Chapter 294 You Can’t Bury a Rumor

Chapter 294: Chapter 294 You Can’t Bury a Rumor

Emilia’s POV

By the time I got back to the pack house that evening, the sky had gone dark. I stood at the front doors for a long moment, hand hovering over the handle. Not because I was afraid to face them. Because I’d decided I wasn’t going to let anyone else break this news for me. Whatever they’d read, they were going to hear the rest from me directly.

Sebastian caught up, laced his fingers through mine, and pushed the door open before I could.

Mila, Titus, and Tiffany were all in the living room. I opened my mouth, ready to lay it out, but Mila got there first.

"We saw the headlines this afternoon, sweetheart." Her voice was warm but there was steel underneath it. "And I want you to stop feeling guilty this instant. It’s garbage, every word of it. Titus already had it pulled."

Titus gave a slow nod from his chair. "Whoever’s behind this is a coward. And clever, I’ll grant him that. He must have known we’d move to quash it, so he sent the story to every paper and outlet in Silverlake City, and half the ones in Lakewood too. He wanted it everywhere before we could catch it."

"Don’t lose sleep over the cleanup," Sebastian said evenly. "You can bury a website. You can’t bury a rumor that easily. I’ll deal with the source. For now, let’s eat."

I glanced around at them, at the way not one of them looked at me with doubt, and my throat went tight all over again.

"Emilia." Titus’s tone softened, just slightly. "Let the rest of the world think whatever it wants. To this family, you’re the best thing that’s happened to my son. Nothing printed on a screen changes that."

"Same goes for me," Tiffany chimed in, throwing a hand up like she was casting a vote. "For the record, you’re officially the best sister-in-law I’ve ever had. And considering how many times Sebastian’s been married, that’s saying a lot."

I let out a small, watery laugh. "Thank you. All of you." I turned to Sebastian beside me. "And you."

He rolled his eyes. "If one more person says thank you in the next thirty seconds, I’m eating without you. Sit down. Food’s getting cold."

Dinner passed easier than I’d expected. But the moment it ended and I was alone upstairs, the softness burned right off me.

Because I already knew who’d done this.

He’d been too quiet for too long. And now the pieces slotted together with sickening ease. I pulled out my phone, found the number I’d hoped never to dial again, and hit call. If Richie Lind wanted to play this game, I wasn’t going to sit around waiting for his next move. I’d rather meet it head on.

The line clicked open after two rings.

"Well." His voice slid through, smug and unhurried. "I honestly didn’t expect to hear from you again, Emilia."

"Richie." I kept my voice flat and cold. "It was you. The story, the leak, all of it. Don’t insult me by pretending otherwise."

There was a pause. Then, surprised, "And what exactly am I supposed to have done?"

"There are rumors crawling all over Silverlake City about my marriage to Sebastian. About how it violates the agreement I signed with your family," I said, keeping my voice level. "You know that better than anyone."

"Oh?" Richie’s tone slid into something almost amused. "So you’re finally admitting you broke our little arrangement?"

"I’m admitting nothing. I’m asking whether you’re the one who fed it to the press."

There was a pause. Then he laughed, low and unbothered. "Sorry to disappoint you, Emilia, but I did no such thing. Though if I ever find out who did, I’ll shake the man’s hand. That’s exactly the kind of stunt I’ve wanted to pull for months. I just never had the nerve."

Slam. The line went dead.

I lowered the phone slowly and sat there in the quiet, my mind turning over faster than I wanted it to.

He wasn’t lying. That was the problem. If Richie Lind had done this, he wouldn’t have hidden behind an anonymous leak. He’d have called me the moment it broke, gloating, dangling it over my head like he always did. Threats were his oxygen. He fed on my reaction. A man like that doesn’t set a fire and then vanish into the smoke.

So it wasn’t him.

Then who?

"Someone’s playing a longer game than we thought," Eve murmured somewhere at the back of my mind, her voice a low prickle of unease. "And they’re patient. Patient ones are the dangerous kind."

I didn’t have an answer for her. That was what unsettled me most. I’d spent my whole life reading the people around me, staying two steps ahead of every knife aimed at my back. Now the knife had come and I hadn’t even seen the hand that threw it.

The door opened. Sebastian stepped in, and his eyes went straight to my face, reading the exhaustion there before I could smooth it over.

"Still chewing on that mess?" he asked, crossing the room.

"No." I forced my mouth into something resembling a smile. "I promised you I’d let it go, didn’t I? I’m a woman of my word."

"Sure you are." He didn’t buy it for a second. He sat beside me and reached over, tucking a loose strand of hair back behind my ear. "Listen to me. I meant what I said. I’m not going to let this eat at you. Whoever’s pulling these strings, I’ll find them, and I’ll make sure they regret it."

I leaned into him, letting the steady warmth of him take some of the weight off my shoulders. Minty and cedar. "I think you’ve heard the word thank you enough times today to last you a year."

"More than enough," he agreed, and there was a rough tenderness in it. "So don’t say it again. You don’t thank the person who’s supposed to have your back. That’s just how it works." He sighed. "You’re tired, Emilia. Go easy on yourself for one night."

I glanced up at him. Something in the way he said it snagged at me, oddly familiar, the way his voice had gone soft and strange that night he’d called me from across the ocean. I couldn’t name what it was. But it lodged in my chest and stayed there.