It rang three times before going to voice mail.

“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 f**k 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 f**ked 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 f**king boyfriend, was the most selfish ass**le she had ever met.