If he hadn’t made that bold claim, if he hadn’t marched over and grabbed her hand in front of everyone, this wouldn’t have blown up into a massive scandal. Just thinking about it made her blood boil.

Under normal circumstances, she would have been furious enough. But then she remembered the photos Liliana had sent her just days ago. So Finnian was perfectly happy stringing Liliana along while showing up on set to toy with her emotions?

He was a complete jerk trying to have it both ways! Simmering with rage, Amara cursed him out in her head.

The most pressing issue was getting this story killed. If Larry Sullivan saw the news and started believing the baby was Finnian’s, it would be a disaster.

Throwing caution to the wind, she dialed Finnian’s number. The second he picked up, she fired off, “Have you seen the news? The internet is blowing up about us. Can you please get your PR team to scrub this from the trending list?”

How long had it been since Amara had willingly reached out to him? Finnian honestly couldn’t remember.

In fact, he could probably count the number of times she had initiated a call on one hand. Seeing her name flash across his screen had sparked a genuine wave of joy. He had immediately closed the file on his desk, walked over to the leather sofa, and answered with undivided attention.

But her frantic demand completely blindsided him. His mood instantly soured. “I’ve seen it. I think the coverage is fine. Why would I kill the story?”

*Fine?* Amara almost choked on her own fury.

“It is absolutely not fine! The entire internet is wildly speculating that my baby is…”

She didn’t want to scream at him.

She was calling to ask for a favor, not start World War III. Taking a deep breath, she forced her voice to stay level. “The comments section is full of absolute nonsense. Just please, can you get the story taken down? I’m begging you.”

Finnian’s gaze turned somber, his voice dropping an octave. “Why should I take it down? In the past, I whenever something happened and I offered to handle the media, you always rejected my help. Why are you suddenly begging for it now?”

“Besides, I don’t see anything wrong with the current narrative. There’s no reason to suppress it.”

He couldn’t have been clearer. He loved the rumors, and he fully intended to let the media fire burn completely out of control.

Amara bit down on her lip, ready to argue, but Finnian cut her off. “And what do you mean they’re ‘wildly speculating’? They’re saying the baby is mine. That’s not a wild guess. That’s just the truth.”

The words caught in her throat. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, the baby was his, and absolutely nothing could change that. She was vibrating with anger. He was being impossibly stubborn…

Then, a sudden realization hit her like a bolt of lightning. Was the reason he refused

to kill the story because his team had planted it in the first place?

Even with the natural gossip surrounding them, the speed at which this had skyrocketed to the number one trending spot was completely unnatural. Someone was definitely pushing it behind the scenes.

Her temper flared, and she slammed

the phone down, ending the call without another word. If he wasn’t going to cooperate, she had no other resources to battle a media storm of this size. She had no choice but to let it ride out.

After all, the internet had an incredibly short attention span, didn’t it?