19. Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Stella
I had a pep in my step when I walked into Savannah Lace on Monday morning.
On Friday night, I left Savannah feeling broken, but a weekend in Tybee Island had given me much-needed clarity. I drove straight from the B it isn't the end of the world," I blurted out. "Why is everyone so emotional?"
Aurora swallowed, and Luna and she looked at each other.
"What?"
"So, you're okay with…you know?" Aurora stuttered.
"With quitting? Yeah."
"You quit? Your job? Here? At Savannah Lace?" Luna exclaimed. "Why the fuck would you do that?"
"I'm moving to San Francisco. Aurora, do you need a formal notice for the condo? Or—"
"Stella," Nina called out then.
I sighed, pulling my bag up on my shoulder. "Okay, it's time to face the music. I just need to drop my laptop off in my office, Nina, and—"
"Now," Nina barked.
She was angry, and since I didn't want to poke that particular bear, I took my bag to Nina's office.
As soon as the door closed, she hugged me tight.
"You okay?" she choked out.
"I was, but now I'm not sure."
"The media has been calling nonstop," Nina muttered. "How are you handling it?"
"Handling what?" I set my bag on the couch in her office.
Nina narrowed her eyes. "About the video."
My eyes widened. Video? Which video? Not that video? What the fucking fuck?
And so much for not swearing.
Nina's office door burst open, and I saw a disheveled Noah charge in.
"I told you to call me as soon as you saw her," he snapped loudly. "Damn it, Stella, where the fuck have you been? And why haven't you called back?"
I let my eyes wander from Nina to Noah. I then took a deep breath, staying calm. Dr. Ryan would have approved of how I was handling myself even though I knew the proverbial shit had already hit the fan while I was busy digital detoxing.
"I think I need an explanation. I've had my phone turned off, and been off the grid all weekend."
Noah took my arm and set me down on the couch next to my bag. He crouched in front of me. Taking my hands in his.
"I didn't release it," he murmured, and then looked at Nina. "Can you give us the room?"
Nina crossed her arms. "You hurt her again, Noah, and I will hurt your fine ass."
"I won't hurt…I will not intentionally hurt her."
Nina started to walk to the door, and then turned around. "Oh, and the hell with your resignation, Stella. How dare you?"
"I'm moving to San Francisco," I announced.
"Fuck you are," Noah growled.
"What he said," Nina quipped, and walked out of her office.
"The video is out?" I could feel the tears fill my eyes. I'd been so looking forward to my future just a minute ago, and now….
"It wasn't me."
"Who was it?"
He looked at my hands in his. "It was the copy that your father had."
I gasped. "Daddy did that?"
He shook his head. "It was JR."
"But why? This isn't good for JR, either."
He rose and sat next to me. "I'm so sorry, baby."
I wanted to say don't call me baby, but I had more significant problems. My shoulders slumped. I was defeated, again. "Why would JR do that?"
"He didn't, not technically. He told Eden, and she got a hold of the video from him. Your father shared it with him."
I dropped my face in my hands. My half-brother had seen me naked. Hell, half the world had probably seen me naked by now.
"Congratulations, Noah. Am I to now assume that your revenge is complete?" I said wearily.
Moving to San Francisco was now out of the question. If the video was out, I could forget about getting a job anywhere for a while, at least until the furor died down.
"I didn't do this. I didn't want this." He sounded sincere enough, but who the hell knew with Noah? I believed he was falling in love with me! I wasn't the brightest bloom in the garden.
"How bad is it?"
"It's bad."
"Everyone callin' me a slut and a whore? And why shouldn't they, since I called myself that." My life was a mess. I made one stupid mistake, I fell in love with Noah Carter, and now I was living in a hellscape.
"I'm so—"
"Why the hell would Eden do this? You're marrying her and—"
"I'm not. I'd never marry her. I didn't think she knew about the video, Stella; otherwise, I'd have handled her differently. When I got your message about how she talked to you, I told her fuck off and…."
"Clients are going to drop Savannah Lace," I said bleakly. This was still the South, and I was Baron Hunt's daughter, naked, getting railed from behind for the world to see. No one would want to work with me.
"We've managed to get the video off from as many places as we can, but this is the Internet."
I tried to get up so I could go to my office and…do what? I had no idea. I was ashamed. Embarrassed. Unemployable.
Noah wouldn't let me move. "Hear me out."
"What's there to hear, Noah? You got your revenge in spades. Daddy is ruined. I am ruined. Heck, JR, the moron, is ruined. I'm kinda okay about that."
"I'm going to fix this," he said firmly.
I wasn't prone to hysteria, but right now, it was bubbling inside me, and spilled out as a mirthless laugh. "Really? Fix it? Oh my God! Noah Carter is going to make half the world unsee my naked tits and waxed pussy. Thank God I had that Brazilian, right? Imagine the scandal otherwise."
Sarcasm, I thought, when I saw Noah go pale, did suit me.
"Baby—"
"JR? Really? I gotta say, I'm as flabbergasted as a moonshiner with a sheriff at his door."
Noah smiled at that reference.
"Do they know it's you on the video?" I asked softly.
"Not yet."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that you'll hear me out. Will you?"
"Apparently, I have no choice."
He leaned close to me. He smelled like Noah, and I wanted very badly to lean my head against his shoulder. I wanted to rest against him. I wanted him to love me, patch the breaks inside me, just for a moment.
"My sister called me yesterday when the news broke," he said softly, his eyes on mine. "She knew I did this to you."
"She must feel vindicated?"
He took my hands in his. "No, Stella. She's horrified. I told her I did what your father had done. She said I was supposed to be better than your father. I was supposed to be the good guy."
"You're not the good guy." I had to remember that. I yanked my hands out of his.
"I know. But I want to be. I want to do better. Will you let me?" He wiped my tears, the ones I didn't know were flowing down my cheeks.
"I don't trust you."
"I know. And I deserve your distrust. But let me get you through this. After, I'll do whatever you want."
"How will you get me through this?"
He put his hand in his jeans pocket and pulled out a ring. It was a sapphire surrounded by diamonds. I looked away from it before it blinded me with temptation.
"What the fuck is that?"
He smiled wanly. "You've taken to cursing."
"My life is a shitshow, Noah. I've fucking earned the right to cuss."
He slipped the ring on my finger, and I gasped. Before I could pull it off, he held my hand firmly in his. "I have Delilah Rae Thomas heading down in sixty minutes."
"I haven't slept much, as I left early to drive back. I'm not understandin' any of this, yeah?" I admitted.
"We're going to announce our engagement on Savannah Afternoons with Delilah Rae.
"What have you been smokin', Noah?" I gaped at him.
"Stella, this is—"
"Ridiculous. Why can't we just say the video is fake? AI did it. Seems to work for politicians."
Noah cocked an eyebrow. "It's been authenticated, and your father has put out a statement. You really haven't checked your email or messages!"
"I turned my phone off and stayed at a small bed God fucking forbid I get to be happy. Oh no, I'd have to be in a made-up relationship with the man I was in love with. Yeah, nothing to see here, people, just another idiot woman, inviting herself to a nervous breakdown.
"We'll say we made a sex tape for ourselves. Couples do that kind of thing. We have a healthy sex life," Noah spoke like I was not freaking out. "But Eden Rutledge had this wild notion that she and I were dating. She got a hold of the video and put it out there."
"Can you prove Eden did this?"
"Yeah." Now he smiled, but it was an angry one.
"How?"
"I have an investigator who tracked the IP address and some metadata…." He probably saw my eyes glaze over with all the tech talk and chuckled softly. "Let's just say that we have something on her."
"You sure she got the video from JR?"
"Yes."
"How do you know this, Noah?"
He seemed uncomfortable as hell. "I spoke to your father and your brother."
Okay, this day was chockful of “when hell freezes over” level surprises.
"Why did he do it?"
"He showed it to her, and she took it from there. Look, I wanted to press charges, but—"
"Hell no! I don't need the publicity of a trial."
He nodded. "Nina said as much. She suggested we use the charges as bait to keep Silas in check. So, he doesn't fire you from the museum project."
"Who cares about that?" I felt more dejected than I had sitting in Noah's office, watching my father see me having sex in 350 dpi. "I can't believe this is happening. I just…it's…what the hell have I done to deserve this?"
I wanted to scream until my lungs hurt. My father had betrayed me. My half-brother had betrayed me. And this, after the man I fell in love with, squished my heart like a bug on a windshield.
"We're gonna fix this, Stella. I'm going to make this right."
"Big of you, since you made the damn video, Noah," I retorted. "You're no hero in this story."
"I know I'm your villain and—"
"No one is gonna believe we're engaged."
"Sure, they will. We had a fight, and you moved out to your friend Aurora's condo…but we've made up, and you're moving back in."
"We're now living together?" I demanded.
"If we want this to be believable."
How was he so calm? What was he pulling now? "Where would we live? I can't live in your apartment." I'd keep seeing that video in my head. I couldn't put myself through that torture.
"Your old house," he said, and shocked the ever-living daylights out of me.
I was sure I didn't hear him right, but despite my doubts, I knew I had. He bought my place. That's what he was saying. He bought my house with all its furniture.
"Are you living there?" I asked, tears filling my eyes.
He shook his head. "It's being maintained, though. There's a cleaning crew. The landscapers are doing an okay job, but I think you'll have plenty to fix in your garden. I doubt anyone's as good as you."
"You bought my house?" I was stumped.
"Yes."
"All part of your revenge scheme, yeah?"
He leaned back, letting go of my hand where a sapphire and diamond ring sparkled like a fantasy.
"I bought it for you," he said. "I know I wronged you. I know there's no way to ask for forgiveness. I couldn't let you lose your home, Stella. You renovated it with your own hands. You created a haven with that garden of yours. I…was trying to find a way to tell you that the house is yours. Legally, it'll take a minute, but I bought it for you."
"You didn't buy it to shove another knife into me? To show me what else you can take from me?" I didn't believe him. Not even a little bit, mainly because my slutty heart wanted so desperately to. This man had taken me to bed, made love with me, made me breakfast the following day, and then….
"No, Stella."
"And the partnership?" I asked.
He smiled. "I pretended I was doing it to help out Nina, but it's yours."
"I don't trust you, at all. I have no respect for you. I don't even like you."
He gave me a small smile. "I understand. I don't have much respect for myself right now, and trust me, no one despises me more than I do."
"Oh, I think I got you beat on that," I said venomously. It was wrong of me to kick him when he was down, but my heartbreak was making me vicious.
"I'm tryin' to make it right. I'm—"
"You can't make what you did right. You do know that, don't you?" When he closed his eyes and nodded, I delivered the final blow. "You can't buy forgiveness with money, Noah."
His eyes snapped open. "Fuck, Stella, I know that. Do you think I don't know that? I'm not buying your forgiveness. I'm making amends. Let's announce our engagement, and after a while, when the noise dies down…you can…you know…the house will be yours. The partnership can—"
"Fuck your money, Noah. I'm not going to take a cent of it." He could shove his money where the sun doesn't shine. "Don't need your dollars or my father's. I'm capable of earning my own."
"I know you are. But I owe you," he said softly, his eyes raw with misery.
I refused to let my heart melt at his sincerity. This man deserved nothing but contempt from me. "You owed me respect, Noah, and we know how that turned out."
We sat on the couch in Nina's office, silent for long minutes after that pithy statement.
His phone beeped several times, but he didn't check it.
I looked at the ring on my finger. It was nice. Really nice. Looked old. Antique. Sentimental. Beautiful.
"When did you get this?" I held up my fake engagement band.
"Does it matter?"
"I'll give it back…I mean, after we're done."
"You will do it then?" He sounded so hopeful that I wanted to crush him by saying no. But I wasn't stupid. This was the fastest way to mitigate the video's impact.
The fallout would be severe. Nina's business would hurt. I'd be notorious and unemployable. My father's senate re-run would go right down the toilet…which I didn't mind so much. After years of waiting for my father to love me, in the past few months, I'd given up on it and him.
"Looks like I have no choice," I muttered. "How bad of a shape is my garden in?"
He smiled then. "I hired a crew from Augusta. I hope you'll be pleased even though it's not going to be perfect. You'll have to make it right."
"Fine. Walk me through the lies I'm going to have to tell Delilah Rae."