Pretend Daddy

by Amy Brent

  “So glad that you could make it,” he said. “I was beginning to wonder if I needed to make some phone calls to the press.”

  “I’m not running on your time,” I spat out, clutching my purse to my upper chest as a shield. “What is it that you want, Scott?”

  Scott pulled up a briefcase to his side. He pulled out a manila envelope before tossing it across the table at me. The corner of it poked my forearm as I glanced down at it with a sinking heart.

  “Pictures,” Scott said, threading his fingers together in front of him on the table. “You came here to see if I was bluffing. There’s your answer.” He nodded at me with glittering eyes. “Go on. Open it up, Amber. See what I have in there.”

  My fingers were trembling when I pried the envelope open to peer inside. There was a stack of glossy photographs in the folder, but I couldn’t find the strength to pull them out.

  “For Christ’s sake,” Scott snapped, grabbing the folder from my hands. “Don’t be a bitch over this. You know what’s in there. Are you afraid to face it?”

  “No.”

  He pulled the photographs out to slap them onto the table in front of me. I stared down with vomit bubbling in the back of my throat at the picture of Gage and me on the beach together. There was no mistaking the position we were in, even with a towel protecting us from passing eyes.

  “Disney World,” Scott said. He slapped another picture on the table. “Here’s one of you and Gage together at a hotel. Recognize the hotel room? You should, because that’s your bare ass, naked underneath Gage.”

  “Stop it,” I choked out, trying desperately to keep control over my wavering emotions. “Scott, please. Don’t.”

  “Here’s a good one of you and him in the backyard at Gage’s house,” Scott continued on, ignoring the tears coming down my cheeks. “I think this one speaks kindly of how much you two have been seeing one another behind your father’s back.”

  The shot was pixelated. Whoever had taken the photograph had done so from a distance. Like on one of the mountainsides that surrounded Gage’s cabin. We were both sitting on the back porch, with me in between Gage’s legs and leaning back on his chest as shared a kiss. Our lips were stretched into happy smiles.

  I tore my gaze away as fury shot through me. For months, I had thought I was free to enjoy my relationship with Gage in privacy. I felt violated in the worst way possible.

  “What do you want?” I asked as Scott gathered up the pictures to place them back in the envelope. I didn’t even bother reaching for them. I knew he had extras somewhere.

  Scott placed them back in his briefcase. He gazed across the table at me with a cold and calculated smile.

  “The settlement,” he said. “I want that dropped immediately.”

  I stiffened in my seat at that. “Why? That money is for Ethan. You’re going to punish your own son by taking away his cushion for the future?”

  “How do you think our son is going to like it, knowing that his mom is a whore?”

  “I’m not a whore,” I hissed, fingers clenching into fists. “Screw you, Scott. What is it that you really want? I know you don’t give a flying fuck about me or your son.”

  “You’re right,” he said, shrugging. “I don’t care. I care about having my name slandered because of you talking to the press. Fair is fair.”

  “I’m not the one who hit you. I’m not the one who abused you, day in and day out.”

  “Quit crying,” Scott snapped. A sneer tugged at his lips. “Those tears don’t affect me. I’m only going to offer this one time, so you better think about it wisely.”

  He leaned in across the table to grab ahold of my wrist with clammy fingers. I could smell that usual scent of soap that Scott used, along with his aftershave. He was so close that I could count the freckles on his nose. For a moment, I was tempted to let the vomit in the back of my throat come loose, but I forced it back down with a painful swallow.

  “If you come back home to me, recant this story of yours, then all of these photographs will be burned,” Scott said. “It’ll go away. Your father will be free to keep running for his seat in Congress without any more scandals attached to his name. Understand?”

  “You want me to come back to you?”

  “Call the divorce off. Come back with me. It’ll all go away, and nothing will be leaked.”

  His fingers released my wrist then. I slid out of the booth with a gasp, shaking my head at him.

  “Think about it,” Scott said cheerfully. He picked up his cup of coffee. “Have a good day, Amber. Smile for the cameras outside.”

  I turned to find a group of paparazzi standing at the front of the coffee shop. Their cameras were aimed directly at us. Flashes filled the tiny shop. I glared at Scott as he put on that best shit-eating grin of his before ducking out past them. Ignoring the hurl of questions, I hurried in the direction of the SUV parked out front.

  I climbed into the back seat to tell my father’s security to drive me back home. Along the way, I watched the snow-covered greenery blur together through the tears in my eyes. There was nothing that I could do. Scott had the pictures. He had the proof that would destroy my family. He would do it willingly too, even if it took him out in the process. I couldn’t let that happen. Not after all my father’s hard work.

  A few hours later, I called the lawyer to inform him I was dropping the settlement. I had plenty of money from my own projects to get through the next few years of my life. I called my father next to tell him about what I planned to do.

  “I don’t understand what you’re telling me,” he said, concern filling his voice. “If Scott is harassing you, then we need to go to the police. Extortion is a crime. You don’t need to go into hiding.”

  I stared down at my packed suitcase along with a bag for Ethan. I felt numb as I zipped it up with trembling fingers. It was already dark outside which suited my plan perfectly. If that PI was somewhere in the mountains, he wouldn’t see me sneak out the back door to the garage.

  “I do though, Dad,” I whispered, clutching the phone tightly. “Scott won’t ever stop until I figure something out. You have to trust me on this.”

  “What evidence does Scott have that can ruin my career, Amber? I have a PR team meant for things like this.”

  “It’s enough to cause an uproar,” I replied, grimacing. “Trust me on that. I don’t want to talk about it right now, but just trust me when I say that it will cost you your seat in Congress.”

  “Good Lord, Amber. What the hell is going on?”

  “I’ll tell you when the time is right,” I said and rubbed at my swollen belly with a sigh. “Trust me. I’ll be fine. I’ll keep in touch with you until I figure out something. I don’t want you to give your career up because of me.”

  “I can see that I’m not going to win this,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I’ll arrange someone to meet you with Ethan. Just promise to tell me what is happening, Amber. I don’t care if it’s my job that gets ruined. You are my daughter, and I love you more than anything in the world.”

  “I love you too, Dad,” I said, tears streaming down my face. “It’s our little secret for now, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  I hung up the phone before gathering my suitcases from the bed. I powered my cellphone down next. My heart threatened to crack when I placed it on the small table next to the bed. This secret needed to be kept from Gage, too, and that killed me more than anything.

  Chapter 23

  Gage

  I knew something wasn’t right the moment pictures of Amber and her ex-husband, Scott, surfaced in the newspaper after two weeks of silence.

  “Two political families reuniting?” the headline read.

  The picture showed Amber and Scott in a booth inside a small coffee shop in Bozeman. I wanted to punch that leering smile off Scott’s face. It didn’t take a body language expert to see that Amber was clearly frightened at something that had been said during their exchange. I didn’t even know why Amber was mee
ting her ex-husband in the first place. Their divorce settlement had been called off, too, from what I read in the paper as well.

  All of it concerned me. All of it stung.

  Amber’s phone was shut off. No one answered at the Roselynn house, no matter how many times I tried to reach out. Beau had left Colorado Springs to fly back to D.C. His wife had also flown back to France shortly afterwards.

  “This shouldn’t bother me,” I remarked, throwing the old paper of Scott and Amber into the fire. “It shouldn’t bother me. Amber is a grown woman. She can do what she wants. We never agreed to anything.”

  I watched the flames consume the paper quickly. Something had happened to Amber for her to pull away like this. She was virtually a ghost at this point. I didn’t see her at church. I saw no sightings of her in Bozeman, either, for press coverage other than that day in the coffee shop.

  Unable to stand it any longer, I retrieved my computer from my office to sit down in front of the fireplace. The nights were still cold, not nearly as warm as they were in the city. I still had to build a fire every night, but I couldn’t fight off the chill inside of me.

  “Dad.”

  I looked up from my computer propped open on my lap to see Lily standing at the base of the stairs. Her tangled brown hair was pulled up into a messy bun as she gazed down at me with a sleepy frown.

  “Can you make sure to turn that fire down?” she asked. “It’s nearly eighty degrees in the house. I don’t know why you keep making these fires.”

  “It’s eighty degrees?” I repeated skeptically. I set my computer down on the couch before padding over to the thermostat that controlled the entire house. Eighty fucking degrees in here, and yet, I’m freezing my ass off.

  “I told you,” Lily said, rolling her eyes. “Just turn it down, Dad. That’s all I’m saying.”

  I rubbed at the sweat on the back of my neck. This cold was coming from inside of me, not from the outside like I originally believed, with the early spring chill.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ll make sure to kill the fire tonight. I didn’t realize it was that warm in here.”

  “Are you feeling sick?” Lily asked. “If you’re feeling sick, then maybe you should go to the doctor.”

  “I’ll be fine, Lily. Get to bed. You have school in the morning.”

  I waited until I heard Lily’s bedroom door close before pulling up Google. I typed in Amber’s name into the search engine. There was nothing that screamed problems. I scrolled through the various headlines with a frown to settle on one in particular.

  Congressman Beau Roselynn’s daughter skips another press event.

  Avoiding the press wasn’t anything new. Amber had done it for months after news of her divorce was leaked, but I couldn’t shake it. Her disappearance from everything meant that something had happened. I closed my computer with an exhausted sigh. I knew Beau, too. If Amber had come clean to him about the nature of our relationship, there would’ve been a confrontation by now. Not silence. Politicians never stayed silent unless they were hiding a secret, and Amber was her father’s daughter.

  I called Beau’s cellphone, even though it was close to midnight in D.C. I knew my friend never went to sleep before midnight. Neither one of us got much sleep these days, even though our kids were older. Much to my relief, Beau answered in a concerned voice.

  “It’s late, Gage,” he said. “Everything okay over there?”

  “Everything’s fine,” I replied, picking up the ring that I still had for Amber. “I just wanted to make sure that everything is okay with you on your end.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “I’ve been reading some of the headlines, Beau. I just wanted to make sure that Amber is okay.”

  A strained silence followed. I waited for some sort of reaction to come from Beau on the other end.

  “I am in touch with Amber,” Beau said evenly. “Her and Ethan are together somewhere safe. That’s all I can say at the moment.”

  “Safe?” Those words struck cold hard fear into my heart. “Does it have something to do with Scott?”

  Beau sighed into the phone. “I can’t say much, Gage. I promised to honor Amber’s request when she asked me to keep things a secret.”

  “I’m just concerned is all,” I blurted out. I wanted to spill out everything, but I refrained from doing that. This self-imposed disappearance had something to do with Scott. Not me. Even if it felt like Amber was also running away from her feelings for me. “You know, Lily adores Amber. Our kids get along great. I just wanted to make sure that she is okay.”

  “I’ll make sure to pass that message along to her,” Beau said. “I just think that she needs the time to grieve over her divorce. The lawyers are negotiating out a new deal. It’s very hard on Amber.”

  I frowned at that. “I thought that was why she came out here with me in the first place.”

  “It was the reason why.” Voices interrupted Beau in the background. He replied to them curtly before speaking again. “I have to go, Gage. Draft up some new cyber security program. That was a big hit here in D.C. A bigger payday for you if you can do that.”

  “Sure,” I gritted out, fighting off my frustration. “I’ll get my notes to you to present to everybody.”

  “Good deal. Thank you, my friend.”

  I set my phone down on the kitchen island with an uneasy stomach. Amber’s behavior had to do with Scott, but it had everything to do with me, too. I could feel it deep in my gut as I set the ring back down. Amber was running from her past, but also from her future. Her future with me, if she even wanted it still.

  Spring turned into a breezy and cool summer. It was October before I even knew where the time had gone to. I spent it trying to keep myself occupied with Lily’s activities, with her friends and various camps around Bozeman. I spent it developing new software that secured another contract with the government. I also spent it anxiously trying to understand where the hell Amber’s head and heart were at.

  Beau assured me constantly that she was safe and sound. It was just troubles with her ex-husband. I didn’t doubt it, judging from the rumor mill going about that Scott’s father had something that could destroy Beau’s reputation, but I couldn’t stand it any longer. This was the woman who I had fallen in love with. She had returned to my feelings, and even though I knew that I should just let her go, I couldn’t just let go. Something about the distance wasn’t right.

  I contacted a private investigator named Marcus Montes in Wyoming to look for Amber, who assured me that he could find anyone, no matter the amount of money and security they had around them. My doubts were erased when Marcus arrived at my house late at night on a chilly fall night with photographs and a notepad filled with notes.

  “Build a fire,” I told Marcus, nodding to the fire pit in the yard. “I don’t want my daughter to see you here with photographs.”

  Marcus shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever you say.”

  I double checked to make sure that Lily was sound asleep in her room. After an entire day swimming with a group of friends at the indoor swimming pool, she didn’t even stir inside her bed when I opened the door. This was another reason why I wanted to find out what was going on with Amber. The two of them had grown close to one another. I knew that Amber wouldn’t have just walked away from Lily without a reason.

  A fire was blazing in the fire pit when I stepped out into the chilly night. I grabbed two chairs to place them in front of the fire to keep us warm while Marcus talked.

  “What did you find?” I asked anxiously. “I know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t find anything.”

  “You’re right. I wouldn’t be.” Marcus laughed shortly. He handed the photographs over to me. “You were also right when you said that you suspected that there was a security team watching over Amber. There’s a few security team members from her father’s political camp that are keeping watch over her. I only managed to get a few shots from the living room window.”

  I
stared down at the partial portfolio of Amber through the living room window. The house, I found through the other photographs, was in a small neighborhood known for the wealthy. In Bozeman. I swallowed thickly. Amber had been only thirty minutes away from me the entire time.

  “There’s also another PI on the search for her,” Marcus continued on. “I know that he is working for her ex-husband, so from what I gathered, she is in hiding from this PI and her ex-husband. She has been living under a different name as well.”

  I flipped through a couple of other photographs of Amber in the living room window. There weren’t any other photographs, which told me that Amber and Ethan rarely surfaced from the house. I handed the photographs back to Marcus.