Page 223 of Fame & Rhythm

Away from her.

Home.

My safe place.

With my family.

My real family.

Mum.

Dad.

Ella.

Aston.

That’s it!

They’re all I need.

Loretta doesn’t fit into that.

Not now.

Maybe not ever.

I stare out the window, my breathing finally steady, but my chest still tight.

I don’t know if she set that up… but I don’t know that she didn’t.

And that uncertainty…

That’s what scares me the most.

Chapter Forty

Annie

When we arrive home after the shambles at the park, Dad heads straight online. It doesn’t take long before he finds them, the photographs already circulating, plastered across sites with quotes from Loretta.

‘I’m Annie’s birth mother, and we’re getting along famously.’

A chill runs through me as Dad reads it aloud.

Why would she talk to the paparazzi without even asking me if I wanted this out there? I wasn’t ready for the world to know. Hell, I didn’t want them to know at all. Now everyone will see it. Compare me to her. Pick me apart piece by piece.

“I can’t believe she did this,” Mum says, pacing the kitchen like a caged animal.

“It’s everywhere,” Dad murmurs, scrolling through his iPad, his jaw tight.

Aston wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side. “Are you okay?”

I shake my head, my thoughts scrambling to make sense of it. “I can’t believe she would do this. I mean… maybe she didn’t know? Maybe she doesn’t understand how the press works yet. Maybe she just went along with it because she didn’t know how to handle them… right?” I glance at Mum, searching for something, anything, to support that statement.

Mum scoffs, sharp and immediate. “Annie, I know you want to think the best of her, but she knew exactly what she was doing. She wants the world to know you’re hers, and that rings alarm bells for me. Ever since she showed up, those alarm bells haven’t stopped. I don’t trust her, Annie, and neither should you. You’re too forgiving.” She stops pacing just long enough to face me. “All I know is she’s not setting foot inside this house again.”

“Dee,” Dad says carefully. “We have to give her the benefit of the doubt until we hear her side. Yes, it looks planned, but there’s still a chance it wasn’t. And if Annie wants to see her again, we can’t stop her.”