Chapter Twenty-Six: We Fight Right Here-5

I knew there was going to be some intrusion into our privacy, being involved with someone as well-known to the public eye as Luke was, especially when it came to his love life. Having paraded a cavalcade of women from models to actresses to socialites, he was the poster boy for several, sometimes simultaneous, short-term high-profile romances. I just didn't realize how close the intrusion could crawl up to us. I deleted the message and told myself to be ready for worse especially as more information about us became available to the media. I had no plans of hiding, after all. But I wasn't above changing my phone number and keeping it private. As I closed my eyes that night, as sure of my plan as I was, the message kept ringing clearly in my head in a woman's voice—cold, callous and calculating. I tried to pinpoint where I'd heard that voice before but as sleep wrapped itself around my brain, the mystery faded into black. *** The second day flew by much like the day before—work during the day and more packing up in the evening but without the champagne this time because Jillian complained about her hangover all day. It had only been one bottle of champagne between the three of us but whatever. Luke sounded more morose on the phone and I just told him to come home and we'll try to fix the problem some other way. The only weird thing that happened was that someone took a picture of me across the street from the bus stop. Unfortunately, not being used to it at all, he'd already taken a few shots before it occurred to me that I was his target. I turned away and the moment the bus rolled in, I scuttled inside and kept my head down.  You'd think someone was trying to assassinate me. I just wasn't used to the attention but I was always a quick learner. I was in high spirits when Thursday came because Luke was touching down anytime that morning. But apparently, along with him came some shocking news from Los Angeles. There was a large group of people by the front steps of Hedenby Towers that for a moment I thought there was a rally. There were men and women talking over each other as someone presumably from the company tried to talk to them. Arms and cameras and microphones were thrust out toward him so probably a press conference. A very unusual spot for it. I took out my phone to call Luke but suspicion blossomed when I saw the two missed calls I probably didn't hear because they rang just right as I was getting off the bus. I had a couple voicemail messages on there but it was too noisy outside to listen to them there. I went around the crowd but when I tripped over someone from the rear of the group and he'd turned around and taken a good look at me, chaos erupted. I was blinded by the flashes of light right in my face and the mingled voices cracked through my ears like static. "Ms. Moss! What do you say to this news?" "Did you know about it?" "How will this affect your relationship with him?" "Was he cheating on her with you?" "Will you be willing to treat the child like it was yours?" "Do you feel responsible for breaking up this baby's family?" What. The. Fuck. It was as if I'd entered some kind of Twilight zone, trapped inside a spinning tunnel of strange faces and voices. I heard the words, fragments of sentences, the tone with which they were said. It almost seemed like they floated up from the cacophony, fitting like pieces to a puzzle with a very ugly picture. Luke... Lola... baby... Suddenly, as soon as the words and what they meant sank their heavy, doomed weight inside of my heart, I gasped out loud as if they had physically pushed the air out of me. Suddenly the mess Luke had gone to tidy up became that much incredibly clearer. I felt the flash of anger—at the lies, at the insensitivity, at the crudity. "This is a private matter that's being handled legally," I said with a surprisingly steady, if a bit curt, voice, meeting all the eyes I could, my anger filling my spine and shoulders with steel. "Don't make it into a circus unless you plan to be the clowns in it." "Max, over here!" I saw Terrence elbowing his way through the throng, positioning himself between me and the media. "Let's get you inside." "I've got her." I heard Luke's voice before I saw him appear at my side, his arm wrapping around me protectively as he turned us toward the front steps. The voices became louder and more urgent at his presence, the noise nearly drowning us in but Luke kept a steady watch over me, blocking most of the media out of my way. "Just keep them out, Terr. I don't want anyone fucking touching her." To say that Luke was upset was putting it mildly.