Page 235 of The Doctors Will See You Now

I stared back at her, a goddamn mess, fighting to let her words sink in.

“Scott, I fucking promise you. I didn’t. Those were not my words,” she whispered, and tears started to drip from her lids and down her cheeks.

God, she looked desperate.

And Harlow Paige never looked desperate, not for anyone or anything.

There were sad lines around her normally bright eyes, and her small shoulders, sagging forward noticeably, appeared to be carrying the weight of the world. But mostly, it was her determination and the way she refused to break eye contact with me that made my heart start talking some sense into my stubborn head. The anger, the honesty, the affection in her eyes. It finally all sank in. I nodded and took a shaky breath.

“Scott, I didn’t write that,” she whispered again, more tears rolling down her cheeks.

I nodded again, and she repeated herself. “I didn’t. I wrote an article about what an amazing doctor you are. I even did interviews with a few of the pediatric patients we’d taken care of in the emergency room. It was sweet and adorable, and it definitely wasn’t what they published,” she explained on a shaky breath. “That awful fucking article they published wasn’t mine. I’d never do something like that. Not to anyone and especially not to you. I love you, Scott.”

Realization turned into conviction. She didn’t write that article. Harlow might’ve been a gossip columnist, but she had morals and strong convictions and she’d never write something to intentionally destroy someone’s life. She might have held her heart pretty fucking close to the vest, but that heart of hers was huge.

I tried to focus on what she had to be going through, feeling like she was responsible for so much turmoil in my life when she actually wasn’t, but I had a whole litany of my own problems, despite her innocence.

I nodded, her lips sinking closer to mine, more tears spilling from her eyes. “I’m so, so sorry.”

The salt of her tears stung on my tortured lips. I’d been chewing on them for hours.

“I believe you.”

Her breath was audible and shaky as she touched her lips to mine, once, twice, three times, and climbed into my lap.

“Thank God,” she mumbled as she buried her face in my neck and let a few tortured sobs bubble all the way out. I gave her a moment to compose herself before ripping off the comfort of her Band-Aid.

“But what are we going to do about all of this? I’m so fucking glad it wasn’t you, but it was someone. How am I supposed to handle that?”

“With your head high,” my mom interjected, reminding me she was there.

My face pinched in disbelief. “You want me to shrug this off? Act like it’s no big deal?” Steadily and with each word, my volume increased until I was nearly at a yell.

Harlow sensed how close I was to the edge and put her hands to either side of my jaw to turn my face back to her.

With soft green eyes—the softest she’d ever bestowed upon me—Harlow did her best to heal the hurt inside of me with nothing more than a look.

I wrapped her up as tight as I could manage.

I still didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but if she didn’t write it, when all was said and done, I knew I had at least one thing left to hold on to—her.

“You don’t shrug off anything. Gossip already did a press conference, admitting that because of a computer security issue, they’re uncertain of the source of the article or the validity of the statements within it. I know that doesn’t help much—”

“They already did a press conference?” I asked, mystified. “When?”

“This afternoon while you were still in police custody,” my mom offered helpfully.

Christ. Police custody. How was this my life?

At the thought of what my visit to the precinct had entailed, I shook my head. “Well, that’s good I guess. But that doesn’t clear me completely. According to the detective, they got an anonymous call from a woman claiming I’d assaulted her.”

“What?” Harlow shouted as my mom gasped.

I nodded, pulling back from Harlow enough to scrub a hand down my face. “I know. It’s not good.”

“Who the hell would do that?” my mom asked, distraught. I’d never seen Nicole Shepard distraught in my life, and I decided in that moment I never wanted to see it again.

Harlow just looked angry. The line of her eyes changed from a curve to a point, and her mouth set in a firm line. “I’ve got a fucking idea.”