Page 100 of Never Been Worse

“Hey, are you Jeremy Vaughn?” a woman says with a wide smile.

Jeremy’s irritation slips off, and a cordial smile comes to his lips as he turns to the beautiful woman. “Yes, yes, I am. And who might you be, gorgeous?”

Jesus, the man has no fucking shame. He wasjusttalking about his girlfriend, and now he’s flirting with a random woman?

“I’m Cindy,” she lies. “Gosh, I’m such a fan. Can you sign this?”

Clearly excited about his alleged fame, he forgets the conversation he was just having and the camera still pointed at him.

“Anything for a fan.” He takes the packet from her hands and goes to sign, but then the woman smiles and steps back.

“You’ve been served,” she says and then walks off.

“Served?” he asks, then reads the front of the summons we issued overnight. The timing honestly couldn’t be better, and I’m so happy I’m recording it so Harper can watch after her exciting night, though I bet by the end of the day, there are going to be a dozen angles of this on social media. “Hey! You must have the wrong person!”

The woman shakes her head and keeps walking off.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Jeremy mumbles.

I know that within an hour, the social media super sleuths will have dug up and dissected the court document, revealing all of Jeremy’s crimes. Even if this lawsuit goes nowhere, which I’ll fight to make it go all the way if we have to, he’s going to lose in the court of public opinion.

Then Jeremy’s phone rings, and he looks at it, clear panic on his face when he sees the name before answering.

The hits just keep on fucking coming.

I wish we were this good, that we orchestrated this, but even Leo isn’t this good. Karma is just finally getting this asshole.

“Hello? Yes, Mr. Astor, I’d—no, you don’t understand, she’s crazy, and I?—”

“Thank you so much for your time,” the reporter says and walks off, leaving Jeremy red-faced, a loudfuck!making its way to the camera before it’s cut back to an entertainment reporter.

“Wow, so, it seems like Jeremy Vaughn isn’t having a great day.” The woman looks up, brows furrowing. “In fact, it looks like inside sources are telling us Astor Fashion House just released a statement that due to recent information they’ve collected on Mr. Vaughn, they’ve decided to sever ties with the current head of marketing effective immediately. My producer is informing me we’ll have a full article on why on the website within an hour as well as details about the lawsuit he was just served, but it seems to be related to theft, harassment, and blackmail.”

The woman next to her smiles with wide eyes. “I guess that revenge line is a bit more literal than Harper let on, isn’t it?”

They laugh before I change the channel back to the red carpet, though Harper is no longer on the screen, and I sit back, content in the knowledge that he can never hurt my wife again.

EPILOGUE

Wes, Ten Months Later

“Shhh,” I whisper as my wife lets out a moan as my hands drift up her thighs. My hands continue to move despite the noise, helping to hike her dress up to her waist.

She glances over her shoulder as we sit in the back of a limo, double-checking that the divider is still up.

“It’s not moan-proof, Harper.”

A blush burns over her cheeks, but I can’t focus on that when my hand hits a patch of plastic on her thigh. “What the,” I say, dipping my head down, although there isn’t much room between us and even less light in the limo to see. But I don’t have to look that close to see the familiar design, one that’s been on my wrist for almost a year. I already know what it is, but I have no idea when it got there.

On the inside of her thigh, just below where her garter belt is, is a tattoo. A simple outline of a heart, with the letter W inside.

“Happy anniversary,” she whispers.

We decided we would get married again, this time with more thought and planning, adding in everything we could ever desire, including planning a much, much moresatisfyinghoneymoon one year after we got married the first time.

The date our contract expired.

Harper called itperfectly romantic, but I just wanted to marry her again once it was all null and void and she wasn’t legally tied to me anymore. When it could beherchoice, no outside forces encouraging her to make the jump.

---