by Linde, K. A.
“Hey, Hayden, I have some exciting news! Call me back!”
Liz hung up the phone and tossed it down on her cluttered desk. Job offer at the New York Times. She had to keep reminding herself it was real. When she had gotten the internship there, she had been freaking ecstatic, but that paled in comparison to what she was feeling right now. She didn’t even know what to do or who to tell first.
She opened her email and started sorting through them, hoping that Hayden would call her back soon. She had been so out of it lately that the emails were piling up quickly. She was finding it hard to focus with all the adrenaline pumping through her, but since Massey had taken over, Liz knew she had a lot to do. She would tell Victoria when she got home and they would celebrate with some Patrón, if Liz knew Victoria. Hayden would get there shortly after and then it would all be as it was supposed to be.
Liz stopped on an email that she had from the Charlotte Times. She had become a junkie of that paper’s ever since Hayden had started working there. She subscribed to his byline, which allowed her to read all of the articles that had his name on them. Not that many did, but she wanted to know when they were there.
The email opened up and Liz froze. Her stomach dropped out, and she was pretty sure that she saw stars. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t.
The headline read, “Congressman Brady Maxwell’s Alleged Affair with University of North Carolina Student.”
Liz’s vision dipped and she had to clutch on to the desk to hold herself steady. Oh no. No, no, no. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t possibly be happening.
She needed to read the rest. She needed to see what he had written. Her hands shook as she scrolled down the page. She covered her mouth with her hand as she looked at a picture of Brady under the headline. She had been avoiding him at all costs, and seeing his picture now just made her whole body want to curl up into a ball and die. What had she done?
They had given up their entire relationship, everything, so that he could have his career. Now he was going to be faced with their relationship in the papers anyway! And he had just announced his run for reelection. This could fuck up everything.
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t even focus enough to comprehend what she was seeing in front of her. All she saw was Brady and how horribly she had fucked everything up.
Her fingers curled around the desk, and she forced herself to read the article. It was all in there. Everything she had told Hayden and every twisted way he had interpreted her relationship with Brady. How she and Brady had met, their sexual relationship, the age difference, the pseudonym Sandy Carmichael, even the fact that Heather and Elliott were aware of the relationship. The only thing that wasn’t in the article was Liz’s actual name. She was the anonymous source to her own nightmare.
Liz reached the bottom of the article, and just when she thought she couldn’t hate what had happened any more, she read the byline: Hayden Lane and Calleigh Hollingsworth.
Banging on her office door pulled her out of her stupor. “Come in.”
Savannah stumbled through the door and immediately closed it behind her. She was breathing heavily and looked to be on the verge of tears. “Have you seen what your boyfriend has done?” she asked.
“Yeah. I just saw,” Liz managed to get out.
“Did you know? Did you know he was going to write this?” Savannah looked manic.
“No,” Liz said with enough ferocity that Savannah had to believe her. “No, I had no idea.”
Savannah sank to the ground and buried her head into her knees. “I can’t believe this is happening. Brady isn’t that kind of person. He would never just sleep with a random undergrad. He wouldn’t do that. I love my brother, but Clay is that kind of person. He would do it just for fun, but not Brady. He’s a good man, and Hayden is trying to ruin him.”
Liz didn’t know what to say. The story was true, but she couldn’t say that without explaining how she knew. And after telling Hayden what had happened, she never wanted to tell anyone else ever again.
“Do you know anyone named Sandy Carmichael? I mean, I know he said it’s a pseudonym, but maybe it’s not,” Savannah said hopefully.
Liz shook her head. “No. I don’t know anyone by that name.”
“Me either,” Savannah said with a sigh. “I just don’t understand what any of this has to do with Brady’s reelection, with what he’s done as a congressman. His private life should be private. I know Hayden’s your boyfriend, but I want to strangle him.”
“No need to apologize to me,” Liz said gruffly. “I want to strangle him too.”
Savannah turned her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. “Yeah? What’s been going on?”
“It’s been bad for a while,” she admitted. Ever since she had seen Brady again. He sauntered back into her life and she remembered in those fleeting hours what passion was. Her relationship with Hayden had never been the same. “It’s over.”
“Wow. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Liz said, shaking her head. “He had it coming.”
Chapter 22
MELODRAMA
Savannah left ten minutes later when she received a call from her father. Liz tried not to overhear, but the words lockdown and emergency were definitely thrown around. Before Savannah walked out of Liz’s office, Liz hugged her. She wished that she could tell Savannah how sorry she was and how much she wished that she could take it all back, but it wasn’t possible. No one could know what had happened. She still had to protect Brady however she could.
Liz knew the best thing for her to do would be to lie low, keep her head down, and not draw any attention. Hayden’s article hadn’t mentioned her real name or the fact that she was a reporter. That made the search pretty broad, and Liz wanted to keep it that way.
She couldn’t imagine the cross fire Brady was under because of this article. He had just announced his intention to run for reelection, and the last race hadn’t exactly been a walk in the park. His opponents would surely use this to try to get him out of office. That was what he had feared last election.
Thinking about it made the numb feeling she had been harboring the past couple days shatter like broken glass. It was replaced immediately with a fury unlike anything she had ever felt. Hayden, her perfect fucking boyfriend, was the most selfish asshole she had ever met.
Without having to speak to him, Liz knew why he had done this. He had been hurt by what she had done, angry and jealous. But that did not excuse his taking her trust and smashing it into a million pieces. She knew Hayden wanted to advance his career, and he had taken the first opportunity to make it happen. He had used her story when she had trusted him. And he didn’t even have the decency to call her back.
Liz snatched her phone back off her desk. She had called Hayden only thirty minutes earlier to tell him about her job offer. She had been ecstatic, wanting to share her good news with him. She was calling for a very different reason this time.
She dialed his number and waited. As she expected, after three rings it went to voice mail. Either he was purposely avoiding her calls or he was just that swamped with calls about the article. Liz doubted that it was the latter.
The line beeped for her to leave a message.
Liz took a breath before speaking. “Hayden. This is Liz. Perhaps you’ve heard of me. I called you thirty minutes ago with some really super exciting news. I’m calling you back because I have some even more exciting news that I really need to talk to you about. Call me back at this number. I don’t think you’ve managed to lose it overnight. But in case you have, don’t worry . . . I couldn’t think less of you than I do in this moment.”
Liz ended the call and threw the phone into her purse. She was so pissed, she was ready to jump into her car, drive right down to Charlotte, and wring his perfect fucking neck. She had been obsessing since October about what had happened with Brady; she
finally let Hayden in, and he did this to repay her.
Well, she couldn’t stay at the office any longer feeling like this. She wasn’t going to get anything done tonight. Liz tore out of her office with her purse slung over her shoulder. She sought out Massey.
“Hey!” Massey said brightly when Liz approached. Then her face fell. “Are you okay?”
“Still not feeling too well, I guess,” Liz said, laying it on thick.
“Oh, no. Do you need me to cover for you again?”
“That would be so nice. I just think I’m trying to push myself too hard.”
Massey nodded her head and clicked a button on the computer. “You should probably go rest. Don’t worry about tomorrow. I’ll take care of it too. I’ll see you Monday morning, Liz!”
“Thanks a million, Massey,” Liz answered sincerely. The woman was saving her life.
Liz bolted from the office and took the steps down to the bottom floor of the Union two at a time. She wrapped her jacket tighter around her body as she stepped out into the crisp February air. The cold air jolted her memories. This time last year had been her snow day with Hayden. She had decided to finally give up Brady after finding out about Erin and had given herself to Hayden for the first time. Now it all felt like a joke. A big, fat joke.
She had never gotten over Brady, she had never given Brady up, and she had never given herself fully to Hayden. Then as soon as he had found out, he had used that against her. The irony of it all was that when Hayden was furious and hurt over their relationship, he had chosen his career over her, which was the very thing she had feared with Brady.
She had walked out, spent over a year missing Brady, pushed him away to the point of no return—for nothing. All she wanted to do was call him, try to explain, beg him to give her one more chance.
But she couldn’t.
No. She wouldn’t.
Brady had shut the door. He had told her not to call him when Hayden broke her heart, and Hayden had done just that. Brady was probably fuming, and the last thing he needed was for her to call him because of Hayden’s article. She wanted to go to him and make it right, but the way to make it right was to remain invisible.
If he wanted to reach out to her, then he would. But she doubted he would. Brady wasn’t the type to go back on promises. How often had he told her that he didn’t make promises he couldn’t keep? Wasn’t that the reason he hadn’t told her he loved her? Even thinking that word sent a stabbing pain through her chest. Love. What a joke.
Liz sped home, parked the car in the driveway, and burst through the front door. “Victoria!” she called, slamming the door behind her. “Where are you?”
She stalked down the small hallway and banged on the door. “Vic, are you in there?”
“Yeah, I’m busy,” Victoria choked out. “Can you come back in like fifteen minutes?” There were some whispers from the other side of the door and then Victoria giggled.
“No. This can’t wait. Not unless you want to find your roommate with her veins open on the bathroom floor in fifteen minutes.”
Liz knelt in front of Victoria’s door and pushed her hands up into her hair. Her whole body ached and just wanted it all to stop. She knew she needed to get herself together, but she couldn’t see or think or feel anything through the fury. All she saw was Hayden’s face when he found out, when he asked her for details, when he maliciously fucked her for the mistake that was never a mistake. Had he known then? Had he known that he was planning to ruin her . . . them . . . Brady? Was the sex a good-bye? That thought only pissed her off more.
“Melodramatic much?” Victoria called.
There was shuffling from the other room and then the door popped open. Victoria was dressed in skinny jeans and an oversize sweater. Her hair was a hot mess and she was trying to wrangle it into a ponytail as she exited her bedroom. Liz assumed Duke Fan was on the other side, but assumptions with Victoria were a very bad idea. Victoria pulled the door closed and stared down at Liz expectantly.
“Well, Miss Melodrama? What is so goddamn important?”
Liz stood and walked into the living room. She didn’t want to have this conversation where Duke Fan could potentially hear her. Victoria huffed loudly, but followed behind her.
“You know how we agreed that the worst thing that could happen when I told Hayden about Brady was that he would leave me?” Liz asked as she pulled out her phone.
“Yeah.” Victoria glanced over her shoulder to her closed bedroom door.
“We were wrong.”
“What?” Victoria asked. Her head snapped back to Liz. “What do you mean?”
Liz pulled up the article on her phone and passed it to Victoria. “He wrote about it,” Liz whispered.
“Fuck!” she cried. “Holy fuck!” Her eyes scanned the article. “What a fucking bastard! I’ll cut his balls off!”
“I wouldn’t stop you.”
“Oh my God, Calleigh’s name is on this too,” Victoria said, stunned.
“I know. They must have planned this together.”
Victoria shook her head and scrolled back up through the article. “What the fuck are you going to do? Have you called Brady? Have you spoken to an attorney? Fuck! What can I do? How can I help?”
Liz fisted her hands at her sides again and turned away from Victoria. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I haven’t done anything yet, because my name isn’t in the article. He just put me down as Sandy Carmichael. I think it’s better if I lie low. If I act rashly then someone will piece it together, and the last thing I want is to be in the public eye.”
“Have you talked to Hayden? God, why would he do this?”
“I haven’t talked to him. He won’t return my calls.”
“I never liked Lane, but I didn’t think he was this much of a fucking pussy,” Victoria cried.
Liz shrugged. “Me either.”
“Okay. Okay. Sit down for a second,” Victoria said, ushering her to the couch. She dropped Liz’s phone on the coffee table and plopped down next to her. “Let’s chat. The important thing here is you. How are you? Do you need anything?”
“I’m fine.”
“Psh! You’re far from fine. Talk to me.”
Liz sighed heavily and wrapped her arms around her knees. “I’m angry. It feels like everything that I did was for nothing. No Brady. No Hayden. Nothing,” she said. “Oh, wait, I accepted a job offer at the New York Times today.”
“Oh my God!” Victoria squealed. “Congratulations, bitch! That’s perfect. All of this shit will blow over, and you can start a new life in New York City!”
Liz managed a half smile, but it quickly fell off of her face when her phone started buzzing noisily on the table. Liz snatched it off the table and stared down at the screen.
“Hayden?” Victoria asked softly.
Liz shook her head. She didn’t know the number. Her heart rate picked up with fear. Was it a reporter? Had they already found her? Her throat constricted as she debated answering the phone. Maybe it would be better if she didn’t.
Curiosity got the better of her.
“Hello?” Liz asked, pressing the phone to her ear.
“Hello. I’m trying to reach Liz Dougherty.”
Liz’s heart stopped in that moment. No. Not a reporter. No one had found her who didn’t already know that she existed. The voice on the other end of the line was unmistakable.
Heather Ferrington, Brady’s press secretary.
The last time Liz had been near Heather, she had told Brady to end it with Liz, and Brady had told her no. She was a fierce woman who had been with Brady since the start of his career and did whatever she could to protect him. Liz was not looking forward to this conversation.
“Who is trying to reach her?” Liz asked carefully.
She didn’t want to talk to Heather, but maybe this was her ticket
to Brady. She tried not to let herself get excited for yet another letdown. This one was pretty much a guarantee.
“This is Heather Ferrington with Congressman Maxwell’s office.”
Liz sighed.
“This is Liz. How can I help you, Heather?”
Victoria looked at her with questions in her eyes. Liz mouthed, Brady’s office.
Victoria’s eyes bulged and she whispered, “Are you going to talk to him?”
Liz shook her head and tried to focus on Heather rather than Victoria.
“Miss Dougherty, I would like to keep this conversation brief and private. Strictly off the record, if I can get your guarantee on that,” Heather said formally.
What did she have to lose?
“Of course,” Liz whispered. If Heather thought Liz was going to write about this, then she was out of her mind.
“I don’t know what possessed you after more than a year and a half to divulge the information of your . . . relationship with Congressman Maxwell.” Heather said the word as if it physically pained her. “But whatever it is, you won’t accomplish it. And I would suggest to you, Miss Dougherty, to not further divulge any information without realizing that you are risking your own career, which I believe is quite important to you.”
“Is that a threat, Miss Ferrington?” Liz asked, seething.
“Hardly. Perhaps I should make myself clearer. Brady doesn’t want you. Your pathetic attempt at ruining his career isn’t even a blip on his radar. You are nothing.”
“If I’m not even a blip, then why are we speaking?” Liz spat back. She wanted to reach through the phone and slap Heather straight across the face. Liz knew that Heather was only trying to protect Brady, but her methods weren’t always that effective.
“We’re talking because any and everything related to the Congressman is on my radar. I didn’t trust you the summer you hid your relationship and I don’t trust you now. My job is to minimize problems. You’re a problem, and I’m minimizing.”
Liz ground her teeth together. What the hell was she supposed to say to that? She was a problem for Brady. Heather was only doing her job. Liz would do the same thing if she were in Heather’s situation. She saw the problem for what it was and went straight to the source. No beating around the bush.
