Chapter 42
Daniel
When I got home from grabbing pizza at the corner joint a block away from my apartment, I saw I had several missed calls from Brody.
Plus, one call from Kiera. I had left my place without my phone so I could completely clear my head.
Now I had to come back to that. I rolled my eyes.
Those were the two people I had the least interest in talking to.
Brody might not have known just exactly what he was doing by basically wrapping her in gift wrap and sending her halfway across the world, but she knew exactly what she was doing in coming.
I had made it clear that I didn’t want anything with her, but she was stubborn and she was too proud to ever give up that easy.
I turned off my phone and tossed it on my nightstand before climbing into bed. I was suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion. The travel day and the drama with my brother had finally caught up with me. I closed my eyes and was asleep within minutes.
The next morning, I made a pot of coffee and began getting dressed for work. Even though I was not quite ready to face reality, I couldn’t stay on vacation forever. I had to man up and run my company. I had taken enough time off, both physically and mentally. It was time to get back on my game.
I rode the elevators down to the parking garage and saw Armand was waiting for me. He looked a little uneasy, but I wasn’t sure why.
“Hello, Armand,” I said.
“Hello, sir.” He nodded and opened the car door.
I slipped inside. I watched him take a seat up front and adjust the mirror so he could see me better. He looked like he had something to say.
“Everything okay, Armand?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. Yes, sir. Everything is fine.”
I nodded, unsurely. He put the car into drive and drove up the dark ramp of the parking garage and into the sunlight.
I looked out the window at the city that was so different from the paradise I had just been.
The concrete and glass were a major juxtaposition from the white sand and crystal-clear waters.
It was too bad I had to cut the trip short.
Armand pulled up to a stoplight and eased the car to a stop next to a newsstand. I did a double-take as I looked at the row of magazines with my face staring back at me.
“What the fuck?” I whispered.
“Sir?” asked Armand.
“Let me out here,” I said.
“But we are in the middle lane…”
“Fuck it. I’ll get out myself,” I said, opening the car door and almost had it ripped off by a taxi flying by.
I checked for oncoming traffic before running to the sidewalk. I grabbed a magazine from the rack and looked at my picture printed on the glossy page with a bold headline underneath it:
A Pre-Honeymoon for the Lovebirds?
The letters popped out at me as if they were punching me in the face. My eyes scanned the cover and spotted Kiera’s photo printed next to mine. She wore the little white bikini she had been wearing when I ran into her on the beach that day.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I turned the pages quickly and found the full, two-page spread in the middle of the magazine.
There were photos of me surfing, of Kiera topless on the beach, of her leaving my hotel room the night she had showed up and surprised me.
Worse than that, there were photos of us together on the beach, a bottle of champagne between us.
They painted a completely different story than what had happened.
I shook my head, as if trying to shake the images away, but the magazine was there in my hands staring straight at me.
The press had done it again. They had taken something and spun it into another completely different story.
Now the whole world thought we had gone on that trip together, and they were just feeding into the narrative that we were going to get married.
“Excuse me, sir?” said a voice.
“What?” I barked.
The woman at the newsstand looked taken aback, but then she took a good look at me and I saw the gears in her head begin to spin as she registered who I was. Her eyes grew wide.
“I… uh… are you going to pay for that?” She eyed the magazine in my hands.
The last thing I wanted to do was support the publications that had made my life a living hell for years, and continued to do so.
“No. I’m not,” I said. “And no one should. This is complete bullshit.”
I put the magazine on the rack, the back cover facing out, and walked to the car. Armand had pulled the car to the curb and waited there illegally, the hazard lights on. I opened my door and slipped inside before slamming it behind me.
“Sir?”
“You saw this morning’s tabloids?” I asked, irritated.
“Uh, yes, sir. My wife was reading it this morning.”
“Well, it isn’t true.”
“Of course, sir,” he replied quickly.
“I’m not getting married. I wasn’t even on vacation with that woman. I can’t go anywhere without being hunted like a goddamn animal.” I was more so talking to myself at this point.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“Work. Now,” I snapped.
“Yes, sir.” He nodded and quickly put the car into drive.
I felt bad for talking to him that way. He didn’t deserve it. The newsstand woman didn’t deserve it. The person who deserved my wrath was Brody, who had gotten me into this goddamn mess in the first place. I had no desire to see his face today or any day soon.
Deep down, I knew I could try and blame everyone else, but this was my doing.
My phone trilled in my jacket pocket. I answered without looking at the caller ID.
“Hello?” I asked, irritation in my voice.
“Well, hello to you, too,” cooed Kiera in a babyish voice.
“What do you want, Kiera?” I asked with a sigh.
“Did you see this morning’s papers? We are a hit!”
“ We are nothing.”
“Oh, come on. America loves us. Hell, Bora Bora loves us. The whole staff was abuzz. We put that place on the map.”
“You’re still there?”
“Of course, silly. Did you really think I was going to pass up on a tan and strawberry daiquiris? Courtesy of Brody, of course.”
I rolled my eyes.
“They actually gave me your suite. Can you believe that? I loved it so much. I had to have—”
“You tend to get what you want,” I cut her off.
“That’s true,” she replied breathily. “You know, while I’m in here, I keep thinking about our night together. That was hot.”
“There was no night together. Nothing happened.”
“Pretty sure I can still taste you, Daniel.”
“I stopped it before it got too far.”
“You’re no fun at all.” I could picture her ridiculous pout.
“Kiera, is there something that you need?” I asked, exasperated.
“I just thought we looked cute in the magazine and wanted to celebrate our little debut.”
“Goodbye.”
I ended the call and shook my head, frustrated. She was loving this and was now probably having her publicist put together another statement for the press.
Sighing, I leaned my head against the back of my seat and stared up at the ceiling of the car.
I felt like someone had punctured a hole in me and I was slowly deflating.
I felt helpless. The press and their stories were something I had dealt with before.
Usually, I could brush it off. But knowing Heart could see this was gut-wrenching.
I hated to think she actually believed this shit.
I hoped she knew me better than that, especially after I explained to her what my life was like with the press.
But still, those photos were pretty incriminating.
I so badly wanted to call her and tell her the truth. Tell her that nothing was going on with me and Kiera. Tell her that I couldn’t stop thinking about her. There was so much to say. But I didn’t think she wanted to hear it. She had made it painfully clear that she never wanted to see me again.
I had already caused enough mess in her life.
The thought that I caused so much hurt and stress made my heart feel three sizes too small.
If she had lost the baby, I wondered if I was to blame.
I had been so preoccupied with my work that I hadn’t given her the time she deserved.
And then I was so desperate to win her back that I did something selfish and erratic by showing up at her work, causing her to lose her job.
Had I caused so much stress that it had hurt the baby?
I hadn’t even thought about it until now, causing me to feel like I was about to spiral.
Reaching into my jacket pocket, I pulled out the ultrasound photo.
I had been carrying it around with me ever since her friend had given it to me that day.
It was a reminder of a new beginning. A beautiful little being.
A new life I could have had with Heart, raising a family together.
Things I never knew I wanted until my eyes fell on this little black and white shape printed on this glossy paper.
There were so many things I should have said. So many things I should have done differently.
I should have listened to her at the charity event. She was so angry, and instead of hearing her out, I tried to fix it in one of the two ways I knew how. Sex. And the other times, I had tried to fix everything with money.
I should have picked up the damn ultrasound when she came by my office. I should have given her the time of day. She and the baby should have come first before business. Before everything else.
And I should have been there for her when she lost the baby. I wish she had trusted me enough to tell me what was going on, so I could have helped her. So I could have supported her. So I could have held her.
I would give anything to hold her again.
I ran my thumb over the photo and felt my eyes sting with tears. I had lost so much. So had Heart.
“Sir…we’re here,” said Armand cautiously, breaking me from my thoughts.
I hadn’t even noticed the car had come to a stop.
I looked out the window and realized we were at work.
I quickly tucked the photo back in my jacket pocket as Armand walked around to my door.
He pulled it open and I stepped out onto the sidewalk.
I took a few steps toward my building, but turned around before I reached the door.
“I’m sorry, Armand,” I said.
“It’s quite all right, sir.”
“It’s not. I’m just going through it.”
He nodded knowingly. “You miss her, don’t you?”
I opened my mouth, surprised by his question.
We had always kept it professional and private.
But I realized that Heart had been a constant in my life for the past few months and Armand had been there for a lot of it.
All the long drives from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back.
Heart had always been so kind to him. Kinder than any other woman I had been with.
She saw everyone simply as they were. Human.
I gave him a weak smile and walked inside the building, his question still ringing in my ears.
He was right.
I missed her so much.