30. James
30
JAMES
T ypical Monday bullshit.
Weekends at my clubs always brought an avalanche of new problems for me to address, which made my Mondays a chore. Sure, I had tons of people working for me ready to step up and deal with the challenges, but there was a reason my clubs were successful, and that reason was me. Micromanager? Bosshole? Didn’t matter what they called me—I wasn’t about to change the way I did things.
I was going over the invoicing my accountant had sent me when my phone pinged with the Google news alert I’d set up for my name. As much as I hated monitoring what the world said about me, I had no choice. Damage control was a necessary evil in my life.
I grabbed my phone expecting to see something about a fight at one of my clubs. I nearly dropped it when I saw the headline.
Billionaire’s Daughter Mental Health Diagnosis: See the Reason She Stays Inside!
I banged my desk with a fist and let out an unchecked roar. Nausea rolled through me and I clenched my gut, taking slow, deep breaths. This wasn’t happening. Not now.
Harper had been the subject of a bunch of articles post-kidnapping, which was to be expected, but thankfully the news cycle had pivoted back to me after a few weeks. If I had to be the sacrificial lamb to preserve my daughter’s privacy, then so be it. They could write bullshit stories about me all they wanted, just leave the child out of it.
I clicked through the list of news pieces that mentioned Harper. The outlet that had broken the story used the sensationalistic headline, but the story was being picked up all over, even by reputable sources, who took the angle of “thoughtful” pieces about childhood agoraphobia. I was so angry I could barely read through the original piece.
But then I saw the line that sent my fury to another level.
The article called the quote “a source close to the Morris family,” but I could tell right away it was part of a text message Kaitlyn had sent me during her first weeks working with Harper. It said, “Harper shows almost no interest in leaving the property. She seems frightened all the time.”
I remembered it word-for-word because the grief I’d felt after receiving that text was a knife in my heart. It was acknowledgment my daughter was suffering, and I’d been unable to help her.
How the hell had the newspapers gotten that quote? Unless… The pieces snapped together, making a sick sort of sense as I realized everything could be traced back to Kaitlyn.
It had to be her. She was the anonymous source that had leaked Harper’s story—and everything else—to the press.
I pounded my desk again.
How? How could someone I trusted, hell, someone I loved , not to mention someone who was bound by confidentiality laws, have turned on me in this way? How much money did it take to get her to hand over the details of my private life? To sell out my daughter, for fuck’s sake?
I refused to admit I was brokenhearted. No, I was betrayed, but not hurt and I planned to fix that right now.
Kaitlyn Thorn needed to pay for what she’d done to my family.
I stormed down to the library, struggling to hide my anger behind my usual ice-cold mask before I got there so Harper wouldn’t pick up on it. My daughter’s excited voice carried down the hallway forcing me to pause before I walked in.
I squeezed my eyes shut. What the hell was going on? How did any of this make sense? Harper was finally blossoming again, and the person who was helping her grow was the same one who’d betrayed her? I was furious about what Kaitlyn had done to me but devastated about what she was about to do to Harper.
The laughter. The two of them giggling so hard that part of me wished I could be in on the joke. How long would it be before I heard that unfettered joy from my daughter again? I’d seen the other applicants for Kaitlyn’s position, and no one came close to her qualifications. Until this , I had been convinced there was no one better for the position. It had almost made me believe in fate, because Kaitlyn seemed like she’d been made for us.
Money. She’d blown it all to hell over money . I couldn’t understand it. I was paying her an incredible wage, and unlike Emily, I knew she didn’t have any out of control debts—the background check had been much more thorough this time around. All she owed were some college loans that she was dutifully paying back. So what could she have needed the money for? What would be so important it would be worth betraying our trust? It was impossible for me to make sense of it.
“Hey!” Kaitlyn said brightly when I walked into the room. The sun was shining on the two of them, making their smiles look that much bigger. “Guess who just added three new locations to her ‘want to go’ list?”
Harper wiggled in her chair and giggled behind her hand.
“Is that a fact?” I asked in an even voice, managing to smile back at my daughter. “That’s great Harp.” I refocused on Kaitlyn and felt my smile disappear. “I need to speak to you in my office. Now.”
It wasn’t the first time I’d made the order, so Kaitlyn’s little nod didn’t betray any sort of concern.
“Okay, let me set Harper up with her next workbook exercise, and I’ll meet you there.”
I couldn’t stop my hands from curling into fists as I stormed back to wait for her. Five minutes later, she knocked on the door and pushed it open at the same time.
“Hey, everything okay? You seem upset. Are Mitch and Maureen at it again?”
I handed her my phone. “Read it.”
Kaitlyn gave me a questioning look as she took it from me then started scanning the article.
“Wait…how did they…” she said as she read through it. “Who…”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” I snarled at her. “I know it was you.”
Her eyes went wide with shock, and she inhaled sharply. “What are you saying? Do you actually think I’m responsible for this leak?”
“They quoted your text messages—word-for-word. How else would they get access?” I watched her expression and had to admit she was a great actress. She managed to look convincingly shocked and devastated.
“Was it worth it? Huh? Selling me out? Selling us out? How much did they pay you?”
Kaitlyn’s eyes filled with tears. “You’re serious,” she whispered. “You really think I did this.”
“Either you contacted the press directly or you’re supplying information to someone else. That’s why we didn’t find anything when security swept the house. Because it was coming from you .”
I wasn’t moved by the crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks. I wanted to kick myself for letting her get close to me, for believing I loved her. I’d broken my rules, and look what I’d gotten in return.
Scandal. Treachery. And worst of all, betrayal of the one person who meant more to me than anything else in life.
My daughter.
A flash of pain hit me at the thought of having to tell Harper that Kaitlyn was gone. She wouldn’t understand no matter what I said. We’d been priming her for the end of Kaitlyn’s stay with us by showing her the calendar and marking off days, but even with all that prep work, Harper seemed in denial, constantly referring to things we’d all do together for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, as if she fully expected Kaitlyn to be around for it all. The idea that Kaitlyn might leave early was something she’d be totally unprepared for. She adored Kaitlyn, and just a few minutes ago, I’d truly believed Kaitlyn loved her back.
I’d been foolish enough to think that maybe she’d fallen in love with me too.
“Get out.”
My voice was flat. It was one of my gifts, my ability to bury my emotion when necessary.
Kaitlyn choked out an anguished cry, tossing my phone onto my desk like it was scalding her and walking toward me. “James… no ! You have to believe that I’d never do anything to hurt you or Harper!”
I held up my hand to keep her from getting any closer. “There’s no other explanation. The information in the article makes it clear that there’s an internal leak, and you’re the only one it could be.”
“But I’m not your only staff!” she managed through her tears.
“Are you suggesting that it could be Vida? Or Bernardo? Miguel?” I barked out a laugh. “They’ve been with our family since before Harper was born. Try again.”
Kaitlyn collapsed onto the chair by my desk and buried her head in her hands. I wasn’t moved by the anguished sounds she made.
“You need to leave the premises by four o’clock today, which gives you exactly five hours,” I said in a flat voice. I knew the contract inside out and backward. “If you’re unable to pack all of your things by then, you can leave them and we’ll have them sent to you. You are to have no further contact with Harper before exiting the premises. Miguel will shadow you as you prepare to go. Your wages for your work up to today will be paid in accordance to the contract you signed, but no severance will be given due to the nature of your termination. Any legal action on your part will invoke clause two-point-seven, which means?—”
“James!” she sobbed. “I have to talk to her, to tell her I’m leaving. You have no idea how damaging it would be for me to disappear without saying goodbye!”
“Damaging? You want to talk about damaging?” I hissed and pointed to my phone. “ That is damaging. And worse, it’s a betrayal. I haven’t even begun to process the legal ramifications of what you did to us, Kaitlyn. I guess you forgot the confidentiality agreement you signed on your first day here.”
She rubbed her hand on her tear-stained face. “I didn’t even bother to read it because I knew it wouldn’t apply to me.”
“Well then, let me refresh your memory. Clause four states that an initial breach of confidentiality will result in a $500,000 fine, and every subsequent violation will accrue at $250,000 per. Based on what I saw in that hit piece, you’re going to owe the Morris family over a million dollars.”
“I don’t care about the money,” she jumped out of the chair and yelled at me. “I care about Harper. And you !”
The anguish on her face looked so real that for a moment I questioned if I could be wrong. But there was no one else that made sense. No one would have access to that text message thread except for Kaitlyn and me, and I certainly wasn’t the leak. It was Kaitlyn, there was no way for her to deny it.
I didn’t respond and wordlessly walked over to my phone, punching in the number I knew too well. “Miguel, Miss Thorn needs to be escorted from the premises. You’ll have to stay with her as she gathers her things.”
The pause before Miguel responded spoke volumes. “ Jefe …are you serious?”
I glanced at Kaitlyn as she paced in circles near the open glass door.
The very spot she’d stood on the first day she arrived, when I’d put the pieces together about who she really was. And now it was happening for the second time.
“Incredibly. Make sure she doesn’t have any contact with Harper.”
This got another anguished cry from Kaitlyn.
“Yes sir.” His voice was quiet. He knew better than to question me.
“That’s all,” I said to Kaitlyn. “You should start packing.”
My even tone didn’t betray a hint of what I was feeling. Kaitlyn likely had no idea the turmoil rolling through me as I severed the tie between us for good.
“James, please…are you sure I can’t just give her one last hug?” Kaitlyn was begging through her tears. “I won’t say anything about leaving. Just let me tell her how special she is and that I believe in her?”
“Absolutely not. You won’t be getting anywhere near my daughter.”
Another wave of sobs, but no matter how convincing she sounded, there was no way I was going to change my mind.
It was over.