CHAPTER NINETEEN – PAPARAZZI

The rest of the night passed in a blur. Mara tried to recapture the carefree joy she'd felt earlier, but the encounter with Cassius and the ominous flash of the camera kept intruding on her thoughts. She begged off early, claiming a headache, and took a taxi home. As she crawled into bed in the early hours of the morning, Mara tried to convince herself that everything would be fine. It was just one photo in a dark, crowded club. Surely nothing would come of it. But when she woke up the next morning to the incessant buzzing of her phone, she knew her hopes had been in vain. With a growing sense of dread, she opened her messages to find dozens of texts from friends and coworkers, all variations on the same theme: "OMG Mara, have you seen this???" With shaking hands, she clicked on the link Jenna had sent her. Her heart sank as she saw the photo splashed across the homepage of a popular gossip site. The headline screamed: "KEPPLER HERITAGE CEO'S STEAMY NIGHT OUT WITH MYSTERY WOMAN!"