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But Bethany denied the announcement in the most outrageous way.
She claimed she wasn’t engaged at all. Instead, she was dating a motorcyclist, name unknown, who belonged to a local biker gang.
After leaving the exhibition in a whirlwind of chaos, it seems Bethany Golde has changed overnight. She’s no longer the sweet, fresh-faced princess the world fell in love with. As of this morning, numerous modeling contracts with Bethany have been severed, declaring that her behavior will not be tolerated.
“Beth?”
Axel’s gravel-rough voice, still thick and heavy with sleep, dragged my attention away from my phone. A wave of chestnut hair fell over his forehead as he looked at me with a question in his eyes.
“What are you doing over there? Is everything okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” I replied, keeping my voice low. “Go back to sleep. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
A disgruntled frown crossed Axel’s face. His gaze flicked down to the phone in my hand. He stretched his arm out across my empty side of the mattress and turned his palm up, beckoning with his fingers.
“Come back to bed, sweetheart. It’s early.”
He looked so inviting that I couldn’t stay away. Tiptoeing across the room, I slipped under the sheets, curling up next to him. Axel hooked his arm around my middle, shifting me around until my back was pressed against his chest. He brushed his lips over the shell of my ear, stifling a yawn, before he tucked his face into the crook of my neck.
I smiled to myself, wishing we never had to leave this bed. My phonepingedwith yet another notification and I shoved it under my pillow, fumbling to silence it.
I didn’t regret anything I’d done with Axel over the past few days. There was no doubt in my mind that I loved him with every inch of my heart.
But the life I’d known was in shambles. The freedom I had craved before felt enormous, like floating in empty space.
What was I going to do now that my modeling career was over?
What was I going to do without my mother breathing down my neck, analyzing every word I spoke and every article of clothing I wore?
My phone vibrated faintly under my pillow. Behind me, the soft heat of Axel’s breath on my shoulder indicated he’d slipped back to sleep. I eased my phone out and glanced at the avalanche of notification bubbles on my screen.
No More Miss Nice Girl: Bethany Golde has Fallen from Grace.
My social media accounts were flooded with scathing comments and messages.
I can’t believe she dumped Lionel Holmes. I always thought she was too ugly for him anyway. He deserves better.
Just wait and see. She’ll be pregnant and fat within six months. Then she’ll go crying to Mommy to fix her mistakes. Good riddance.
What an entitled piece of shit! I would never treat my mother the way she treated Donna!
A small voice in the back of my mind told me to stop reading and turn the phone off. It didn’t matter what people online said. This was my life and I was finally allowed to live it the way I wanted to.
That thought had me staring at the ceiling, frozen.
What did I want my life to look like?
A new notification bubble appeared on my screen, showing half a dozen voicemails from my mother. My thumb hovered over the first one, knowing it wasn’t going to be pretty.
I clicked it anyway.
I have no idea what possessed you to start behaving this way, Bethany Marie,Mom’s voice said, grainy with static and slurred slightly.
She’s been drinking, I realized.
I’d never heard my mother drunk before. She always warned against the liquid calories in alcohol and how easily they could sneak up on you, driving the numbers on the scale higher before you realized it.
I expect an apology within twenty-four hours,my mother continued.You will come home and you will stop this nonsense with that biker. I’m sure Lionel wants nothing to do with you now and I don’t blame him. After your little stunt you pulled at the exhibition, it will be ten times harder to find a potential husband like him, but I guess that’s the price I have to pay for being a good mother. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make sure you won’t ruin your life the way you are now.
