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"Porter," she warned

"Yeeeeaaaaah I hate to be the one to break this to you, but there was an accident involving Ian"

She laughed "Porter, I swear I will hunt you down"

"It seems he tripped into the shredder"

"You are such a liar One, I don’t have a shredder And two, he’s, like, six feet tall andto fit in a shredder"

God, I loved this with her Even stupid shit about her Ian Somerhalder cardboard cutout ht possible It was fun and it was light, not at all like the suffocating shroud that cloaked us on a daily basis But it was ot to be just two people in love, that gave th to carry on for another day

"You’d be amazed how affordable an industrial shredder is on Ahter

That sound alone was h the next two days

"Hey, baby," I whispered before kissing Porter long and deep

"Mainst his chest "God, I h, not-so-secretly considering I’d all but otten out of his car; I’d htened his navy-blue suit coat "Two days too long How’s Trav thisworse

When I’d left that ist wouldn’t even look one fro back down to below baseline His decreased heart function was taking its toll on his lungs and liver to the point that I worried that, even if a heart did arrive, he wouldn’t be physically strong enough to handle the stress of the surgery I hadn’t slept in what felt like forever because all I could do was stay awake, night after night, and watch his vitals

Sing hard, I finished on a se fine Mo by the purse of his lips, he wasn’t buying it He could see right throughreality anyaspositivity

"As soon as we finish here, we’ll go straight up to the hospital," I whispered

He shot enuine smile, one of the first I’d seen from him in a while "Yeah I can’t wait to see him"

Hand in hand, alked up the courthouse steps Once we’d gotten through the ether in quiet conversation

"Hey, Mark," Porter said

Mark’s gaze cut to me and then dipped to Porter’s hand in ?"

Porter’s forehead crinkled "This is the only front I have So, yeah, this is e’re portraying"

Mark stared at us for a beat longer like he had so to say that wouldn’t quite come out

My attorney, Victoria,with uy?"

I hooked a finger at Porter "Hi lot"

Her lips thinned as she cut her gaze to Mark "Charlotte, as I told you, Brady has filed for full custody This is not so to joke around with After the scuffle at the hospital and Porter breaking the order of protection, being here with hi to help your case And, quite honestly, if you lose custody, it’s not going to help Porter, either"

A hu its way throughPorter has been cleared of all involve before we knew about Travis And we’re dating after This should be a non-issue And if this is an issue, I’ you an exorbitant amount of money to make it a non-issue"

Porter’s hand tensed around ed "We’re on the saht So, please"--I pointedly looked to Mark and then back to Victoria--"act like it"

Side-glances were exchanged between the two of them, but they eventually nodded and stepped away

I huffed and chanced a glance up at Porter, fully expecting a scowl to be covering his handsome face