Nate King had known that I was the “I See the Real You” girl.
I’d told him that day that he met Campbell. I’d trusted him.
“Oh God,” I whispered.
“What?” Piper gasped. “Why does he know?”
“I told him,” I said as horror dawned.
“Shit.”
“He’s so into you, Blaire,” Annie said with a sigh.
“No, we were well past over. He was looking out for me, and I told him the truth about me and Campbell.”
Eve looked skeptical. “He’s a guy who is used to getting what he wants. Trust me, they’ll do whatever they can.”
Jennifer nodded sadly. “I think he was more into you than you were into him.”
I looked between them as panic set in. I’d done this. All this time, I’d been freaking out about how it had gotten out. I’d thought it was some kind of fluke where someone had just discovered it even though we’d been so careful. But all along, I was the one who had done it.
If the girls were right, Nate was still into me. And he’d done this to, what? Punish me for choosing Campbell? It was inconceivable. I’d never thought Nate was that kind of person. Had I missed all the red flags?
“I have to ask him,” I said abruptly. I jumped off the couch and dashed into my room.
Piper followed. “Are you going to call him?”
“No,” I said as I threw off my sweats and pulled on jean shorts and a top. “I’m going to Midland.”
“What? Why? Just video-chat him or something.”
“I have to see him in person. He can’t lie to my face. Also, I can strangle him if it was really him.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I said vehemently. “I need to find out why he’d do this.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
I paused, the denial on my tongue, but finally nodded. “That would be good.”
Piper disappeared to change, and ten minutes later, we were in her Jeep, heading south toward Midland, where the entire King family lived and the Dorset & King oil company headquarters were located. Nate’s place was about an hour and a half from mine. He lived in a house surrounded by oil fields. I’d only been there a handful of times. Normally, he drove into Lubbock.
“This is his place?” Piper asked with wide eyes as we drove up to the giant house.
Nate came from money. He had a large family, all who were involved in the oil business, except for him. The rest of his family thought he was crazy for being a TikTok sensation when he could work for the family company. But his trust was large enough that it clearly didn’t even matter.
Piper parked at the front of the property, next to a huge white truck. “Want me to go with you?”
I shook my head, steeling my nerves. Now that I was here, I was a bundle of them. It had made sense an hour and a half ago. But despite my resolve, I didn’t want to face him. I didn’t want to find out that he had done this to me.
Before I could back out, I jumped out of the Jeep and headed to the front door. White roses bloomed stark and bright against the white of the two-story house. The white roses of the King family.
I knocked on the front door. My stomach twisted, and I swallowed down the lump in my throat. Nate would tell me the truth. That was my only lifeline.
Hard boots stomped on the hardwood inside, and the door swung open. But it wasn’t Nate who answered. It was his older brother, Malcolm. My mouth went dry. I’d only met him once before, but he was the heartthrob of the entire King clan. How he was not married was beyond me.
“Hi,” I squeaked, unprepared to be met with his hard gaze. Let alone the cowboy hat and boots.
“Blaire,” he said, flashing a dimple. “Is Nate expecting you?”
“Uh, no.”
He nodded, as if he understood. Though how could he?
He turned away from me. “Nate, you have company.”
“I’m busy,” he called back.
Malcolm’s jaw twitched. “I said, you have company.”
It was more a growl than anything. Commanding. I shivered. Well then.
Nate must have heard the change in his voice, too, because he appeared a second later at the door. “Who…” He trailed off as his mouth hung open. “Blaire?”
“Hey, Nate. Can we talk?”
“Uh, sure.” He ran a hand back through his mussed dark hair and glanced at his brother and then back. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
Was he fidgeting? Did he know that I knew?
“I’ll leave y’all to it,” Malcolm said. He tipped his head at me and then disappeared through the door. He walked toward the giant pickup. God, he was attractive. What in the hell did these oil fields feed these men?
“Do you want to come in?” Nate asked.
“Sure.”
“I thought you were in LA,” he said, closing the door behind him.
We stepped through the foyer and into the living room, complete with a vaulted ceiling and a recording setup for his videos. It was beautiful, all hardwood and surprisingly rustic for someone who appeared so modern. Couldn’t take the Texas out of the boy.
“I was. I came back early.”
“I saw what happened at that music gala.” He leaned back against the white marble kitchen island and crossed his arms. “That was shitty.”
“It was.” I took a deep breath. “Did you leak that I was the ‘I See the Real You’ girl?”
“What? No,” he said automatically.
There was no hesitation, but still, I didn’t know if he was lying to me. He was slick. He always had been. It was the reason that I’d driven all the way out here. He couldn’t lie to me in person. Not for long at least.
“Nate, tell me the truth.”
“I am telling you the truth. Why the fuck would I tell someone something that you’d told me in confidence?”
“I don’t know. Because you still like me?”
His eyes rounded, and then he laughed softly. “Don’t flatter yourself, Blaire. I’m not some besotted ex-lover. We had a good time. You ended it, and it was mutual. I’m not suddenly heartbroken and going to ruin your life. If that were the case, why would I work with your publicist?”
“I don’t know, Nate. But someone told the press. Someone who knew. You met Campbell and didn’t like him. Maybe you were looking for a quick payday.”
He gestured around him. “Does it look like I need a quick payday?”
I bit my lip as I looked around at the house I’d just been admiring. It did in fact not look like he needed money. That was for sure.
“No,” I admitted.
“And I liked Campbell just fine. But I can be jealous of what y’all have.” His eyes darted away from mine. “Not that I wanted it for us, but just in general.”
“Oh.”
I hadn’t considered any of this. I’d been so set on it being Nate. He was the only other person who knew about us from back then besides my friends, and they certainly hadn’t told.
“Well, someone leaked it. And no one else knew,” I finally said on a frustrated sigh.
“How did they find out about the abortion?”
I flinched at that word. “Miscarriage.”
His face dropped. “Fuck, Blaire.”
“Yeah, that’s why I crumpled on the red carpet. I didn’t even know the hospital had listed the miscarriage as an abortion in my file. It brought back a slew of terrible memories.”
“I’m so sorry. Fuck the press.”
I shot him a sad smile. “Yeah. Well, we need them, but the shit they do to celebrities is not cool. And it was a Campbell Soup girl who found out about the miscarriage.”
“Isn’t that illegal? Accessing and sharing someone’s medical files?”
“Definitely,” I agreed. “But it still happened.”
“So, maybe they just snooped.”
“It’s possible, but if they didn’t find it throughout the years that Campbell has been in the spotlight and everyone was looking for who the song is about, I don’t think that they’d just find it on their own. I think someone told them.”
Nate shrugged. “What about your assistant?”
“Honey doesn’t know either.”
Nate’s silence was louder than anything he could have said.
I stilled. “What? She didn’t know. I never told her.”
“She was there the day that you told me.”
“She was?” I racked my brain to go back to that day.
Had Honey been in earshot of that? The picture that had been leaked was from that day. It showed Campbell and me standing close together. I’d assumed someone had seen us and not that it was someone from my team. Someone likely following Campbell. Not this.
“She definitely was.”
“No way,” I said, my voice shaky.
Nate shot me a look. “Maybe she’s in love with Campbell.”
I gaped at him. “What?”
“I thought she was kind of normal until he showed up.”
“Yeah, but…” I trailed off as the past few months came back to me.
Her being a die-hard Cosmere fan, the way she’d overstepped my bounds to get Campbell to do the video, the fringe bangs and dye job, her borrowing my clothes, and all the messages from her when I’d been in LA asking if I was with Campbell. Had she been doing all of that to try to get Campbell to notice her? Had she been turning into me to try to get him?
Had she done something to make sure we broke up?
I suddenly felt sick. “Oh my God.”
“I would never do that to you, Blaire. I don’t need the money, and I want to see you happy and successful.”
“God, Nate, I’m sorry that I accused you. I just…couldn’t think of who else would do something like this.”
“I understand. I probably would have accused me, too,” he said with a laugh. “But I’m here, looking out for you, Blaire. Are you sure that Honey is, too?”
Ten minutes ago, I would have said yes.
And now, I didn’t know.