Page 75 of Y'allywood Billionaire

Skye continues. “She’s planning a smear campaign on you, Riley. Even though she’s getting the part.”

“Why?” I say, probably too loudly.

“Jealousy, my dear. It’s toxic.” Skye takes a swig of her bubbly.

Maddox swipes a hand over his mouth. “What can she possibly have on Riley? She has to be making shit up.”

Skye hesitates, and Ihateit when Skye hesitates. She clinks her glass on Maddox’s and radiates a smile. “You both should be proud of your work on the show.” She raises her voice. Then she mumbles, “Jemma’s got security footage of you, Riley, coming out of Duncan Kelly’s flat in Scotland. It backs up the affair rumor that started after the paps caught you together that night in the parking lot.”

My heart skids to a halt. “Oh, my God,” I whisper, my lips trembling. “Mac took us in there—“

“I know what really happened. But as you know, the truth doesn’t matter. I’m not gonna lie—it looks bad.”

“Jesus Christ.” Maddox scowls, clearly over trying to keep up appearances.

I can’t manage a smile. All I can do is think of the headline. “RILEY’S CHEATING SCANDAL: MADDOX ONLY A PAWN IN HER GAME TO FAME.”

Smile, Riley.Except I can’t. All I can do is stare at the spot on the wall where the trim doesn’t line up quite right. I want to nudge it over, just so, as if it were a Photoshop image.

Through a forced smile, Maddox says, “Enough’s enough. It’s time.” Vulnerability etches on his face when he turns to me and says, “Pull the plug?”

“Yup.” I flash Skye a look. “Let’s go for your ‘screw it all’ plan.”

Maddox takes my hand. “Time we take control of the narrative.”

We leave the party, then drive to the studio. After rushing into the interviewing room and locking the door, we turn on the computer that’s used to stream the feeds. We know the password because we’d logged in for Jemma once when she was running late for an interview.

We put out a notification to allUrban Dawnsocial media feeds that Maddox Winter and Riley Glenn are about to go live with a very special announcement.

Five minutes, and there’s already a massive number of fans logged in, so we turn on the camera. We need to hurry, as we only have another ten minutes or so before Smith and the other executives get here and pull the plug.

Maddox takes my hand. “You sure you want to do this?”

As long as Jemma has this over our heads, we’ll never be free. So I say, “Absolutely.”

I hit record and don’t hesitate when I say, “Maddox and I have a story to tell. It’s about what really happened to us, and it’s time everybody knows the truth.”

Maddox begins where I leave off. “That day at the nude beach. My dad was there. It’s one of his favorite spots when he’s in St. Sebastian. And his fiancée, who happens to be Riley’s godmother, was there too.” Maddox continues talking about how they called us both because they needed the spare key.

I continue with, “However, when the paparazzi arrived, they knew they found something salacious and chased us out of the lot to get footage of us naked. That picture you saw was not us in the throws of passion. It was actually from a fall—a painful one, and I still have a few scars on my torso from it.” I lift my shirt just enough to show one of the red spots that hasn’t completely healed.

“I hated that I fell on Riley and hurt her like that. I hated to see what story the gossip columns had concocted. It wasn’t fun to know that the entire world thought we were up to something inappropriate when we were just trying to do the right thing. However, it was too late. Everyone had fallen in love with the idea of Rilox. So, we went with it because we wanted to give you fans what you were wishing for.” He looks directly at the camera,contrite when he says, “We wanted to helpUrban Dawngrow its viewership.”

I intertwine my fingers. “But the story wasn’t true, and immediately, people got hurt. Jemma did because, at the time, she was with Maddox. Our friends and families got hurt. Overnight, our lives spiraled out of control.” I squeeze my eyes shut, but open them and keep going, explaining the mix-up of the ring, and how, again, the media created their own story. “We’re sorry to all of you fans. We let you down. We let our friends and family down, and most of all, we let ourselves down. We’re not these people. Or we didn’t used to be. Becoming an actor and landing in the spotlight has all been new to me, and I didn’t know how to handle it. And I didn’t do it right. I was desperately struggling to cope with being under a microscope. I struggled to accept that so much of what people thought about me wasn’t true, no matter what I seemed to say or do.” I blow out a long, overdue breath of relief.

Maddox says, “I’m used to the spotlight, and I still made the wrong decision. I shouldn’t have lied. That said…” he trails off.

This is the moment he tells the world that what started out as fake has turned real. We’re in love. And now, everyone can know the truth about our past and our feelings.

Maddox swallows so hard his Adam’s apple bobs. “Wow, sorry. This all hit me harder than I thought it would.” He stares into the distance before returning his gaze to the camera. “With all that said, I wouldn’t change any of it. Because going through all this with Riley has been everything.”

I flash him a warm smile. He’s telling the world how he really feels about me, and I might burst.

He clears his throat. “It’s everything because it has taught me so much about myself. I’ve had so many experiences I’ll never forget, and for that, I can’t be anything but grateful. But now, it’s time to be honest with the world and ourselves.”

I squeeze his hand, encouraging him. He’s resolute when he says, “Although I care deeply for Riley, we aren’t a couple. Although we admire one another and are great friends, we’ll never be more.”

Great friends? Never be more?I keep smiling. I don’t how or why, but it’s like my jaw is stuck. I’m also not sure I can trust my own ears. Did he just say we’ll never be more than friends? Even though we’ve been much, much more than that? I don’t understand—he just said he loved me. I’m completely speechless, but it doesn’t matter because Maddox continues to blubber on. “We’re both so very sorry for everyone we have hurt. Especially those who are close to us and have welcomed us with open arms.” He looks at me, saying, “Right, Riley?”

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