Chapter 23 #2
“Guess they can’t pretend anymore.”
“Who’s that on the floor?”
“What happened?”
“She was probably trying to climb another one.”
I pressed my face into Konni’s chest.
“Mr. Glibs attacked Ms. Elmantas. Lianna, call the police,” Konni said.
“Police?” Pennly asked in a panic. “Could we perhaps resolve this without police involvement?”
“Drake, I think we should consider Mr. Pennly’s suggestion,” Lianna said.
Konni shifted his hold on me and swung me up into his arms.
“I don’t think anyone would like my alternative resolution,” he said. “Ms. Elmantas’ clutch, please.”
I felt someone set it on my lap. Then Konni walked out of the room with me.
The whispers followed us. I heard them all. Social climber. In bed with Mr. Steele. Like her father.
My dad called out my name when we passed him, his voice laced with fake concern. Konni didn’t slow. Dad followed, circling us while Konni waited for the valet to get his car.
“I think I should take her to the hospital, Mr. Steele,” Dad said. “Leave her to me.”
“Mr. Elmantas, you have yet to keep your word about anything. I suggest you leave before I forget you’re related to the woman I’m holding and try to feed you your own lying tongue.”
Dad went quiet after that. I grinned into Konni’s chest, keeping my face averted from the curious onlookers.
As soon as the car arrived, Konni placed me inside, closed the door, and got behind the wheel. His quick departure pressed me into the seat, but I didn’t complain.
Away from the crowd, I finally faced forward and sighed.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Don’t be. If I could have, I would have hit him like that, too,” I said. “Honestly, I wouldn’t have stopped you if you hadn’t knocked him out cold on the first punch. You’re too handsome to end up in jail for murder. You look better in suits.”
He didn’t smile as I’d hoped.
“Not that,” he said. “It won’t take long for news about what happened to spread. The attack, how I protected you, and who you are.”
I quietly thought about how everything had happened.
Denying there was anything between us would fall on deaf ears.
Admitting we were dating wouldn’t help either.
At least, it wouldn’t help me. But what about Konni?
How would it look for the CEO of Steele Corp to carry out his secretary like that?
It wasn’t only his reputation on the line, but the business’s, too.
“What happened isn’t your fault. It’s Edward Glibs’s. But we should probably talk about how you want to deal with it.”
“Do you want to press charges?”
“Do you think anything will come of it? He grabbed me and tried to kiss me. I said no. He kissed my neck—” Konni’s fingers twitched on my hand “—and I tried to bite his ear off. He slapped me. I kneed him. And then you came in.
“Honestly, I was very eye-for-an-eye in there. Even though what I did was in defense, it won’t look good for me once it’s public, especially after the hit you gave him. He’ll definitely be able to play the victim.
“But I wasn’t talking about how to deal with Mr. Glibs. I meant the media fallout from Steele’s CEO punching someone because of his secretary. How will it affect the company? Are deals going to fall through?”
“Sophia, are you suggesting the company’s profit supersedes your safety and making an example of the man who assaulted my future mate?”
“I understand that you feel that way, but what about the shareholders? And your parents. They’re still major contributors. I saw the report on the overseas branch that your dad is currently establishing. They’ll see the news too and won’t feel the same way about me that you do.”
He pressed a button on the steering wheel.
“Call Dad,” he said.
My heart leapt into my throat, and I tried to pull my hand out of his while the phone rang on speaker, but his hold tightened.
“About time you called me,” a man answered. “I almost forgot I had a son.”
I froze.
“Are you acquainted with the head of the Glibs family?” Konni asked.
“I am.”
“Edward Glibs attacked my mate. He needs to disappear from Motan, or I’ll deal with him myself.”
A low growl echoed over the phone. Then, the call ended.
I glanced at Konni. “Are you and your dad on good terms?”
“Very. Why?”
I chose not to point out the abrupt disconnect that indicated otherwise.
“Was that the best way to tell him about your…me?”
It wasn’t the official “announcement” I’d feared. Actually, it hadn’t felt like an announcement at all.
Konni shifted his hold to thread his fingers through mine.
“My parents already know I’ve found my mate.”
My heart slammed into my ribs.
“But I kept my word and didn’t tell them who you are.”
That stopped my panic attack, but only barely.
“They’re friends with a few people who were there, though.”
I wasn’t ready for his parents to know who I was, but if I were honest with myself, I doubted I’d ever be ready. It didn’t take a genius to figure out how they’d react to me.
I could feel him glancing at me as I looked down.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“That you probably should tell them who I am before they hear it from someone else so they have time to process.” And time to tell him he was insane for wanting more than a fling with me.
“You think they’re not going to like you, don’t you? You’re wrong. They’re going to love you, Sophia.”
I didn’t say anything, and the silence grew as he drove us out of the downtown area and into the suburbs. He pulled over on a random street and leaned over suddenly to capture my face in his hands.
“Tell me what you’re worried about so we can fix it.”
“Your parents are going to view me the same way everyone else did at that party. A social climber who’s just after your money. Someone unworthy of the great Mr. Steele.”
He kissed my forehead and sat back to pull out his phone. He sent a text. Waited. Smiled as he read something. Then sent another one before showing me his phone.
(Konni): Would you like to meet Sophia?
Smother: What mother wouldn’t want to meet the woman her son found? I’ll be waiting for her at the Patisserie tomorrow at noon.
(Konni): I’ll make sure she’s there.
“See? She wants to meet you? Please say you’ll go.”
I could hear the hope in his voice and wanted to shake him. Was he blind, or was his mom usually that coolly assessing?
“Shouldn’t we just date for a while first?”
“Please meet her, Sophia.”
“Fine.”
Wasn’t it better to let this die naturally before it got more serious anyway?
“What’s her real name?”
“Kah-yah, spelled K-A-Y-A. Smother is a joke because she complains I don’t call or go home enough. And don’t worry about tomorrow. I’ll go with you.”
I didn’t say anything, and he pulled back onto the road.
Tomorrow, I’d meet with his mom alone to get an honest reaction.
When Konni parked in my driveway, I realized what I’d forgotten.
“My car is still at work.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, turning off the engine. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning.”
He got out and opened my door for me.
Mom was at the front door, snapping a picture of us with her phone and beaming as we approached.
“No smiling,” I said. “I’m mad at you.”
She stepped back to let us in, looking from me to Konni as she shut the door.
“What happened? Why is there a handprint on your face?”
“I’ll get to that,” I said. “After we make a promise. No more secrets from this second forward. We come clean about everything.”
Mom’s expression grew more worried.
“What happened?” she repeated, this time looking at Konni.
“I know about the car accident, Mom. How would you feel if I kept that from you? If I was the one using herself as bait?”
She sighed and hugged me. “I’m sorry, Sophie. I wasn’t trying to keep you out, just keep you safe.”
“I’m twenty-three, Mom. I have a degree, can vote, and legally drink myself into oblivion. Women younger than me already have three kids. I don’t need you to hide things from me to protect me anymore. I need a mom I can trust.”
She pulled back to meet my gaze, and I could see her sincerity.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I promise, from this moment forward, I won’t keep anything from you.”
“And no manipulating my boyfriend into keeping secrets from me either,” I said.
“Boyfriend? You’re making it official?”
“I don’t really have a choice,” I said. Then I launched into an abbreviated recap of the lunch event.
“Press charges, Sophia. You’ve never cared what anyone else thinks before, and why leave him with the opportunity to hurt another woman?”
“He won’t,” Konni said. “My family will take care of it, and Sophia can stay out of the news.”
She eyed him. “How exactly are they taking care of it?”
“Do you know why my kind was once the bane of mankind’s existence and hunted relentlessly?”
“Because you liked burning entire villages?” she guessed.
“Exactly. To save the masses, dragon law precedes human law when it comes to harming a dragon’s mate. What I do to Glibs is within my legal rights.”
She glanced at me, and I could see what she was thinking—that this was what loyalty looked like.
“I’m going to go change and see if I can find a dry cleaner for this dress.” The skirt didn’t look dirty, but I knew I couldn’t let the alcohol sit on the material.
While I was in my room, I listened to Konni ask for ice for my face and Mom tell him where to find everything.
I was in my loungewear with my hair up and my face and neck freshly washed when Mom knocked on the bathroom door with the ice pack.
“Thanks,” I said, accepting it.
“We were going to order some takeout for dinner. What are you hungry for?” she asked as I followed her out to the living room.
Konni sat on the couch, looking at his phone. I thought maybe searching for a restaurant, but I knew he was doing something else when his expression darkened.
A second later, he was calling someone.
“Contact the news outlets and get the article down. Terminate the cooperation if anyone delays. And get Felix involved for defamation. I want to know who sent those pictures by the end of the day, Edi. Get everyone on this.”
He hung up, but I wasn’t paying attention to him anymore.
I was on my phone, searching the trending news. One headline was rapidly gaining traction.
Steele Data Leak Gold-Digger Targets Two of Motan’s Billionaire Bachelors.
The article had two pictures. The first was of me straddling Konni’s lap in the backseat of his car.
The second was with Edward. He was holding my arms and an inch away from kissing me.
Their faces were blurred just enough not to see them clearly, but not enough to mistake them for the same guy.
Mine, however, was perfectly unblurred in both.
It gave my full name and brutally exposed my upbringing as one shaped by a single mom who couldn’t hold a job.
It didn’t just bend the truth; it glanced at it and ran the other way, painting me as an unwanted child from an unwanted marriage who had no self-worth and would sleep with anyone just to feel valued again.
Criticizing remarks were already flooding the comment section.
“Mrs. Elmantas, considering everything, I would feel better if you and Sophia didn’t stay here tonight. Sophia, help your mom pack an overnight bag.”
I nodded and turned while I read a netizen's promise to slap some integrity into me if she ever saw me in person.
“Screw humanity,” Mom said, still in the living room. “Burn the village.”