Chapter 124

Fear prickled over my skin. Was this a real article? It had to be, or Logan wouldn’t have shown me. That email said it wouldn’t be printed until tomorrow, so I could breathe for a few more hours. But what would happen if this information was to be made public?

“Logan…” I wobbled, feeling a little faint.

Logan immediately stood from his chair and, just like in the photo, placed his hand to the small of my back. It was like a reflex for him.

“Here,” he said. “Sit in my chair.”

Nodding, I slumped down on his offered chair. It was comfortable leather, warmed from his body heat.

I covered my face with my hands. “What are we going to do?”

“I will make this go away,” Logan said, with an eerie kind of cool confidence.

Peeking up at him from between my fingers, I asked, “How?”

“Money.”

I blinked. “Are they extorting you?”

“That’s just how the world works, Hazel. Money solves everything.”

I didn’t much care for that mentality. Surely hard work and diligence should matter more than money. I always considered myself to be a decent person: I tried hard, I was kind to most people, I valued time with my friends. Why did that seem to matter less than having a large bank account?

I skimmed through the article itself, and though the article named me, it gave no details into my personality or my life at all, aside from being Logan’s secretary. For all the writer of the article cared, I was a prop in Logan’s story.

“We’ll have to be more careful from now on,” Logan said. “While we are in public, we cannot touch each other, understood? We must appear as work colleagues to the rest of the world. We’ll be lucky if only this one news outlet gets a hold of this story.”

Maybe we should have gotten divorced, after all, if it would keep Logan from scandal.

“You’re brooding,” he said.

“I don’t like being used against you like this.”

“I only showed you so that you would know how many vultures are out there,” Logan said. “If we’re careful, we’ll have nothing to worry about.”

Logan’s intention was not for Hazel to blame herself for any of this. That she was starting to, stoked the anger already simmering inside of him.

Maybe he should have kept this article to himself, but he wanted Hazel to be aware of the cretins hiding around every corner, ever looking at him and his family for fodder for their trashy media outlets.

As Hazel was now Logan’s wife, she needed to understand just how careful they needed to be to spare themselves from additional aggravation.

If Hazel was going to someday stand at Logan’s side, she needed to be ready.

Logan checked out the windows to make certain no one was coming, then he dripped a quick kiss to the top of Hazel’s head.

She needed to harden herself, or the vultures would eat her alive.

Until she was tough enough, Logan would have to do everything in his power to protect her, and their relationship, from those who meant to do them harm – even if that harm was exposure.

“I’ll take care of everything,” Logan said. “You can leave for the day. I’ll call you later.”

“Okay,” Hazel said. She forced herself up from the chair, steadier now. “Thank you, Logan. Really…” She straightened a little, and her face hardened with determination. “I’ll make sure to be less obvious… in the future.”

“Good,” Logan said.

Hazel saw herself out, closing the office door behind her. Returning to my chair, Logan watched through the window as she packed up her things and left down the hallway.

When she was gone from his sight, he returned to the matter at hand.

In the past, he would have asked Dylan to act as intermediary between him and the news outlet. Dylan was the only person that Logan trusted to handle this sort of thing.

Logan’s grandfather’s attorneys or those that worked for the company would undoubtedly handle the matter efficiently and quietly, but then word of Hazel would get back to his family. Logan wasn’t ready for them to know about her and their relationship just yet.

Sighing, Logan picked up the phone. He would have to take care of this all on his own. He hoped he didn’t botch it.

Half an hour later, Logan finally ended the call. He’d given up way more money than he knew Dylan would have, but at least the matter was resolved now. The editor of the news outlet accepted the money and the deal that they would keep the matter of Logan’s love life out of their articles… for now.

Logan knew that only meant the journalists would stalk him now. If the rumors were untrue, Logan wouldn’t have offered money. With blood in the water, the sharks would begin to circle.

Without Dylan, things felt more complicated.

Maybe Logan should call him and apologize…

No.

Hazel was Logan’s wife. Dylan was the one at fault for trying to pursue a romance with her. Especially after finding out that she and Logan were married.

Dylan had betrayed the rules of friendship.

Logan might have been guilty of a few things too, but mostly… it was Dylan.

Besides, Logan handled things okay. Even if Dylan would have made it easier.

Logan deleted the email with the article and continued on with the rest of his work for the day.

Since I had promised Logan to be more careful, I made sure to tell each of my friends that knew about my marriage to keep it under wraps. From now on, I’d have to limit the amount of information I told anyone.

So the only person I shared what happened with that day was Maria.

“They got your photo?” she asked. We sat in her bedroom, speaking softly with the door closed. It pained me, not being able to talk things out with my other friends too. I trusted them, but everything felt so fragile now. I couldn’t be responsible for Logan having to pay out even more money.

“They were in the courtroom,” I said. “They overheard the entire hearing.”

“I suppose those things are public record. Gosh, it’s a good thing only one reporter was in that room.”

“Logan took care of it,” I said, though my nerves still felt raw.

“From now on, you are going to have to watch your back. No going out to eat, or anything like that.” Maria frowned a little. “How are you two going to date?”

I shrugged, a bit helplessly. Nothing about Logan and my relationship has been conventional. That seemed to be a trend that was bound to continue.

“I guess a lot of stay-at-home dates,” I said. The problem, of course, was that I still didn’t have my own place yet. That meant any dates would have to be at Logan’s place. I wasn’t sure how to smuggle myself over there without it being noticed.

Maria hummed thoughtfully, though I noticed now that she was a little distracted, tracing shapes on the comforter atop her bed.

I was being selfish again, prioritizing myself in the conversation. Maria clearly had her own problems. Well, I was done being a bad friend now.

“What’s going on with you?” I asked.

“Oh… it’s nothing…”

The way she trailed off meant it was more than nothing.

“It’s not nothing,” I said. “Tell me what’s going on.”

She hesitated a moment or two more. Then she finally admitted, “One of the supervisors has been hitting on me at work.”