“And you’re just going to give them all to me.”
Nicole shrugged. “As an apology for forcing you to write that song for me. She always went on and on about Christopher, and I knew you wrote his first song.”
“That was why you blackmailed her.”
Nicole’s lips parted. “I call it payback.”
She didn’t care much about Rebecca, but she did want to help Ella. “Am I allowed to use the information to help someone?”
“If too many people use that information against her, I’m afraid it’ll stop working.”
“Then do me a favor. She has several photos of my friend, Ella.” Chloe paused; she wasn’t willing to give her more details.
“That’s the person she blackmailed to get my song?”
Chloe nodded. “I know if you were to say anything, Rebecca would—”
“I’ll do it for you. I’ve already done it once; I can do it again.”
“But what if—”
“Don’t worry about me. I can handle myself.”
“Nicole …”
“Chloe, I managed to blackmail a serial blackmailer. Give me some credit.”
Chloe laughed softly. She gave Nicole her email address, and they exchanged numbers. “If you think anything is wrong and you need help, give me a call right away.”
“I will.”
She pursed and released her lips. “Has she ever mentioned anything about Christopher?”
“Just that he’s protective of her. I think she has a major crush on him.”
Protective of her? She knew Christopher was probably just being nice, but that didn’t remove her jealousy.
“She’s still crazy at times, even when she’s on her meds. Sometimes, I find her mumbling to herself. And she says the meanest, sometimes craziest, things when she thinks I can’t hear her.”
“Nicole, maybe—”
“But she won’t hurt me. I said that to remind you to be careful.”
“Me?”
Nicole pinched her lips together. “I know you’re older, and it probably isn’t my place to give you advice. But you look like a nice person, the sort who won’t ever use such information to your advantage.” She paused for a moment and smiled. “I don’t think you even know what you’re really doing here. After reading the P.I. report, whatever you want to do, please be careful.”
“If you have all this on her, why are you still doing the concert tonight?”
“Because I gave the organizers my word. Whatever unhappiness I have is with Rebecca, not the organizers.”
“Very mature,” Chloe said and looked at the envelope with the song she’d written for Nicole. “You know, I’ve only written love songs so far.”
“Well, I haven’t met the love of my life.” Nicole gave her a small smile. “Maybe I’ll call you when I do meet the guy. Will you write me a song then?”
“I’ll write you a song then, but I’d love to write you a song now.”
Throughout the whole conversation, Nicole had shown how strong, mature, and wise a person she was.
“A song about growing up, about being strong.” She could almost hear the tune.
“Seriously?” Nicole grinned.
“I’ve never written a non-love song before. But if you’re willing to take a risk—”
“Have I not proven the length I’d go to get a song from you?”
Chloe laughed and nodded. “I know I’m older, but your strength is inspiring.”
“Well, Chloe, if you make the decision that from today onward, you’ll respect your incredibly talented self enough to stand up for yourself and love yourself, you’ll get stronger.” Nicole paused and smiled. “My mom told me that once. I’ve never been able to get it out of my mind.”
“Your mother is a wise woman.”
That line was definitely going into the lyrics.
Chapter Fifteen
Chloe sat in the lobby reading the P.I. report that Nicole had sent her. She looked up when she noticed a shadow growing on her iPad. “Jason.”
She flipped her iPad over and placed it down on her lap.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m waiting for Christopher. They’re discussing details on his next single.”
“That I’m promoting.”
She frowned. “You’re fast.”
Jason took a seat next to her. “A friend called in a favor.”
“Rebecca?” She regretted it the moment she said her name.
She was being paranoid, not everything had to do with Rebecca.
But when Jason’s eyes slitted, she realized she was actually right. “What does she have on you?”
“What does she have on you?”
“Nothing. She blackmailed someone into asking me a favor.” She leaned back and looked up at him. “What does she have on you? I knew something was wrong with her.”
“Chloe, stay away from her.”
“She’s only a personal assistant.”
“Chloe.” Jason took her hand. “I know what happened between us, and I’m sorry. But you have to trust me on this. Leave Rebecca alone. I know she might be working with Christopher again, but you stay away from her.”
“Why? I have nothing to hide. I’m very proper, remember?”
Jason winced. “Yes, but—”
“What does she have on you?” she repeated her question, slower this time.
Jason sighed. “I owed some people some money.”
“So?”
“I might’ve taken some money from the company to pay them.”
She gasped. “Jason!”
“I know, I know. You won’t tell my grandfather, will you?”
“You have to put the money back. If the accountants find out, you may go to jail.”
“I know.”
She rolled her eyes. “Which is why you’re doing her bidding.” She shook her head and looked away. “How did she find out?”
“She must have gone through my files while I was out of the office.”
“How much do you owe?”
“Over a million.”
Her eyes widened. She thought she could help, but she didn’t have a million dollars.
“Yeah, I know.” He stretched his legs forward and slumped back against the wall.
“You need to talk to your grandfather. I know he has the money; he can put the money back for you.”
“After killing me, that is.”
“If he does, you deserve it.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “They said it was a sure-win. I didn’t want to miss out on the business opportunity, so I borrowed money from some people whom I should never have messed with.”
“Jason, I’ve never said this out loud because I didn’t want to behave as if I’m your mother, but your so-called friends are horrible people. They only hang around you for your money.” She sighed softly. “I can talk to your grandfather for you.”
“Really?” He perked up and took her hand. “I’ll be forever indebted to you.”
She rolled her eyes.
“That’s why my grandfather adores you and wanted me so badly to marry you.”
She laughed, that explained a lot.
“Is everything all right?”
Chloe looked over and smiled at Christopher. When she noticed he was staring at Jason’s hand over hers, she pulled her hand from under Jason’s and stood. “We were just talking. Hi, Rebecca, I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“I was Christopher’s assistant. Now that he’s back, I’ll be his assistant again.”
“What about Nicole?”
Her eyelids twitched. “Nicole will be fine. I heard you’re writing a song for her.”
She clenched her jaws and forced a smile. “It’s in progress.” She walked over to Christopher, who took her hand and pulled her behind him.
“Thanks for being here, Rebecca. We should go.” He nodded in Jason’s direction, and they headed off.
Chloe got into the car and pulled the se
atbelt over herself.
“Is everything all right?” Christopher asked as they pulled out of the lot.
“I don’t know.”
“Has it got something to do with Jason?”
Chloe studied his expression for a minute. “It has nothing to do with Jason. He wasn’t asking me to get back with him. He was concerned.”
“About?”
“Rebecca.”
Christopher frowned. “You still don’t see any colors from her?”
“Nope, and it isn’t just that,” she said. “Remember how I was working on a song as a favor to my friend?”
“Because a Rebecca blackmailed her?”
She nodded. “Because this Rebecca blackmailed her.”
Christopher laughed and shook his head.
“You don’t believe me.”
“It isn’t that.” He cast a glance at her. “I’ve worked with … Rebecca for years. She’s been a great assistant.”
“I’ve spoken to Nicole Lane, and she confirmed that the Rebecca who blackmailed Ella is this very Rebecca.”
His head swayed left and right.
“And when I started talking about Rebecca, Jason got all worried. He kept telling me to stay away from her.”
“And because Jason says so, it … must be true.”
Chloe sighed. “I only brought him up because my words aren’t enough for you.”
“That’s not true.”
“No? So you believe Rebecca is the blackmailer.”
“I believe that’s what you’ve been told, but I’m sure there’s more to it.”
Chloe nodded and continued to tell him about Nicole Lane and the conversation she had with her.
“Do you hear how crazy it sounds? Changing her name, blackmailing people …”
“You’re very protective of her.” She licked her lips and nodded. “Never mind.”
“No, Chloe—”
“No, it’s fine. You’re right, it’s crazy. I have an idea for a song. If you don’t mind …” She reached into her bag and pulled out the noise-canceling earphones. “I’d like to work on it before the inspiration slips away.”
She put on her earphones and turned to her phone, but she wasn’t working on any song. She downloaded and continued reading the P.I. report.
When they got back to the house, she got out and headed for the door without waiting for Christopher.
“Chloe.” Christopher took her hand and gave her a small smile. “I’m sorry. It isn’t that I don’t believe you.”
“It’s all right. I’m just tired, and I want to rest.”
“Of course.”
She smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He leaned in, and she tilted her face to the side.
“Goodnight.” She went in and closed the door, then headed straight to her laptop. She had finished reading through the report, but certain parts caught her attention.
She grabbed her laptop and went into her study.
Knowing Rebecca’s real name made a world of a difference in her Internet search. Newspaper archives, very interesting newspaper archives lined the first page of her Google search results.
She didn’t know how long she’d been at it until she heard Christopher’s voice.
“Hungry?”
She gasped and spun around. “Chris, what are you doing here?”
“The lights were still on, so I thought you might want supper.”
She turned back to her laptop and closed it before standing. “I’m not hungry.”
She had already read all she needed, but she was tired of backing down simply because people didn’t trust her. She was going to prove to Christopher that she didn’t just allow a silly idea to get into her head.
She wasn’t sure why she was that determined. Maybe it was the conversation she had with Nicole. Maybe Nicole’s strength and maturity left such an impression on her that Chloe had finally made the decision to respect herself enough to stand up for herself.
“Chloe.” He closed the distance between them and took her hand. “I’m sorry. It isn’t that I don’t trust … you—”
“It’s just that you’ve worked with her, and she’s helped you when you were addicted to alcohol. So you’re protective of her.” She sighed softly when she realized she’d interrupted his sentence. She had never done that with him. “I’m sorry,” she said and sat on the desk.
Christopher pulled the chair over and sat in front of her. “It’s okay.” He took a deep breath and continued, “The point I’m trying to make … is that I choose you. I choose to trust your superpower more … than whatever my mind or experience is telling me.”
He gave her hand a squeeze, then took out his phone. “So, I sent a text to the executive in charge of my new single.” He placed his phone into her hand.
She frowned, but read whatever was on the screen. “You told him that you don’t want a personal assistant.”
“And I’ll keep my distance from her.”
She broke into a smile and shook her head. “Chris.” She laughed. “What if I told you that my paranoia kicked into insane gear and I spent the past few hours reading everything about Rebecca and I found nothing.”
“I’ve already sent the text, and … I’ve given you my word. Nothing will change.” He took her hand again. “I do care for Rebecca … because she was there for me when I was … addicted. And whatever … protectiveness you think I have of her is because I … knew what her parents put her through. She told me … her parents used to abuse her.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but when she saw that Christopher had more to say, she stopped.
“But that’s all. Whatever I feel about her, I feel a hundred times—a million times—more for you.”
She smiled, feeling silly for being jealous over nothing.
“I love you, Chloe. I always have.” He tightened his grip of her hand. “I’ll give up anything for you in a heartbeat.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
She narrowed her eyes, trying to think of something precious to him. “Josh?”
“You can have him anytime.”
She laughed. “But I don’t want you to do that.”
“You don’t want Josh either?”
“I don’t want you to give up things for me just because you feel you have to.”
“Chloe.” He paused and looked right into her eyes. “You don’t have to be the adult … in our relationship.”
“We both have to be adults for our relationship to work.”
His brows drew closer. “I’m going to be childish now. I just told you I love you.”
She laughed and cupped her hand against his cheek. “And I love you, too.” She bent forward and gave him a kiss. “And Mr. Christopher Hunter, I’m glad to announce that your faith in my superpower isn’t misplaced.”
He arched a brow.
She sat on his leg and pulled them toward the laptop. “Rebecca’s real name is Jill Adler. This is the report from Nicole’s P.I.” She scrolled through the report and pointed out some things to him. “You were talking about her parents. The P.I. spoke to her neighbors, and several neighbors stated that they often heard explosive quarrels from the house.”
“She didn’t want … to take her medications.”
She nodded. “But if she didn’t, she’d get delusions.”
“So the abuse … it could be delusions?”
She scrolled a few pages down. “The P.I. spoke to her school teachers. Apparently, Rebecca kept telling her teachers that she was abused, but the school nurse didn’t find any wounds. Then she started saying that her parents were poisoning her.”
Christopher’s eyes widened.
“Then, on her eighteenth birthday, her father accidentally left the car running in the garage. The carbon monoxide killed her parents.”
She felt Christopher’s chest rising.
“Do you suspect that … she killed her parents?”
She twisted to the side and look
ed at Christopher. “The P.I. never got a definite answer. One of the detectives suspected her, but they couldn’t find any proof. But what’s interesting was that her parents each took her anti-psychotic pills that made them drowsy.”
“It looks like they committed suicide.”
“I ran a search and found an interesting news article. A reporter received an anonymous tip and did her own research. Her article stated that the neighbors all insisted that Jill’s father always parked the car outside the house and never in the garage unless it was winter.” She pulled up the article she was talking about. “That was the same thing that got the detective to suspect Jill in the first place.”
She looked over at Christopher, whose brows were etched in a deep frown. “And there’s this statement.” She pointed at another paragraph in the article. “A neighbor saw her laughing and dancing at the back of the house. She thought it was weird because Jill was always brooding. And she was out there for hours, something her neighbors said was strange as well.”
She got up and sat on the desk so she could face Christopher. “I know it’s all circumstantial, which was why the police never arrested her. But when you put everything together, it’s kind of suspicious, isn’t it?”
Christopher scrolled through the article and went back to the report. “When she talked about her … parents, she always choked … up. And the fear in her eyes … seemed so real.”
“Nicole said that maybe I don’t see Rebecca’s color because everything she says is a lie, and I think she may be on to something. When I was in Paris, a doctor studied my condition. She said that the different colors I see may be due to nuances I pick up from people’s tone, which will explain the colors I see from sounds emitted from machines.”
Christopher’s head tipped back. “Ahh … that’s why you seem more observant of what you’re looking at.”
She gave him a small smile. “I think Rebecca doesn’t mean most of her words. Perhaps they’re fragments of her imagination; perhaps they’re straight-out lies or words from her alter-egos. Maybe that’s why my brain can’t decipher the nuances of her tone; maybe that’s why I don’t see her color.”
He remained quiet as his head bobbed up and down, but she could see the realization dawning on him.
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