Chapter 36
STERLING
T he entire drive back to San Francisco, I couldn’t form a single word.
Laney sat beside me in the passenger seat, curled up like she was trying to make herself disappear.
Her phone was clutched in her hands, her thumbs moving wildly across the screen.
Silent tears streaked down her face as she tried to get ahead of whatever the hell this was.
I kept my eyes on the road, but the sound of her sniffling was like a knife to my chest. I’d never wanted to hurt someone more in my life than I wanted to hurt whoever did this. Not knowing was already torture, but I’d only found out anything was going on at all less than an hour ago.
Watching her cry beside me while she tried to do damage control, because that was who she was, someone who tried even when everything was on fire around her, that was what did me in. At the next red light, I reached over gently and slid the phone out of her hands.
“Sterling,” she whispered the protest almost absent-mindedly, leaning forward as if she was moving with it.
“No,” I said firmly as I slipped it into my jacket pocket. “Just breathe. Please.”
She stared at me, blinking like the request confused her. “Breathe. Okay. I can do that.”
“Just in and out, in and out. We’ll be there soon, so take this time to center yourself, okay? I suspect you’re going to need to it.”
She didn’t respond, but she leaned back in her chair and glanced out the window.
From the corner of my eye, I saw her chest rising slowly but deeply.
I gave it a couple more minutes before I glanced at her again.
The top was up and the atmosphere in the car was so very different to when we’d been driving in the other direction, but between us, things were also still different too.
The news she’d received hadn’t changed that, and I was massively thankful for it. “Is your team at the store? Anna? Luella? Gwen?”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “They’re there. Gwen said she was on her way over too. She said?—”
She cut herself off and pressed her fingers to her temples, massaging them as she let her head drop forward. I nodded, pulled out my phone, and called Nathan.
“Hey, man,” he said, his voice grim in a way that told me he knew what was going on. “How can I help?”
“I need our legal team. Meet me at Baby Blossom in thirty.”
“You got it. I’ll have them send the big dogs. Is she okay?”
“No,” I said, my voice flat. “We’re going to fix it, though. Now.”
Thirteen minutes later, we pulled up in front of the shop and I saw Gwen through the window, hovering near the register with a nervous energy that clung to her like a second skin. Anna was by the door, and the second she saw us, she flipped the sign from open to closed.
Laney was out of the car before I’d even pulled to a complete stop, racing across the sidewalk to her friend. Anna threw her arms around her, holding her tight. I saw her lips moving, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying.
After I’d eased fully into the parking spot, I climbed out of the car and smoothed out my shirt, taking a breath myself before I strode inside. Laney and I had left Napa in such a rush that we’d barely even thrown our things into bags and shoved our feet into shoes before we’d been in the car.
I was still wearing the dark blue Henley I’d put on after our shower, but at least I’d changed out of my shorts into jeans. Laney had paired my shirt she’d had on with yoga pants, and on the drive over, she’d thrown her hair up into a messy ponytail.
We looked like people who been caught unawares, and that fact grated at me as I strode inside. Anna waited for me at the entrance while Laney, Gwen, and Luella were now at the counter. She glanced up at me after shutting and locking the door once I was inside.
“Sterling,” she said quietly, her gaze darting to Laney before it came back to mine. “It’s bad. It’s really, really bad.”
“I know,” I said. “Where are we at with the damage?”
Anna motioned to the small tablet by the register where the others were standing. She didn’t need to say anything else. I could feel the tension in the store, clinging to the walls and vibrating with anger, confusion, and fear.
Going over to them, I strode up behind Laney and slid one arm around her waist, holding her firmly to me. I took the tablet in my other hand, swiping the store’s Google reviews and Yelp page. My stomach churned, my cheeks heating. Rage and frustration took hold of my veins.
Online, it was a bloodbath. A huge slander campaign had gone live this morning, anonymous accounts spewing lies faster than I could read. Most of it was focused on Megan and her irresponsible lifestyle, but Baby Blossom’s reviews had tanked and Laney had been dragged into it too.
One-star reviews poured in like an unstoppable tide. There were accusations and fabricated customer experiences about neglect, danger, even someone claiming a child had been injured in the store and the staff laughed it off.
Whoever was behind this wasn’t just going after Megan or Laney.
They were coming for the store and they were coming hard.
But somehow, that wasn’t even the worst of it.
Whoever had roped Laney into it was calling her a gold-digger and more, and then, the most horrific of it all, there were the memes.
I didn’t even need to look hard. One of them was plastered on the front page of a gossip blog already, a picture of Laney, mid-stumble, face contorted in pain in the garden at my parents’ house. The caption read, “ When you trip trying to climb the social ladder too fast #GoldDiggerDown.”
I gritted my teeth so hard my jaw ached. At the same time, however, I felt the smallest flicker of relief inside because this was my first clue. I knew this picture had never been posted publicly before.
Westwood and Sons had a whole team within our marketing and media department that monitored the content about us online, and since the family now included Laney, it meant her name had been added to the alert list.
And if the picture hadn’t been attainable freely online, it meant that it’d come from someone who had been there. Someone who knew exactly how to twist the knife.
Cassandra .
That petty, venomous brat and her whispering band of hyenas. I should’ve known she wasn’t finished.
Laney had extricated herself from me while I was scrolling and went to sit on a little pink couch near the play corner, her face pale and her hands shaking.
I could see she was trying to keep it together, and under the circumstances, she was doing great, but that particular meme of her was going viral.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that things were only going to get worse.
Gwen was next to her, rubbing her back and whispering something I couldn’t hear. The urge to be the one comforting her slammed into me, but that wasn’t an option. With her best friend taking care of her, that freed me up to take care of business.
I turned to Anna, making a unilateral decision right there on the spot. “You and Luella should go home and stay there. As of right now, you’re both on paid leave. Go relax at home or get out of town for a while if you want. Just stay away from here.”
My mind was racing, but I knew enough about how the store worked to know how much my decision would impact them both.
“You’ll also be getting bonuses, overtime, whatever it takes to make up for the time you’ll be off work and not earning commissions on sales, but this place is closing until I say otherwise. ”
Anna’s lips parted, her eyes going wide. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Go.”
Her lashes fluttered as she blinked, but she didn’t argue or try to question me again.
She simply nodded, her jaw tight and her face pale, and went over to Luella, bending her head closer to hers as she started talking.
Leaving the two women to it, I turned my attention back to the tablet, not surprised that the slander campaign was still picking up speed.
Thankfully, Nathan arrived precisely on time with two of our attorneys in tow, and all three of them looked ready to go to war. Good. We’re going to need that.
When they reached me, I didn’t bother with pleasantries, turning to the lawyers first. “We’re launching a PR cleanup immediately.
This is a targeted smear campaign. Find the source and shut it down.
You have my full blessing to burn whatever bridges you have to.
Start with Cassandra Saxon. At the very least, the gold-digger meme came from her or someone connected to her. ”
They didn’t ask any questions, simply nodding and striding past me into the store, laptop bags slung around their shoulders and their jaws tight.
Finally, I turned to Nathan. “Coordinate with every business tied to the block party. I’ll get you the list, but I don’t want anyone pulling out because of this.
Call them personally, reassure them that Baby Blossom is fine, and if they ask about what’s going on, tell them it’s being handled by people with a lot more money and power than Cassandra fucking Saxon. ”
“Are you sure that’s what you want me to focus on right now?” Worry zapped across his features as he turned his gaze to Laney and Gwen. “I could?—”
“Just fucking get to work,” I snapped, breathing hard through my nostrils. “The block party is important to her. It’s a big deal and I’m not having it fall apart because of this shit.”
“Fine. You got it.” He turned and strode out of the store again, phone already glued to his ear.
Meanwhile, the attorneys were busy setting up a war room in Laney’s office. I joined them, leaning against the door frame. They peppered me with questions, mostly about timelines, reputation coverage, and our risk of liability where Megan was concerned.
“It’s going to be the hard sell convincing anyone that she’s not an irresponsible, wannabe influencer,” one said cautiously. “Megan doesn’t exactly?—”
“Forget her,” I snapped. “I’m not worried about Megan. She sold her shares to me and she’s out of the picture.”
I looked over my shoulder at Laney, who was now silently crying into a crumpled tissue.
Gwen held her hand, her head resting on top of her friend’s as she stared into space.
It broke my heart to see Laney looking so devastated when just this morning she’d been all smiles and talking about falling for her husband. For me .
“ She’s the only person we’re protecting,” I said hoarsely, momentarily choked up by the emotions surging from deep within.
“You’re going to need teams for this. Resources.
I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten until we got here.
Go work at our headquarters. We’ll need all hands on deck for this.
I’ll make sure someone helps you get properly set up there. ”
The attorneys nodded and started packing up once more. They left, and Anna and Luella were gone, the shop emptying out and leaving only us. I knelt in front of Laney, taking her hands and waiting until her teary eyes met mine. “There’s nothing else you can do here right now, baby.”
“But—”
“I’m going to fix it. You’re mine. I protect what’s mine. I promise.”
She stared at me, broken, but hopeful as she nodded. I stood and turned to Gwen. “Take her back to the penthouse. I have to go to the office to deal with a few things, but I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Gwen nodded solemnly and I bent over, kissing Laney on the top of her head. “I’ll be home soon, okay?”
She leaned into my touch, but then Gwen took her hand and led her to the door.
I locked up behind myself before I left, on the rampage like I hadn’t been in a long, long time.
Because someone had started a war, but I fully intended on being the one to finish it—it and whoever had decided it was okay to try to fuck with my wife.