Page 107 of Starcrossed Colorado

I couldn’t hear what she was saying. But the color drained from his face. Without another word to his sister, Ashford lowered his phone and thumbed at the screen.

“What’s going on?”

“Grace just saw this. Callum sent it to her, and she forwarded it to me.” He turned the phone so I could see it. There was an article from a tabloid website on his screen.

Exclusive: Ayla Maxwell’s Secret Grief.

“Oh no. What does it say? Does it mention Maisie?”

“I don’t know yet.”

I tangled our fingers together. “Maybe it’s not so bad.”

Ashford’s expression was made of stone. We sat on the bed and looked at his screen.

Singer Ayla Maxwell has long been secretive about her background, though many of her song lyrics hint at a dark history of personal grief. Now, we know why.

Three years ago, Ayla’s sister Lori O’Neal died tragically on a deserted highway outside the small Colorado town of Silver Ridge. Questions still swirl around her death. Local police shut down the investigation and ruled it an accident.

But even more problematic questions surround Ayla’s brother-in-law, Ashford O’Neal, a martial-arts enthusiast with a violent family history.

While they were both members of the US Army, Ashford’s older brother Grayden was courtmartialed and convicted of manslaughter.

Ashford’s chest lifted and fell as he breathed. His fury radiated off of him in waves. “That’s a low blow, bringing up my brother.”

I wanted to stop reading this train wreck of an article, but of course, I couldn’t.

Sources report that O’Neal has kept Lori’s young daughter away from Ayla for years, even though the singer has begged to see her niece to confirm the girl’s wellbeing. Yet just recently, he invited a much younger woman, Emma Jennings, into his daughter’s life.

But Jennings has a checkered history of her own.

“Some of this is aboutme.” My body went tight and cold. Like numbness was spreading through me. I read the words, but they wouldn’t sink in.

Just months ago, Jennings left her graduate-level music program in disgrace after an affair with the husband of her professor. While Jennings avoided official discipline, the professor has had to take a leave of absence from her own position.

“I was humiliated,” the professor said when asked for comment on the scandal, though she’s asked not to have her name revealed in this article.

Those words seemed to echo.Disgrace.Humiliated.

Oh, God. All my friends from college and high school might see this. My family.

Mydad.

“Hell.” Ashford switched the phone screen off, blotting out the rest of the article. “I figured Ayla might go after me one day, but now they’ve brought you into it, and that is so far beyond the pale.”

He got up, doing something on his phone, then held it to his ear. “Ayla, you need to call me back.Now.”

Numbly, I got up and grabbed my phone. I’d had it on Do Not Disturb overnight, but now I checked my notifications. There was a dozen. Calls, texts, emails. Including from my stepmom, Madison.

My knees went weak. My stomach roiled.

Ashford appeared at my side, strong arms closing around me. “Baby, I am so sorry about this.”

“It’s not your fault. At least they didn’t reveal Maisie’s name. I’ll call that lawyer I mentioned. You need someone representing you.”

“Probably, but what they said about you… We’re not going to take this. I’m going to do everything I can to get that article taken down. This bullshit reporter needs to apologize to you.” He held my face, studying me.

“I don’t see any of that happening. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Let’s focus on Maisie.”

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