“But near the end of the summer, she came to me, crying. Her tears broke my heart, so I had her tell me what was wrong. She told me she was pregnant. That frightened me, but I stayed calm until she told me she wasn’t eighteen and she’d lied. She was sixteen.
“I freaked out and called in Ted. With my reputation on the line, he gave her a huge pay out and told her to get rid of the baby and disappear. She left in tears, and I should have gone after her. But with her being underage, our relationship would have ended my career right there.”
He pauses to take a huge drink of water, emptying the bottle.
“So she got rid of the baby?” I ask. “Jeff, I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head. “She didn’t. I thought she did, for several years, until her parents contacted me. They said she and the child needed me, and I needed to take responsibility for my actions. And I agreed.
“So, I flew out and visited with her parents. Her mother said they weren’t sure exactly where she’d gone, but she’d married and moved out. Together, we searched for several months until we found them. But I was afraid to approach her. She was married, so she had moved on. But when I saw her heading into her apartment, I knew I wanted her back. So, I knocked on the door.
“When she saw me, she panicked and demanded I leave. But I refused. I told her I’d take her back to L.A. with me and take care of her. She told me she didn’t have time to argue with me because she had to go. But I followed her and she picked up the most beautiful little girl I’d ever seen from the bus stop. A little girl with my hair and the biggest smile.
“So, I went back to the apartment to wait. When she came home, I said I wanted the little girl, and she lost it. She yelled and screamed and told me I had no right to her because I wanted her to be aborted. It was then her husband came home.”
He rubs his eyes, a tear running down his cheek. “He thought the little girl was his. She’d lied to him, and he was pissed. He kicked me out and started laying into her. Her screaming ripped my heart open, and I forced my way in to see him smack the little girl, then crush her arm.”
I gasp. That sounded so familiar. Flashes of my dad knocking me to the ground then crushing my arm surfaced.
“I tore him away, and we fought. He wanted to kill me and my daughter. By the time I finally managed to get him off me, the girls had gone.”
I squeeze my eyes closed. “No…” There was another man there that day. A tall, dark shadow. I’d forgotten. But it couldn’t be.
“They vanished well that time. With her parents help, we paid for the best P.I.s in the country. During that time, I hired a life coach, Emily. I needed help because I was losing my mind. I gave up on the woman, but wanted that little girl. My little girl. Emily helped me cope, and I fell in love with her, deeply in love, and we married. She’s had my back since the beginning, and helped and supported me with my search for my daughter.
“Then, about three years ago, one of the P.I.s found them. The woman had remarried and settled down, and my daughter was about to graduate high school. With Emily’s wholehearted support, I rushed to go find my girl. But I made the mistake of going to her mother first. Her mother and her husband kicked me out and told me to never come back. But I couldn’t give up on her. She needed to know she had three more little brothers.
“I went to her school and found out she was performing in the spring musical. I went to the show and fell madly in love with her. Boy, could she sing! But her mother was there too, so I couldn’t approach her.”
“What was the musical?” I ask breathlessly, trying not to freak out about the bizarre parallels to my life.
He shakes his head. “Every time I tried to approach her, her mother caught me and sent me away. Finally, I decided I needed a different approach, and sent in a lawyer.” He frowns. “Bad move. Her mother freaked out and came after me. She said she’d expose her age when she conceived my child if I dared try to take the girl from her. Ted told me to back off. So, I set up a scholarship and handed it to my girl through some fantastic covering up.”
I grasp my throat. This can’t be real. My scholarship had fallen into my lap out of the blue.
“Then, my turn came to pick the wild card city for the show. So, I picked hers. She’d be about twenty, and I’d go to her university to find her without her mother interfering. I didn’t expect her to come to me.”
“No.” I slide away from him. “No, are you implying…no.”
He looked into my eyes. “Hailey, when you walked onto that stage—”
“No!” I pull my knees up under my chin. “You’re confused. You must have the wrong girl.”
“No. I’ve been trying to get to you your whole life.”
I swear, grabbing my hair. “But my dad died two years ago. Mom left him…”
“Hailey.” He presses the heels of his hands against his eyes. “I wish I could have told you sooner. But with you on the show, I had to handle things carefully. I’d planned the sting to get Steven before the season began, and you being in the show complicated things. I had to protect you. When he went after you, I almost ripped his balls off with my bare hands.” He clenches his fists and he bares his teeth. “But you handled him perfectly.”
“I’m…” I’m reeling. His daughter? Me? “But…”
He digs out his wallet. “I’m fully aware this is going to look stalkerish, but…” He slips out my senior class photo. “You have my hair, just like the boys, and my eyes. Emily pointed it out when she saw this picture.”
I whimper. My heart skips. Jeffrey Halloway is my father?
He slides the picture back into his wallet. “Before I came here, I visited your mom, to check that it was okay for me to tell you. She said, after how much I’ve shown I care about you, she can’t deny me that, as long as I swore not to take you away from her. And so you know, I’d never take you away from your mom.”
We fall silent. He stares at his hands as they tremble.
I’m lost in overwhelmed mode. He’s my father? All these years…Mom’s adoration of him seems so different now. But why did she let me believe someone else was my father?
“Why didn’t she tell me?” I say weakly, tears forming in my eyes.
He moves his hands toward mine, brushing our fingertips together. “To protect you. A celebrity’s life…after being tossed out on her ass, she didn’t want you to live that way. I’m sorry, Hailey. It’s my fault. I should have been a man and taken care of you from the start.”
He breaks into tears.
Jeff is crying over me?
I’m his daughter?
He shuffles forward. “I’m sorry, Hailey. But I’ll keep you safe through all this. If you want nothing to do with me, I’ll understand.”
I grab his wrist. “Wait.”
As he slowly turns to look at me, my heart jumps into my throat. I do look like him. I slide closer to touch his cheek. I’ve admired him my whole life, and since getting to know him, I gave him the role of father figure in my life. I already love him as a father, but knowing he really is my father…
“This is hard to wrap my head around,” I say quietly.
He nods, frowning at his hands.
“But I want you to be my dad.”
“Hailey.” He clasps my face and kisses my forehead. “Hailey, sweetheart.”
“Be my dad.” I burst into tears and wrap my arms around him. “Please.”
He holds me tightly, kissing my head over and over. “I’d be honored.”
“I’ve always loved you.” I look into his eyes. “As a little girl, I’d play your albums and sing along. Mom thought it was cute, but now I know…”
“I won’t let you go again.” He buries his face in my hair. “It feels so good to hold you. I’ve loved you from a distance for so long.”
“Umm…”
My head snaps up at Lucas’s voice by the door. He squints as he rubs his neck.
“Lucas.” I run to his arms. “Lucas…Jeff, he’s…I didn’t know. But he’s…”
Lucas holds me against him. “What’s going on? Did something happen? Is Isaiah all right?”
He glares at Jeff, apparently suspecting foul play.
“No.” Jeff wipes his eyes as he stands to face us. “Hailey and I just had something we needed to talk about.”
I touch Lucas’s cheek, drawing his attention to me. “He’s…I can’t even say it it’s so surreal…He’s my dad.”
Lucas’s head snaps around to Jeff. “What?”
Jeff nods. “She didn’t know, but I’ve known all along.”
“Whoa.” He walks over and sits on the couch, grasping his hair. He shakes his head as he takes it in. Then, a slight smirk curls his lips. “I’m dating the daughter of a rock star!”
Epilogue
Lucas holds my hand tightly as we stare over the garden. Our combined families inside make a heck of a lot of noise. I smile, amazed at how large my family has grown in such a short period of time.
Lucas’s arm wraps around my waist, pulling me closer. “Hailey, I want to ask you something.”
I smile up at him. After six months together, I love him more than ever. With most of the legalities behind us, and Jeff ending up not being sued, we’ve gathered the family to prepare to announce to the media that I’m Jeff’s daughter. Talk about stirring the water once it’s settled!
“What?” I say, kissing Lucas’s cheek.
He takes a deep breath. “I, ah…You know I love you. I think maybe you’ve been expecting this so…ah…”
His gaze shoots across to the house as he fumbles at his pocket.
“Lucas.” I grasp his wrist to steady his hand. We’ve talked about this several times. “I know what you’re going to ask, and I’m going to say yes, so don’t be nervous.”
He looks into my eyes, smiling. “Marry me.”
My heart flutters, and I giggle like a schoolgirl. Even though I’ve expected it, I still feel giddy. “Yes.”
He slips out a white gold ring. “Will this do?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” I give him my hand and he slides it on. I grasp the back of his neck and kiss him. How perfect! We’re in Jeff’s backyard, his beautiful house, with all my family—yes, all—Mom, Marco and the boys too, and all of Lucas’s family inside. Tonight is the perfect night for him to propose.
His arms wrap around me, holding me close, stroking my back. His right hand lifts and caresses my face. “Hailey.”
I rest my head on his shoulder. “Does anyone else know? I mean, I’d hazard a guess that Clarissa helped with the ring.”
“Your mom, actually.”
I look into his eyes. “My mom?” I touch his cheek. “She must be so excited.”
“Beyond words.”
I laugh.
“But, here’s the thing…”
***
Standing in front of the media is something I’m still not used to. Jeff tells them everything, explaining how I’m his daughter, but I never knew. Ted is on his other side. In many ways, I have seen firsthand the regret Ted feels for sending my mother away. That’s why he took me on and fought for an incredible record deal that even the biggest pop stars are in envy of.
That’s how Lucas and I paid to elope last night. No one even noticed. We just pulled Mom, Kessa, and Jeff aside, flew to Vegas, and were back three hours later.
Jeff and I each answer five questions, then we head off, leaving the reporters to speculate whatever they want. The truth is, they never tell the whole truth, or the accurate truth. All they want is a scandal.
Back at the house, Isaiah finally emerges from the basement. He has looked better. He managed to scrape out of his predicament with Jeff’s help, but at one point, it almost looked like Drusilla had him. Until her now ex-husband broke into the Halloway’s house and tried to kill him. Talk about dramatic. That act alone swung the odds in Isaiah’s favor, and he ended up with his rape charges being dropped. It seems her ex talked after that, saying he had video evidence that Drusilla willingly brought Isaiah home and slept with him.
Isaiah sits beside me at the kitchen bar, his head flopping onto the countertop. I rub the back of his head and he grunts.
“Bad day?”
He turns his head to look at me out of the corner of his eye. “Jeff is a freaking Nazi.”
I ruffle his hair. “He saved your butt, so don’t be too ungrateful.”
“Hmm.” He smiles slightly, examining my face. Jeff stopped him from drinking, and he hates it. But in his more lucid moments, I can feel the way he looks at me. He still tells Lucas how much he resents him for having me. Lucas tells him to get over it.
“How are you doing, pretty girl?” He slides his fingers around mine. “Still tolerating my brother…?” He lifts his head, his heavy eyes staring at my hand as he turns it over to see my ring. “Ah.”
“Yeah.” I slide my hand free of his.
“Man, I really messed up.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Just tell me something. Why him?”
I take a deep breath, resting my hand on his shoulder. “You know why, Isaiah.”
He lifts my hand and kisses my palm. “I do. Maybe one day I’ll be the man a girl like you could love.”
I smile, grateful he understands and doesn’t resent me or Lucas.
“Hailey!” Clarissa shrieks my name as she snatches my hand. “What is this? Are you guys engaged?”
Lucas hurries over. “About that…”
Once everyone has gathered around, we announce what we did. Shock fills the room, then Clarissa and Lydia’s squealing breaks the silence.
Isaiah tips his glass to Lucas. “I guess you’re no longer a virgin then, bro.”
Lucas chuckles. “Nope.”
My cheeks are on fire.
Isaiah offers his hand to Lucas. “Congrats. I couldn’t have picked a better one if I’d tried.”
Lucas shakes his hand. “Thanks, Isaiah.”
Isaiah kisses my head. “I can live with sister-in-law.”
That night, Lucas and I sit on the porch of the pool house, just staring up at the stars, when Jeff joins us. He sits beside me, looking up with us.
“You want to know something?”
Lucas and I look at him.
He gazes up, scanning the heavens. “I wouldn’t trade this past year for the world. I may have lost a great deal, almost lost my house, the show is completely reformatting…” He shakes his head. “Did you know those couples from last season were paid off to pretend to have an affair?”
I sit up, watching him.
He snorts. “Yup, they’re all still married and fine. It seems the network started sniffing around the show, sensing something suspicious going on, so Steven paid them off to distract the investigators. One of my couples, and one of Drusilla’s. That’s when Drusilla discovered what Steven was up to, so she decided to join in the fun.”
“At my brother’s expense,” Lucas mutters.
“He tried to get me kicked off because I’d confronted him and threatened him to stop. Instead, since I was too popular, they tightened my contract, hoping to drive me from the show. Sometimes I wonder if I should have just ran, but then, if I’d done that, Steven would be preparing to take advantage of another girl in a new season. But instead, Lance is running the show now, since he knew nothing about any of it and is incredibly loved.”
He grasps my hand. “But most of all, it brought you to me. Having a daughter gives me a whole new perspective on everything.”
I squeeze his hand. “I’m glad you’re my real dad.”
He kisses my hand, a proud gleam in his eyes.
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Acknowledgements
This novel was fun to write. It was kind of like living out one of those youthful dreams that you know will never happen. I grew up singing and performing, so I love how it feels to touch people with my voice.
I would like to thank Limitless for this book. I was nervous about putting it "out there" but from the beginning the team has made my book feel loved and vibrant. Each step has been wonderful, and I'm so glad I joined them. A huge shout out to Laura for working with me through edits, and for being so patient with me through my craziest month of the year which happened to coincide with editing. Also, thanks to the team who created the beautiful cover and perfect blurb.
Thank you to you, the reader, for joining this journey. Come back for another Reality Romance with a Bachelor style show as the setting!
About the Author
Born and raised in Australia, Katie's early years of day dreaming in the "bush," and having her father tell her wild bedtime stories, inspired her passion for writing.
After graduating High School, she became a foreign exchange student where she met a young man who several years later she married. Now she lives in Arizona with her husband, daughters, and their dogs.
Katie loves to out sing her friends and family, play sports, and be a good wife and mother. She now works as a Reading Interventionist at an elementary school to help support her family. She loves to write, and takes the few spare moments in her day to work on her novels.
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https://twitter.com/HamsteadKatie
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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6585259.Katie_Hamstead
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https://www.amazon.com/Katie-Hamstead/e/B008T8M8PA/
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