Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
Jazz
Jazz and Michael spent the remainder of their time wandering the Ranch taking in everything. She had to admit to herself that she’d been wrong. She hadn’t wanted to come here and had even acted out a little because of her feelings about it, but this place was magical.
The freedom to be who she was, not who she was expected to be gave a lightness to her spirit that she hadn’t known she was missing. No matter what came of the next few days, she couldn’t bring herself to regret the things that had led her to this place with the man she loved, and the Dom she wanted to serve. It had even given her the courage to broach a subject she’d been avoiding.
The last day of their stay, Michael decided they’d go for a walk around the Ranch. Though she’d hoped to see Snickers again and maybe take her out, Michael decided against a ride this time around.
As they moved around what turned out to be a working ranch as well as a BDSM resort, she became more nervous, so she distracted herself with all of the animals they found as they wandered.
“Oh my god, Michael, look!” She grabbed his arm and practically jumped up and down.
“What,” he asked.
“Over there.” She pointed to her left across the grassy area. “Don’t you see them? They have cows. Look, there is even a baby one too, all brown and white.”
“Of all the animals we’ve seen here, including an entire family of turkeys, you’re excited over a few cows.”
“Well, I’ve never seen one in real life before. Look at the baby, isn’t it cute?” She giggled. She was picking on him a bit because Michael couldn’t stand the creatures. He thought they were gross and even when one would come on the television for some reason, he would change the channel. It was the funniest thing.
“Cute isn’t the word I would use,” he grumbled. “Come on, let’s head back. It is getting pretty cold out here.”
“Of course, it’s too cold. You’re worried I might try to talk you into going over there and petting them, aren’t you?” She laughed.
He pinched her ass before putting his hand on the small of her back leading her toward to the large resort building.
“Before we go in, can we talk?” she asked. She needed to do this now, because if she waited until they were home, life would get in the way, and she would never do it.
“Of course, is everything alright? You haven’t heard from your mother or sister, have you?”
“Other than the text I showed you, no I haven’t.” Her mother had sent a text to remind her she only had until Wednesday morning to wire the money before they dropped whatever bomb it was they had planned.
They moved over to one of the several empty benches lining the walkway and sat down. “What’s going on?” Michael asked concern written all over his face.
“Honestly, I’ve been thinking about our relationship, and I don’t think I’ve been fair to either of us.” She forced herself to maintain eye contact, drawing strength over the fear that he would walk away for verbalizing her needs.
“Pixie, it’s okay, just tell me what’s on your mind.”
“I started thinking about it on the plane but being here has showed me that I think maybe I need more. I need to give more.” She stumbled over her words, unable to voice what was in her heart, confused about her feelings.
Michael gave her a genuine smile and pushed her hair from her face in that way he always seemed to be doing. “You’re doing great. Don’t be scared to tell me anything. If you have needs that aren’t being fulfilled in our relationship, then we need to be able to talk about it.”
“I guess I realized that though we have a great sex life and I love our play time, I want more from our dynamic. I haven’t shown you the submission that I think you need but gave up because you didn’t think it was what I wanted. Please tell me if I’m wrong.” She was feeling uncomfortable and wanted to hear what he thought.
“You never seemed all that interested in taking our dynamic any further than the club and a few rules for your health and safety that I had to fight to get you to agree to. I love you enough to accept it if that’s all you want out of our relationship.”
“Oh, Michael. You’ve given up your own needs for what you thought I wanted. I spent my entire adult life fighting for everything I had, and I didn’t know how not to fight every single day. You came along and were willing to fight beside me, but I never actually handed over the power to fight for me. I’m sorry about that. In the end, it just hurt the both of us.”
“So, you’re not saying you want out?” He took a deep breath. “If that’s the case, then what I suggest is when we get home, then we sit down and decide together how we want our relationship to look moving forward. We will be traveling tomorrow, so I think it will be better if we take the time before figuring out all of the details.”
“So, you are open to changing the terms of our relationship? Expanding it?” she asked, so happy she’d decided to be open and honest with him after holding back for so long.
“Open to it? Hell, girl, I’m so happy you have no idea.”
He grabbed her hair which was at a low ponytail at the nape of her neck and pulled her forward for another of his take your breath away kind of kisses. If she could do nothing for the rest of her life but kiss this man, she would go to her deathbed a happy woman.
Michael
As they traveled closer to California, Michael could see the nerves building up on Jazz’s face. She’d made her decision and was sticking with it, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worried about the consequences she was going to face.
“I’ve been talking with Jaxson, and he’s setting up an interview with Diana Sands for tomorrow night. Have you been working on what you’re going to say?”
“Tomorrow night? Talk about returning to the real world without a chance to take a breath,” she grumbled.
“True, but at least this time you are going to control the narrative. This is about you telling your story your own way. You’ve earned the right to be free of these people, and this is the way to make that happen.”
“I know Leah has been terrible to me, but if I’m being totally honest, I feel guilty. She was ten when I left. I ran and never looked back. What could have happened to her in the past decade to make her who she is today? What if David decided to turn his sights on her?”
And there it was, she was finally voicing the guilt he knew she’d been feeling since realizing her sister was working hand in hand with her mother. Now that she was talking about it, he could help her work through it.
“What do you think would have happened to you if you had stayed in Ohio? What if you had never left?”
“I would be dead. I was close to ending my own life just to get away from the terrible things he was doing to me. If I hadn’t had Jamie in my life, I never would have survived.”
Michael couldn’t stand the thought of living in this world without his little Pixie by his side. He couldn’t even begin to think about never having had the chance to meet her.
“So, even if you had stayed, would you have been healthy enough mentally or physically to help her?” he asked, trying to get her to see the truth.
“No. No, I wouldn’t have. But I could have gone back. When I was making money, I could have gone back for her. I could have fought for her, but I didn’t. I just went on with my life.”
“Okay, let’s follow that train of thought. What if you had gone back and fought for her? Did you have a chance of winning? Your mother made the community think she was the world’s greatest mom, and you were a rock star touring the globe. Do you think the local judge would have given that child to you? Small cities often come with small minds.”
She thought for a moment, her brow furrowed. “You may be right,” she admitted. “She always had everyone around her fooled. I did wonder what she told everyone when I disappeared.”
“Listen, you can’t control the world around you. All you can do is try to live the life you want to and surround yourself with people you love who love you.”
“How did you get to be so smart?” She grinned at him.
“I get lucky once in a while.”
Jazz
Jazz woke the next morning feeling hopeful. Regardless of what happened during her interview, she and Michael were taking back control of her life.
“Good morning, my Pixie,” Michael mumbled, his voice still husky with sleep.
“Good morning.” She got out of the bed and went out to the kitchen knowing he would roll over and go back to sleep. After making her morning iced coffee, she pulled out her tablet to see what was in the news.
Her heart stopped when she saw something which shouldn’t have been a surprise to her but came as one anyway. The first thing that popped up on her feed was a link to the gossip column her sister wrote for. It appeared her mother had decided not to wait until Wednesday to drop her bomb after all. She must have heard about the interview Jazz had scheduled for this evening and decided to get ahead of it.
The Jazz, you think you know couldn’t be farther from the truth…
It is with a heavy heart that I write this to you all. You see, this is not the typical story of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, though they are certainly involved, I’m sure.
You see, the woman you all know as Jazz I know as Jessica, and she is my big sister. That’s right, I am her little sister and she abandoned me when I was ten years old and never looked back.
She is one of the most selfish people you will ever meet. All she cared about was making money so she could meet men and spend the money on herself. She left home and never once thought of our family again.
Our mother is a widow, losing our father when I was just a baby. She sacrificed everything to make sure we had what we needed, and when she asked for help, Jessica laughed in her face and left us behind.
Is this someone you want to support? In this society when you can spend your hard-earned money with anyone, are you sure this is the person you want to see getting ahead?
My mother and I cannot afford rent, and Jazz drives a brand new car and lives in a house on the beach with her doctor boyfriend while flying all over the world in a private jet. Sometimes I go for days without having food to eat, and yet she couldn’t be bothered to help even a little.
Please, it’s time to turn your back on her the way she has turned her back on her family.
This society will no longer allow people like her to get ahead at the expense of everyone else.
#MoneyAppLeah1 #PayFriendLeah1
Jazz read the column three times and couldn’t believe what she was reading. She didn’t know what shocked her more… the fact that they were playing the victims or that Leah had included hashtags with links to donate money to them. What the hell were they thinking?
She sat there thinking about how she was going to address it during her interview that night, because it was bound to come up, when Michael entered the room.
“What has you looking so serious this morning? I thought we had everything worked out already.”
She handed him her tablet, unable to fully explain what she’d just read. It was crazy. The only thing she could figure out is they must be desperate for money, there was no other explanation that made sense.
“Have they lost their fucking minds?”
“Seems so.”
Michael’s phone rang pulling his attention away from her. She decided it would be a good time to take a shower and get the day started. She had some things to do since they’d been gone and wanted to get everything back in order before the interview which was set for five o’clock.
The interview was going to be done at the house which meant the crew would be there early afternoon to set up, and hair and makeup was due to arrive at three.
Jazz and Michael spent the day keeping busy and making sure the house was ready for what was to come. When time came to sit down with Diana, she thought she would be nervous, but she wasn’t. She was ready to tell her truth no matter what came of it. Like the words of her newest song, this wasn’t about justifying herself. This was simply about putting it out there and letting the chips fall where they may.
Diana started the interview asking about the band and the upcoming concert as well as why she’d decided to come out of retirement to participate. That was an easy answer. “The Trevor Project is a charity that is close to my heart. My best friend and I lost someone close to us when we were young and that didn’t have to happen. I believe in what they are doing and if participating in this concert helps bring awareness and raise funds for their cause, then I am all for it.”
As the interview continued, the questions became more pointed, and Diana started to ask questions about the gossip articles that had been written about her.
“I will address the articles separately if that is okay. The first article that talked about my sex life was completely inappropriate. If that was written about a man, would anyone have looked twice at it? Would anyone have cared at all? The truth is I don’t think so, and I don’t think it deserves a response from me. She has a bunch of quotes defaming me from ‘sources’ without a single name.” She brought up her fingers and made the quote gesture when she said the word sources. “It smells of someone who simply wanted to slander me and used her platform to do it. However, I would like very much to address the column that she posted this morning.”
She took a deep breath. Jazz would have been content to let her mother and sister go on with their lives and never see or talk with either of them again, but they had taken things too far, so now they needed to be taken down and she was going to have to be the one to do it.
“I did leave home when I was eighteen. I was being abused by a man living in our home, and my mother was aware. I told our family doctor, and nothing was done about it.”
Diana leaned in toward her, shock written all over her face. It was clear this was not the story she thought she was going to get.
“When Leah said I left and never returned, she was correct, I have neither seen nor spoken with my mother since leaving home. My only regret was that I have also not seen my little sister until now. This week, I was accosted by them in a restaurant where they demanded I pay them five million dollars a year, or they were going to do something that would ruin me. I refused, and you can see what happened. I’m sure everyone has seen the article about me where they’re also asking for money from the public.”
Diana nodded before stating, “With all due respect, this seems like a she said she said kind of thing. How will the public know who is telling the truth? You could have set up this interview knowing that the article was going to come out.”
Jazz had seen the question coming and smiled. “Well, I have proof.” She shrugged and brought out her cell phone. “You see, when I didn’t answer quickly enough, my mother texted me.” She showed Diana the text reminding her of the deadline to send the funds. “I also have the banking information where I was supposed to send it.” She showed her the paper her mother had handed her in the diner.
“So yes, there have been articles about me, but not one shred of proof in anything she has written.”
Diana turned to the camera. “I have seen the proof. Jazz is telling the truth and received a text demanding money be sent. When you see the truth, stop believing the lies. This is Diana Sands. Good night.”