Chapter 73 NO BODY PARTS

Chapter 73 NO BODY PARTS
 Laura's POV:

"Gwen, that was unbelievable — remind me not to ever get on your bad side." Brian said, happily pulling her into a hug. My best friend turned pink.

"As relieving as that was to watch, I hate to say it's not good for us — it's not good publicity!" Ryan grumbled, picking at a string of keys on his phone.

"Who cares about saving face!" I snorted. "That bitch got exactly what she deserved."

"Come on, Laura — you know how this works!" Ryan began but Brian wasn't having any of that. "Listen up real quick, Ryan — your job is to make sure no one, absolutely no one messes with my sister. We are not paying you to complain and nag over and over again, okay?"

"And what do you think I am doing?" Ryan snapped, shooting up to his feet. "Does all this look like a joke to you?"

"Oh, hell it does! There's a psycho out there trying to drag my sister's name through the mud and all you care about is saving face."

"Saving your sister's face!"

"Ryan." I jumped up, wedging myself between the two men, who were glaring daggers at each other and breathing dragon fire over my neck.

"Listen up now, you two." I said, pushing back against their chests. "We don't need this right now. If anything, we should be trying to figure a way to win this case once and for all."

"I don't have anything to figure out with this man!" Brian spat, turning away.

"Brian!" I snapped, halting him in his tracks. "Come back here right now."

"Sis, what do you fcking want me to do?"

"Get your ass back here and sit down." I snapped, my tone sharpening.

He groaned but still turned around slowly and walked back to his seat. Gwen, who had been watching the entire ordeal silently without any word, walked up to me and took the nearest seat. The only person left standing was now myself and Ryan. One look from me brought him straight to his seat anyway.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, staring at Ryan.

Ryan sighed despite himself. "The only way to end this all easily without losing anything in the process is contacting Jaxon himself — him being in the know can greatly affect how things would turn out."

He was still speaking when I began shaking my head. When he was done, he glanced at me, waiting to hear what I had to say.

"We can't involve Jaxon." I said firmly. "He caused this whole mess in the first place — why should we even consider involving him?"

"That's more reason we should involve him. He's the only one who can clean this up."

"Enough, both of you!" I snapped, glaring between Ryan and Brian. "We're not involving Jaxon!" I said to Ryan. "And that's final. What else do you have?"

"We can bring the label's management into the case, but even that too, we need Jaxon —"

"Ryan!" I called. "No Jaxon, okay?"

He held my gaze for a tense second. "Why do you loathe him so much?"

"Let's just focus on what we have on the ground now, okay?"

He didn't answer immediately. Instead his gaze held mine for a minute more before he nodded. "Okay."

"Good. What else can we do?"

"I'll put together a case with the lawyers, we'll have a lot of advantages in this case — I believe Evan knows this too. She might be doing this just to ruin your reputation or gain more traction. That's why we needed Ja..." He cut himself before he could finish the statement and swallowed uneasily. "I'm sorry. I'll work on what we have."

"Good. And thank you."

"You're welcome, Laura." He said, standing up.

"One more thing!" I called, holding up a finger.

"Yes?"

"I want you to get the lawyers ready, right after this case, I want out. I'm done with this label."

"Are you sure about this?" He asked, lifting a confused brow.

I nodded. "I am. Just get everything ready, I don't want to fake this anymore."

He groaned something I couldn't make out before walking forward to hug me. "Whatever decision you make," he whispered into my ear, leaning over me, "I'll always stand by you."

My heart bubbled, a tear streaked down my chin and rolled down onto his collar. "Thank you, Ryan. Thank you for everything."

"You don't need to thank me, Laura — we are family after all."

"Right!" I smiled bitterly.

"Right." He repeated, pulling back. My expression was mirrored on his face, but his usual warm eyes were sad and seemed to have grown dimmer. The smile he wore was even too weak to convince himself that it was happy.

"I'll be on my way now." Ryan said.

"Alright." I nodded.

He glanced briefly at Gwen and Brian, before walking away from the living room. The door closed behind him a minute later with a loud clatter.

I wiped the foam stain off my chin and sniffed. "Brian, I want you to do something for me."

"What's that?"

"I need two tickets. I want to take a break — everything has become so burdensome. I'm tired. I want my child to have a better life, free from all this drama. I want peace of mind."

"Laura —"

"Gwen, I have already made up my mind. Nothing you can say can convince me otherwise." I said, sniffling.

"I'm not trying to convince you, okay — in fact, I want you to do this!" Gwen replied, smiling.

"When do you need these tickets and where do you want to go?"

"Just pick anywhere — a quiet spot, somewhere I'm not known, just somewhere free of attention, where I can blend in peacefully."

"When do you need it?"

"Immediately after this case, I don't want to waste any more time here."

"Alright, Laura. I'll get to it immediately." Brian said, getting to his feet.

"And Brian?" I called as he made to walk past me.

"What?" He asked, halting.

"I am handing over my best friend to you — you've got to take care of her."

"Of course." He replied almost instinctively, glancing at Gwen, who was blushing so hard her cheeks could have easily passed for the red couch she was sitting on.

"Gwen is family — be rest assured, Laura."

"I don't mean that way!" I snapped.

"What way?"

"Don't be daft, Brian!"

"Laura, what are you doing?" Gwen squirmed uneasily on the couch.

"Nothing, just ensuring you're in safe hands."

Brian looked between us two and just shook her head and walked off.

"What was that about, Laura?" Gwen snapped immediately the door was slammed in place. She stood up and walked towards me, feigning annoyance. "Since both of you are so eager to keep confusing yourselves, I just wanted to make things easier for both parties!"

"I didn't ask for your help!"

"And who said you needed to ask? What are friends for?"

"You asshole!"

I groaned. "Come on now, Laura — no bodypart jokes!"