” I admit. “We went out, got to know each other.”

“You about to tell me you’re in love, dude?”

“No,” I shake my head, love is too strong a word for this, but there are definitely feelings there and it’s hurting not knowing how she feels about this. “It’s different Arch…it could be something.”

He raises his eyebrows. “I told you to leave it alone.”

“Yeah well I didn’t listen.”

He blows out a breath. “You heard from her?” I look at him sideways. “Maybe she hasn’t heard, you said she didn’t know who you are.”

“She knows who I am and she told me yesterday when we talked before this shit hit the news that she’d seen some of our interviews on TV. I think the chances of her having missed this are zero.” I flop down on the couch and swallow all the scotch in my glass. It burns going down but the freezing ice hits my teeth, it’s a weird contrast.

“If she gives a shit, she won’t believe it. If she believes it, then fuck her.”

“Christ, Archer. She isn’t like that. She isn’t like any other woman I’ve known.”

“You are so fucking whipped,” he shakes his head.

“Piss off.”

“Between the tour going tits up, the rift in the band, and a wannabe pregnant with your kid, we’re having the biggest publicity push of our careers,” Archer chuckles but stops when he sees I don’t find it amusing. We sit in silence for a while. We’re still like that when the guard buzzes and tells me I have a visitor.

“Now what?” I roll my eyes at Archer. “Who is it?” I ask dejectedly.

“She says her name is Jenna Montanari.”

Chapter Nineteen

I didn’t see the news until I got off the plane at LAX. I had a couple of missed calls from Brooke and a text from Adam. I read his text over and over after I saw the story that broke last night.

Adam: Please call me before you see the news today. Please, trust me Jenna.

Last night when we spoke on the phone I had very nearly cracked and told Adam I had a plane ticket and would be in LA today. I really wanted to surprise him. Seeing his face plastered all over the papers and TVs as soon as I land, everyone talking about how he got an aspiring actress pregnant, I nearly puked and booked myself on a flight straight back out.

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