The Storm (1)

All this time Elle had been blissfully unaware that as she went on with her life a storm had been brewing. She had just been enjoying herself and living life the way she wanted. Elle would have never imagined that all those small choices and decisions had been building up to this incident. That night, as Elle peacefully slept, the storm finally hit.

Elle slept quietly in Adam's arms while the world outside went wild over the picture of a young and beloved actor being close to a woman no one had ever heard of that had just been made public by a tabloid.

When Elle woke up the next morning she went about her morning routine, still unaware of how quickly news was spreading in the world outside. Adam on the other hand, who would never let a single detail about Elle go unnoticed, opened his phone that morning and immediately discovered the news.

Adam was already familiar with the picture. Though Elle's face wasn't in the image, for the people on set and for the people she was close to, it was obvious who the person sitting across from Christopher was. The picture was ambiguous at best but the public never seemed to care about things like that.

With dark eyes Adam skimmed through various articles, methodically tracing back to who had been the first to publish the photo.

"Is something wrong?" Elle's soft voice asked. She had come out of the shower to find Adam sitting on the edge of the bed, focused intently on the screen of his phone. He wore a hardened expression and the glint of something dangerous shone in his eyes.

"I'm going to go into the study for a bit." Adam replied, avoiding her question. "I have some calls to make. You can go ahead and have breakfast first."

As Adam entered his study his phone began to ring. He glanced at it before picking up with a curt hello.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I'm calling because I saw that article of course." Adam's friend Will replied on the other end.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Don't try to avoid it. We all know Elle has been working on the production with that actor and you forget that I personally designed dresses for Elle for MK. Of course I can recognize her even if it's only from the back. Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine. I just have a few additional things to deal with now."

Will frowned. "Is everything okay between you two?"

"Everything's perfectly fine. It was just a dinner with a colleague. I knew about it already, the picture is just misleading."

"Are you sure?" Will asked carefully. "Are you really sure nothing is going on? Are you sure she isn't cheating on you?"

Adam smirked to himself. "If you have to ask that you clearly don't know her as well as you think. I'm hanging up, tell the others I said everything's fine and not to bother me."

He hung up the phone and let out a sigh. He was about to make another call when a voice behind him startled him.

"Were you going to tell me?" Elle asked roughly.

Adam turned to see her standing in the doorway, arms crossed and phone in hand.

"You saw?"

"You must have known I'd see it eventually. It's all over everything."

"I was hoping you'd at least take long enough for me to make some arrangements."

"Adam, this isn't funny. This is serious. How will it effect Christopher. How will it effect filming?"

"It's only a silly tabloid rumour. It will die down before the promotions for our project begin."

Elle frowned. He was probably right, but it still didn't sit well with her. "Aren't you worried at all?" She asked sadly.

"Of course I'm worried. I'm worried for the tabloid that dared publish it first. They won't last much longer I'm afraid."

Elle's heart trembled at the sight of a silent rage in Adam's eyes. "You know it's not true right? You know that it's completely baseless. I don't even remember him being that close to me that night. It -"

Adam cut her off before she could continue. "You don't need to justify yourself to me. Of course I know it isn't true.

Elle softened a bit to hear that. "Will you be going to the set today? I imagine you have things you'll need to discuss with the production crew."

"I thought about just sending someone from the company but it might be most effective to just go myself." Adam confessed.

"I want to go with you."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? It would be uncomfortable and awkward for you to go now. Maybe you should wait for things to die down a bit."

"There's something I feel like I should do. Even if it's just for an hour I feel like I should go today."

Adam was weak against Elle. He couldn't argue against the determination in her eyes. "Fine." He relented. "They'll be filming late today. We can go together after work."