Begin Again novel Chapter 197

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on? I went to bed last night with the man of my dreams only to wake up this morning alone and horny as fuck, and the world's gone crazy!" She shrieked as soon as their lines connected.

"It's not about to get any better!" Lydia had to douse her with a healthy dose of reality. "Congrats bitch! You've made it on the front cover of all the major tabloids! You are officially famous!"

"No!" Eden shook her head. There's no way she's on the news. She hadn't done anything newsworthy.

"Yes!" Sienna chimed in. "The whole world is in a tizz. Everyone wants to know the identity of the woman Liam left the Convention Centre with last night!"

"Your photo is splashed all over the tabloids, and you guys broke the internet twice this morning!" Cassandra delivered the final blow.

"Gosh no!" Eden sank back on the bed, her legs feeling wobbly like jelly. "This is not happening! How did this happen?"

"Well, I'm guessing you were blind drunk, and Liam carried you out of the venue, and the paps caught your grand exit." Lydia cried again. She sounded thrilled, like she was enjoying all the furore. Not surprising. She wasn't the second lead in a struggling soapy for nothing. Her friend lived for drama.

"I only had three glasses of champagne. I was not blind drunk," Eden groaned, well aware her state of intoxication last night was the least of her concerns right now.

The ten missed calls from her parents and the two-word text from her mom instructing her to 'call home' suddenly made sense.

"Edie, are you alright?" Sienna's voice pulled her out of her panic.

"I'm good," she lied, pinching the bridge of her nose. She was far from good. She should have stayed in the Blue Mountains, where nothing ever happened.

"Can we talk about Liam's therapy, now, please? The comments are blowing up. Our site went down quite a few times this morning," Sienna had far more important concerns on her mind. "Do you have any idea what this means for Claire? If she cracks this story, she'll get the Sleaziest Journo of the Year Award—"

"I could be wrong, but I don't think that's an award you should be aiming for," Cassandra cut in reasonably.

But Eden was barely listening to their back and forth, her mind already spinning with a million questions, painfully aware of how bad the story in Dirt looked for her.

She was the only person with intimate knowledge of Liam's therapy visits, and now his secret was splashed all over the internet. This couldn't have happened at the worst of times. They'd just managed to sort out their issues, and he'd admitted he was having a hard time trusting her. And now this bullshit story. How was he supposed to trust her now after this garbage?

She had to get in touch with Liam and assure him she was not the leak. But first, she had to convince her best friend to kill the story real quick.

"You have to kill the story, Si!" Eden blurted out as she chewed her nails anxiously.

There was a long pause on her friends' end before they all spoke at once, demanding some explanation from her.

"It's not my story to kill!"

"Yeah, Edie, it's already out there," Lydia chimed in. "Besides, it's not like there's any truth to it."

"I doubt she'd want to bury the story if there wasn't an element of truth," Cassandra argued.

"Edie, are you there? Say something?" Sienna screeched. "I mean, you're going to have to give me a little more. Is it true Liam's seeing a therapist? Sure Claire has photos of him leaving Medical Mews and stuff, but there are tons of doctors in that building. But she swears, of course, she has an informant, and she plans to drop some serious receipts over the next few weeks. They're already calling it the 'Liam Leaks' and 'Liam Gate' at the office."

Eden took a long deep breath as she weighed all her options. She could go with the truth and hope that Sienna wouldn't betray her trust, or she could skirt around it—

"Is it true that his dick doesn't work?" Lydia asked the one question with the potential to send Eden to the emergency room, and for a frightening second or two, she thought she'd already died of cardiac arrest because she couldn't hear her heart.

"Don't be ridiculous," Cassandra cried dismissively. "He made Aiden, didn't he? And Edie's been glowing a lot lately. You don't get that glow unless you're properly fucked."

"Or pregnant," Sienna added.

"And the only way to fall pregnant is to get fucked."

Convinced she'd go mad at their ridiculous banter, Eden groaned, "I'm not pregnant!"

"How do you know? People don't glow unless they're pregnant or swimming in cash—"

"Because I have an implant!" She sighed as she began pacing the room.

"Edie, I'm gonna need more than that," Sienna said, and for ten minutes, they got into a heated debate.

Eden pleaded and begged Sienna to get her colleague to drop the story, and her friend was adamant she couldn't, not unless she brought her up to speed and told her everything she knew.

"How do you expect me to bury a body I haven't seen?" Sienna argued.

"Okay, fine, if you can't get your friend to drop the story, can you find out who the informant is and what they have on Liam's therapy visits?"

"You know damn well we never reveal our sources, and I doubt that Claire will tell me willingly, anyway, which means I'll have to snoop around. I can get into trouble for this. I could potentially get fired!" Sienna shouted at some point.

"Please, Sienna, I'm asking you to do this as my best friend, not as a journalist," Eden pleaded. "Even a name will be enough."

"Oh, God!" Her friend groaned on her end. "Fine. Give me a day, maybe two at most."

"Thanks, Si," Eden perked up a little. "Also, is there any way we can remove those comments?"

"You're seriously pushing it now!"

With that, Sienna clicked off, leaving Eden on the call with Lydia and Cassandra.

"Do you want to meet up later?" Cassandra asked after a short awkward pause. "I want to grab some ingredients at the flea market. I have a private cooking class later."

"With who? Pray tell!" Lydia teased. "And Edie, you have to come. Fresh air will be good for you and Aiden."

Fresh air and the flea market sounded excellent right now. But Eden had too many fires to put out.

"I'll call you later to let you know," she lied and hung. She planned to dash home and close her curtains and crawl into some dark corner until the news cycle died down.

But first, she had to find her son, then call her parents and face the music.