Love was easy in private.
Ava Montgomery had learned that.
In quiet rooms.
In shared laughter.
In hands held beneath tables.
But love in public?
That was war.
⸻
The first article dropped at 6:02 a.m.
Ava saw it before she even sat up in bed.
ACTIVISM OR ATTENTION? QUESTIONS SURROUND AVA MONTGOMERY AND JAXON REED
Her stomach clenched.
She opened it.
The language was subtle—too subtle to call defamatory outright.
But it didn’t need to be.
It framed their relationship as strategic.
Transactional.
Convenient.
A privileged heiress and a scholarship student—using romance to amplify influence.
Ava’s hands shook.
She scrolled.
There was Jaxon’s face.
Her face.
Photos taken without consent.
Moments stripped of context.
She closed her phone and pressed it to her chest, breat
