Chương 21: falling in love

"Did you have a good sleep?" She asked his friend as soon as he emerged from his room.

"Yeah! It was a rough night." He scrubbed his eyes as he moved towards the kitchen. "I need coffee."

"This is my friend, Jacob." She gestured to the man, who was barely awake, moving towards the coffee maker.

"This is Lindsey. The one, who takes good care of me," she stated affectionately.

"Oh! Welcome to our island!" Lindsey immediately greeted him, wondering who this man was in Sky's life. She was not aware that she had a guest.

"How long are you staying? You didn't answer me earlier." She asked him again.

"Don't worry, being trapped here is not my style. I'll be leaving tomorrow. I just wanted to stop by and check on you. I missed you." Casually sipping on his coffee like it was a cure for some illness. "That's better." After finishing the whole cup in one go.

"I assumed you planned to stay longer." A bit disappointed that his stay was only for a short while.

"I wished to, but you know my busy schedule doesn't permit me to be away for too long. I still have to fly to France by tomorrow." His face was sympathetic to her feelings.

He wanted to help her get through this scandal she found herself in. He flew as soon as possible before she heard about it through someone else. He wanted to be by her side, at least, to give her moral support.

"Yeah, I understand, and I appreciate your visit. I guess that should make me happy." She took a bite of the croissant that Lindsey baked this morning.

"Well, I am at your service for the whole day, so your wish is my command. What do you have in mind?" He moved like a genie, entertaining her friend.

"Hmmm…" She thought about it. Then, after her long day yesterday, she was not in the mood to explore the island. She opted to lounge on the beach with Jacob.

"Tell me, why are you here?" She went for the direct approach as soon as Lindsey left them.

There was something he was not telling her. In their years of friendship, she could already sense if there was something wrong with his friend.

"Promise me. You won't freak out with what I am about to tell you," Jacob said cautiously.

"What is this all about?" She was beginning to feel uncertain about what she was about to hear. As far as she knew Jacob, he did not like keeping secrets.

"What do you know about what is happening in the news?" Jacob again asked without giving away anything.

She began to conclude that this was about her scandal again from the way Jacob was acting. She could not believe that after being away for a few weeks, the news had not yet died down even a bit. It appeared that it was intensifying more if the expression on Jacob's face was any indication.

"I have no idea. I stopped watching or reading any news ever since I moved here." She told him truthfully.

"Then, you have not heard of the latest news." He declared with regret. He was not looking forward to being the one to break the news to her.

"What about it?" She was curious as to what else the media could be talking about her.

"Would you rather see it or hear it from me?" Jacob could not decide, which was the better approach, so he let her decided. When he first saw it last night, he immediately decided to fly out here.

She wondered what could be worse than what was already out there. She already heard every hurtful and accusatory word before. So what else could the world have against her that could hurt her more.

She decided to see it instead of torturing his seemingly having a hard time friend from telling her. She settled in the living room while Jacob went back to his room to get something.

He slowly went to her side as soon as he came out. "Ready," he asked, sitting beside her on the sofa.

She nodded her head, thinking that the sooner she got over it, the better, not wanting to say anything else. He started typing on the screen, and in a minute, he looked at her and gave her the tablet.

Taking a deep breath, she stared at the screen in front of her as he started to play the video.

Written in bold letters:

'SEX SCANDAL VIDEO OF MAYOR BRADLEY DE LUCA AND SABRINA SANDERS'

She could not believe it. How was that even possible? It must be another smear propaganda of Brad's rivals. A sex scandal fabricated by his enemies. She thought.

Jacob looked at her worriedly as she watched the scene in front of her. It was like she was watching her movie on the small window in her hands.

It was her and Brad in the room of one of the hotels they usually meet. Then, the next scenes showed their explicit love affair for everyone to see. There was no denying that the video was authentic because she clearly remembered that night.

Who would do this? Who would video them? Brad would never do this to her because this would also ruin him. Somebody from his staff must have done this to use it against him, but who.

After watching the whole video that ran for twenty minutes, her mind immediately thought of who else had seen it.

"Don't worry. I just saved this copy so I could show you. I believed someone had it deleted a few minutes after it was posted. Unfortunately, the news already got out before it was completely contained." He took the tablet from her trembling hands and hugged her.

"Who would do this?" She asked incredulously, still in shock. She knew the difficulties of being in the limelight.

A famous star, like her, also had a lot of enemies. Many people envied her success. Some even wished to see her downfall.

Her dad once said to her that success came with a price. It also involved tons of responsibilities, not only to herself but to the people who supported her career. Fame was not always glitz and glamour, but it could also be a curse.

"Nobody knew yet who uploaded the video." He continued to explain to her.

She was not sure if she wanted to cry or laugh at what she just witnessed. Her life was a total mess, ruined by her stupidity. Loving a married man was her biggest mistake.

Then, she suddenly remembered her family, specifically her dad. Did they watch this? "Oh my God, what about my dad? He shouldn't see this." She started to panic.

"I already talked to Margie. They were able to hide it from your dad for now since your dad is still on house rest." He assured her. "So, better not think about him for now."

The guilt started to eat her up. She blamed herself for the current health condition of her dad.

For the first time in her life, she could not care less about her career. It could go down the toilet with all her success and awards. She wanted to fix her life for her dad. To make him proud again of her little girl.

Then, another thought came to her mind. Rafael. What would he think of her now if he saw that video? Even she thought of herself as a whore, from the comments she saw on the bottom screen.

Jacob started hugging her, consoling her. "Don't worry, everything about this whole situation would eventually fade away. People will forget about it. Eventually, everything will go back to normal."

"No, they won't. What have I done?" The worse thing was she could not stop thinking of Raf, and what he would say about this? It certainly beat the lies she told him.

While they continued to talk, a familiar bark alerted her of an incoming visitor.

The dog ran to her, missing her after not seeing her for the whole day.

He had his collar with his name tag on, but no chain as usual.

"What are you doing here, Baxter?" She patted the dog as it came near her. She did miss him too.

Jacob started patting him too, but the dog growled at him. "Easy, boy," he said, moving back a little. She immediately held Baxter, calming him from attacking his friend.

"This is Baxter and this is my friend, Jacob," introducing the two.

She suddenly realized that if Baxter was here, then Raf would not be far behind. She checked the time, and it was almost dinner. She deduced that he must be back from his trip.

She could not see him, not with her current condition. She wanted to hide, but where would she go. Then, reality struck her, making her stop on her tracks.

Raf was not coming for her.

Sabrina.

He was probably falling in love with her.

Sky.