All I Dream About

Chapter 11: Your Love Is A Lie

Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long between updates, life has been busy! Enjoy <3

We seemed to quickly go back to normal after our almost kiss, the incident not being discussed or even acknowledged, though it still lingered in the back of my mind. Part of me wanted to talk about it, but I was scared to bring it up when I wasn't sure how I really felt about it. Maybe it was just a one time thing, a fluke?

One night, as we sat in the living room playing a board game, Hunter's phone rang. After our marriage had gone public, it seemed like both of our phones had rung nonstop for a week, but things had quieted down a lot since then. Hearing it ring again made me nervous, even though it could be something as harmless as a spam call. But seeing his manager's name flash on the screen only filled me with more dread. "Hey, Val, what's up?"

Hunter looked at me as he listened to her, a confused expression on his face. I watched as he reached for the remote, turning on the TV and searching his name on YouTube. The top result was a fairly short clip from TMZ, with Audrey's face on the thumbnail. Hunter Hayes' ex tells all: Country's golden boy falls from grace, the title read. "What the hell is this?" I whispered, unable to take my eyes off the screen.

As he hit play, Audrey appeared on the screen, makeup running down her face as if she had been crying. She took a deep breath before looking straight into the camera. "This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I feel this needs to be said. Hunter Hayes is not the man you may think he is. We were in a relationship for about a year, and that year was...hard. I loved him so much, still love him, really, but...he did not treat me the way I deserve. He was always picking fights with me, talking down to me, making me feel worthless. I always felt like I had to walk on eggshells around him. Not only that, but he kept cheating on me. I have my suspicions that he was doing so for the entirety of our relationship. His marriage came as such a shock to me, especially when he married his mistress. Hopefully this can act as warning, for Lydia and any other girl he tries to be with. He's bad news."

The video ended abruptly, and Hunter stared at the screen in shock, phone still by his ear. My blood was boiling. I stood from the couch, beginning to pace around angrily. "How dare she get up there, blatantly lie, and try to ruin you like that. Who the fuck does she think she is? She's really so self absorbed and so delusional that she can't accept responsibility for her own relationship ending? Unbelievable. What she said is what she does to you. She's just so desperate to hurt you that she'll do whatever she can and this is bullshit. I could kill her right now."

At some point during my rant, Hunter had put Val's call on speaker phone, his gaze fixed to the floor. "We need to do some damage control, and fast," Val said, cutting my rambling a bit short. "Hunter, if you have any physical evidence of how she treated you, we need it. If she's going to play dirty, we gotta play it right back. And we need to draft an official response to put on all your social media. I'll go through all my contacts and see who I can find to be a character witness, or at least just speak out in your favor. Anything will help at this point."

"I'll do it," I cut in, voice firm. "I'll talk to whoever I need to. Social media, the press, the pope, anyone. And you can bet that I have some choice words for Audrey herself."

"Lydia, no, you don't have to do this," Hunter finally spoke, looking completely defeated. "This isn't your fight."

"This is my fight, and I won't sit back and watch this happen to you. You are literally the last person who would ever deserve to be in this position. If I can do anything to fix this, I'm going to do it. No questions asked, and even if you tell me not to," I took a deep breath, sitting next to him on the couch. "I don't care about my privacy anymore. I'm going to make this right."