Chapter six

Kelly's pov

My phone pinged.

Trending

"Omg"

"Kelly, what is it?" Adrian asked, voice strained.

I clicked the link.

The video started playing. Thomas appeared, then Natalia. Their naked bodies, their laughing, and Natalia saying:

“She’s our cash cow”

The camera panned over to the aisle then to me whilst holding the mic. 3 slaps.

Viewers: 412,000

"They filmed us," I whispered.

He said nothing.

I scrolled down. My eyes widened.

Who is this queen? 

Slap her again!

She was so confident with the mic like a CEO I’m obsessed!

Wait, who’s the guy in the black suit? 

The bodyguards are much though.

I looked up and caught him staring.

"Adrian?"

"Yes."

"Are you okay? You look pale."

"Ahem. I’m fine."

"But you’re in the video."

"You look amazing."

"Wh…what?" He blinked.

I turned the screen towards him. "Look. There’s a comment that says ‘Cannot due to the husband's height’. And it has 15k likes."

His jaw tightened. "Delete it."

"No, it’s online. Don’t worry. No one knows who you are. Plus half of them think the bodyguards were extras, so you’ll be fine."

His shoulders relaxed.

And I noticed a sigh of relief from him.

"Plus you didn’t do anything wrong. You helped me. Natalia should be the one panicking."

I scrolled.

She blew up.

#NataliaExposed

What agency signed this girl? ?

How amazing to steal your friend's money AND her man.

My chest tightened.

But I shouldn’t feel sorry for her.

I closed the screen. "We should go."

 I said.

He stretched his hand to lead the way and I followed.

We were silent on the way to my apartment.

Adrian was in the back of his ‘friends’ car. The driver was focused on the road and driving, hands white with tension.

I leaned my head against the window.

"Do you think I was too harsh?" I asked.

"No."

"I just wanted them to feel how I felt."

"They did."

"I know but now the whole country knows. It feels cruel, doesn’t it?" I exhaled shakily.

He turned to me. "Kelly. They planned to use you for years. They laughed about it. The only reason it feels cruel is that you’re a good person."

I stared.

He really was good at saying the right things.

"Thanks."

He looked away. "No problem."

We arrived at my building.

He walked me to the door. I turned to face him. I suddenly became aware of how close we were.

"Would you like to come in? I can make you some coffee."

He blinked. For a moment I thought he would.

"I’ve got an early morning."

"Oh. Of course."

"Make sure you lock your door."

"I always do."

"Just make sure."

I smiled. "Yes sir."

He hesitated.

Sir.

For some reason, he looked like I said something weird.

"Goodnight Kelly."

"Goodnight Adrian."

I watched him walk back to the car. When he got there the driver got out and opened the door.

I frowned.

Opened.

He gave a slight bow.

But before I could get any more information Adrian got in the car and they drove off.

I stood there for a while.

Then shook my head and walked up the stairs.

Lying on my bed and staring into the room, 

I couldn’t sleep.

So I did what no brokenhearted woman should do at midnight. I opened social media.

The video had exploded. 2 million views.

3 Fashion bloggers had already made reaction videos. 2 gossip pages had found old pictures. And the hashtag had blown up to number one.

But then I saw the post. My fingers went numb.

Starlight Models Officially Terminates Contract With Natalia. 

"After much consideration, we have decided to no longer work with Ms. Natalia. We do not support actions that do not correlate with our brand values."

I read it again.

She only worked there for 3 months. I got her in with the director. I promised that he would look after her.

I felt weird. Not happy, not guilty.

Just... empty.

"She did this to herself," I whispered.

I locked my phone and finally fell asleep.

The next morning my phone buzzed before my alarm.

"MIA! Have you checked the internet?" She was my ex-assistant at the branch.

I groaned. "No."

"It’s gone!"

"What?!" I sat up.

"It’s all gone. The original post, the reposts and the reaction videos."

I grabbed my phone. I opened the app. She was right. The hashtag was gone. The pages that posted clips were blank. Even the gossip blogs had taken them down.

As if the wedding never happened.

"How?!" I whispered. "Two million people saw it."I don’t know. Some people are saying they paid a lot of money to make it go away."

A chill ran down my spine.

"Who?"

"I don’t know but guess what? Natalia posted something an hour ago."

I opened up her page.

She had a smiley picture.

She was standing in front of a glass building wearing a cream suit. Her chin was high and she looked as if nothing had happened. Behind her there was a banner which said NATALIA LUXE – Now Launching.

Caption:

They tried to break me but I have someone powerful looking over me. 🖤

My hands began to shake.

Her agency had cut her off last night.

But this morning, she had a whole company.

Someone had taken the biggest scandal in the city and wiped it away in one night.

And they were standing behind the woman who had betrayed me.