Page 165 of Legally Mine

Chapter 39

Have you ever been trapped in an elevator? Had someone hug you so hard you couldn't breathe anymore? Had the wind knocked completely out of your belly?

That's what it felt like while I waited in the conference room, arms around my midsection, slowly rocking back and forth in the rolling chair while Kieran left to find Brandon. I prayed she would be able to bring him before his speech was supposed to start. I didn't think that he would announce his run before I returned. I hoped.

So I sat there, rocking, while the nondescript gray walls of the room closed in. I had played this scene over and over again in my mind over the last two months, rehearsing how exactly I would tell Brandon the news that I feared deep down would truly break us. That fear had stopped me so many times, but I couldn't let it now. He had to learn this from me––it was the only way he might forgive me for what I had done.

"She's just in here."

Kieran's voice was muffled through the oak door before it was pushed open, and she led a very worried-looking Brandon into the conference room. His ocean-blue eyes found me, and less than a second later, he was crouched by my side, large arms wrapped around my shaking form.

"Hey," he hummed against the crown of my head. "Shh, I'm here. I got you."

His kindness only made me shake more violently.

"Baby, what is it? What's wrong?" Brandon asked, as he cupped one side of my face with a big palm and stroked the edge of my cheekbone with his thumb.

The tenderness of the gesture choked up my throat, and almost immediately, tears started to flow again. I was so unworthy of his love––I could see that now. Maybe on some level, I always saw it. Even now, when Brandon had the world on his shoulders, when he was on the precipice of taking on even greater burdens and notoriety, he was still putting me first. I didn't deserve him.

"I-I have to tell you something," I managed to get out. "Before you...before you announce. There is something you need to know."

Brandon's normally smooth forehead crinkled in confusion. His hand rubbed my shoulder, and I fought the urge to lean in and let him hold me again. But that would be cruel and manipulative.

God, how was I going to get through it when I told him? When he inevitably left me?

"Hey," Brandon said kindly as he tried to pull me close again. "It's going to be okay. You can tell me anything, Red."

I resisted, but he wouldn't let me pull away. I relished in his touch, knowing there was a decent chance I wouldn't get to feel it again after this.

"It's the campaign, isn't it?" Brandon asked as he pushed a hand through his hair. "It's too much, right? With Miranda here, it's too much. I can call it off, Skylar. Like I said, I won't do this without you."

"It-it's not that," I managed to croak.

Brandon blinked, his handsome face so thoroughly confused. "Then what is it?"

"It's probably this."

We both jerked our heads up as Miranda burst through the doors, holding a piece of paper and followed by Jared and Cory. She thrust it in front of Brandon. It appeared to be a black and white photograph of me leaving the free clinic in Brooklyn. Pictures I now knew had been taken by someone hired by my own family.

"What the fuck!" Jane's voice rang out as she and Eric tumbled in after everyone else. "She looks refined, but this chick just gouged out half my arm."

She found me sitting in Brandon's embrace and gave me a look that said one thing loud and clear: I tried. I looked with horror at the crowd suddenly amassed in the room: three people eager to ruin me, the others there to help.

Slowly, Brandon picked up the photo. He looked to me, back to the photo, and back to me again, confusion riddled in thin lines across his forehead.

"What is this?" he asked. "Why were you...is everything okay?"

"It's what I'm trying to tell you," I said, my voice small and creaky as I looked at the damning picture. I could tell exactly when it was taken by the clothes and the way I was still walking with a protective hand over my midsection. I looked sick and underfed. I looked terrified.

Jane and Eric both came to sit at the table behind me, both of them looking curiously over my shoulder while they sat. Jane would obviously know what was going on. Eric, however, didn't have a clue.

"Maybe this will enlighten you, boss."

Cory set another piece of paper on the table, and looked at me with a satisfied smirk. My insides grew cold. Brandon immediately traded it for the first. I wanted to snatch them both away, but my body felt like it had lost all nerve endings.

"My sources in New York just delivered it," Cory said with a satisfied smirk at me. "Last of the vetting process."

"What is this?" Brandon asked again as he scanned the document.