Chapter 85

1 p.m., Saturday

Andy and Regan walked around the corner on their way to the car. They weren't ready to leave. Andy probably wouldn't admit it to anyone but Regan, but he was having fun. He was looking at some of the things he wanted to come back later to see when Regan stopped.

Because his arm was around her shoulders, Andy stopped, too. He looked at her to see what she'd found of interest and saw her looking straight forward, shaking her head.

Andy followed her gaze - and found a host of people coming toward her. He recognized all of them.

"Did you tell them that we were coming here?" Regan whispered.

"Uh, maybe," Andy replied. He didn't recall if he'd told Elizabeth his plans for the day. It really didn't matter. "It's a pretty big event, Regan."

The conversation concluded when Joy, Ruth, Elizabeth, Paul, Lupe, John, Chuck and Noel converged on the duo.

Paul, John, Lupe, Chuck and Noel hung back while the other females came forward to offer a hug to Regan. Andy figured the females would start gossiping immediately so he made a strategic withdraw to the people who stayed behind.

He was surprised when they only offered him a sad nod in lieu of a greeting.

"What's up?" he asked, worried that something horrible had transpired.

"I should probably let Elizabeth tell you," Paul replied. Indeed, the female contingent was on their way back with Regan in tow.

"Have you spoken to your mother?" Elizabeth asked. "She said she tried to call you but only got voicemail."

"I turned off my phone so not since last night," Andy admitted. "Why? Is everything OK?"

Elizabeth took a deep breath.

"Your grandmother..." she began.

"Is she OK?" Andy cut in. His grandmother was in her late 50s or early 60s, he knew. He also knew that people that age often have health problems.

"She's fine, Andy," Joy said quickly. "My mom talked to her just a few minutes ago."

"Is it my dad?" Andy asked urgently.

"Everyone you care about is fine, Andy," Ruth told him. "It's you."

"Your grandmother got a call from England this morning," Elizabeth said, picking up the story. She explained what was going to happen in a few hours. Everyone was surprised when Andy only nodded.

"Aren't you pissed?" Joy asked in wonder. She was involved only tangentially and she was angry - not only at The World but at her mother's chosen profession - a profession she had considered in her future.

Andy offered a shrug.

"I'm a little surprised that it hasn't happened earlier," he admitted. "Yeah, it sucks that they're doing it to take a shot at Evan but he's a big boy with a lot of resources. He'll fight back. Look, I started to think about things before I even knew who my dad is. Regan is going to be famous soon. I think we all understand that even if she is in denial about it."

A glance at Regan proved him correct. She was shaking her head defiantly.

"I understood that if I was going to be a part of her life, my anonymity was going to be something of the past," he continued. "Once I found out about my dad, I knew it was only a matter of time. For some reason, the 'Royal Watchers' follow things like this pretty closely. I guess it's no different than how we treat certain families in America; the Kennedys, for instance - or the Rileys.

"Besides, there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it. There is no sense in getting pissed off. I'll save my energy for fights I can win."

"I'm not going to be famous," Regan insisted.

"OK," Andy said. "If that's what you think, I'm not going to argue with you. I'll just point out that in about two weeks, you're going to be one of the wealthiest teenagers in the world and let it go there. If you don't think people are going to notice, you'll learn otherwise or prove me wrong."

Regan frowned at him but turned her attention to the group in front of her.

"Well, your mom is pissed," Joy told Andy.

"That happens," Andy said, nodding. "I'll just be thankful that it isn't at me this time. I do feel sorry for whoever she's gunning for this time, though."

"She plans to fly to England and kick the crap out of the reporter and his family," Ruth said with a giggle.

Andy shook his head sadly and groaned. He was grateful that it would take time for Camille to secure a passport and an entry visa.

"Well, maybe she'll cool off in the next few weeks," Andy said. "Look, I'm not going to let this ruin my weekend. I've come to realize that it was always going to end this way. People that don't know me are going to think what they want. I just hope my friends understand that I'm no different this morning than I was yesterday morning."

He glanced at Regan, expecting her to chime in about how something about her was not the same but she was silent.

"I should probably call my mom," Regan said after a moment.

"Yeah," Joy said. "Anne was a bit concerned that the paper might have hacked you to get pictures of Andy. She wasn't certain but if they've done much digging, they're going to find out about you."

"They hacked me?" Regan asked, her eyes wide.

"Anne said they've done that sort of things before," Joy said. "Mom said that segment of her industry is notorious for doing things like that."

"Oh, shit," Regan said. "If they hacked my Cloud before last night, they have a bigger story than Andy's dad! Mom is going to go crazy if half-naked pictures of me pop up in a newspaper - even one from England. That doesn't include what your parents are going to think!"

"You have half-naked pictures stored online?" Ruth asked.

"I did until Andy pointed out a security flaw in my phone last night," Regan noted. "We all have pictures stored that we might not want others to see. The pictures are automatically uploaded to storage unless you change a setting on your phone. I was going to tell you about it tomorrow night. We went through last night and removed the really bad ones but if they got into it before yesterday, I'm going to be in a lot of shit."

"If they hacked you, I'm going to go apeshit right alongside Mom," Andy stated. The anger that had been missing earlier was there in full force.

"You're underage," Paul pointed out. "The paper would get in tons of trouble if they published anything like that."

All the girls - even Lupe - were looking down at their phones in their hands.

"How do you change the setting?" Elizabeth wondered. Like perhaps every female from 12 to 45 in the world, she had taken a picture of her nude body to see what others saw when they looked at her.

"I'll show you after I call my mom," Regan told her.

Rita was laughing about something when she picked up her phone - which told Regan that her mother was out of the loop.

"How are you this afternoon?" she asked her daughter.

"I'm not sure," Regan admitted.

"Is everything OK, Honey?" Rita asked immediately. The levity that had been obvious earlier was long gone.

"Uh, we got some news today," Regan said. "A newspaper in London found out about Andy."

"I worried that would happen sooner or later," Rita admitted. "That's the problem with living in the digital age. Information is out there if someone is willing to look for it."

"We might have a bigger problem," Regan confided. She had tried to move off to be alone but the female contingent - minus Lupe and Noel - had moved with her. "Uh, Mom, if they know about Andy, they probably know about me."

"Maybe," Rita agreed. "It depends on how hard they looked and who they talked to. Honey, we probably should have been clearer about this but in a couple of weeks, they would have known about Andy anyway. Once you turn 18, people are going to notice you. Once they notice you, they will notice him."

"That's what he said," Regan replied, frowning again. "I guess we can talk about that later. Right now, we might have a bigger problem. Look, you know I have pictures of Andy and me online. His grandmother said the newspaper in question isn't above hacking someone's computer to get information. She was concerned that they might have gotten into some ... private ... pictures I've taken. They're doing the story to hurt Evan and there are some pictures I thought were hidden that they could have found. They might paint Andy - and me - in a bad light if they were to get out."

Rita was silent for a moment. Regan was waiting for the explosion she was certain was coming. Instead, her mother was berating herself internally for not taking time to sit down earlier with Regan and explain the realities of being Rita Riley's daughter.

"We'll deal with that if we have to," Rita said solemnly. "But you need to be careful of what you post."

"They weren't posted," Regan cut in. "My phone automatically uploads them to storage whether I want it to or not. Andy read about it and we changed the settings last night. I didn't purposefully put anything out there and I've removed anything that got posted without my knowledge. But some of them ... well, they might be able to portray Andy as ... I don't know ... a jerk, I guess. We took a lot of pictures of us goofing around the last couple of weekends. They might take those and use them to show that he's the typical entitled aristocrat. You know?"

Rita found herself nodding. She could only imagine the sorts of pictures or videos a group of teenagers might take in hotel rooms.

"What paper is it?" she asked.

"The World, I think," Regan said.

"The World Times," Rita corrected absently. "Well, let me see if I can head this off."

Regan blinked.

"Seriously?" she asked. "I was just, you know, letting you know it might pop up."

"Sweetheart, if they hacked an account belonging to my 17-year-old daughter, I am not going to be satisfied until everyone affiliated with that paper is in jail! I haven't always done a good job of it but I will protect you."

When Regan closed her phone she saw Andy standing with Paul, John and Chuck. Her boyfriend had their recent acquisition unfurled and the three guys were nodding appreciatively.

"You should see this," Paul yelled to Elizabeth.

"Seriously," Chuck added. "This is really cool!"

Lupe had been left (to try) to talk with Noel - a person she had absolutely zero interest in knowing or getting to know.

"They told me I'd be arrested if I told anyone about Andy!" Noel fumed.

"And you're just dumb enough that you bought it," Lupe replied. "Seriously? I don't see what the big deal is anyway."

"He is the son of an Earl!" Noel said as though Lupe was an idiot.

"Yeah, I got that part," Lupe replied tartly. "I've met the man and so have you. It's pretty obvious he doesn't give a shit; it's plainer that Andy doesn't give a shit. What gives you the right to give a shit?"

Elizabeth saw Noel's face redden - and she'd dated Paul long enough to know what came next - so she swung past and hooked Lupe's arm on her way to meet her boyfriend.

"The guy that did this is right down the block," Andy noted. "We told him you guys would want one, too."

"We do," Elizabeth declared as soon as she saw the drawing. "After we get your situation figured out, we'll go look for him."

"Might as well go now," Andy said with a shrug. "Because my situation is out of our hands. Look, we're here; they're in London. They have a printing press and a website; we have neither. Even if we had both, it's going to be out there before we could do anything about it."

"But think about some of the pictures they might have," Regan said, the corners of her lips turned downward. She knew she had been foolish to take some of the photos. Andy had warned her any number of times and Joy had added her two cents (which seemed ironic because Joy's phone was a veritable treasure trove of questionable content). Now, she feared that her impetuousness would lead to a newspaper painting a flawed portrait of her boyfriend.