Daddy's Toy-Box (A Daddy's Best Friend Romance)

by Caitlin Daire

  I frowned. “You think she’d really do that?”

  Vanessa nodded slowly. “Nothing else makes sense. How else would someone get the article and the photos?”

  “Your friend Emma knew we were at the aquarium, remember? She could have…”

  She cut me off with a vehement shake of the head. “It’s not her. It’s Jaina. It has to be. She wanted this; she wanted a big story. She knows all about the insider trading accusations. Everyone does. So I bet she sent your company that blackmail email a while ago telling you to come forward and admit to the fraud or else, because that’d be a huge story, and she obviously assumed you were guilty of it. But when you didn’t, because you aren’t guilty of the insider trading, she decided to just go with the ‘sleeping with the nanny’ story instead. And that thing I wrote, which she obviously found on the laptop….it made it a hundred times juicier. Because it wasn’t just that you were sleeping with your nephew’s teenage nanny—you were sleeping with her in a ‘daddy play’ kind of way. That’s scandalous. That’s juicy.”

  She paused to take a deep breath, then went on. “She wasn’t after you to take your company down….she was after you because you’re the biggest name in the city. Taking you down in any way could make her journalist reputation and career.”

  I sighed. She had a very good point. “So this whole time, we thought this was all the work of someone who’s secretly teamed up with Schwartz and the SEC to help them get at me. When really it’s probably just a vindictive, career-obsessed, social-climbing co-ed who would destroy literally anyone to make her name and leave an imprint on the world of journalism.”

  Vanessa nodded miserably. “Yep. So it really is my fault,” she whispered. “If I hadn’t taken that job at the column, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  She looked down at my lap, her fingers nervously playing with the hem of my shirt.

  I kissed her on the temple. “I need you to stop blaming yourself for other people being awful,” I said sternly. “This isn’t your fault.”

  We sat there in silence for a while; a silence I didn’t want to break. Being with my little girl like this in these quiet, intimate moments felt like the only time that I could truly be content while the whole world seemed to burn and fall apart around me, even if it was only for a few seconds.

  “Is everything going to be all right, daddy?” she said softly a moment later.

  “I don’t know exactly how long it will take for all our problems to be fixed,” I admitted. “I suppose it is what it is. Things probably won’t be the same for a long time. But we’ll get through it together, and I’ll always be here to take care of you. Always. Okay?”

  I brushed her hair back again, the untied braid falling apart as I did so. My fingers lingered on the soft skin of her neck as I stroked her, and she took a deep breath and gazed into my eyes again. My cock was getting hard, but I ignored it. This wasn’t the right time. In these moments, my girl needed love, care and support, and not in a sexual way.

  I rubbed her arms, keeping her close. I never wanted to leave her side, never wanted to leave this room. It felt like a sanctuary in here with her, even though I knew I had to get out and face things again sometime soon. Face the huge fucking mess I’d created by getting involved with Vanessa in the first place. I didn’t regret it, though. Of course not. I regretted letting all of this happen, letting someone get to her like this. Get to us. But I’d never, ever regret being with her. She was my little girl, and it was always going to be that way.

  Always.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Vanessa

  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  That was me—an idiot. Most of this recent drama was my fault, and I had no one to blame but myself for that. I’d been careless and reckless, and I’d let this happen as a result. Poor Jacob. He kept saying it wasn’t my fault and that he’d take care of me no matter what, and I believed him….but I didn’t feel like I deserved it. He deserved someone decent to take care of, not some stupid little girl who brought him nothing but trouble. But he loved me anyway. I guess that’s what being a daddy was all about for him—taking care of his girl even when she caused problems in the way I had.

  Despite all the crap happening at the moment, I was still the luckiest girl in the world.

  Bzzt. Bzzt. My cell was ringing yet again, and I frowned and clicked it off before throwing it across the room. The stupid media had gotten hold of my number—seriously, I needed to change it considering how easy it apparently was to track it down—and they’d been hounding me non-stop. I couldn’t even go to my college classes at the moment, because people followed me everywhere trying to get a statement from me, and I’d been told by Jacob’s PR people to not speak to anyone or say anything.

  Right now, Jacob was at his company office again, attending meetings and trying to figure out ways to mitigate the crisis. Even when he was at home, he kept most of the business talk away from me, because it wasn’t really stuff that someone like me could even understand, and he’d made it clear that his little girl shouldn’t have to worry about things like that. But I did worry anyway. I had to.

  I’d overheard him talking to Greg this morning, and they’d been speaking about the share price of the company. Apparently that had been falling since the big media scandal the other day, but it was beginning to stabilize after rumors had begun to float around in the news about Jacob possibly stepping down as CEO. My heart nearly broke in two when I heard that. It was Jacob’s company that he’d built from the ground up, and he might have to step down from his position just to save it….all because of me.

  At first, Greg had insisted that Jacob stay on as CEO and refuse to step down, but Jacob had argued that the PR team was right and that it would be better if he handed over the reins to someone else for a while, at least until the media storm had totally blown over and the share price had recovered. I was pretty sure that that was what he was discussing with the board members at the office today.

  I nervously fidgeted with my hair as I stepped downstairs to the kitchen. I wasn’t hungry, but having a snack and a cup of coffee might at least distract me from things for a moment. Just the mindlessness of chewing and sipping had always done that for me.

  As I reached the kitchen entrance, I heard the doorbell chiming from the front door several yards away. More media vultures, no doubt. I ignored it, but then I heard Emma’s voice faintly calling out to me.

  “Vanessa? Are you home? It’s me.”

  I tiptoed over to the door, barely daring to believe this wasn’t some journalist’s trick to get me outside. After peering through the peephole and confirming that it was just my friend standing there, I opened the door and hurriedly ushered her in.

  “Thank god you’re here,” she said, throwing her arms around me. “I came around earlier but no one was answering.”

  I drew back and gazed at her. I’d barely seen Emma in weeks now, ever since we had the little falling out over my relationship with Jacob. She looked tired and drawn, and I pinched my eyebrows together in a confused frown. “What are you doing here, Em?”

  “I came to see how you were,” she said. “I’ve been so worried. And I feel like shit, to be honest.”

  “Why?”

  “I was such a bitch to you about Jacob, and we’ve barely spoken in ages. I’m really sorry, Vanessa. And I’m sorry all this is happening to you guys.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  She sighed. “I know, but I still feel terrible. And like I said, I was awful to you. I was so judgmental. But the way everyone’s been talking about you guys….it made me realize what a shitty friend I was. I’m no better than all these nasty gossip queens. But you guys love each other, obviously. Who cares about the age gap? Who cares if you guys are into some kinky stuff?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You really think that?” I asked.

  She nodded emphatically. “It took a while for me to get there, but yes, I do think that now. I’m really sorry, Nessa. You deserved
for me to support you, not abandon you. So I came to say sorry, and to make sure you were okay.”

  I smiled. “I’m okay, I guess. I mean, I’m alive. But I can’t leave the house, and Jacob might have to step down from being the head of his company. His deputy guy will have to step in to make sure everything starts running smoothly again.”

  Her face crumpled. “Jesus. That’s awful. God, this is such a mess.”

  “I know. And it’s all my fault.”

  “Why do you say that?” she asked, eyebrows knitted in a frown.

  I explained to her how I’d left my laptop unsupervised for a few moments at the college gossip column office, and how it was my fault that Jaina had been able to access my documents and find the article I’d written about Jacob and my sex life. Emma’s face grew increasingly confused as I went on, and by the time I’d finished speaking, she was shaking her head.

  “No. That doesn’t make sense,” she said.

  “It does. She’s been trying to get a big story for ages, and she made it pretty clear to me that she wanted one about Jacob, because he’s so famous.”

  Emma shook her head again. “No, believe me. It wasn’t Jaina. Remember how I said I came round here looking for you earlier?”

  “Yeah.”

  “When no one answered the door, I thought you were maybe somewhere else. I looked at a bunch of places. I went to your old café, your old apartment, the library, and then the gossip column office on campus. You weren’t there, obviously, but Jaina was. And she was freaking the fuck out.”

  “In what way?”

  “She was super pissed that she didn’t get to break that whole story to the mainstream media. She was whining and bitching about how she wished she’d found that little article you wrote about Jacob, and how she wished she’d been the one to discover that you two were involved and dredge up such a big scandal. Seriously, she wouldn’t stop going on about it, and no one is that good of an actor. It wasn’t her, Vanessa. She’s definitely a gossipy bitch, but this wasn’t her. She’s totally innocent. Someone else leaked all that info about you and Jacob to the media. Also, like you said, Jaina is looking to boost her fledgling journalism career. If she did this, then why hasn’t she taken credit for it?”

  I chewed my lower lip as Emma spoke. “Wow. You’re right,” I finally admitted. “She would’ve taken credit for leaking the story by now. But she hasn’t. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

  “You’re stressed and going through a lot of shit. I’m surprised you can even think straight,” Emma replied. “But yeah, it’s not Jaina.”

  I sighed. “Then who the hell is it? Whoever this person is, they obviously have a problem with Jacob and me, and they had direct access to my laptop.”

  Emma shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t have direct access. Computers can get hacked from a distance, you know.”

  “I guess.”

  She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Let me help.”

  “How?”

  “Let’s figure out who’s doing this to you and Daddy Jacob.”

  “Emma!”

  She snorted. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. But seriously, let me help you guys. It’s the least I can do.”

  “Um. Again, how?”

  “I dunno. We’ll figure something out. Maybe we can make a list of absolutely everyone who might have a problem with you two, and we can go through that and see if anyone jumps out as a suspect,” she said.

  I sighed. “I’ve already thought about it a million times, but I guess it can’t hurt to get a fresh pair of eyes on the situation.”

  Emma smiled. “I just want to help. You know, I was kinda worried you thought it was me.”

  I smiled back at her. “No. Never. I know we’ve been a bit weird lately, but you’re my best friend. I know you’d never hurt me like that.”

  I might not be the smartest girl in the world, and I knew I could be very naïve sometimes, but I knew I was right about this. Whoever was hurting me and Jacob, it wasn’t Emma.

  We went and sat in Jacob’s study to discuss things, and Emma pulled out her laptop.

  “Maybe we should Google Jacob’s business competitors?” she suggested. “It makes sense that one of them might want to come after him and destroy his reputation at his company to destabilize it.”

  “Okay.”

  After discussing different options as to who might be coming after Jacob and me for an hour, I glanced at my watch. We were no closer to figuring out why might be doing this, and it was probably stupid that we ever even thought we could help. We were just two young girls; what could we possibly figure out that Jacob hadn’t already considered?

  “I have to leave to go and pick Tommy up from school in half an hour,” I said. “He’s finally coming home today. He’s been staying with a friend for the last few days.”

  “Understandable. Well, we’ll keep at this until you have to leave. There’s still some media douchebags outside the gates to the house, but I’ll leave just before you and distract them, yeah?”

  I smiled. “That’d be really good. Thanks.”

  “Anyway, what were we just talking about a second ago? That guy Schwartz?”

  “Oh, yeah. Him,” I said through gritted teeth. “He’s the guy we originally thought was doing this media scandal and rumors crap.”

  “Who is he again?”

  “He works for the SEC. He hasn’t liked Jacob since they were at college together, and he’s the main one who’s been investigating the company over the insider trading allegations.”

  “I see. Any reason you stopped suspecting him?”

  “Well, we were pretty sure he was involved in the media rumors for ages, seeing as he’s pursuing these charges, but when this whole sex scandal thing happened, we thought that was all just Jaina instead. And from what Jacob has said, Schwartz is pretty steadfast in doing things by the book. It actually didn’t make sense for him to do dodgy stuff like hacking my laptop to get that article, and spreading rumors about us in the media just to discredit Jacob’s reputation.”

  “Why not? You said he doesn’t like Jacob. Maybe he realized he couldn’t prove the insider trading stuff, but he still wanted to ruin him, so he decided to turn dodgy and fuck with him in other ways.”

  I nodded my head slowly. “Maybe. I guess he is the most obvious person.”

  “I’m going to Google him and see what I can find on him. Damon Schwartz, right?”

  “Yep.”

  Her fingers flew over her keyboard, and she squinted at her screen for a few minutes as she scrolled through the search engine results. “Not much on this guy. All I can see is an old LinkedIn profile and a bunch of stuff about other guys with the same name.”

  She clicked something with her mouse, and then she frowned. “Oh, this is him in the Images section. There’s some photos from some financial event he apparently attended at the Hyatt last year. Jeez, no wonder he hates Jacob. This dude doesn’t look great for a thirty-eight year old. I would’ve guessed he was in his forties at least.”

  She turned the screen to face me, and I peered at it. Damon Schwartz was a small, balding man with thin lips and glasses, and he looked just as serious as Jacob had always described him. “Yeah,” I said with a nod. “He’s always been jealous of Jacob, from what I’ve heard.”

  Emma went to move the laptop back to face her, but something else on the screen suddenly jumped out at me, and I stopped her as my heart leapt into my mouth. “Wait! Let me see that again for a sec?”

  She nodded, and I squinted at the background of the photo of Schwartz. There was someone familiar sitting at his table, only a few feet from Schwartz. It was hard to tell if it was really who I thought it was, considering the person was angled away from the camera, so I couldn’t be sure. I looked up at Emma.

  “Can you click into the main photo set from this event and see if there’s any more pictures of this table?” I asked.

  “Sure.”

  She clicked the mouse a
few times. “Looks like the event organizers put the photos up on some social media site. They’re all here,” she said. “Okay, um….here’s Schwartz’s table again. And there he is.”

  I looked at what she’d found. There were several different photos of Schwartz’s table, and in some of them, he was smiling at the camera with other event attendees who’d obviously been placed at the same table as him. I kept going through the pictures until I found what I was looking for in the tenth photo, and a chill ran down my spine as I stared at it, trying to convince myself that I could actually believe my eyes.

  This just didn’t make any sense.

  “Do you know the person posing with Schwartz in that pic?” Emma asked, frowning as she noticed which photo I was staring at. “They look like pretty close friends.”

  I nodded grimly. “Yes. I really need to forward this to Jacob.”

  I went and found my cell phone before taking a screenshot of the photo, and I texted it to Jacob. My heart was racing like mad, and goosebumps were cropping up all over my arms and legs. Maybe what I’d found was nothing; maybe it was just a coincidence. But deep down I was sure it meant something. The more I thought about it, the more sense it started to make.

  “Shit, it’s almost two-thirty,” Emma suddenly said, glancing at the time on her laptop. “You have to go pretty soon to pick Tommy up, right?”

  I nodded. “Yes, we better leave. But thanks so much for helping me, Em. I think we’ve really stumbled onto something.”

  “So that person in the photo….that’s our main suspect now? That’s the person who’s probably been fucking with you and Jacob?”

  I nodded. “I think so.”

  “But why? Who even are they? I’ve never seen them before.”

  I gritted my teeth as I stood up. “I’ll tell you on the way out,” I replied. “Let’s just say it was someone I actually thought we could trust…”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Jacob

  “Do you know why you’re here?”

  I stood behind my desk, my face carefully arranged into a completely neutral expression. After the last couple of hours, I wanted to shout. Wanted to punch someone. Wanted to throw something right through the goddamned window. But I had to play this properly to make the best situation for myself, my company, and Vanessa.