My Bride Chose Her Publicity Stunt novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Dropped Charges

They put me in a holding cell at the Hollywood station with a drunk man and a bench bolted to the wall.

Maura was in the next cell, sitting with her back to the bars, calm as ever.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, without turning around.

"My wrists."

"Good. Wrists heal."

At three a.m. a sergeant came and unlocked my door.

"Burdick. Your visitor's here."

I thought it was a lawyer.

I walked down the hall and out through a steel door into the front lobby, and the first thing I saw was a wall of cameras.

Lena stood at the front desk in a cream coat with Brandon at her elbow.

She had changed out of the silver gown, and her face was bare and pale.

The photographers were behind a rope, three deep, and every one of them was shooting.

"Wayne," Lena said, in her softest voice.

She walked toward me with both hands out, and the whole lobby went quiet to watch.

"I've spoken with the officers," she said, loud enough for the rope line. "I'm not pressing charges."

"You called them."

"I was frightened." She laid a hand on my sleeve. "But I know you aren't yourself. I won't ruin your life over one bad night."

"You called the press before the police."

"Hush," Lena whispered, close enough that her breath touched my ear. "That's what kindness costs, baby. Everybody sees me forgive you, and everybody sees how small you are."

She stepped back and put the sweet face on again.

"I love him," she told the cameras, and wiped her eyes. "I always will."

Applause started at the back of the rope.

Real applause, from strangers, in a police station at three in the morning.

I stood there with my wrists still red from the cuffs, and a stranger shouted, "God bless you, Lena."

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