Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
In the morning, Julian was driving to the office when he took a call from Cresley Dane, who wanted to know whether he’d heard back from her son’s father.
“Nothing yet.”
“That son of a bitch.”
“This happens a lot when they realize the other party has retained counsel and is getting serious about dealing with them. They tend to go to ground.”
“What can we do to smoke him out? I’m terrified he’ll release something to try to damage me.”
“If he does that, we’ll make him very sorry.”
“The scandal alone would cost me lucrative contracts, Julian. We can’t let him smear me. It’d be the worst-possible time.”
“Let me talk to my brother Carson, our lead investigator, and see what he suggests. I’ll get back to you in an hour or two?”
“Thank you so much.”
“I know it’s hard but try not to worry too much. The fact that he knows you’ve got an attorney on the case makes him less likely to do something stupid that could end up costing him a lot of money as well as any prayer of seeing his son.”
“I wish he cared about seeing his son, but he doesn’t. He’s after money. It’s no coincidence that he resurfaced right after my new deal was announced. He wants his piece of the pie.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen. I’ll talk to Carson, and one of us will get right back to you, okay?”
“Thanks, Julian. I feel better after talking to you.”
“No problem at all.”
“On another note, I’ve heard from every friend I’ve ever had asking me who my sexy new man is.”
“Great,” he said with a groan. “The Ivy might’ve been a mistake.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered where we were. They would’ve found me. This is the part of my job that I hate the most. I can’t even have lunch with a man, who is my attorney, without it being all over TMZ that I’m in a new relationship. Ty even heard about it at school!”
“Ugh, that sucks. Freaking paparazzi.”
“They’re the worst.”
“We’re on the job. Try not to worry.”
“Thank you again.”
He ended the call with Cresley and called Carson.
“What’s good?” Carson said when he took the call.
“The usual insanity. I might need you on Cresley Dane’s case after all.”
“Sign me up, brother. Does she need me to get right over there to provide comfort and counsel?”
“Easy, killer,” Julian said with a chuckle.
“I need you to find her deadbeat baby daddy, who’s suddenly resurfaced looking for money right after she signed a big new deal.
And he allegedly has some dirt on her that’d prove embarrassing if it got out.
For some reason I can’t quite fathom, he’s not returning my calls. ”
“And you’re such a nice guy.”
“Right?”
“Send me what you know about him, and I’ll get on it. If you wanted to mention to Cresley that I’m handling it personally, that’d be fine with me. In fact, you should feel free to send over her number so I can reassure her myself.”
“You’re a clown.”
“She’s a supermodel, my dude. What’s wrong with you that you’re not interested?”
“Other than her being my client?”
“Yeah, other than that.”
Why did Isla’s pretty face pick that exact moment to pop into his mind, reminding him all over again of how connected he’d felt to her the night before?
Julian shook off those thoughts as quickly as they’d appeared. “Gotta go. I’ll get you the info on the baby daddy as soon as I get to the office.”
“I shall be waiting with bated breath.”
“Gross. You ought to do something about your bait breath if you’re setting your sights on a supermodel.”
Carson was laughing when the line went dead and his Sirius XM picked up with his favorite channel, Classic Vinyl.
“Idiot,” Julian said even as he smiled about Carson’s foolishness. He had no trouble whatsoever attracting female companionship. In fact, if he set his sights on Cresley, she’d probably be interested, supermodel or not. She was only human, and the ladies loved Carson.
He turned up the volume to sing along to the Badfinger song “Day After Day” as he drove past the Beverly Hills Hotel in the neighborhood where they’d been raised on Lomitas Drive. Corbin now lived alone in the big house.
Anyway, about Carson and women… It wasn’t that they didn’t dig Julian, too, but for Carson, it’d always been seemingly effortless in a way it’d never been for Julian.
When they were younger, he’d been the awkward one, while Carson was Mr. Smooth from about sixth grade on.
Sometimes Julian felt like he’d never truly outgrown his awkward stage, especially since his goal was to stay single forever.
Most women didn’t want to hear on the first date that there was no chance of any kind of future. Once in a while, he met one like Stacey, who said they wanted the same things he did, until they went and fell in love and ruined a good thing.
He was relieved to have not heard any more from her since their office standoff the other day, but he had an uneasy feeling he hadn’t seen the last of her.
When he pulled into his parking space at the office, he texted the info about Marlon Beckett to Carson.
Got it, Carson replied. On it.
Using his ID card for access, Julian took the elevator from the parking garage to the fourth floor and greeted Hector at the reception desk.
Hector waved him over.
“What’s up?” Julian asked him.
“So it’s none of my business, but…” Hector looked around to make sure no one would overhear him. “That woman Stacey… She’s going off on you online.”
“How do you know?”
“I, uh, looked her up to see if she had anything to say. People like that never go away quietly.” He handed Julian a slip of paper. “Her socials.”
“Thank you, Hector. I appreciate this.” And he meant that, but it was mortifying to have one of their employees clueing him in about an ex trashing him online.
“The stuff she’s saying about you… It’s obvious she doesn’t know you at all.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“I figured that’s what you’d say.”
Julian forced a smile for Hector, who looked upset. “This is when all those years in school pay off.”
Hector laughed and then reached for his ringing desk phone.
One of the central facts of Julian’s life was that no matter how early he left his house in the morning, he never, ever got to work before Mattie.
She was always waiting for him with a smile, dressed to the nines with coordinating nails, ready to help him conquer the day.
Today, she wore a red suit with a black silk blouse and a black-and-red scarf.
He handed her the skinny latte he picked up for her along with his tall Americano every day on the way in.
“Thank you, my love,” she said as she followed him into his office, closing the door for their daily coffee and planning ritual.
Before Hector had told him about Stacey’s latest salvo, he’d been wondering about how he might go about finding out what was going on with his parents without Carson’s involvement, as that would usually be his first move.
Julian had debated whether to ask Mattie about whether she’d picked up on anything about his parents being back together, but if anyone would know, it was her.
Somehow, she knew everything that went on with everyone.
Carson often said he wanted to steal her for his team because she already knew everything they were trying to find out.
“What’s wrong?” she asked when he was seated at his desk and she was in one of his visitor chairs.
“I want to ask you something…”
“You can ask me anything. You know that. Why does my Julian look so distressed?”
“Have you heard any rumblings about…”
She raised a brow.
“My parents being back together?”
Her expression conveyed pure shock that answered his question. “What?” she asked in a whisper. “Back together? Good Lord, no. I haven’t heard anything of the sort.”
Julian exhaled a deep sigh of relief. If Mattie didn’t know about it, it probably wasn’t true.
“Where in the world did you come up with such a thing?”
“You know how my mom is staying with Kaidan during the week since the fire?”
Mattie nodded.
“Kaidan says there’s a vibe.”
“Tell me more.”
He detailed the evidence Kaidan had presented to them the night before, from the giggling to the disappearing act over the previous weekend.
“Huh,” Mattie said, looking contemplative. “I’ve not picked up on anything on that, but…”
“What?”
“If it’s true, and that’s a huge if, they’d be very careful to keep it on the down-low because, you know…”
“The nine children who work for them would be furious?”
Mattie winced. “Something like that.” She shook her head. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
“You and me both. If it’s true… I just can’t.”
“They have to know it’d be the biggest scandal since the first one they caused, at least within their close circles. Well, actually, it’d be a huge story to everyone, since your dad has made himself into a TV star.”
“The very possibility of it makes me ill.” Julian had a thought and felt his eyes go wide. “The Godfreys’ anniversary party. They would’ve seen each other there for the first time, as far as I know, since Rome’s UCLA graduation…”
“You were there. Did you see them talking to each other?”
“I didn’t, but it was crowded, and I wasn’t watching them. If they’ve reconnected, I’ll bet it happened then.” He blew out a deep breath. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Don’t take it on, honey. If it’s true, and right now we know nothing for certain, it’s got nothing to do with you kids this time around.”
Julian so wished that were true. “Doesn’t it, though? Everyone in town would be talking about them and us and relitigating the past. The thought of that is more than I can bear to consider.”
“Do you want me to see what I can find out?”
“Don’t do any digging but let me know if you hear anything.”
“You’ll be the first to know.”
He made a huge effort to shake off the existential dread so he could focus on the details of the day ahead as Mattie reviewed his schedule with him.
“Nine a.m. mediation for Hansen v. Hansen in Century City. Twelve thirty lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel.”
“Is that the client who wishes to remain anonymous until we meet?”
“That’s the one.”