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Fifteen
This would be fine. Between Hunter and I, we could plan anything, and Ramsey was a master of executing those ideas—even when we were too drunk to think right apparently. This didn’t even require a complex plan. “We can get it annulled? Do we even have to do that much? We can just ask the chapel not to file the paperwork? No one but us knows about this.”
“About that…” Hunter was still staring at his phone. “These photos? They’re on theMiller for Senatesocial media pages.
“How—” Ramsey was on his feet in a flash, bolting back into the bedroom. “Shit.” His shout echoed through the entire suite.
I pulled myself up to sit on the edge of the tub. Given the situation, this seemed like a good place to talk about it.
Ramsey returned and handed me my phone. “So, you know that interview I did last night?” He was uncharacteristically sheepish.
“Yes…” I was torn between checking my phone now and flushing it before I saw if I was caught in the fallout. I wouldn’t be able to think until I knew, though.
“I saved some photos from the interview to a shared cloud folder. And I saved the wedding photos to the same place, so Debbie shared them.”
As Ramsey spoke, I saw the text from Luna. It just saidcongratulations.There was no!!!No :) In Luna speak, it saidfuck you. “No,” the word tumbled past my lips. She thought I’d hidden this from her.
“I don’t care where you accidentally put them. Debbie had no right.” Hunter’s anger grabbed my attention again. He jabbed his screen hard enough I wondered if he was cracking the glass, the brought the phone to his ear. There was a short pause. “Save it.” He clipped off the word. “No part of my personal life crosses into Ramsey’s campaign… I don’t give a fuck what you found there… Bullshit. You knew better… No. Don’t doanythinguntil you hear from one of us.” He disconnected and swung his arm as if he wanted to throw the phone. Then pressed it to his hip, as if looking for a pocket.
Right. We were all still naked. I pushed to my feet, legs shaking from uncertainty rather than hangover. “I’m going to get dressed.” I walked past both of them. The numbness in my mind was going to vanish any minute now. The panic would set in. I’d rather be wearing clothes when it did.
I yanked on panties. A bra and T-shirt. Jeans.
Numbness was still there. I sank onto the edge of the bed.
Ramsey and Hunter were shirtless, but at least they’d tucked away the dangly bits. How distracted was I that I didn’t care if their dicks were hanging out?
“We have to undo this.” I was stating the obvious, but I couldn’t find anything smarter.
“It’s not going to be that easy,” Ramsey said.
I started at him as if he were speaking a foreign language. He must be, because the words coming out of his mouth didn’t make any sense. “It’s very much that easy if Hunter and I both agree. I had a friend go through a no-fault divorce. We sign some paperwork—a lot of paperwork—and we’re done.”
“Or, we could stick to the plan we made last night.” Ramsey was still speaking in gibberish. “The one where this makes things easier.”
I blinked several times, until he was a blur, then squeezed my eyes shut and watched the sparkles behind my eyelids. I finally looked at him again. “This is what I’m hearing—we got drunk and did something stupid. Let’s all lie to everyone and tell them we meant it. Do you remember why you and I broke up?”
“Vividly.”
“And you’re asking me to lie to the entire world—not just a few cameras—and tell them this entire thing was on purpose. You want me to stay with Hunter because… Why? Not that I dislike you, Hunter, but marriage?”
Hunter puffed out his cheeks and sucked them in when he sighed. “I get it. No explanation necessary.”
“That makes one of us, because I need to know why you’re not taking my side.”
“There are rumors about Hunter and I,” Ramsey said. “People are noticing what we are. The rumors are quiet now, but they’re getting louder.”
I was clearly missing something. “So own it. “Maybe it’s time—”
“This marriage isn’t a big deal.” Ramsey sounded like he believed that. “I’m only asking that you play along until we—”
“Figure out how to spin a divorce?” I didn’t appreciate being talked over. “If it wasn’t a big deal, you wouldn’t be asking me to play along.”
Ramsey frowned. “Please, Violet.”
I couldn’t… What was going on? “If you ask me to do this, to pretend I’m married to someone I wouldn’t otherwise choose, for your political career, and I do it? That’s the end of us.” I hated the words, but I meant them. I wouldn’t out Ramsey and Hunter, but what they were asking me to do was a personal line I wouldn’t cross just so he could be elected.
“He’s not doing it for his campaign.” Hunter’s voice was quiet. “He’s doing it for me.”
