Page 215 of No Headlines Please

According to them, Sloane had never been anywhere near Greece. Instead, she'd been holed up in Indiana the whole time, dragging it out longer and longer as the sales of her book continued to climb.

Apparently, she'd been waiting for the perfect moment to come back.

Too bad for her, she'd waited too long. Thanks to an anonymous tip – call it Plan B – she'd been ambushed by reporters instead.

According to Maddox, Plan A had been to let Sloane crash and burn on her own with no help from him. But Plan B? That had involved stopping the fallout now, before it could spread any further – specifically, to me.

That's what he'd said, confessing it in private as we'd gone upstairs to change our clothes. And for anyone who's curious, yes, there might've been just a little nakedness in between.

Or a lot.

From the kitchen, Franny called out, "Hey! Where's your popcorn dish?"

Tessa called back, "I don't have a popcorn dish. Use whatever."

Maisie pushed herself up from the loveseat. "I'll go help."

Tessa shook her head. "Nah, I'll do it."

"Absolutely not," Maisie laughed. "You helped with the whole sandwich thing."

It was true. Around noon, Franny had started making sandwiches for all of us – not for the guys, of course, because all of them had left for Chicago by jet.

As Maisie passed me and Tessa, she asked, "You both like extra butter, right?"

I answered for both of us. "Definitely." After all, I knew my sister.

When the two of us were alone, Tessa turned to me and said, "I still can't believe Ryder never told me who it was – you know, the guy he gave that info to."

"I can believe it," I said. "He probably thought you'd be mad."

"At Ryder? Why?"

Wasn't it obvious? "Because you might've blamed him for Sloane's canceled wedding."

"Oh, stop it," she said. "Why would I blame Ryder? It sounds to me like he did everyone a huge favor. And besides, I'd do the same for you. And Maisie, too."

"So you never asked who it was?"

"Not really," she admitted, giving the TV another glance. "But if I'd known it was this juicy, I definitely would've."

Juicy was right. Before leaving for Chicago, Ryder had filled in a few more details.

Apparently, Ryder had this other friend – some guy named Jamison – who was plugged into all the Chicago gossip. The day before the wedding, Jamison had tipped Ryder off about Sloane's shady financial dealings.

Ryder had passed the info along to Maddox, which had kicked off a deeper dive into everything Sloane had been doing since he'd slipped that engagement ring onto her finger.

What Maddox found – a web of side deals trading privacy for profit – had been the final straw. He'd called off the wedding and kept quiet about the cause, figuring the less said, the better.

Sloane, on the other hand, had gone in the exact opposite direction. She'd cried on cue and told her version of the story over and over – except most of it was a pile of bunk.

And the longer Maddox remained silent, the more outrageous she got – until she was swimming in a sea of nonsense.

The entire thing was beyond ugly.

And yet, I couldn't stop smiling – not because of the fiasco with Sloane, but because of Maddox.

He loved me.