River sat up in bed and reached for his cell phone as Mariah looked on with anticipation. A phone call to Kimberly was exactly what they needed to get her back on River’s side. But Mariah suspected there was a lot more going on for Kimberly than anyone knew, and it was going to be hard to convince her to work with them.
“It’s ringing,” River said as he covered the phone’s receiver. “Hello.”
Mariah bolted straight up in bed when she heard River say hello to Kimberly. She moved closer to him so she could hear what it was that Kimberly was saying as well. Everyone had tried to reach Kimberly; Mariah, April, and Edward had all called her, and she never returned their calls. But the first time River called, Kimberly answered. Mariah could only assume it was a good sign.
“How are you?” Kimberly asked.
“I’m good. Except everyone thinks I’m a rapist.”
“I’m so sorry about that River. You and I know the truth. I’m sure it will all die down soon, though.”
“Kimberly, it isn’t going to die down until you speak up and tell the truth. Why didn’t you just tell your husband what happened?”
There was a long pause and then Kimberly could be heard crying over the phone. Mariah looked at River, who seemed sympathetic to Kimberly’s tears. It was hard for Mariah to understand how after spending two months in jail, River still had sympathy for Kimberly. Kimberly should have come forward. She should have made an effort to make things right while River was away. It made Mariah really angry that Kimberly hadn’t tried to correct the public’s view of River.
“I’m sorry River, I tried. I really tried to tell him. He was so angry and just kept asking if it was true. I tried to tell him. But he wouldn’t listen. I didn’t know he made a statement to the press, though. I honestly didn’t know he had said that until the whole story broke. I’m so sorry River.”
River sat silently on the phone, and Mariah held back the urge to grab the phone away from him and yell at Kimberly. She was doing River so much harm by not coming forward. It was insane how Kimberly didn’t see how much she was hurting River. But it wasn’t Mariah’s battle, and she had to let River handle the situations. He knew what was best for himself and his situation, all Mariah could do was sit and observe for the time being.
“You need to tell the truth, Kimberly,” River said firmly.
“I can’t. It will destroy Jackson. He doesn’t know all that is going on. If I come out, he will know everything, and it will destroy him to learn that his father is not his real father. I’ve worked so hard to shelter him from the news, from everything. River, he doesn’t deserve to have his whole life handed to him and told it was a lie.”
That was all Kimberly had to say to get River to back off. Mariah knew it the moment the words came out of Kimberly’s mouth. River would do absolutely anything to protect his son. He had already spent the last ten years doing everything possible to protect him. There was no way he would risk being the person to destroy the life that Jackson knew.
“He doesn’t know?”
“No River. He’s ten; he doesn’t read the newspapers. He has no idea what’s going on at all. I promise I’ll figure something out. I promise. I need to go for now. Please go to your regular big brother meeting with Jackson; he has missed you terribly. I told him you were away on business.”
“Okay,” River said as he hung up the phone.
River looked bewildered as he got off the phone, and Mariah didn’t exactly know what to say next. She certainly couldn’t go against his son and tell River he should come forward with a statement. But the truth was that he had to come forward, or River would likely lose his entire company.
Mariah sat silently as she waited for River to say something; to react in some way. It was crazy that he was going to let his whole business be destroyed all because of a secret that was certainly going to come out sooner or later to his son. The secret had already been released through the newspapers, and although they didn’t have confirmation that it was the truth, the Portland Times was in fact right on the money with their story.
“What are you going to do?” Mariah finally asked.
“Nothing. There isn’t a thing I can do. I won’t destroy Jackson’s life.”
“We can come out against the story in public. Maybe apologize for the punching incident and then just say that the rest is private. A firm statement denying that there was an assault would be helpful. Kimberly won’t come out and say anything to oppose you. I think that’s our next move.”
“I’m not going to say anything, Mariah.”
“What? You seriously can’t just sit back and watch your whole life be taken away from you. At least, make a statement that the Seattle story was false. We don’t have to say anything else.”
Mariah felt herself getting worked up and angry at how calm River seemed about the whole thing. Didn’t he realize his corporation was going to try and get rid of him? Didn’t he understand he could literally lose his own company because of all the publicity and negativity that was going on? Mariah could hardly stand to sit still and jumped up out of bed to pace as she tried to find the right words to talk to River.
“I won’t bow down to anyone, and I’m not going to let anyone make a public statement apologizing to that jackass because I hit him,” River said as he got angry and walked past Mariah to the bathroom.
She had never seen River get angry before, and it seemed to have come on so quickly. Certainly, things were stressful for him, but they could work on everything together. River had hired her PR firm for the sole purpose to help him with all of this. He needed to calm down and give her a chance to actually help. Although Mariah had only been with her company for a year, her father had been running it for decades. Mariah and her father had talked at length about the best options to help River when he was released, and River would do well to at least consider her ideas.
Over the years, Mariah had watched her father turnaround corporations in only months. One company looked like they were doomed for bankruptcy because of a rogue CEO that had left them in the lurch. But when Mariah’s father got a hold of the company and got some good press going, it turned everything around for them. Within a quarter, the company was back in the black and ready to take on the world. Mariah just wished River understood that she and the whole Public Waves team would do whatever it took to help him.
“I wasn’t pressuring you. I’m just giving you ways to get ahead of the publicity and turn things around. That’s what you pay me for. Right?” Mariah argued through the bathroom door.
“You should leave.”
Mariah stood naked in front of the bathroom door as she tried to figure out how things had turned so horribly wrong. One minute they were lying in bed together and everything seemed perfect, the next minute he was telling her to leave. River was angry, she could certainly tell that from the tone of his voice. But how could he be angry at her? Mariah was the one trying to help him.
“I’m sorry if I upset you, River. I’m just trying to do what is best for you. I don’t want you to lose everything that you have worked so hard for.”
“You don’t know me! You can’t tell me what’s best for me. I paid you to do a job, and I get to decide what that job is. Now leave!”
“I’m sorry River. What do you want me to do then?”
Mariah stayed outside the bathroom door and waited for River to respond to her. But instead of responding, she heard the water start. She couldn’t believe how he was talking to her. It didn’t seem like River at all. Even when they had first met, and he was cocky and rude to her, he had still been nicer than he was at that very moment.
What was she supposed to do? Mariah grabbed her things and got dressed. She went back to his room one last time before she left, just to see if he was out of the bathroom yet, but then she turned and decided to give him some time to cool off. River had never been that upset before, and she wasn’t about to continue with an argument that she didn’t even understand.
Mariah knew th
ings were complicated between her and River. It was glaringly obvious why people shouldn’t sleep with their clients. Mariah now had to figure out how to save River’s image while also trying to salvage whatever it was that was going on between the two of them.
River was her first real client; she certainly couldn’t let his company fail. If River’s company went under, Mariah would never get her father to give her another client. She had to find a way to save River, even if he wasn’t interested in helping her with the process.
As she drove home, Mariah felt tears of anger flood her. She didn’t know if she was angry at River, herself, or the situation in general, but Mariah hated that she was so damn emotional over a client. She vowed not to let River get to her like that again. Men normally didn’t get to Mariah like River had. And clients never got to her. She had to do a better job of putting up a protective wall and taking her emotions out of the situation. There was no crying in the PR world, and her father would kill her if he saw just how emotional she was over a client.
Mariah was going to keep things professional between her and River, and that would be the end of things. She would only contact him while she was at work, and she wasn’t going to worry about him if he decided to self-destruct and not participate in his own defense. Certainly, her father had dealt with celebrities like River before.
Even if it meant that she was an assistant to the other agents in her firm for years to come, Mariah wasn’t going to take River’s defeat on as her own defeat. She would do everything in her power to help him, but in the end, if he wanted to let his company fall to the ground, there wasn’t a thing Mariah could do to stop it.
First thing in the morning, Mariah was going to go talk with her dad and see what he wanted to do. It was his company, and if he wanted to talk with River, Mariah was going to let him. Over the past two months, she had convinced her father that he didn’t need to get involved, and she had things covered. Even River’s secretary, April, had convinced her father that things were going great. But Mariah knew that things were not going well at all. She felt like all her efforts to help River were totally for nothing and that she was going to have to run back to her father and tell him everything.
Well, not everything! Mariah certainly wasn’t going to admit to her father that she had been sleeping with River. No, she would simply say that the case was getting too complicated, and she needed his help. Mariah could explain that River didn’t want to hurt his son and was refusing to make a public statement. At least, with that information, her father could help her make decisions about what else they could possibly do.
But if River continued to refuse to make a statement or be involved in his own defense, there was little possibility that Mariah could keep his business from sinking. The public image of River was already bad enough; it wasn’t going to get any better if he didn’t speak out and refute the claims that were made by the Seattle story.
Chapter 18
RIVER
River wasn’t in the mood to have anyone telling him what he needed to do. He didn’t really care if Mariah was trying to be helpful or not. The truth of the matter was that River wasn’t going to do a single thing that would harm his son, and if that meant he suffered, then that’s what was going to happen.
He had spent a lot of his life with other people trying to tell him what was best and what wasn’t, but River hadn’t gotten to the place he was by listening to others. He knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to come out and say anything defensive or apologetic. Sooner or later, the truth was going to come out, and that was when River would be vindicated.
Mariah was too young to really understand the ways of the world. She didn’t realize how many consequences there were for every action you took. Of course, River knew that he hadn’t quite learned that lesson himself yet. His anger had been getting the best of him ever since his past had caught up with him. It was best if Mariah just stayed away from him; it would be easier for both of them if they just stayed away from each other.
Plus, he didn’t actually think his company was in danger. He had made a life for himself all while dating random women without anyone caring at all in the past. It was highly unlikely the people who bought things through his company were now going to care what River did in the privacy of his own home. River had faith in his customers and their ability to see the difference between rumors and reality.
In business, the key was not to panic. River had watched many of his fellow business professionals panic at the first sign of business going poorly. That panic would change how they did many things in their life. The sense of losing control could, in fact, perpetuate a company into actually losing control.
River was better than that. He knew how to ride the bad times out and get to the good times. He understood how the trends worked and how his customers worked as well. His new product line was a good one. It was something his customers had requested since they first started offering meals delivered to the home. River was confident that the press would die down, and his new product roll out would go off without a hitch.
As he pulled up to his office the next morning, things were calm as could be. After the conversations he had with April, River was prepared for a scene out of the movies with everyone running around in a panic. But it wasn’t anything like that when he arrived. Everyone was working at their desks like normal; there wasn’t any panic going on at all. It was simply a normal day at the office.
River loved walking into his office building and taking the elevator to the top floor. It was more than just the idea that he had built everything up from scratch. There was a prestige in having an office that could overlook the city. It was a feeling River wasn’t going to easily give up just because of some rumors about his personal life.
“We should talk,” April said when she saw River enter the sitting area near his office.
“Sure, what’s up?”
River was trying to keep his cool about everything. If he kept his cool, then everyone around him worried much less. Over the years, he had learned even when things weren’t going his way, that keeping that information to himself was much more productive than sharing the panic with his co-workers. The only two people that he trusted with the real truth of a situation were April and Edward. They understood River the best, and they were able to help him have more insight into every situation.
“Several of the board members are in your office,” April said calmly. “Edward is in talking with them and trying to calm them down.”
River felt his blood start to boil at the mention of anyone having a meeting without him. But it was even worse that they were doing it in his office. River had to wonder how much his office had been used by his employees during the two months that he was away. Had they just decided to take it over as their own? Did they actually think that it was alright to have a meeting without him when they knew he was coming to work that day?
“Calm them down? What on earth do they have to be angry about,” River said as he quickly lost control over his ability to remain calm.
He burst through the doors to his office and walked straight up to the head of his conference table. George, his trusted friend and lead board member, was sitting at the head of the table. He appeared to be in control of some sort of meeting they were having, but George quickly got up and moved the second he saw River storm through the door.
“Sorry,” George said as he found a new seat.
“What is it? Are you all seriously this freaked out over a little fist fight?”
“It was more than just a drunken brawl or a regular fist fight. You punched the governor, River. This is a family friendly business,” George spoke up. “You can’t just go around punching a public figure like that and assume everything is going to be just fine.”
Everyone else at the conference table was mute and obviously afraid to confront River on what was going on. They all looked to George to take on the fury of River. But some of them also looked at Edward.
River watched Edward as he
tried to look away from him. There was obviously some sort of tension going on in that room, and Edward didn’t seem to be standing up for River at all. The more River looked at him, the more Edward looked away.
“He deserved it.”
“River, whether you think he deserved it or not, the governor isn’t the kind of person you should be confronting with your anger. You certainly shouldn’t be punching him on live television.”
“And there is the rape charge,” said Beth from the far end of the table.
“Rape charge? Excuse me, Beth! Excuse me! Unless I’m mistaken, I would have to actually have a criminal charge against me before this board could even consider removing me. I absolutely am not being charged with rape!”
“You were charged with assault,” George said calmly.
River felt his blood practically boiling over with rage as they talked. His own board of directors was trying to get him pushed out of his own company. Sure, they would deny that that was what they were doing. But it was clear as day to River. He couldn’t trust a single one of them. He probably couldn’t even trust Edward.
“Oh, God. Are you seriously considering removing me from my own company over a simple assault charge? You wouldn’t dare!”
“Let’s all calm down here,” Edward said as he tried to intervene. “I think we all want what is best for the company, and no one really thinks that getting rid of River is a good idea. Do you?” Edward looked sternly at George.
George sat quietly for a moment as he looked around the table. It wasn’t really clear what George and the members wanted. But River could tell that they were all scared, which was what they should have come to him with instead of this backstabbing talk of taking him out of his own company. It was normal to feel nervous when there was a dip in sales. That nervousness was what drove a company to reevaluate its business and try to make things better.
Breaking the Rules: A Billionaire Romance Page 15