Page 88 of Priceless

Right. That would make sense, but something told me it wasn’t that.

Everett smiled down at his phone. He’d been doing it at regular intervals. But then again, so had I. When I saw what our wife had posted, I could barely think about anything else.

“So where are we going for the honeymoon?” I asked.

It had just been an idea when I floated it, but now we were going. If the way Everett handed Joseph his ass hadn’t made me smile, his declaration about the honeymoon would have.

Everett shrugged. “Maybe somewhere in Europa? I figured we’d ask her where she wanted to go. But I have some ideas. I need to make some calls about them.”

“Cryptic bastard.”

He didn’t even look up as he lifted his middle finger toward me. I laughed and looked back at my phone. The comment caught my eye, because it was gaining replies.

Of course he’s feeding her cake. Makes sense. Probably ate the whole thing herself.

For fuck’s sake.

“Woah,” Micah looked at me, and I realized I was growling, holding my phone so tightly it felt like it might snap. “What is it?”

“Someone whose neck I want to snap making a comment about my picture with Ocean.” I swiped on my phone to open an email. “I’m letting the socials team know and making sure they’re on top of any negativity. I swear to fuck if I see any actual outlets commenting on Ocean’s size or implying that she’s somehow not worthy of us, I will lose it.”

Micah’s face went slack. “Fuck.”

It was my turn to be confused.

“We warned her the story was coming out today,” he said. “But we haven’t added her to the socials team yet. Ocean doesn’t have anyone managing things for her. No wonder she doesn’t have her phone.”

Dread speared through me. It had been one of the things I meant to do today, and we got derailed by Joseph, and then by Frank. I’d known there would be negativity, and I meant to make sure there were people making sure to delete the comments when they saw them.

Normally, we didn’t care what people said. They could give us shit and we wouldn’t touch anything. Why interfere? But now? The thought of letting people berate my Omega was absolutely unacceptable. Not in the spaces we controlled.

“Fuck.” I echoed Micah’s sentiment and closed my eyes. This was on me. It was my job to make sure she would be protected through this, and I hadn’t.

“I’m getting her a new phone,” Everett said, not looking up. His face was hard. “It’ll be at the house in the morning.”

Seeing my face, Micah lifted his phone to his ear. His conversation made it clear he was speaking to our personal public relations manager, telling them we needed help tamping down on the comments on our socials. If Ocean wanted help with hers, we would give it in a heartbeat.

Someone would come at us for censoring people, and to that, I’d do exactly what Everett did and give them the middle finger.

“I—” The words wouldn’t come, and I shook my head. “I fucked up.”

Micah came to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “It will be all right. We all knew this would happen, even Ocean. Let’s just get home to her and make sure she’s okay.”

“Yeah.” I kept a hold on the hoodie, trying to infuse it with scent as quickly as possible.

It took way too long for us to get home, worry swirling in my gut. I headed straight for my room, nearly tearing off my suit. Changing was my first priority, because as soon as I found Ocean, I wasn’t leaving her side.

I didn’t bother with a shirt, but kept her new hoodie with me as I started looking. Marcela was in the kitchen, finishing up for the day. “Mr. DuPont.”

Shaking my head, I smiled at her. All three of us had begged her to call us by our first names for years, but she never did. “Have you seen my wife?”

“Not since this morning.”

“Thank you.”

One glance into the courtyard told me she wasn’t in the new greenhouse. Not in the TV room. The others had the same plan as I did, appearing in casual clothes as I made my way to Ocean’s room. “Nothing yet. Maybe she’s in the nest.”

Micah nodded. “That’s what I’m betting.”

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