Chapter 4: Privately Separated

The last flash faded, but Travis kept his hand on my waist.

To the room it looked like affection.

I knew it was there to steer me.

A woman in a team blazer came up before I could step away.

"We need five minutes in the conference room."

Travis squeezed my side. "It'll be quick."

Shelby stayed at the back of the ballroom, watching us go. She looked satisfied.

The conference room was two doors down the hall.

The woman from the team's PR office put printed pages in front of us.

A man in a gray suit shut the door behind him.

"There were a lot of people upstairs," she said. "Someone noticed tension. We should get ahead of it."

I read the top page.

Travis and Lena Holloway have been living apart since June, after years of private struggle with fertility treatment.

Lena has chosen to step back from public life to focus on her health.

Travis asks the public to respect her privacy.

I read it again.

Shelby's name wasn't in it.

The word affair wasn't in it.

It said we had split up months before my sister got pregnant.

"You already wrote this," I said.

"It's a draft."

"It says I left my husband because I couldn't cope with not having a baby."

"It doesn't assign blame."

"It says I'm unwell."

Travis sat down beside me. "Lee, it's the cleanest way to handle it."

I turned to face him.

"Cleanest for whom?"

"For everyone."

Everyone again.

It had never once included me.

"We can release it tonight," the woman said. "But it lands harder from your account, Mrs. Holloway. People trust you."