“Page twenty-four,” Eliza says when she enters my office—without knocking.

Having worked with me for years, she knows how much I hate getting unexpectedly interrupted. Add to that the fact that my whole life got turned upside down the last time she came here with news.

Before she walked in here with that magazine? Perfect life. Only getting better. Healthy kid and beautiful fake wife I was starting to really like. About to shut up ex-wife and mortal enemy once and for all.

After? Nausea and chills all the time, except for when I’m drunk. I’d drink more, but I hate the hangovers. Besides, I have a kid to take care of.

See the difference? Same kid, but a beautiful divine gift before, and a burden that hampers my attempts at becoming a serious drinker after.

“Oh, stop glaring at me, Ethan. Trust me, you’ll want to see this.” Eliza drops a magazine onto my desk before she plops down on the chair. She leans back, clasps her hands together, and watches me.

“Another fucking magazine?” I groan.

What is it this time? Penny is secretly a sleeper KGB agent? What could be so important Eliza decides it's acceptable to break one of my biggest rules about knocking?  

I slide the magazine across the glass surface of the desk.

The garish cover features women I recognize from TV, all wearing swimsuits and photographed in bad lighting to emphasize their uneven skin. The biggest headline, emblazoned across the cover in bright yellow, says, “Worst Beach Bodies in Hollywood.”

Jesus. What an uplifting read.

To the left of the pictures of perfectly slim women is the text: “EXCLUSIVE: Mrs. Ethan Hunter’s Confession.”

I raise my gaze up to Eliza and raise an eyebrow. I know how tabloids often make up their own stories from unreliable sources. I ask, “Is this real?”

“Would I bring it to you if it wasn't?”

“How bad is it?” My fingers pinch the edge of the first page, eager to read what Megan has written about me, but also afraid to find out.

“It's not bad, actually. Your wife really knows her audience.”

What kind of an answer is that? I still have no idea what to expect, and I hate that Eliza has just referred to Megan as my wife. It reminds me of what I thought I had found and subsequently lost.

I flip the pages impatiently. The graphic designer of this magazine should be kicked in the ass for making it impossible to navigate.

Wait. Oh, that's right. Eliza has already given me the page number.

I finally find page twenty-four and see a big picture of Megan and me, having our first dinner date.

Seeing her so pretty and happy feels like a kick in the nuts.

I’ve been trying to tell myself maybe it wasn't as good as I remember, but there it is sitting right in front of me: evidence that it was, in fact, as good as I remember.

I look happy in these pictures. We both do.

This article is written by Megan. It's an account of what has happened, told from her perspective.

Without going into too much detail about how it happened, Megan says that Penny was the one that who came up with the idea, and that neither she nor I could say no. Next thing she knew, we were in my office, saying our vows in front of a minister and two witnesses. “The most surreal experience of my life,” she calls it in the article.

She also admits to having interned at The Goss, and having taken the job as my personal assistant to gather material about me. But then, she got to know me and decided not to write about me at all. She cut off her editor, never expecting her to retaliate by blowing her cover.

She even mentions how the media has been unfair to me by pushing Ashley’s side of the story as truth. She doesn’t go into much detail because, as she says, “it’s not my story to tell.” But she insists that I’m not the monster my ex-wife makes me out to be.

Megan ends the article by apologizing to me for having misrepresented herself and “returning kindness and generosity with deception.”

Overall, this article actually makes me look pretty good. Instead of an evil boss who forced Megan into marrying me, I seem like a good guy making the best of bad circumstances.

Megan has painted me as a “doting father who's doing his best for his daughter,” which must gain me some sympathy from the bored housewives who are reading this magazine while their kids are climbing all over them and their husbands are playing video games.

Finished reading the article, I stare at Megan's pictures. Damn, she’s so fucking beautiful. Just look at those killer curves on her body. I want to reach into the scene printed on the magazine, and sweep her hair away so I could kiss her neck. She’s so sensitive that she’d start moaning and begging me for more in no time.

Eliza clears her throat, jerking me back to the present. “I think she has just saved your ass. She's done my job for me. Good crisis management skills on that girl.”

“Yeah,” I say, still trying to shake off the dirty thoughts in my head.

“Although she created the problem herself, so...”

“Yeah.” I’m still in a daze, not quite believing that Megan has basically taken the blame for our fake marriage. She doesn't need to put her personal life out there for people to judge and criticize, but she has nevertheless done it for me.

“But if you want to ask her to move back in, that's entirely up to you,” Eliza says.

“Huh?” I snap my head up to look at Eliza, who's giving me a knowing smile.

“You said she moved out as soon as you found out, right? Well, Ethan, in all my years of working for you, I’ve never seen you so miserable, or so distracted. You’ve always been focused on whatever you're doing. Far be it from me to tell you what to do in your personal life, but I don't think it’ll be the worst thing in the world if you start living together again. It would make for such a good story. The way people have been eating up this article, they’d go crazy if you two decide to make a real go at it.”

I stay quiet. Evidently, I’ve already said too much without ever opening my mouth.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing, boss,” Eliza says with a sly smile as she gets up from her chair and walks out of my office, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

My head fills up with possibilities, while my heart begins to pound in my chest.

Make a real go of it? At marriage? With Megan?

* * *

Penny cranes her neck to check that Matt has gotten into the elevator. She looks at me, then at the grilled chicken and vegetables on her plate, and back at me again.

“What is it?” I ask. I haven't been able to pay attention to anything since I read Megan's article this afternoon, but I can still recognize it when my little girl has something difficult to say.

“Uhh…”

“Did you get into trouble in school?” I love Penny, but not everybody gets her. She's too smart for her own good sometimes.

According to her teacher, her sarcasm and offbeat sense of humor don't make her cool. I beg to differ, but apparently the popular girls don't like it when she's unimpressed by the latest designer bags that they’ve bought in Europe.

“No,” Penny says, to my relief. I’d hate to sit through another long session with Mrs. Turner, whereby she complains about all the things that make Penny great in my eyes.

“Then what is it?” I ask.

“Um… Did you read Megan's article?”

I run my fingers through my hair. Am I the only person who doesn't read gossip tabloids?

“What did I tell you about those magazines?” I ask.

“So you’ve read it,” she says with a grin.

“Maybe I have, maybe I haven't. The point is, I’ve warned you about those magazines, haven't I? I told you not to read them. They're going to rot your brain.”

“My brain is not going to rot just because I read something you don't want me to. I’m not a dumb toddler you can lie to, Dad. I’m almost a teenager, and I have a smartphone. I can Google.” Penny rolls her eyes. “Besides, you so have read it. I didn't say it was in a tabloid, but you already knew.”

Damn those detective stories, turning my sweet little girl into a scary human lie detector.

“Okay, I’ve read it,” I admit. “What about it?”

“I think you guys should make up.”

“And why do you think that?” I ask as my heart begins to race. I’ve been thinking about asking Megan to come back, but I’ve been worried about how it would affect Penny. God knows she's gone through enough upheavals in her life.

“Because everything in that article is true.” A grin blooms on Penny's face and she says, “Also, you were happier when she was around. You like her. Like, like like her.”