“So, you said there was another reason you wanted to come home and see me,” I murmured, stroking Vanessa’s soft skin. “Care to tell me what it was?”
She arched an eyebrow and smiled wickedly. “Care to take me upstairs and find out, daddy?”
“Naughty girl,” I growled, scooping her up in my arms. “The mouth on you…”
She batted her long eyelashes at me and giggled as I carried her upstairs.
There had never been a sweeter sound in the entire history of the world.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vanessa
“Come on. It’s okay, Vanessa. Just stay calm.”
Jacob placed a hand on my back in a protective gesture as we headed toward the VIP entrance at the Pillero Concert Hall, where my father’s motivational seminar was being held. There was no way I would’ve ever been able to come to something like this alone, and having Jacob touch me in such a caring way made me feel safer than anything. Nothing could happen to me while he was by my side.
My father had really made something of himself, it seemed. All around us were posters with grinning photos of him on them, posing with brochures or mini-books he’d written on positive change and how to achieve it. When we reached the door guy, he glanced at me and asked for my name. I suddenly became totally tongue-tied and unable to speak, my legs and arms trembling.
“Her name is Vanessa Ryan,” Jacob said for me, patting my shoulder again. We had to be careful to make sure he didn’t touch me any more than that, in case someone noticed how non-platonic we really were. As far as anyone could know—and if anyone asked—it was just an employer (Jacob) taking an employee (me) to a work-related motivational seminar for character building, or something like that.
“Oh, you’re on the list. You’re the daughter, yeah?”
I nodded, and the door guy smiled and waved me through. “You and your plus one are right at the front in row A. Seats 5 and 6,” he said. He didn’t even seem to notice that my plus one was Jacob Baldwin himself, even though he’d spoken to him, and I was grateful for that. The last thing we needed was people noticing us and spreading more rumors.
The show began fifteen minutes later, and I watched my father speak with my lips set in a thin line, listening to him drone on about positive thinking and daily affirmations. He seemed genuine, but could people ever really change that drastically? He’d been a terrible person back in the day, and it was hard to believe he could’ve truly shed that old personality and image.
I was also still certain that he was the one feeding information about me and Jacob to the media and Damon Schwartz. I knew it wasn’t Emma; we hadn’t been close lately after our disagreement over my relationship with Jacob, but she simply wouldn’t do something like teaming up with a dodgy SEC guy and sending blackmail emails demanding that Jacob admit to insider trading. Honestly, Emma probably wasn’t sure what insider trading even was.
It had to be my father, right? He wanted me all to himself again, his little girl, and so he needed to get rid of the only man in my life who mattered. Everyone knew Jacob’s company was in trouble with the SEC at the moment, so teaming up with Damon and targeting him from that angle made sense.
I kept watching and listening, a grim expression on my face, comforted by the fact that Jacob was right next to me. Simply listening to him breathe and having his masculine scent lingering nearby made me feel calm and collected, despite the fact that my once-abusive father was only yards away on stage.
“There’s actually someone very important here tonight who I’d like to talk about,” my father said onstage, loudly and clearly. He gestured toward me in the audience. “My daughter, Vanessa. I wasn’t a good father to her, and admitting that was a very difficult thing to do. But I finally did, and I’m trying my hardest to get her back into my life.”
The rest of the audience clapped and cheered at that, and my father came closer to me, earnest expression on his face. “Vanessa, would you like to come up here?”
My legs began to tremble, and I shook my head. My father looked disappointed for a second, but he nodded briefly with an understanding look in his eyes and smiled at the audience. “Sorry, she’s a bit shy,” he said, receiving many amused titters.
Suddenly I wasn’t nervous. I wanted him to explain everything to me, tell me how he could treat me and my mother the way he had years ago. How he could just stand here and act like it was all okay just because he’d started making daily affirmations in the mirror.
“Wait,” I said, leaping up. “I do want to talk to you. In front of everyone. I want them all to hear what I have to say.”
My father nodded and smiled. “Of course, darling. Come on up here.”
“Vanessa, what are you doing?” Jacob hissed from next to me, his eyes darkening.
I looked at him. “I need to do this. Please let me.”
He was silent for a few seconds, staring into my eyes, and then he nodded. “I’m right here if you need me. Right here.”
“I know.”
He’d always be there for me. I knew that. He’d taken care of me from day one, and that would never change. In fact, it was because of him and his protection that I finally felt strong and safe enough to do something like this.
My father tried to slip his arm around my shoulder, and I immediately shrugged it off, drawing a few muffled gasps from the audience.
“I didn’t come here tonight to start a relationship with you,” I said into the mic he held out my way. “I just want some answers.”
“Anything, Vanessa. I’ll tell you anything. I’m an open book now,” my dad said, spreading his arms wide and grinning at the audience before holding the mic to me again.
“Do all your fans really know your past?” I asked, gesturing to the audience as well. “Do they know what you did to me and my mother?”
He nodded. “It’s all in my book and my tapes. I have nothing to hide. I was abusive. I was beyond abusive, really. I was a terrible, terrible person, darling. And you didn’t deserve that. Neither did your mother. But I couldn’t face up to that at the time. I was an addict. A pathetic addict, a drunk, and an abuser.”
I looked into his eyes, trying to see if there was some semblance of the old him left in there. I couldn’t see anything other than genuine emotion. I wasn’t done yet, though.
“Mom is dead. I blame you for that,” I said through gritted teeth. Some people in the audience gasped again, loudly this time. “What happened to her was because of you, and we both know it.”
There was a flash of something in his eyes, and then he looked down at the stage floor. “I blame myself too,” he said softly. “I drove her to it.”
I hadn’t expected him to own up to his responsibility so fast, and I was a little taken aback. Maybe I’d been wrong about him. Maybe he really had changed.
I went and sat back down, my knees trembling. Jacob kept his eyes on me for the rest of the show, making sure I was okay. Things finally wrapped up, and my father came to seek me out after he was done being patted on the back by adoring fans who’d apparently turned their lives around because of him.
“Vanessa,” he called out to me as he strode over. I’d been standing around waiting with Jacob, because I still wanted to talk to him about the Damon Schwartz thing. “Thanks for coming. You’ve got no idea how much it means to me. Again, I understand that you don’t want much of a relationship with me. I’m just happy that you came to see what I do now. What I’ve achieved.”
“I’m happy for you,” I said quietly. “I guess people can really fix their lives with the right attitude.”
I’d been so sure that people couldn’t change, but it seemed I’d been totally wrong in this case. Dad smiled, then glanced at Jacob. “Jacob Baldwin, right?”
Jacob nodded. “Yes,” he replied.
“I’m Daryl. I’ve seen you with Vanessa before,” dad said. “I saw you pick her up and take her home once. She works for you as a nanny, yes? And you give her somewhere to live?”
“That’s co
rrect.”
He smiled. “I’m glad my daughter has found someone so supportive to work for. I know you take care of her, and it was good of you to come here tonight so she didn’t have to be alone. No doubt none of her friends wanted to come to something like this.”
My father really seemed to think Jacob was just a protective employer and nothing else, but I wasn’t sure. After all, he wasn’t stupid. Maybe he was just playing dumb.
“Remember the man I mentioned yesterday on the phone?” I asked hesitantly. “Damon Schwartz.”
Jacob gave my father a hard look as we waited for a response.
“Vaguely,” dad said. “Why were you asking about him again?”
“Because you’ve seen us together before, and you know I work for him,” I said, gesturing to Jacob. “And someone is spreading rumors about us in the media. Saying we’re….together. We think whoever is doing it is working with someone named Damon Schwartz. He works for the SEC, and he’s been after Jacob’s company for weeks now. He’d probably do anything to make him look bad, including smearing me.”
My father frowned deeply. “I’m sorry to hear that. But I don’t know this man you’re talking about, and even if I did, I wouldn’t work with him to help take Jacob’s company down. Like I said, I’m delighted that you’ve found such a great person to work for. And even if there was something more between the two of you….” He waved his hand. “Who am I to judge? You’re an adult now, darling, and lord knows you turned out amazingly well despite the shitty childhood I gave you. I trust your judgment, and I’m happy for you, whatever you do and whomever you do it with.”
He held out a hand to Jacob, who slightly narrowed his eyes in hesitation before taking it and shaking it tentatively. I could tell he still didn’t entirely trust my father.
“It was nice to meet you, Mr. Baldwin,” dad went on. “Anyway, I better be off—I have some things to sign for fans—but thank you both for coming. I hope….I hope I can talk to you again, Vanessa. Maybe you could call me sometime.”
“Maybe,” I said shyly.
When he walked away, I turned to Jacob. “What do you think? Do you think he was lying?”
Jacob frowned and shook his head. “I’m pretty good at gauging stuff like that, and I think he was telling the truth about Schwartz. He doesn’t know him. He’s not the little mole who’s been feeding him information about us.”
I nodded slowly. “I thought he was telling the truth too,” I said. “I’d really like to know who it is, though. I really don’t want to believe that it could be Emma. But whoever it is has made it pretty clear that they 100% know about us.”
“I know. Try not to worry about it, baby girl. Everything will be okay.”
“I know,” I said softly.
“Let’s go home. Then I can actually touch you properly,” he murmured. “We still have until tomorrow morning before Tommy gets back from his sleepover at Dylan’s place.”
“We’re lucky he’s such a popular kid,” I teased. “Always giving us nights alone together.”
We left the concert hall together and drove home, and I smiled to myself as we pulled into our road. We were both going through some issues, but he was right—everything would be okay. As long as we had each other, we could get through anything, and nothing could go so wrong that it might destroy either one of us.
Famous last words, though….
The street suddenly lit up with the flashes of a hundred cameras, and Jacob frowned and stopped the car. “Shit. Paparazzi,” he said in a hard voice. “Stay here while I find out what this is about.”
As he got out to confront all the journalists hanging around the front gate to the house, I anxiously checked my phone to see what it was all about. My heart plummeted as I Googled his name and saw what was happening.
Right on the front page of every gossip news site was some variant of the same headline. Inside the sordid life of Jacob Baldwin—his sick love affair with teen girl….who happens to be his nanny!
A copy of my article—the writing exercise I’d written about my sex life with Jacob weeks ago—was plastered everywhere online. I’d only saved it on my laptop and nowhere else, and my mind flashed back to yesterday with horror as I realized how the media might’ve gotten hold of it.
There was someone else in my life apart from Emma and my father who might know about me and Jacob. Someone who also might have reason to try and screw with Jacob’s life for personal gain.
This person had access to my laptop when I stepped away for a phone call yesterday….and she knew I worked for Jacob. She could’ve easily gone through my things looking for information on him, and she’d certainly made it very clear that she wanted to write some sort of flashy exposé about him, seeing as she treated the college gossip column as a serious stepping stone to a journalism career. She could’ve been lurking in the shadows this entire time, waiting for the right time to pounce.
Jaina.
It was Jaina.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jacob
I stormed inside and headed up the stairs, my heart pumping furiously with anger. I’d just returned from an emergency meeting with Tonya and the rest of the PR team, and the fucking media were still camped outside my house, begging for a statement from me every time I so much as went within twenty yards of them.
How dare they do this to us? More specifically, how dare they do this to my baby girl? Poor Vanessa had been holed up in her bedroom without sleep or food since our return to the house twelve hours ago—she said she simply couldn’t get to sleep, and she’d refused any food I tried to take to her.
I didn’t blame her. What we were going through right now was terrible. Someone had hacked her laptop and released her writing exercise about me to the media, and on top of that, there were also photos to go with it. Turns out I hadn’t been as careful as I thought. That day at the aquarium, out in the parking lot…I’d held her hand and squeezed it for a brief second, and someone had snapped a picture of us. That photo, combined with Vanessa’s essay—which was meant for her eyes only—solidified my guilt in the media. I was sleeping with a teenager, and everyone knew it.
Not only that, we were in a relationship with daddy-play elements that made other people very uncomfortable, causing them to lash out and call me a sick predator with weird fetishes. Things had already gone from bad to worse in just twelve hours as a result. My team at work had informed me that our stock was heading down due to the scandal, and there was talk of me stepping down from the company for the time being and letting someone else take the lead to ensure our stock went back up until this all died down.
If it ever died down, that is.
It took conscious effort to unclench my fisted hands as I knocked on Vanessa’s bedroom door. I didn’t want her to see me this upset, didn’t want to frighten her. I stood there for what felt like ten minutes, trying to see past the red mist that seemed to coat my vision, but it was actually only a few seconds before Vanessa opened the door.
“Hi,” she said softly, not meeting my gaze. “How did it go?”
“About as well as you’d expect,” I replied, striding over to her bed. “Tommy is still at his friend’s house. Thought it best if he stays there while the media vultures are still circling our place. He’s too young to be exposed to this bullshit.” I sat down on the bed and patted the mattress. “Come here, baby,” I said.
She hesitantly sat down, and I reached for her hair, gently stroking it before I began to plait it. “This is all my fault,” she said, still not looking at me.
“Oh, baby. Don’t say that.”
“I should’ve never written that stupid thing. Or at least I should’ve deleted it as soon as I finished it. I’m literally too stupid to exist.”
I shushed her. “You were writing what you knew in order to practice for your column job at college. It’s very common writer’s advice—write what you know. Yes, maybe you should’ve deleted it when you were done, but it’s not like you ever expected to get
hacked. And besides, there are those photos of us holding hands outside the aquarium as well, Vanessa. So either way, someone knew about us, and they’ve been sitting on all that evidence for a while. They just decided to release it all now.”
The look in her eyes as I spoke made my heart ache. My poor girl blamed herself for all of this, when in reality, whoever was hell-bent on hurting us was doing it because of me. They—along with Damon Schwartz—wanted to take my company down; wanted to destroy all my years of hard work. They had no problem destroying an innocent young girl’s name to do so, and that made me angrier than I’d ever been. Even angrier than I felt at the prospect of being forced to step down from my own company just to keep the board and shareholders happy.
“I still feel responsible,” she said, lips trembling. “I…I think I know who got the article from my laptop. And this person…I don’t think they are even working with Damon Schwartz. I think it’s just a coincidence that he happens to be after your company too.”
My eyebrows furrowed with confusion. “Come here. Get on my lap, and tell me all about it.”
She perked up slightly at the invitation to get closer and moved onto my lap. I slid an arm around her waist, pulling her tightly against me. She gazed up at me, wide blue eyes filled with fear and regret. “I should’ve told you sooner. But you were out, dealing with all the…”
“It’s fine,” I replied soothingly, stroking her hair. “Just tell me.”
“There’s a girl from the college gossip column. Jaina. She’s obsessed with turning the column into a big thing, and she’s been looking for something huge and scandalous to report on for ages, to make her career with. I think it was her. She knows I work for you, and she even asked me to write about you and the insider trading thing. I wasn’t going to, of course, but she was at my desk the other day to ask about it. I walked away to take a phone call for a couple of minutes. Maybe she went through my laptop, saw the article, and took it. Oh, and she could’ve taken those photos of us at the aquarium, too. She told me she saw us there together.”
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