Purposefully Accidental

Chapter Fifty-eight

My stomach churns. "Well. Fuck. That's not good. But... but that's. He personally knows me, and he gets paid to recognize my face on the internet so he could wipe me out of the web. Right?"

"You're right, Hannah. That's what I paid him for," Freddie says patiently. "But this still isn't good. He asked me if we're getting divorced because of this. He assumed you cheated, and he wanted to know how I wanted him to deal with it," he says, sending me a pointed look.

Okay. Shit. That sounds really, really bad.

"I had to explain to him that we've been separated for months, and that I personally know Jonah. I really didn't wanna do that. I wanted to keep this," Freddie gestures at me and Jonah, "away from my lawyers and publicist and, God forbid, Harvey. I had to ask Kevin to not bring this up to anybody else and make sure your name's not being linked to any of these tweets."

Freddie sighs again. "It's not your fault, Han. Shit. I didn't mean to make it look like you guys did anything wrong. Just... we gotta be more careful from now on. Okay?"

I turn to Jonah, who looks at me with a small smile. I feel terrible about all of it. It's been three years since I married Freddie and I haven't really had to worry about any of this publicity stuff. I really thought that the decision to use the Jo Archer persona was fool-proof—but I know now that I should've still been more careful.

"Do we... do Jonah and I have to, I don't know. Keep our distance? For how many more months?"

Truth be told, I don't want to do that. But Freddie's also not wrong. We can't let people draw the connection between Hannah Taylors and Jo Archer. Not now, of all times.

"Right now, the priority is making sure to keep Jo Archer's name as far away as possible from Jonah Gibbs. Kevin had a few ideas," Freddie says, a bit calmer now. "Jonah, I hope you're okay about being linked up to random Instagram celebrities who bear resemblance to Hannah. We're going to spread rumors using, I don't know, 5 different names, just to divert the attention. Make sure to confuse people, so they don't narrow it down to one person. I'm really sorry about that."

Jonah blows a breath through his teeth, but doesn't protest.

"Kevin says we might have to hold off on the divorce news," Freddie continues. "But I told him that's not possible. We need to release the news before we file our documents—before there's a chance to leak and becomes a juicy scandal—so we can still control the narrative. And we both know we don't want to delay the divorce any longer."

Jonah interjects, "I don't mind the delay." When I turn to him, he adds, "Just as long as we're sure that Hannah's name is clear. Both Hannah and Jo Archer."

Freddie stares at Jonah for a long time, considering. "We'll have to see if the diversion tactic works. But," his face turns apologetic, "Kevin also wanted me to ask if you have a female friend with blonde hair—"

Jonah rolls his eyes at that. "No. I'm not doing fake relationships. Been there, done that." I squeeze his arm comfortingly, and he smiles at me in reassurance.

Freddie holds up his hands. "Okay. Sure, cool. That's fine."

My phone vibrates in my pocket, and my heart instantly races. It's my sister, randomly calling me in the middle of the day. Leann doesn't really do that, unless it's something super important. She'll usually text first before calling me. Shit.

I answer the phone in front of the boys. "Hey, Leann."

She goes right into it, without even saying hello. "Okay. You don't need to say anything except yes or no. Is that you?"