Chapter 792

Just as Natalie was about to say goodnight, something caught her eye. "Why are you still in your street clothes? Didn't you say you were already in bed?"

Marico looked down. Sure enough, he was still fully dressed from going out.

"I... I like sleeping in my clothes. Got a problem with that?"

"Not my business. Have a good night."

Natalie hung up first. Marico let out a long breath, relieved he had managed to pull it off. He returned to Kristin's room to find the little girl yawning as she wrote, still a long way from finishing.

Marico felt a pang of sympathy. "How about I help you finish it?"

"No way. I have to do my own homework."

"Your teacher won't even check it."

"It doesn't matter if she checks it or not. We can't lie to ourselves."

Marico got properly lectured and immediately realized the error of his ways.

"I won't take you out late at night anymore."

Kristin nodded. "We can relax a little, but we have to know our limits. Got it?"

"Got it."

Because they had stayed up so late finishing her homework, Marico overslept the next morning, and so did Kristin. The two of them scrambled madly to get to school, but she was still late.

Marico practically begged the teacher not to call Natalie about it. Only when the teacher agreed did he finally let out a sigh of relief.

However, while Kristin might have been late to school, Marico actually made it to the office on time for a change. When Linda saw him walk in, she was so shocked she couldn't speak for a solid minute.

Natalie finished shooting her morning scenes and walked off set to find Annabelle waiting for her with a deeply anxious look on her face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Annabelle shoved her phone in Natalie's face. "Someone leaked online that you've hooked up with a billionaire heir. They're saying he's a total playboy who loves messing around with actresses, and that the women he's slept with could cast. aw whole season of Hollywood's Hit List*. People are claiming you slept your way into this role, and even worse, that this guy is juggling several women at once and you're just one of his side pieces."

As a newly hired assistant, Annabelle lacked a filter. She spilled everything she shouldn't have in one frantic breath, capping it off with a desperate question.

"Natalie, is it true?"

Natalie took Annabelle's phone, skimmed the article, and gave a careless shrug.

Her marriage to Marico wasn't something that could be kept under wraps forever. Forget the tenacity of the paparazzi—just dealing with the jealous women from Marico's past was enough of a headache.

She noticed the leaked photo was taken yesterday at Marico's penthouse. Without a doubt, it was that short-haired woman trying to get revenge on them.

she saw comments

Scrolling down,

digging up her past drama with

Qu

Hamilton Amos and Queena Scott They branded her a serial

gold-digger, claiming she had stolen Queena's identity to hook Hamilton and was now latching onto the

Stapleton family's eldest son

without an ounce of shame.

"Should we ask Ms. Laurier how to handle the PR for this?" Annabelle asked, clearly panicked.

Since Natalie had anticipated the

leak, she already had a

countermeasure prepared. She simply uploaded a picture of her fresh minted marriage certificate to her socials with the caption:

*Thank you all for your concern. We are legally married.*

After posting the photo, Natalie exited the app. She knew dropping that bombshell was going to break the internet.

Still, she needed to give Penelope a call. The rumors could run their course, but it was best to steer the narrative in her favor. She valued her acting career too much to let it tank now.

"Relax, I've got it handled," Penelope said. "But seriously, it's Marico Stapleton. You've got guts actually marrying him."