“As long as she’s taken care of?”
He placed a hand on my shoulder almost like a father would. “You can have your fun, keep your image, and—”
“Be miserable,” I laughed and shrugged off the hand. “You know the saying, ‘all that glitters is not gold’? It should be the Rhys-Gallagher family motto. We had it all—family name, good upbringing, all the money in the world. Yet my whole family is dead. You’ve miscalculated, Mr. Sinclair. I don’t think the same way you do. I don’t want the same things you do. Whatever I do with my company, whoever I choose to be with, I will do it for me, my happiness, not my bottom line. And I won’t regret that. Goodbye, Mr. Sinclair.” I tapped Alaric’s shoulders. “Let’s go to another hole.”
“Don’t go against my father,” Portia whispered behind one hand. “He always gets what he wants.”
I grabbed the clubs. “You’re in love with Mr. Jacobs, one of the men who formerly worked for Edmund Enterprises, right?”
Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to think of something to say. “Love means you are poor and struggling. That’s what he told me, and he is right. I’m lucky. Had I actually been married to Hugh when you took over, I’d be a laughingstock. I’d rather be dead than live that way.” She glanced at her father, who was on the phone.
“How do you know you’ve never been dead?” I asked her. “However you feel, you should warn your father to stay away from me, because if he doesn’t, I’ll make it my mission to tear him and your whole family apart.”
“You’re going to regret it. My father can expose all of your secrets, even the one about your son’s mother. Do you really want her to go through that?”
I stared at her, and I realized this was going to get ugly before it got better. “Whatever happens, I will do it my way and deal with the aftermath as I see fit.”
“You’re a fool,” she said. I ignored her and walked over to Alaric.
“What’s wrong?” Alaric asked aloud, looking at my face.
“We might have to cut our game short.” I smiled at him, then signaled to Finnick, who stood just steps behind the caddies.
I knew Sinclair. He loved playing dirty. He was like a child. If he couldn’t have it his way, he didn’t just take his ball and go home, he made sure no one else could ever play the game again.
The only thing he had on me was Luella and Alaric, it was also the only thing he wanted me to let go of, which meant he’d most likely expose us. How did he find out? Hugh? It didn’t really matter now anyway. He was coming to ruin the small paradise I had.
Fuckin’ asshole.
LUELLA
“I feel like a totally different person.” I stretched languidly. Eva mumbled something, still resting on the bed even though we’d finished getting hot stone massages.
I peeked under her bed at her face. “What was that?”
“Five more minutes, please.”
“Five more minutes here will cost us more than your rent.”
That got her eyes open, and she pushed herself up. “What the hell? What a rip-off! It wasn’t even that good.”
“What happened to that look of euphoria?”
“Don’t you know my face always looks like this?” She patted her cheeks. “Let’s get dressed.”
The locker room was more crowded than when we’d arrived, and everyone was staring at their phone.
A woman’s voice drifted over the bank of lockers behind us. “Portia, oh my God, I’m so sorry.”
Portia? I stepped around the corner to see Portia Sinclair sitting on a bench, tears streaming as a group of women rallied around her.
“Men are pigs, and besides, Hugh is pretty much worthless.”
“I know, but h-how could he? An escort,” she cried, and I froze, feeling as though I was going to puke.
A woman glared at me. “Can we help you?”
“Luella?” Portia stood, wiping away her fake tears. “Ladies, this is Luella Thorne, the mother of Dorian Rhys-Gallagher’s son.” She clutched my hands. “God, you must be so disgusted with him too.”
“W-Why?” I tried to keep my voice from shaking.
She showed me her phone. “Someone released a list of clients to this escort service called the House of L, he’s on it. They said he paid at least two hundred and fifty thousand for some woman.”
I knew more than a few names on the list. The escorts weren’t named, only some of the clients. When I saw his name, it felt like someone was squeezing my ribs… They were talking about me—us.
“Sweetheart, you were right just to have his kid. It gives you access to the money. Can you believe them? We stand by them, and they go fuck whores,” one of the women said angrily, tossing her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulders.
“Why are any of you surprised?” Eva leaned against the lockers casually. “Men like them are all the same. Get your money, ladies, don’t get emotionally attached. Please, excuse us.”
I handed Portia back her phone while Eva dressed quickly. If the escort names were leaked, the last thing I wanted was to be near any of them. Grabbing my purse, I walked out. Finnick was standing there, waiting.
“Mr. Rhys-Gallagher is already in the car, ma’am,” he said.
“Lulu, I’ll meet you back at the house.” Eva was on the phone, making a call.
“Where are you going?”
“To go see the devil. I’ve worked too hard for her incompetence to destroy my life.”
Finnick watched her leave before turning to me. “The devil, ma’am?”
Dorian told me it was Rafael and Finnick who found me, and he not only knew everything, but we could trust him.
“She’s the old woman who runs the House of L.” I followed him to the car.
“Do you know anything else about this woman?”
“No, I’m sorry. Over the years, I’ve only seen her a handful of times, the last time was when she told me to go out with Dorian. I don’t even know her name.” I reached the black Mercedes, and Dorian stepped out, getting more than a few looks. He stood proudly, unfazed, and helped me into the backseat. There was no need, he could have stayed inside, but I guessed it was more about pride than anything else for him.
“Don’t apologize.” His phone buzzed, and he turned it off.
Alaric was in his own world, watching cartoons on a tablet. He leaned against my side but said nothing.
“Dorian—”
“Lulu, this isn’t your fault. Roman Sinclair is trying to teach me a lesson.” His expression was hard.
“How did he find out?”
“That is what I would like to know, Finnick.” He glared at the back of Finnick’s head.
“I will look into it, sir,” he said, speeding toward the house. The country club was only minutes from Dorian’s beach house.
“How bad will this be?” I asked.
He stared out the window, not answering.
“Dorian—”
“Luella,” he snapped angrily before taking a deep breath. “I will handle this. Don’t blame yourself, and do not speak to anyone, do you understand?”
“No.”
“What?”
“I’m not going to sit this one out. This isn’t you and them, it’s us and them. So, talk to me. How bad is this?”
He rubbed his temple. “Two detectives came to my office. This is just the beginning.”
When the car stopped, he didn’t wait for Finnick to open the door. Goldie was waiting, dressed in a bright blue pantsuit. Her gaze fell to me, and whatever respect she’d had for me was gone. She knew it was me Dorian had bought. She looked at me the same way so many others had—with disgust. Dorian went into the house, and she followed quickly, leaving the rest of us outside by the car.
“Finnick?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I know he’s the only one you’re supposed to be loyal to, and he’s also the one paying you, but please keep me in the loop on this, okay?”
He obviously didn’t like being put in thi
s position.
“Never mind. I wouldn’t want him to feel like he couldn’t trust you. Come on, Alaric.” We made it only a few steps when Finnick responded to me. “I didn’t tell Mr. Rhys-Gallagher about this until I had more proof.”
“What is it?”
He stood straighter, his hands behind his back. “When I was looking into the House of L, I found some information on the way it’s run.”
“Through Lady L.” I indicated he should go on. It almost seemed like he didn’t know what to say. “What?”
“It’s run by two women, one of whom you call Lady L and someone not much older than you who helps her recruit more ladies for the business.”
I considered his words thoughtfully, not sure what I was hearing. I spoke so Alaric couldn’t see my lips. “What are you saying?”
He nervously cleared his throat. “How well do you know Ms. Sotiropoulos?”
“What?” I laughed in disbelief, shaking my head. “Eva has been with me from the very beginning, she’s helped protect me—”
“She brought you in, arranged your first client, and Lady L knows everything about you how? Someone had to be telling her. Who else are you close to?”
“No.” I refused to believe it. “Eva… She was in this too—”
“So she said, but how do you know that was true? Where is she right now? Not here beside you.”
I felt sick.
“Like I said, I still have to find proof, but I am sure Ms. Sotiropoulos is not all she pretends to be.”
Alaric got tired of waiting and ran to the house. I couldn’t think straight. Eva? He obviously didn’t know what he was talking about, there was no why in hell this could be Eva’s doing.
But why wasn’t she here with me, offering support? Where was she? But why did she need to leave the country club so quickly?
DORIAN
“Is it her? Is it Luella?” Goldie asked when we entered the study.
I sat behind the desk. I would be fielding calls all damn afternoon.
“Sir, I can fix this, but I need to know—”
“Yes, it is her.”
“What about the boy? Are you sure he’s—”
“Yes.”
“Have you gotten a DNA—”
“If I get a DNA test, it will say he is 99.2 % mine, even though he’s my twin brother’s biological son. Other than a few people, no one else will know that. Alaric is my son, period, and I will say that until my dying day. So, before you ask your next question and thoroughly piss me off, I will answer now and tell you ‘no’. Luella isn’t after money. She didn’t come to me because she was worried I’d take her son. She became an escort to pay off the debt my brother left her and to take care of Alaric. I sought her out. Do not treat her in any other way than family. Am I clear?”
“Yes.” She paced back and forth. “Our next move should be to figure out how to spin this. If we tell the world what she went through and paint her as a struggling mother with no other choices, we can get out of this. The money you paid was used to cancel her debt, right? I can get interviews—”
“No.”
Her grip on her phone tightened. “What?”
She wasn’t wrong. In fact, it was the same thing I’d told Hugh. But things were different now, and the more I thought about it, the less I liked it.
“I’m not going to throw her out to be judged by the world for the choices she made simply because I’m a public figure. Also, Alaric might not understand now, but when he grows up, I don’t want him to hear this about his mother.”
“But you prefer to have him look up to his father…you.”
“I don’t care, do what you do and find another way out of this.”
“Mr. Rhys-Gallagher?” Russell stood in the doorway.
I glanced up. “Tell Lulu I’ll be going into the city this evening—”
“Good timing. She wished for me to tell you she’s packing for you,” he said, somewhat amused.
“The city is not the best place for her.”
“She also said to tell you she is not going to stay here and hide and let you face this alone.”
God, I was getting a headache. I waved him off. This was going to be a fucking nightmare. Fuck Roman Sinclair.
“If this is any consolation, I do like her a lot more now.”
“Goodbye, Russell.”
GOLDIE
Luella sat in the kitchen, a bowl of ice cream in front of her, watching the news where, for the tenth bloody time, they repeated the damn client list. Whenever they got to Dorian, they always stopped to underscore just how powerful he was and how many companies he ran, trying to connect his business to people’s wallets.
“Is he okay?” she asked, placing her spoon back in the bowl.
“No, and why would he be? His reputation is being dragged through the mud. Rhys-Gallagher National has always been a scandal-free company. Now he’s involved with—”
“Me?” She leaned against the counter and took another bite of ice cream.
How could she be so damn relaxed when she was destroying a man’s life?
“I can feel the anger rolling off you, Goldie, just say it, so we can get over this.”
“You knew who he was, right? Why didn’t you go to him? This could have been avoided if you’d come forward years ago. Instead, you became a—” I stopped.
“Whore?” She snickered bitterly.
“You were willing to sell your body, but your pride wouldn’t allow you to ask for help? Dorian would have helped his nephew.”
She glared, and I stood my ground. “Are you a mother?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t get to judge me. You have no idea what a mother would do in order for her child to have a better life. You’re asking why didn’t I leave my son’s well-being to a man I didn’t know, whose family had a history of alcoholism and drug abuse? I was young and stupid, and maybe knowing what I know now, I would have made a different choice, but I didn’t know he was a good person. I didn’t know if he’d love my son. I didn’t know anything other than that he was rich. You’re asking me why? I didn’t trust money. I’ve seen rich and poor people do really horrible things. So, I didn’t care that he was rich. I asked myself, would he love my son and help? I didn't know, and I was not going to risk that.”
“There is adoption—”
She laughed bitterly, rolling her eyes at me. “Please, don't lecture me about adoption. What the hell do you know about being left to the system? News flash, adoption happens for a select few of us, and even less if you have a disability.”
“So, this was your answer? Look around you. Look at all the trouble—”
“I can’t change my past!” she hollered at me. “You’re attacking me because now you think I’m the unworthy one. Because now I have no right to be with a man like Dorian. He should have been with you, right?”
I froze for only a second before shaking my head. “You’re mistaken—”
“Spare me the bullshit. You have been easy to read from day one. This isn’t about my choices. This is about his. You want to ask him why not you, right? You’ve been standing right beside him, and you want to know why he doesn’t love you. I don’t know why, but I can see right through you because I know how it feels. You can snap and glare at me all you want, but I can’t answer those questions. I’m here, and I’m not going to run from him until he asks me to,” she said boldly, never looking away from me.
All I could do was step away from her and the kitchen.
“I have work to do. Enjoy your ice cream, Ms. Thorne,” I said before leaving, feeling as if she’d gutted me and left me completely exposed.
I couldn’t breathe.
17
A Haven from the Storm
LUELLA
I packed Alaric’s clothes in his bag while he took a nap in the middle of the master bed. My mind was racing. I wanted to go back twenty-four hours, when everything in the world felt like it was going our way, when it didn’t feel as if
the ground was caving under me. I wanted to hide from this. I wanted to sleep. Most importantly, I just wanted to not mess up Dorian’s life.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here? I can go alone.” I heard his voice behind me but couldn’t look him the eye. Instead, I moved to the drawer, gathered up some of his clothes, and folded them slowly, putting them into his bag. Before I could grab another one of his things, he took hold of my hand. “Lulu, say something.”
Glancing up at him, I could see how calm he was. His blue eyes just stared into mine, a small smile on his lips.
“Don’t ask me to stay here and hide while you go off fighting this.” He took the shirt from my hand and put it down. He wrapped his arms around me, resting his head on mine. “I mean it Dorian, I don’t want you to deal with this alone.”
“I’m not asking you to stay because I blame you. I’m asking you because I don’t want either of you hurt,” he muttered back to me.
“Words don’t hurt me… Well, not anymore,” I replied and hugged him back.
“But it’s not just a few words, Lulu. It’s the media and the police, your neighbors, and everyone on the street. If they find out it’s you, they will rip you apart, and I don’t want to see that.”
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