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The gentleman helping us with the tree froze in place as if not sure what to do.
With Zoey still in his arms, Beckett put his arm around my shoulder. “I think it’s time you leave, Virginia.”
Virginia threw us a triumphant scowl. I didn’t care that we were reinforcing her belief that we were a couple right now. The only thing that mattered was providing comfort to Zoey and helping Beckett calm down.
“What’s going on here?” Mr. London finally appeared. His steps quickened when he noticed his wife struggling to get up. Her tight dress hindered her movements.
“Help me up, Vance. These heathens attacked me.” She held out her hand, and he pulled her to her feet.
“We’ll sue all of you,” he threatened.
“Will you now?” Ruby asked and pointed to her phone, trained on the two of them.
“I don’t say what I don’t mean,” he ground out through clenched teeth.
A serpent’s smile stretched across Mrs. London’s face. What a bitch.
“I don’t think you will,” Ruby said, a smug expression on her face. “Not unless you want me to post a video of your wife trying to attack a child on every social media channel I have available to me.”
“I didn’t do such a thing. I didn’t touch her,” Mrs. London’s voice raised to a pitch only dogs heard.
“Not physically, but imagine how it would look to the viewers when I post the clip where you almost hit a child and said unforgivable things about her deceased mother,” I added.
“You were not nice to me at all, Mrs. London. Violet would be so ashamed of you,” Zoey yelled at her. Her slight body shook in Beckett’s arms and anger zipped through me. I wanted so badly to throw something at Virginia London.
“Virginia, please tell me—” Mr. London began until his wife cut him off.
“Okay, fine.” She waved her hand around. “I might have said some things I now regret.”
With a scowl directed at his wife, he responded to Ruby, “You keep the video to yourselves, and we’ll stay out of your way,” he grumbled.
Ruby tapped her phone, still recording the conversation. “I want you and your wife to promise not to speak to the principal or anyone else that could cause trouble for Wren about her suspicions that Wren and Beckett are in a relationship.”
With her husband glaring at her, Mrs. London stammered an apology and a promise not to say anything, which he repeated before they stormed off.
I rubbed my hand over Zoey’s hair, in light soothing strokes. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
Her sad little tear-streaked face looked at me. She shook her head and held her arms out.
Beckett let her go, and I swept her into my embrace. She was almost too big for me to carry, but it didn’t matter. Her shaky sobs resumed, and my heart cracked and broke into a million pieces. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered against her honey-brown hair, crying along with her, wishing I could erase the last ten minutes of today.
Strong arms surrounded us until our tears dried up. Beckett took Zoey from me and carried her to his car. She looked so little in his arms. The upset from the afternoon and crying had worn her out. I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how.
Ruby hugged me. “Can we do anything?”
“Besides sending me a copy of that video? No, I think we need to talk to Zoey tonight. I hate that this is how she found out.”
Grayson was still fuming. “That fucking bitch had no right—”
Ruby placed a hand on his arm.
Pain lanced through Grayson’s eyes. “Take care of her for us, Wren, and text us tonight to let us know how she’s doing.”
“I will.” I gestured toward the employees. “Can you let the tree farm know we’ll pick up the tree sometime this week? And we’re sorry for the drama.”
“Of course.” He wrapped an arm around Ruby.
“Call us if you need anything,” Ruby said, her eyes pinched with worry as she glanced between me and Beckett’s car.