You Saw Me

96

Henry showed me his conversation with Gemma. "Are you okay with them coming over?" He asked. I smiled and nodded.

"That's great! How lovely of them", I kissed his cheek and leaned against him. He put his arm around me and looked through messages on his phone. 

My phone rang. It was Gayle. I put her on speaker. "Hey Gayle, you're on speaker!" I said, happy to hear from her. 

"Is Henry there?" She asked, sounding a little off. 

"Hey Gayle", Henry said, "Everything alright?" He picked up on her tone as well and locked eyes with me. 

"Well, umm... did you guys see the article in The Mirror?" She was deliberately trying to sound calm, but I picked up on it immediately. 

"What article?" I asked sensing that I was about to get into something, I didn't need to deal with right now. 

"Adam spoke to The Mirror," she paused for a moment. "A two-page spread of whining about how you left him for Henry." 

Henry was immediately calling Jeff on his phone and stepped out of the room. 

"Ellie, are you there hon?" Gayle sounded worried. I had been quiet for a while, just trying to take it all in. 

"How bad is it?" I asked, my voice small and nervous. 

"It's not good", Gayle said. "I'm coming over."

***

We were sitting on our bed, reading the article on their website. Gayle had come over and she was sitting next to me, holding my hand. Henry read aloud and every now and again, he had to pause, because he got upset. It didn't paint a pretty picture of me. It made me sound like a golddigger and an awful person, who had given up on her horribly injured husband, all to chase a young, rich, handsome popstar. He skipped the whole part of us being divorced because he cheated on me. He skipped a lot of things. The only truth there was in the entire article was that I had left him behind. Because I truly had. I spent the total amount of no minutes thinking about him anymore. And now I was being forced to think about him again. 

Henry tossed the laptop aside, clearly upset and frustrated. "What the fuck?" He said under his breath. He pulled me close to him and held me. I hid my face in his chest and cried silently. Just then Jeff rang our doorbell and Gayle went down to open the door.

"Love? We both know that all of that is just trash", Henry whispered into my hair, kissing the top of my head and squeezing me. "He's an absolute wanker."

Jeff came up the stairs and knocked on the door before he entered. He came over and sat down, and put a hand on my shoulder. "What a fucking asshole," he said. Gayle came up the stairs with a drink of water for me. 

"Here hon, you need to drink a bit", she sat down in front of me and I looked up from Henry's chest. "Water will do you good". 

I took a big sip and sat for a while, trying to focus on the conversation around me. 

"I spoke to PR. We're going to fire back in a decent and mature way. No one is going to respect that guy for going to a trash tabloid and throwing mud." Jeff was speaking to Henry and me, but I couldn't take it in. I was worrying about all the waves a bomb like that would create. Would Henry's image be tarnished by my psychotic ex-husband and essentially by him chosing to be with me?

"How are you thinking we go about it?" Henry asked Jeff, taking my hand and pulling me closer. 

Jeff cleared his throat and found his iPad to take some notes. "I think we're going to make an official statement. Something like: In the light of the article recently published by The Mirror, we would like to..."

"Kill him and bury him at sea?" Henry interrupted, causing me to snort laugh. That made Gayle, Jeff and Henry laugh as well. 

"Well, maybe not that", Jeff laughed. "How about: We extend our sympathy to Adam Parsons, who is currently facing challenges following a brain injury. His interview with The Mirror, however, presents a one-sided and incomplete account, omitting essential details about the timeline of his marriage to Ellie. It's crucial to note that his marriage had ended well before his accident. We find his assumptions and discourteous remarks about Ellie and our relationship to be biased and irrelevant." Jeff had written it all down and looked at us for confirmation. 

Henry looked at me. "What do you think, love?" His eyes searched mine for any sign of doubt or regret. 

"I think it's a good statement", Gayle said, nodding at me. 

I sat on the edge of the bed, my feet dangling, Gayle in front of me and Henry to my right. Jeff was on my left. I turned and looked at Jeff. "How will this affect Henry? Will he be "cancelled" because of me?" My eyes were stinging from crying. 

"No way!" Jeff said and put a hand on mine. "People know that The Mirror is trash. And your ex-husband is going to look like a total idiot. Don't worry El." 

"Baby, you're not to blame for this", Henry said, making me look at him. "Adam wants to hurt you, hurt us. But we won't let him have the satisfaction". He smiled at me and dried a tear from my eye with his thumb. 

Gayle looked at me and raised her eyebrows. "Hey, I knew the guy for many years and thought he was an idiot before his accident. Now I don't even know what to think! But Ellie, close that tab, okay?" She winked at me. 

I smiled weakly at her and nodded. I would close that tab at some point. Right now my brain browser was frozen.