40. Chapter 40
Chapter 40
Stella
I stared at my phone after Noah ended the call. It was a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Rumor, innuendo, and now a federal investigation. I was about to call my father when Nova told me I had a visitor.
"Did you do this?" I screamed at JR as he closed my office door behind him.
He raised both his hands, palms out. "No. Not me."
"Then who? Eden?"
He shook his head and dropped his hands. He looked weary.
"Who?"
"Mama."
I slumped into my office chair. "Why the fuck would Whit do this? This doesn't help Daddy."
"She didn't know she was doing it. She talked to a friend who talked to a friend who talked to her husband who works for a tabloid and…."
JR sat down on a chair across from me. "If only I'd kept my mouth shut with Eden, we wouldn't be here."
"Yeah, we would. Your mother would still be spilling her guts to her friends." I picked up a pen and twirled it in my hand. "How's Daddy?"
"Working on putting out a statement, which is why I'm here."
I raised my eyes to meet his. "You doin' Daddy's dirty work, JR?"
He had the decency to look ashamed. "He thinks if Carter Construction pulls out of the Savannah bridge project, he can stop this."
"No way. This will hurt his business and more importantly, his reputation, JR."
"And if the truth comes out?"
"What is the truth? Did Daddy influence the city council to give Carter Construction the project?"
JR shook his head. "They were in the running, Daddy was…well, he was trying to stop them from getting the contract."
"So, all that happened was that Daddy stopped being an ass," I remarked.
"Yeah, but now it looks like he did that because he was being blackmailed with a sex video," JR cried out. "Can't you see that?"
"There was no blackmail."
"I'm not lying to the FBI, Stell."
I narrowed my eyes and focused on him. "Yes, you are. You owe me for Cornell, for the prom, for a million other things you did. In any case, your truth is bullshit. I'm engaged to the love of my life, and I'm getting married to him."
"If you were already married, that would help."
"Why?"
"It would take the heat off the whole blackmail thing…I mean, you're his wife, so that would blow off; plus, you can't be asked to testify against your husband."
I stopped for a moment, and then broke out into a smile.
"What?" JR asked.
I looked at my watch. "Make yourself useful and get me a marriage license."
If JR's eyes could bug out, they would've. "Huh?"
"Marriage license, for Noah and me. And meet me in the courthouse at, say, two. Ask Judge Corbin if he'll officiate a wedding. He owes me. I built his granddaughter a treehouse. It was a fucking nightmare." I walked around my small office, thinking. "Noah and I will get married today. Can you help make that happen?"
"I'm a Hunt in Savannah, so yeah, I can make that happen." Christ, but JR was a cocky SOB. He reminded me of Noah. "But, Stell, you want to marry the guy who is the reason for half the world calling you a slut and a whore?"
"He still calls me that when we have sex," I retorted boldly, "it only makes it hotter."
As I expected, JR cringed.
"Please. You already saw me having sex with a man on video, which you gave to Eden, and now you're squirming about it?"
JR looked at me like I was a stranger. His lips curved gently. "Noah, does he know he's getting married today?"
I grinned. "He's going to find out."
I stormed out of my office and walked into Luna's. "Where's Aurora?"
"In Nina's office." Luna got up. "Hey, you okay?"
"Fucking fabulous." I saw JR hovering outside my office. "Go, do what I asked you to do."
"Yes, ma'am." JR walked past me, and nodded at Luna.
Luna cleared her throat. "What's happenin'?"
"I'm getting married today, and I need a dress and…stuff," I stated. "And I'd like you, Nina, and Aurora to be with me…as witnesses."
"You sure?"
"That I want y'all as witnesses?"
"No, doofus, about marrying Noah," Luna said in exasperation.
"It's insulting that you ask me. Do you think I'd get married if I wasn't sure? Especially since I don't believe in divorce."
"What does that mean?" Luna asked as we walked to Nina's office.
"I believe in until death do us part. He wants to leave me, he can die."
"Poor, sad, fucking Noah," Luna said, chuckling.