The photos hit the internet at 6 AM.
I wake up to my phone exploding. Texts. Calls. Emails. Notifications screaming for my attention like an alarm I can't silence.
Maya's calling. I answer.
"Please tell me you're seeing this," she says without preamble.
"Seeing what?"
"Check Page Six. Actually, check everywhere. It's everywhere."
I pull up my laptop with shaking hands. Google my name.
The first result makes my stomach drop.
"BILLIONAIRE'S KINKY REVENGE: Aria Sterling's Secret BDSM Deal with Ex-Lover Damien Cross"
There are photos. Grainy but unmistakable. Me and Damien through my apartment window. The angle's careful—nothing explicitly pornographic, but intimate enough that there's no mistaking what was happening.
The article's worse.
