“I’m here to meet with Mariah,” River said to the receptionist.
“Yes, in there,” she pointed back to the conference room River had been in the day before.
Kimberly was waiting for him in there, and he walked around and sat next to her. Gently, he grabbed her hand and squeezed it as they waited for the PR team to join them. She shook out of fear, and he knew there wasn’t much he could do to calm that fear. Her life could be destroyed by their secret; it was nothing like what River had to deal with.
“So he knows everything?” River asked.
“I’m not sure, but he’s acting weird enough that we need to be prepared.”
“It will hurt his campaign if he comes out with it. There’s no way he will,” River said as he tried to reassure Kimberly.
“His competition will release it if he doesn’t.”
River knew she was right. Politics wasn’t like it used to be; in the current world, every bit of dirt ended up coming out about a candidate. There was no way to keep private lives private in the twenty-first century.
Chapter 8
MARIAH
“Is River here?” Mariah asked Jennifer at the front desk.
“Yes, but there is someone else in there too.”
Elizabeth and Mariah stopped and turned around to face Kimberly. They hadn’t expected anyone else to be there. River hadn’t mentioned bringing someone else with him, and it was certainly a surprise considering he hadn’t wanted to share his secret with anyone.
“Who is it?” Elizabeth asked.
“The governor’s wife,” Jennifer said with a straight face.
“Ha, ha, very funny,” Mariah said as she turned around and headed back toward the conference room. “Let’s go, Elizabeth, we don’t have time for games today.”
The two women opened the conference room door and walked in, staring in awe at River and the woman sitting next to him. It certainly did look a lot like Kimberly Emerald, the wife of Oregon’s Governor Millard Emerald.
“Hello, Mr. Anders, it’s good to see you again,” Mariah said as she tried not to stare at the woman sitting next to him. “This is my partner, Elizabeth, she will be working with me on your case.”
Mariah felt betrayed by River, and she couldn’t stop the feeling. He certainly didn’t belong to her, and she had no right to be so damn angry at him, but why was he sitting across from her holding the hand of the governor’s wife? This was some real big bombshell if he was about to say he was in love with this woman. Mariah really didn’t know how she could protect him or her from the publicity of such a scandal.
“Hello Mariah,” River said as he tried to make eye contact with her, but she refused. “Elizabeth, it’s nice to meet you as well. This is an old friend of mine, Kimberly Emerald.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Kimberly said, extending her hand to shake with both Elizabeth and Mariah.
“Alright, Mr. Anders, so would you like to tell us what we need to protect you from?” Elizabeth asked.
Elizabeth was holding it together much better than Mariah. All Mariah could think about was how River had been with her the night before. How he had looked at her with such desire. Although he had let go of Kimberly’s hand when he introduced her, it was obvious they had been holding hands when Mariah had walked in.
She couldn’t figure out why River would have flirted with her so much if he was involved with the governor’s wife. Certainly, he had to care about Kimberly if he was willing to stay involved with her and risk his business going under.
“I’m going to get to the point before I lose my nerve,” River said as he looked at each of the women at the table. “Kimberly, do you have a picture of Jackson?”
“Oh, yes. Here he is,” Kimberly said as she pulled out her phone and showed the pictures to Mariah and Elizabeth.
“This is Jackson, he’s my son,” River said as he tried to catch Mariah’s eyes.
Mariah and Elizabeth both looked at the picture on Kimberly’s phone. It was an adorable young boy about ten years old. He was playing at a playground and had a huge grin on his face.
“Well, it’s not a publicity issue to have a kid in today’s day an age,” Elizabeth said as she handed the phone back to Kimberly.
But as she returned the phone to the governor’s wife, suddenly Elizabeth started to figure out what was going on. She turned to Mariah with her eyes as big as they could get. Both the women looked at River and then at Kimberly.
“You mean … um … you’re saying …” Mariah tried to get the words out, but she just couldn’t find what she wanted to say.
Elizabeth decided to give it a try. She was the more refined and experienced public relations manager, she could handle the situation.
“So Mrs. Emerald, Jackson is your son with River? Did you conceive him before your marriage to the governor?” Elizabeth asked.
Certainly, if River and Kimberly had been dating before she had married the governor, that wasn’t the best of situations. But things happened, and if she got married shortly after and found out she was pregnant, they could work with that. Mistakes in timing happened in today’s society. People fell in love quickly, and relationships moved fast from one to the next.
“I was married,” Kimberly said as she looked down at the table.
River rubbed her back and tried to soothe Kimberly as she started to cry. The situation had gotten much bigger than Mariah or Elizabeth had imagined. They had expected some sort of prior arrest or assault. Something that was in the past and could stay in the past, but a child certainly couldn’t stay in the past at all. Especially one that looked like a spitting image of River.
“Does your husband know?” Mariah asked.
She pulled herself together and started to write down notes on her pad. They needed all the details if they were going to be able to keep the secret. Things were going to move quickly now, and Mariah had to get her mind around what was going on.
“I never officially told him. For many years, he was just so happy; we had our baby, finally. We had spent our first three years of marriage trying to get pregnant. But then as Jackson grew up, it was clear that he didn’t look like his father much at all. Jackson has never come out and asked me about it, but I think he suspects.”
Mariah took down some more notes as she listened to Kimberly tell her story. There was one thing that Mariah couldn’t quite figure out, though.
“Why are you afraid now? Why do you think your secret is no longer safe?” Mariah said as she finally made eye contact with River.
River didn’t answer the question, though; instead, he looked to Kimberly to let her answer. It was a weird dynamic between the two of them. River appeared so much different around Kimberly. He wasn’t the confident and cocky guy that he had been; around Kimberly, he seemed like a shy young kid who was trying not to get in trouble. Mariah had to wonder how the two of them had met in the first place and if whatever it was that had been between them was still going on.
“My husband is about to announce his candidacy for the presidency,” Kimberly said as she broke down crying again.
“We need a minute,” Elizabeth said, grabbing Mariah and practically pulling her out of the room.
“No way, we need to drop the case. There is no way to keep this secret from coming out and no possible way to spin it,” Elizabeth said. “You have to go in there and tell him we can’t help him.”
“Elizabeth, this isn’t just about his company. Her family will be ruined if this comes out,” Mariah said as she tried to think of what they could possibly do to save the situation.
“Well, they should have thought about that ten years ago before they slept together. There is no way to keep an illegitimate child out of a campaign. Governor Emerald should just drop out now,” Elizabeth continued as she paced back and forth in front of Mariah.
“We can’t just give up,” Mariah said as she went back into the room alone.
“So what do you need from us? Are you going to tell your
husband before he announces?”
“No, I can’t,” Kimberly said as her tears continued to fall.
“I’m going to try and say this as delicately as possible. You need to tell him now. If he announces his candidacy and then this news comes out, it will embarrass him. Give him the chance to decide not to run.”
“I can’t,” Kimberly said through her tears.
“River, what do you want? Why are you hiring us?” Mariah asked as she sat professionally and regarded River.
Mariah saw River in a whole different light at that moment. No longer did she worry about the sexual attraction between them. Instead, all she could think about was that he was a father, and there was another man raising his child.
“I don’t want Kimberly and Jackson to have their life ruined,” River said. “There’s one more thing.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“I’ve been getting threatening phone calls. The person says that they are going to the press to tell them about my son and my affair,” River said as he looked at Mariah.
“Please, I hope I don’t sound too crass. But why do you care? You are already publically seen as a playboy; the public won’t care all that much if you have a son. Mrs. Emerald is in a much more precarious position.”
“I’m only a few short months away from a huge new product launch, and our partner is Wholesome Foods. The second they find out I had an affair with a married woman, they will cut the deal off. Especially when they know it resulted in a child. We are talking about billions of dollars that will be lost. Thousands of jobs, it might even mean the ruin of my entire organization,” River said as he finally let out all of the stress and worry he had pent up.
Mariah felt that she was getting a much clearer picture of what was going on. This wasn’t just about Kimberly’s wife finding out, or the press, this was also about the launch of his new product line. Mariah could see why he had been nervous to tell her about the details. It was certainly quite a mess going on around them.
“Do you think your husband will back out of the race once he finds out the truth?” Elizabeth asked as she stood in the doorway.
“No, I think he already knows and has just been denying the truth. He will want to keep it a secret and continue on. He’s got a huge campaign behind him; my husband won’t want to let anyone down by not running for the office.”
Mariah let all the possible situations run through her mind. She knew that River was in trouble with the press if this news came out. Right now, the press saw him as a harmless flirt that liked to take girls out on dates and then move on. River hadn’t done a thing to get the press worked up. He was a bachelor and was living the life he dreamed of.
But the public and the press didn’t like cheaters. The second they found out that River wasn’t just a fun-loving bachelor, his public was going to revolt. The public was especially going to find it hard to like him when they saw who he had cheated with.
The governor’s wife was a beloved woman, and someone that everyone loved. She participated in charity work and many other local causes. It was her selflessness that made it even more River’s fault about the affair, at least in the public’s eyes. River was going to look like the home wrecker.
Mariah took in a few deep breaths as she tried to figure out what the best way to go about their public relations dilemma would be. The real key would be if Kimberly’s husband were actually going to make a public statement or not. It certainly wasn’t in his best interest to bring up the news if he did know about it, but there were a number of other people who could bring the news to the press. Any candidate for the presidency was going to be under an enormous amount of scrutiny almost instantly.
“When exactly is your husband announcing?” Mariah asked.
“I think it’s Friday morning.”
“Okay, well we have at least until Friday morning to try and suppress the news. So first things first, who knows about this? Let’s make a list,” Mariah said as she handed River and Kimberly the pad of paper and her pen.
Chapter 9
RIVER
“I need to get going now,” Kimberly said with a hint of exhaustion in her voice.
They had been in the offices of Public Waves for over five hours. Both Mariah and Elizabeth took turns asking questions about River and Kimberly’s past and taking notes. It was essential that the firm know everything they could possibly know about the situation; River knew this, but it was still hard to talk about. Even with all their knowledge, Mariah had been very leery of promising they could prevent the story from getting out; River knew she was trying to keep herself safe just in case the news leaked.
Stories as big as this one tended to have legs of their own and often leaked out into the media, no matter how hard a publicist tried to prevent it. Mariah and Elizabeth could only do so much on their own, they needed River to work with them and be honest, he knew that. Knowing who your enemy was helped to preemptively stop them from letting information out. River knew he and Kimberly were going to have to think long and hard about everyone that could possibly have information that would hurt them.
“River, would you mind staying with Mariah and going through some of the details again?” Elizabeth asked as she walked Kimberly out.
“Please call me if you hear that the news has gotten out, I’ll need to prepare my son. I’m not going to tell him anything until that point,” Kimberly said.
“I can handle this,” Mariah said to Elizabeth. “After you walk Kimberly out, you can head home. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow morning. Go ahead and get some rest,”
At the absence of Elizabeth and Kimberly in the room, suddenly it was much more uncomfortable between River and Mariah. He felt the tension from her and didn’t know exactly what was making her feel so awkward around him. The meeting had gone very well over the previous several hours, but something changed the second they were alone. His body tensed up as he watched Mariah from across the table.
Mariah was so serious and professional throughout their meeting, it was different than how she had been the day before. Not that she hadn’t been professional, but she seemed much more at ease throughout the second meeting. Her confidence was high, and she made direct eye contact with everyone in the room.
River felt the energy between him and Mariah, and he tried to move just a touch closer to her. Being near Mariah was like being near a vibrant battery full of energy. He could feel the current coming off of her and flowing toward him. It took every bit of willpower he had not to reach over the table and grab her right there.
His willpower had been tested a lot over the last couple of days around Mariah, and River wasn’t sure he wanted to keep pushing the limits. His body throbbed with desire for her as he watched Mariah looking through her notes. She was intent on figuring out a way to help River, and he appreciated her intensity.
Then it dawned on him. Perhaps she was being so businesslike because she didn’t want to discuss what had happened between the two of them the night before. Maybe she was angry with him? Or hurt because he wouldn’t tell her the full story the day before.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you last night,” River said as he moved around the desk to sit next to Mariah.
“There are a few more questions I have if you don’t mind?” Mariah said flatly as she looked through her notes.
She didn’t look up at River as he sat down next to her, and instead, she seemed even more intently serious. River felt like he was being punished for not being honest with her.
“Sure, go ahead,” he said as he leaned back in his chair.
“Did you know Kimberly was married when you two were together?”
River hesitated for a minute as he thought about the best answer. He didn’t actually know that Kimberly was married at first. They had met at a charity event, and Kimberly gave him her number. She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring at that time or River liked to think he wouldn’t have let it move any further than flirting if she had her ring on. They spent several nights t
alking to each other on the phone until the early hours of the morning. River felt a bond with Kimberly like she might be the one for him.
Only when they finally met up for a drink did Kimberly admit she was married and thinking about leaving her husband. It was a bad decision on River’s part to continue to see Kimberly, but he certainly couldn’t take it back. They had made a beautiful son together, and they had cared about each other a lot at the time.
After their night together, Kimberly returned to her husband and told River she had made a mistake. She didn’t want to break up her marriage, and River respected her feelings and let things go. Until he received a call one night with the news of their baby.
“I knew she was married before we slept together,” River said with a straight face. “We had spent several nights talking and getting to know each other. I cared about her very much. But we both made a very poor decision.”
He could feel that the more questions he answered, the farther away Mariah felt to him. But he had to continue to answer her, it was for Jackson and Kimberly. River would do anything to keep them out of the public eye. Jackson didn’t deserve to have his entire life ruined all because of some tabloid story, and River was willing to do whatever he had to in order to prevent his son from being exposed.
“Do you love her still?” Mariah asked.
“No, but I care about her. She is the mother of my child.”
Mariah paused and appeared to contemplate his answer before she wrote down some notes. River tried to look at the notes but couldn’t see them as Mariah brought her hand up and covered her paper. He felt the distance continue to build between them, and it was becoming very clear that she wasn’t going to give in to his flirting. Mariah was in total work mode, and River finally sat back into his chair and relaxed.
“Do you see your son?”
Breaking the Rules: A Billionaire Romance Page 7