It just means that I have to step up.
Put my money where my mouth is when I say I love Magnus Davion.
And not a moment too soon.
Magnus is looking defeated there.
"How can we be sure that you did not in fact coerce your stepdaughter when it's just your word against her mothers?" the first reporter is asking again.
But I don't let Magnus answer.
Instead I speak up.
"I can answer that," I say boldly and hopefully loud enough.
It is loud enough it turns out because Magnus turns around in an instant. He looks at me.
His eyes go wide.
I walk up to the podium that he's standing at and smile at him.
"Hey babe," I whisper to him. The photographers are going crazy trying to snap as many pictures as they can. Good thing yesterday was an ass day at the gym, as I turn around to put my purse down.
"Babe, what are you doing here?" Magnus whispers. "Are you okay?"
I smile. How sweet. We really are meant for one another.
"I'm here to close this chapter, hon," I tell him.
And then I turn to the masses.
They want a scandal?
Then it's time for a real story.
33
Magnus
I look out at the sea of faces and then look back to Penny. She's standing there like a champion.
God, she looks so fucking beautiful.
Can you fucking believe that even in this mess, my cock is twitching as I see her standing there in that tight skirt and suit jacket.
I mean that skirt is hugging her ass so tightly, I can fucking see the outline of her thong if I squint hard enough.
I know they say thongs take out the visible panty line, but to my eye, I can spot just about everything. That little triangle of fabric—I totally zero in on that, and then the rest of the cheeks are opened wide up, baby.
That's how fucking turned on I am by Penny Wright.
She's grown so much as a person. She's become so strong.
It's so amazing.
I don't think I had anything to do with it. I mean you can sit there and say that it was her experiences with me that made her tougher. But I don't know. I think she grew on her own. I was just the sunlight that allowed her to flourish like a germinating plant.
And now here she is, standing in front of half of New York City if you count all the people watching through the cameras and who'll be reading the news once it goes online and gets printed.
I'm ready to step in at a moment's notice now and shut this shit down if I see it going south.
But let's let this girl see what she's got, shall we?
She's already starting to speak.
"My name is Penny Wright, and it seems that over the last several days, a lot of stuff has been said about me," she says out loud and with clear and strong conviction. "A lot of it is complete and utter garbage."
And the photographers go wild.
They can sense a fucking story is coming.
Not for nothing, those motherfuckers from the Daily fucking Journal look like they're about to throw up they've gone so fucking green.
Good.
"Until recently, I was a reporter who worked on the Page Eight desk, also known as Gossip Central," Penny says. "They employed a few of us, about five or six and our job was to troll through things happening in the city that were scandalous and salacious and blow them up in the pages of the Daily Journal."
People are nodding along.
"What can I say?" she asks the crowd. "It was a fun job."
Penny makes a face and I can tell the crowd's warming up to her. They laugh at her line and all of a sudden I'm thinking that I'm not really going to be needed to step in and protect her.
I mean, this girl has got this shit covered.
"So it wasn't much of a surprise when my Editor-In-Chief asked me to cover Magnus Davion as part of my Gossip Central duties. I mean, the guy is God's gift to tabloid journalism at times," Penny says to more laughter and I even join in.
What? I can take a joke. And she's right.
I used to be a walking advertisement for whatever tabloid was running my story with my fucking antics.
But then along came Penny.
And changed my life.
"Although this time when they asked me to cover Magnus, there was a very specific goal in mind," Penny says and leans in. You can see the crowd lean forward with her. They're eating this shit up.
"I was supposed to destroy him. Trash his reputation beyond anything he could do himself and make the city hate him," I hear her say.
Even though I know this, it still makes me wince that at one point this was what she was planning to do.
"If you haven't figured it out, this man is my stepfather. He married my mother when I was 18. The marriage didn't last, but he never noticed me. There was maybe some jealousy. Maybe some longing. And a whole lot of brainwashing done by my mother," Penny says calmly and coolly. This part is crucial. She can't look to be lashing out. The press is eating this up.