Chapter 40 #3
“My father was betrayed by his wife and his brother and had to find out about it from me. He did the best he could, even if that meant letting me go off on my own. You, on the other hand…” I growl in my throat and run a hand through my hair as the pain of the last twenty-five years bubbles up inside me.
Though I drop my voice, it carries plenty of ice.
“You’ve been tormenting me my whole life.
You’ve always been in the back of my mind, telling me that I can’t mess up because I’ll ruin everything if I do.
And when I gave you a second chance, you immediately tried to take advantage of the career I built through hard work.
Then you go and pull this stunt with Hot Scoop, and you expect me to roll over and pretend you’ve ever cared about me? ”
As I step back and exhale, something loosens in my chest. The final weight I’ve been carrying since I was a kid seems to crumble and fall at my feet, leaving me feeling like I can breathe in fully for the first time in years.
“You’re done,” I say, and the words come out gentle. Calm. “You’re going to walk away from my life and never look back.”
Brenda’s jaw grows tight. Her defiance has faded, but it’s still there. “You don’t want that,” she says with an authority she has no right to.
“I really do,” I argue. “And if you don’t believe me, I’m more than willing to provide a restraining order to help you understand that I am entirely serious.
You’re not my family. You’re never going to be.
And if you do anything against the people I care about…
” I step forward, towering over her and giving her a subtle glare.
“I’ll make sure you get what you deserve. Okay?”
As tears pool in her eyes, she offers a wobbly nod. Something in her expression tugs at my heart, and guilt churns in my stomach. Maybe I could…
No. I’ve spent too much of my life letting her influence everything I do. This is the right decision, not just for me but for the people I love. I can’t back down now.
I turn to Shaw next. “This is over.” Honestly, I’m too tired to specify what I mean, so I hope he understands.
His eyes flick to Brenda, and he nods. “Yes, it is,” he agrees.
Brenda whimpers. “What are you saying, Neil?”
He drops his head, like he can’t bear to look at her. “I’m saying I’ve put up with this for too long. With you.” He sighs and meets my gaze for half a second before looking at his wife. “We’ll talk later, but your time in the media is over. And your time with me. Expect a call from my lawyer.”
She gasps. “Neil, be reasonable!”
“Later,” he presses, then holds a hand out to me. “Derek.”
Though a part of me knows I could do a lot more when it comes to Hot Scoop, I don’t want to be here anymore. This isn’t the conversation I want to have or the people I want to spend my time with. So I shake Shaw’s hand, grab hold of Donovan’s, and leave, ignoring the two gawking writers as we pass.
“Did my Pops make you go soft?” Donovan asks when the elevator doors close. “That’s not at all how I thought that was going to go.”
I curve my lips up in a half smile I don’t really feel. “How did you think it would go?”
She shrugs. “The great Derek Riley bursts in, guns blazing and taking no prisoners. I expected more of the man I saw when Brody knocked me into the river.”
A hot rush of anger flashes through me at the memory, there and gone in only a second. “I expected more of that too,” I admit as the elevator opens on the ground floor and we start walking out to the parking lot.
Donovan sighs dramatically. “I expected you to shut Hot Scoop down entirely. Why didn’t you?”
That’s the question of the day. I’d planned to do just that when we got here, but Brenda’s expression keeps flashing through my mind.
She’s not just losing me today. She’s losing Hot Scoop.
Probably her husband as well. “I’ve ruined her life,” I murmur, “and it feels like too much to ruin anyone else’s. ”
Donovan groans lightly, dropping her forehead to my shoulder. “You are a painfully decent human who makes the rest of us look bad,” she says.
Maybe I’m making a mistake, but this is one I can live with.
At least now we know who’s behind everything, so it’ll be a lot easier for Ethan to work his magic if Hot Scoop turns against any of his clients.
“Are you disappointed in me?” I ask, too curious not to.
Donovan chuckles. “I don’t think that’s possible, Supes.”
“So,” I say, stepping away from Donovan to face her. I take a deep breath and let the stress of the morning fall away with my exhale. “That was the awful part of the day. Are you ready for the fun part?”
She wrinkles her nose. “Fun for you, maybe.”
I mean, she’s not wrong. When Ethan and I worked out a plan for me to stay out of the public sphere without drastically damaging my career in the meantime, one of his suggestions was to spend more time on social media, something I’ve avoided for most of my career.
He wanted me to build a genuine fan base that wasn’t curated by someone else, so I’ve been trying to put up authentic posts that showcase who I am beneath the veneer.
I try to reply to a few comments on every post I make, and for the first time in a long time I feel like I’m actually connecting to my fans.
With Brenda and Shaw hopefully out of the picture, my fans are going to be key to getting me back into a place where I can do my job properly.
“You don’t have to do this,” I remind Donovan.
“Ethan and I have a Plan B to get me back into the swing of things if you want to stay on the fringe. But…” Leaning down, I press a kiss to her neck below her ear, loving the way her pulse picks up speed beneath my lips.
“If you ever want to open the door to Hollywood again, now is the time.”
She hums as I kiss a trail to her collar bone. “I agreed to this because it will help you,” she says, breathless. “Not because I have any plans to go back to that life. But after seeing the complete lack of fire and brimstone back there…”
When she trails off, I lean back to see her expression.
She smiles and brushes her fingers along my cheek.
I trimmed my beard short enough that it’s just scruff, so her fingers scratch across my skin and send a shiver through me.
“I think I unintentionally turned my past into more than what it was. I thought I’d left it behind and moved past it, but I’ve just been hiding.
I want to face my fears head on the same way you’re doing. ”
Anxiety pools in my gut when she says that, and I grimace. Today is Liam’s birthday, so all of my friends except Freya and Elliot are going to be in one place. “Maybe I should—”
“You’re going to go see your friends, Derek.
” She gives me a stern look that reminds me of the way she looked at me when we first met.
She’s not going to coddle me. “We’re going to go to that beach and get us both back in the spotlight.
” She shudders but stands tall and wraps her arms around my neck.
“And then you’re going to stop hiding from the people who love you the second most.”
I grin despite the fears building inside me. “Are you the one who loves me most, Donovan Tate?”
“Obviously that’s Hunter,” she says, but then she’s kissing me, her kiss speaking so much louder than her words.