CHAPTER 14 DANNY
“No statement,” Alexis says firmly, facing off against these two men. “This is my life we’re talking about, and I don’t have a statement to make right now. It’s personal.”
“You ran out on your wedding, and now you’re traipsing all around town with the baseball player,” her father argues.
The way he says baseball player as if it’s some virus grates on my nerves. I’m already angry with the guy for what he’s done to me, and now he’s hurling insults.
“People deserve to know what’s going on,” he says.
“Oh, you mean I should let everyone know how you blackmailed me into marrying Brooks despite my protests? You want people to know that?” she asks.
He glares at her as he presses his lips together, and I try to get another look at the paper sitting on her father’s desk, but I can’t tell if it’s the same paper from before or not. Surely if it was something he didn’t want us to see, it wouldn’t be sitting out on his desk still.
In the chaos of breaking my wrist, it left my mind. But it’s back now, burning a hole in my brain.
People don’t keep paper trails these days, but he’s from a different generation than me. Maybe he does.
I crane my neck a little to get a glimpse of it without being obvious. It has a lot of words and some numbers on it, but I’m too far away to get a good look. Maybe I can sneak back in here later to get a better look.
“What about a quick video checking in, maybe wishing happy holidays?” I suggest. “Then they can see for themselves you’re okay without you having to make a statement about your personal life.”
She glances thoughtfully at me. “I love that idea. Let’s do it.”
“Fine. Let’s sit by the Christmas tree in the foyer,” her father suggests.
Is this my chance? I stay in the back of the crowd as they all head toward the foyer, and I take a step back toward the desk to try to get a look.
Alexis stops and turns around to look at me. “You okay?”
I nod, and now that I’ve been caught, I follow the group out of the study and to the foyer to record this video.
I never get the chance to get back in there, and I can’t help but think this has been the day from hell as I lay in bed beside my wife.
And now I’m sleeping in my enemy’s house…or rather, not sleeping, as the case may be.
I just never thought my enemy would turn out to be my father-in-law. Or my father. What the fuck is the deal with fathers?
I realize now as I lie awake, my wrist throbbing in pain despite the Lortab I took before bed, that the only father figure either of us can depend on right now is Gregory.
I thought the pain meds were supposed to make me sleepy.
Instead, I feel wired.
I check the clock. It’s after two in the morning.
I get up, and Alexis doesn’t move. She’s sleeping, and I think to myself…maybe this is my chance.
I slip out of the bedroom and head down to the study.
The door is open, and frankly, I’m surprised the door isn’t locked. I use the flashlight on my phone as I sneak into the office and behind the desk, moving quickly to try to find that paper from earlier. The top of the desk has many papers on it, so I can’t tell if there’s something useful here to figure out what’s going on with her father or not. Mostly it’s contacts for Bodega Talent Agency, and that’s when I see another paper with Bodega Investment Portfolio across the top.
Just as I pick it up, I hear footsteps down the hall.
My heart races as I slip down onto the floor and hide under the huge executive desk.
The light flicks on.
Oh, shit.
Did someone see me come in here?
I stay as silent as possible.
“I said two-fifteen on the dot, Raymond.” I hear Brooks’s voice first.
“Yeah, yeah. What do you want me to do now?” Raymond asks. The door latches shut. They’re talking in here in what they think is privacy. They have no idea I’m just a few feet away under the desk, listening to every word.
I silently open my phone and start a video, praying I’ll pick up their voices.
“The terms still stand. Get the merger to go through, and I’ll pay back your losses. Get your daughter to marry me, and I’ll double them.”
I stifle a grunt of surprise. Brooks is the bad guy? All this time I just thought he was a dorky loser. I had no idea he was the one orchestrating all of this. Somehow he slid under the radar while we put the full blame on her father.
He’s not innocent by any means, but seeing him shoulder the blame with Brooks is a little shocking, to say the least.
“The losses are your fault, Brooks,” he hisses.
“It was your bad investments, Mr. Bodega, not mine.”
“I was doing you a favor! And this is how you repay me?”
“We’ve worked well together for many years. Don’t let this ruin our relationship now. You know I’m better for your daughter than that scummy baseball trash,” Brooks says.
Scummy baseball trash?
I hurl a silent insult at that asshole. Fuck you!
“You know the future is in a huge conglomerate of D-Three and Bodega Talent.” Brooks continues. “DB-Three Industries has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? And a cushy COO position for you. A nice paycheck. You can still run your daughter’s career. Or ruin it, as the case may be.”
“The merger can still happen without the marriage,” Raymond says. “I’ll admit I got greedy when I thought I could get her to marry you, but she’s better off where she is now. At least Brewer is trying to protect her, which is more than I can say for you.”
My chest tightens.
Does her dad…actually not hate me?
“Don’t be like that, Raymond,” Brooks chides. “We’ve worked hard to get Alexis into the position she’s in today, and she’ll easily make back her money with her next album. You know we both have a lot to gain from her success.”
“If she lets us continue working for her,” Raymond points out. “She’s onto us, and that baseball player is, too. It won’t be long before they put it together, and where does that leave us?”
“You were stupid to let her out of your sight long enough to get tangled up with him,” Brooks says.
“I didn’t,” her father protests. “Gregory did.”
“Which is why he’s no longer employed.”
“Actually, he is. She hired him. Regardless, they’re sniffing around,” Raymond says. “They’ll know soon enough that I didn’t freeze anything but that it’s all gone. And then what?”
“That sounds like a you problem, Ray. Have a good night.”
I hear the door open, and Brooks leaves. I wait with bated breath to see whether her father is going to come around to this side of the desk. I hear his hand as he slaps it down hard onto his desk, and then he lets out a long, frustrated sigh before the light flicks off and he walks out of the study, too.
I stop the recording on the phone.
So that’s the truth.
Brooks is blackmailing Raymond because he lost all of Alexis’s money with bad investments he made to somehow help Brooks.
This leaves me with a lot of questions, though. Why does Brooks want to marry Alexis so badly? And how else did Raymond lose her money? What bad investments did he make and how did it help Brooks?
I don’t have those answers…yet.
But now that I know at least a part of the truth…what the fuck am I supposed to do with it?