The English Billionaire

Chapter 48

Emma's POV

Shoot.

I heard footsteps from behind me as I hurried to pick myself up. Turning I was face to face with Forest.

"Uh," I said awkwardly, "Hi."

There seemed to be a few emotions warring on Forest's face. I wasn't sure what emotion I was looking for but when his lips settled into a slight smile and his eyes softened I was flooded with relief.

"Hi," he responded, "Are you okay?"

Was I okay? What? How was he asking me that after what I had just heard?

"Oh, yeah, I--I'm fine, yeah," I said, taking a slight step back as I came to realize just how close we were. I felt my face heat up. "Are you?"

His head cocked to the side as I moved and it looked like he was about to reach out towards me when the sound of running footsteps drew both of our attentions.

Chris came into view, panting he slowed down and took a deep breath. "I've got a lawyer heading to the station to intercept Landon." He said, looking at Forest. "We need to figure out what we're going to do—damage control."

Forest's brow furrowed, "Right." He said with a small glance at me.

Chris mirrored the glance with a small flicker of confusion crossing his expression. He motioned with his hand. "We need to go," he said simply, then quickly dove into his pocket when his phone rang.

Forest used this as an opportunity to turn back to me with a small grimace. "So you heard?" He asked quietly as Chris took a few steps away to take the phone call.

"Yeah," I nodded slowly. "What...?"

Forest dragged his hands through his hair, dislodging it from its styled position to fall down onto his forehead with a sigh. "Megan, she's a reporter," He explained, "there's been some..." he trailed off and grimaced again, "bad blood between our families—and Landon's." His eyes looked tired when he met mine again. "She's not exactly my favorite person."

"Oh," was all I managed to get out.

"We have to go, now," Chris said firmly as he hung up the phone, shooting Forest a pointed look.

Forest gave a me furtive glance and murmured, "I'll explain later, promise." He then turned and with a nod at his friend they took off down the hallway at a fast pace.

I stood there in the hallway long after they had disappeared around a corner. The conversation between this 'Megan' and Forest replaying in my head. When my feet finally decided to move again I found my way back to the main lobby and got on an elevator to the girl's suite.

Heaving the door open I was met with all the girls piled into the living room area of the suite all listening to Alison. They all grew quiet as I slipped in, Alison was the first to speak.

"There you are!" She said, running over to give me a quick hug. "Where were you? They arrested Landon! And they wouldn't tell any of us why they were doing it!"

Some of the other girls shook their heads, looking worried.

"And then you were gone and no one could find Forest and then Chris went running everywhere and no one will tell us what's happening and the crowd of paparazzi outside has reached astronomical levels," Alison talked in one breath, her words tumbling out of her mouth in cursive.

I moved to glance out the window and sure enough there were crowds of people with cameras shouting and trying to bypass the hotel security.

"Emma!" Alison said. I turned back to her and found that everyone was staring at me with mixed expressions of curiosity, confusion and disgust. Well, just Cora was looking at me with disgust, and I was getting used to that by now.

"I uh," suddenly I felt an urge to not tell the truth—to lie to my best friend in this whole 'experiment'. "I had to go to the bathroom, you were really distracted, you must have not heard me."

Cora scoffed and flipped her hair over her shoulder. Alison nodded slightly. "Oh, okay," she said, "well you missed quite the show."

"I'm sure," I said giving a small smile, "what else happened?" I asked, sitting down on one of the unoccupied chairs. Alison began to retell her story beginning with filling our plates with food but my mind was anywhere but in the conversation.

Instead it was focused on Forest and the mysterious reporter. Things were starting to make some sense but it was all still so confusing, especially when he kept getting pulled away on business. I didn't even have Landon to ask for answers. I found myself worrying about both of the boys, a small pit was forming in my stomach.

What was going to happen to them? To us all? I guess only Megan had the answers to those questions if her threats had anything to do with this situation.

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A/N

Heyyyy, sorry this is a day late, busy day at work and then my fam watched Hamilton together. It was funny watching it with my parents because they had both never seen or heard the whole thing before.

Anywhooo don't forget to check out my new book Falling on my profile and comment and vote and all that jazz!! Tell me what you think :)))

much love,
em