Sunny completely ignored her agent as she pushed her chair away from the table and walked over to Shanda.
“I don’t give a shit about your client, her book, or you. I don’t need or want you help. Get out before you get hurt.”
Shanda smiled smugly. “That’s fine with me. I was just doing Jade a favor. Good luck next week.”
Shanda sauntered out of the room and Sunny sat back down.
“If you ever invite that bitch to another one of my meetings, you’re fired,” she told her agent. “I don’t think I can make that any clearer.”
“Sunny, we just want you to be prepared. I would like you to get some media training. Shanda is the best.”
“Are you kidding me? Media training? Aiden told a reporter to blow him and he still hasn’t been to media training. If his people feel that he doesn’t need it, why the hell would you think I’d go to media training with Shanda of all people?”
Sunny’s reaction to the suggestion of media training was exactly what I expected, even if her outrage wasn’t expected by everyone on her newly assembled team. I wanted to say that this book isn’t a really big deal and that we should just let it go. The best strategy was to ignore the book and let Ramey live. This one book isn’t going to make or break any of our careers.
Sunny ended her loud rant with an emphatic, “I’m not doing media training. I’m not doing it because I’m not going on television or radio or granting any interviews to any form of media about anything that Ramey Hall does. That psycho bitch could take shit on my car and I’d never acknowledge her. She is not a part of my life. If you feel something needs to be said, issue a statement saying that I’m happy that Ramey is attention whoring her way back to the top, but I really don’t have time to give a damn about what she’s doing. You can add a warning to Ramey that she needs to keep my name out of her mouth or she’s going to have a bigger problem than book sales.”
“If that’s what you want to do,” Tracy said, “work it out with your people. As far as our client goes, Aiden is booked on Ellen, The Today Show, and Conan so far. The plan is to steer the conversation away from the book release and put it where it needs to be, on your tour.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “Are we here to just talk or are we going to eat too? I’m starving.”
Chapter 35: Read Between the Lines
WINTER’S WAILING AT SIX in the morning coming through the baby monitor jolted me out of my sleep. My eyes were half closed as I fumbled around for a pair of sweats to throw on before my child woke up the entire house. I shuffled sleepily down the hall expecting to see Tahir, Sara, Summer, and my mom standing in their doorways glaring at me.
Winter wasn’t just crying. Her hands were balled into tiny fists, her legs were flailing, and she was screaming like a banshee.
“Hey,” I said as I lifted her out of the crib. “What’s the problem? You never cry like this when your mom’s around.”
She was still crying as I took a bottle out of the mini-fridge and put it in the bottle warmer. I know she knew what was about to happen but she was still crying as I laid her on the changing table. She lowered her banshee screams to a regular decibel when I unbuttoned her sleeper pajamas and reached for a clean diaper. Winter loves getting her diaper changed.
“This is your fault,” I told her. “You’re the one who has to have a bottle before bed. Even I know that if I drink before bed, I’m gonna have to piss.”
I replaced her pissy diaper with the clean one. Winter smiled and made content little spit bubbles while I redressed her. Then we sat in the armchair and I fed her. The silence in the room allowed my mind to wander right back to the conversation I had with my sisters, a conversation that ended only three hours ago.
Everyone is so worried about that damn book. After what Sara and Delilah insinuated last night, I’m starting to think that I should be a little worried too. I leaned over and pulled the two-hundred-page manuscript from under the chair where I kicked it last night and thumbed through the pages until I got to chapter forty-six.
I was late. I knew why. I felt it when I woke up. I felt it as I dropped Gia off at school. I felt it during my meeting with my agents.
A month out of rehab and I thought things were going pretty well. Gio was learning to love me again. My stay at the Betty Ford clinic had set our marriage back on track. He’d let me back into our home and back into his bed again. We were falling back in love and my cycle was late.
The day I came home from rehab, I wasn’t sure what was happening in my life, as I mentioned earlier. Instead of going back to Napa Valley, I checked into a hotel then went to visit friends in the city. I ended up reconnecting with an ex. With him, I felt like I had some bridges to repair. He was the last person I wanted to hate me. We spent two days together. Those forty-eight hours were needed and possibly the best two days of my life. And now my cycle was late.
My biggest fear was confirmed three days later. Gia was going to be a big sister. I agonized over my pregnancy for the entire forty weeks. Gio was suspicious. I was paranoid. How could I not know who was the father of my child? Every kind of crazy thought went through my head for those months. Either I’d ruined my marriage or I’d ruined my ex’s life. I honestly didn’t know what to do.
Fuck me!
I knew there was a reason why I didn’t want to read this book. I’ve only been married for three weeks and I’m about to be on my second divorce. Even though she didn’t outright say my name, I know Ramey was talking about me. We hooked up after she came home. She just showed up at my house one night. I was single. She was separated. She said she wanted to talk; I didn’t see the harm in letting her in. I wasn’t even thinking about Sunny then. She was with Tristan.
This book comes out in two days. Sunny isn’t even here right now. She’s in New York with Daniela. Ramey is probably in NYC also. I have to do something but I have no idea what to do. So I did the only thing that came to mind in a crisis.
“Aiden, I’m sitting in traffic trying to get to Atlanta. What do you want?” Roxy snapped.
“Ramey’s youngest kid may be mine.”
“It’s too early for your jokes, Aiden. What do you want?”
“I’m serious. I just read it in her book.”
“Driver!” Roxy screamed. “Figure out how to get off this goddamn highway and take me to Aiden’s. Please,” she added then our call dropped. Just in case she couldn’t, I called Tracy and Paulie to break the news.
Twenty minutes later, all three of them were parking in my driveway. I woke Jess and handed Winter off to her then directed Tracy, Paulie, and Roxy to my studio. The housekeepers were already here and I can’t have anyone overhearing this conversation.
“We have a serious problem,” I announced.
Paulie shot me a look of understanding. After all, he already read the book. I don’t know how come he didn’t put two and two together. I handed the pages to Roxy who read it out loud then dropped the pages on the floor. Tracy sat there with her mouth open. She started to speak a couple of times but nothing came out. This was bad...really bad. I’ve never seen my publicist speechless over anything.
“Are you still sleeping with that woman?” Roxy asked. “We have to know the truth, Aiden.”
“No. I swear to God; no. I haven’t banged Ramey since that weekend. That was almost two years ago.”
I sat down on the sofa and covered my face with my hands. This is probably the worst thing that could happen and it’s my fault. The possibility of me having a son with Ramey is going to kill Sunny, especially now. I’ve literally ruined my marriage and had no idea that I’d done so.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“A DNA test is number one on the list,” Roxy tersely replied. Tracy’s response was a lot more sensitive.
“I think he should tell his wife first. This may be a PR disaster, but we were expecting Ramey to reveal something crazy in this book. But this is also his life, Roxy.”
“She’s going to kill me.”
“I agree,” Paulie said. “But if she finds out before you tell her, you’ll have zero chance of saving your marriage. I mean, Sunny’s not completely unreasonable. This happened two years ago. You were single and she was with that British dude, right? You didn’t cheat on her. You’re just finding out so how could you have told her sooner?”
“If you put it like that,” Tracy said. “She’s going to walk before you finish your sentence. You do know that Sunny’s biggest insecurity right now is that she can’t give you a son. If I know that then you have to know that.
Roxy glared at me. “If you say ‘I might have a son with my ex-wife whom you hate with every inch of your soul but at least I didn’t cheat on you,’ you’ll be dead and she’ll be in jail.”
“You’re not helping, Roxy.”
Now wasn’t the time for Roxy’s blunt sarcasm. I’m in crisis. I honestly don’t know how to handle this.
“I’m sorry, Aiden,” Roxy said, surprising all of us. “I know this isn’t about your career. I’m not trying to make it about that. This is life changing for all three of you, Ramey included. You do have to tell Sunny, but it may go over better if you tell her when you have confirmation that the kid is yours. If he isn’t, then she’s not going to care that you slept with your ex-wife almost two years ago.”
“The problem with that is that we don’t have time for a DNA test before the book comes out. Sunny needs to know this before the media knows.” Tracy turned to me. “Aiden, if you’re being a hundred percent honest with me about this girl, I will have your back and work day and night to delay this story, spin it, or stop it dead in its tracks for you. You know I will. But if I do that, and it comes out that you’re still involved with Ramey or anyone else, I won’t be able to help you.”
“I swear that I’m not. You have to believe me.”
Despite their words, they don’t believe me. Sunny won’t believe me either. However, I know I can’t tell her this over the phone and I can’t wait for her to get back. She hates when I interrupt her work but I’m going to New York. There’s no other option.
***
“You gotta tell me something, Ramey!” I yelled into my phone. “I’m about to tell my wife what you wrote in your fucking book! All you have to say is ‘I don’t know’? What the fuck am I supposed to do with ‘I don’t know’?”
“I told you months ago that I needed to talk to you about that part! I’ll take the blame for everything else, but not about you just finding out that I wrote it.”
“Yes the hell you will! You could have told me when you first found out that you were pregnant! I wouldn’t have this damn issue if you had told me. Instead, you wrote it in a damn book! The hell’s wrong with you, Ramey? Are you really that crazy?”
“Aiden, I don’t know!” she screamed in my ear. “What else would you like me to say? There’s a 50% chance you are Hendrix’s father and a 50% chance you aren’t. We could have had a DNA test two months ago.”
“We should have had one when you had the kid. When was that? Eighteen months ago? Is that why the wine king left you?”
Ramey got quiet then she hung up on me. I must have guessed correctly. I’m going to kill her. No, I’m going to go to her hotel after this and left Sunny kill her.
If Sunny doesn’t kill me first.
The only thing I have going for me here is that Sunny and I have only been together for a year and Ramey’s son is about eighteen months according to her book. But that’s lame. She’s going to be mad as hell. I almost didn’t want to knock on her hotel room door. When I approached room 415, I said a prayer that she was at a fitting or visiting some designer’s boutique or showroom.
No such luck.
Dani opened the door eagerly. “Oh,” she said when I obviously wasn’t whom he was expecting. “I thought you were room service.”
I don’t know where Sunny found Dani but I’m glad she did. Dani is completely different from Kirk, Candace, and Delilah. She has bright blue hair that is bone-straight and hangs past her hips. She is tatted up and looks like a rockstar, but she’s also smart as hell. She wants to be a stylist and obviously smart enough to know that working with Sunny could get her to where she wants to be because my wife is the best in the business. She hasn’t been working with Sunny for long but I get a great vibe from them.
“What’s up, Dani?”
“Not much. Starving.”
“Where’s Sunny?”
“She’s in here.”
“Is that my husband?” Sunny called.
“Yeah!” Dani yelled back. She moved out of the way and allowed me to walk past her.
The first thing I noticed was all the shopping bags on the floor. I hope all that stuff is for her clients. Sunny doesn’t need new clothes.
Sunny was all smiles as she dug through a Sephora bag. She hopped up and leapt over a pile of shoeboxes, falling into my arms. “Hey, baby. I was just about to text Mona. I need the address to your storage unit in Atlanta. I need to ship all this stuff there.”
“I don’t have that unit anymore. Just ship it to the apartment. Charles will put it inside.”
“Okay, cool. What are you doing here? You missed me?”
“Yeah, I missed you. But I need to talk to you about something...alone.”
“Dani!” Sunny shouted into the bedroom of the suite. “I need you to go by Daniela’s and pick up those Gucci boots we loaned her. Then go by Gloria Pierce’s office in Brooklyn and pick up those DVF dresses we sent over for Asia’s benefit.”
“Can I go by Michael Kors?”
“Not without me,” Sunny laughed. “He said he would preview his new collection with us. You can’t show up without me.” She turned back to me. “That should give us a few hours. What’s up?”
I took my wife by the hand and led her over to the sofa. For a moment, all I could do was stare at our intertwined hands. We worked so hard to get to this place. We’ve been so happy. All I want is to be with this woman and raise our children together. I don’t understand why I can’t have that.
“There’s something in Ramey’s book that you need to know about.”
Sunny took her hand out of mine and moved to the other end of the sofa. “The part where she implies that you could be her baby daddy? That’s what you’re talking about, right?”
“How’d you know about that?”
Sunny scoffed and shook her head. “How dumb do you think I am? I read that book before she ever gave you a copy. I know people and I have connections. It wasn’t my place to bring it up to you. When did you find out?”
“Yesterday.”
“Do not lie.”
“Yesterday,” I repeated.
Sunny sank back onto the sofa and ran her hands through her hair. “Wow. You were totally blindsided by this? Is there a real possibility that you are the father?”
I hesitated. “Umm, yeah, I guess. But I didn’t have a clue. I remember that we hooked up around that time but I barely remember it.”
“So why did you speak to her last year? What was that all about?”
“Nothing. We were in the same club. We spoke for maybe two minutes. The next time I saw her was in Atlanta. When I came to get Summer for Thanksgiving, I confronted Ramey about emailing you. I saw her when she dropped the book off, and then I saw her Calabasas.”
“In over two years, you saw your ex-wife four times and she never mentioned her son? I don’t know if I believe that.”
“I didn’t even know she had another kid. I just knew about the little girl.”
Sunny’s calm quiet was unnerving. I could have been mad that she knew and didn’t say a word to me but I chose not to be upset. She’s not at fault. However, she wasn’t expressing any type of emotion that indicated how she felt about me.
“Thank you for coming here to tell me this as soon as you found out. Thank you being honest. You need to have a DNA test.”
“I will. So, you’re not pissed?” I asked hopefully.
“I didn’t say that
. I said get a DNA test.” Sunny sighed and just kept shaking her head. “I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. I’ve had this in the back of my mind for months. I was carrying your child with that information stuck in my head. I kept telling myself that this wasn’t my issue, and you’d tell me if it were true. A baby isn’t something you’d keep a secret. Then you didn’t mention it and never acted like anything in the book was an issue so I figured either you didn’t know or it wasn’t true. Now that you know, this is your issue to resolve. I can’t fight this battle with you; I don’t know how.”
Sunny wasn’t crying. She sounded like she was trying not to. From the way she huddled in the corner of the sofa with her legs folded under her and her arms wrapped around her body like she was trying to hold herself together, I knew she was more hurt than what she was saying. She looked disappointed and vulnerable, as if the wrong word from me could and would completely shatter her world.
“How does this affect us?” I asked.
Sunny’s shoulders rose slowly then lowered as if that shrug was the only commitment she could give at the moment.
“I honestly cannot answer that question.”
“Do you understand that—”
She held up her hand and cut me off. “Of course I understand that we weren’t together. You were single. You hooking up with Ramey was no concern of mine, and I’m not the least bit surprised that you didn’t tell me that y’all hooked up. I never want to know all the women that you’ve been with. And there are so many additional women in your life already that I have to deal with...I mean, your management, your artists, your fans, and your groupies. I just don’t know if I can handle Ramey taking up space in your life again. But,” she gave me a thin smile. “There is still the chance that I won’t have to so there’s that.”
I slid over on the sofa and pulled Sunny onto my lap. She slid her arm around my wait and rested her head on my chest. Holding her against me, I kissed the top of her head then her cheek.
“I’m so sorry, babe. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
UNBROKEN (Friends, Lovers, or Nothing Book 5) Page 34