Chapter Forty-Five
Jace
Kayden and I woke up early prepared to sneak out as usual. We both changed quietly back into our clothes from the night before while Olivia watched us from the bed with a smile on her face.
“Stay,” she said quietly.
“What?” Kayden asked. “Kaylee will be up any minute.”
Olivia’s throat worked as she swallowed. “Please. Let’s tell her the truth. She loves you both already and we’re telling everyone else. I want us to be a family now.”
The three of us looked between each other, waiting for someone to say something, when a small voice in the other room helped make the decision for us. “Mommy?” Kaylee called from her room.
“Please,” Liv said. She stood up and wrapped an arm around each of us. “Don’t leave.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” I said before looking at Kayden.
He nodded. “Of course we’ll stay.”
Olivia stepped out of her bedroom first and I took Kayden’s hand as we followed her. She went into Kaylee’s room while we sat on the couch. A few moments later Kaylee came running out in her Paw Patrol pajamas with Olivia trailing her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked with a giggle as she saw us sitting in the living room. I’d never done a walk of shame in front of a three-year-old before, so I was grateful she didn’t seem to register that we were in the same clothes from last night.
Olivia sat down in the chair next to us and pulled Kaylee onto her lap. “Do you remember when Grandma told you she was dating Carl? And then they moved in together?”
“Yeah,” Kaylee said. “And now Carl is my grandpa.”
Olivia smiled at her. “Right. Well, Mommy is dating Kayden and Jace.”
Kaylee looked at us quizzically. “Do they live here?”
I chuckled. “No, Peanut, but we might stay over sometimes so we can spend time with your mom—if that’s okay with you. And eventually we might all live together.”
“Both of you will stay?” she asked.
Kayden nodded. “We both really love your mom, honey.”
“Does this mean you’re really my dad now?”
Kayden’s hand gripped mine a little tighter. “I’ve always been your dad, Kaylee. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Same, Peanut,” I said. “I love you; you know that.”
“Cool.” She giggled and looked at her mom. “I’m hungry.”
Olivia kissed her head. “Of course you are. Do you have any questions for us?”
“Nope,” she said. She hopped down and walked to the kitchen.
The three of us hugged goodbye, the moment we’d all been worried about far less climactic than we had thought it would be.
I supposed Kaylee knowing we were romantically involved didn’t look all that different from how she’d seen us over the last several weeks.
Still, I was on a high after dropping Kayden off at his apartment and going back to my condo to get ready for work.
It was still early in the morning and the sound of my phone ringing as I got out of the shower startled me. I wondered if it was Liv telling me she was going to be late or if something had gone wrong with Kaylee after we’d left.
I wrapped my towel around my waist and reached for the phone on the edge of the sink, my heart skipping a beat when I saw Martin’s name on the screen.
He almost never called my personal number and the last time he’d called me this early in the morning it had been to warn me that the board had reservations about a presentation I was giving that day.
Once upon a time we hadn’t had such a hateful relationship.
It’d always been tense, yes, but nothing like our current dynamic.
I ran a hand through my hair, shaking out my wet curls and put the phone to my ear as I swiped to answer it.
“Good morning, Martin,” I said, keeping my voice calm and neutral.
“Jace,” he said, sounding happy, maybe even a little smug. “I’m so glad I caught you.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at it again. Yep, it says ‘Martin.’
“What do you need?” I asked. I slowly opened a drawer and pulled out deodorant, hair gel, and my beard trimmer so I could resume getting ready for work when this random conversation was done.
“I saw your picture online this morning! They even correctly identified you as a vice president for Acker Real Estate and one of the shareholders in the family business.”
Acid pooled in my stomach. He sounded way too upbeat about this. I’d never been photographed for my role in the company before. Sutton had ensured the company was far less public than when her father had operated it.
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and took the bait. “I’m not sure I know what photograph you’re talking about.”
“Oh, you haven’t seen it?” he said with false surprise. “You should really pull it up. You were at your cousin’s hockey game last night. Yeah?”
What the fuck? I walked into my bedroom and picked up the laptop on my nightstand. What photo would make him so happy?
“Let me help you out,” Martin said, as I unlocked my laptop. “You went to a hockey game last night. Perhaps people were trying to snap photos of your cousin and his wife, I’m not sure, but they managed to catch you and two other adults after the game with them.”
His voice was so littered with amusement, I knew this couldn’t possibly be good. I typed my name into the search engine.
“Imagine my surprise when I recognized both of the people in that photo with you. The one you’re holding hands with looks an awful lot like your assistant.”
The image of the three of us standing outside of my car with Leo and Sophia filled my screen, and my chest tightened as Martin kept talking. Thank God, Kaylee was already in the car.
“And the one you’ve got your arm around while kissing his cheek? I could have sworn that was the architect we just hired. Am I wrong, Jace?”
“What do you want?” I said, muscles tensing in rage.
Martin laughed and the sound rang in my ears like that of an evil villain.
Way to play your part, dude. “I don’t want anything.
I just wanted to give you a heads up that the board is going to have a lot of questions.
I scheduled an emergency meeting for the end of the week to discuss what this means for your future role at the company. ”
“Are you out of your mind, Martin?” I asked. “Do you really think Sutton is going to change her mind because of one photo?”
“Nope,” he said. My phone dinged with several incoming messages. “Which is why I sent her all of these.”
I looked down at my phone and swiped through the images.
Liv and I holding hands as we exited the office, Kayden and I kissing outside my condo, Liv and Kayden and I leaving The Cohen Club together.
The three of us getting into the car last night.
There were half a dozen images from the last week, all ones that made it obvious I was in a polyamorous relationship with my assistant and my architect.
My stomach flipped. This was not even remotely how I envisioned us coming out, and if Martin’s vendetta against me impacted either of them negatively I was going to lose my shit.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and kept my voice calm. No way was I letting Martin know how rattled I was. “Sutton already knows about us,” I lied.
“See, I don’t think that’s true,” Martin said. “Because when I called her this morning and sent her the photos, she seemed very surprised.”
“Are you having me followed?” I asked.
“I simply hired a PI to make sure there was photographic evidence when you fucked up. There’s no way you’re the golden boy philanthropist that everyone thinks you are, and now I have proof of your sexual promiscuities.
” He paused and sighed. “I do hate to see that new up-and-coming architect affected though. I imagine people will be shocked at his involvement with one of his first clients. And Olivia, well, you know how hard it is to overcome the perception of being someone who sleeps with their boss.”
“Fuck you, Martin,” I spat. “You may think you’ve got the upper hand here, but you don’t and I’m not going to listen to you degrade my relationship with Kayden and Olivia because you’re trying to twist this into something that suits you.
Sutton won’t care about this and I’m not letting you hurt either of them. ”
“Are you so sure she won’t care when it’s the reputation of her company on the line? I’m quite sure you’ve violated a number of HR policies, Jace,” Martin said with a tsk tsk sound. “Plus, two partners? That’s a bit progressive for any company owner to advertise.”
“I’m not worried about this,” I said, lying again.
Sutton was going to be upset that she didn’t hear this from me, and that strain on my personal relationship had me more worried than what he was trying to do to me professionally.
She and I would come up with a plan to resolve this and protect Kayden and Olivia at the same time.
“Oh dear, look at the time. I bet you need to get ready to meet with Sutton. You might be able to convince her to let it go, Jace, but don’t forget you have a whole board you’re going to need on your side.
It will be awfully hard for Sutton to appease all of them when this comes out.
Even if they can look past the unusual relationship, I’m sure they’re going to struggle with the nature of how you mixed your professional relationships with personal pleasure. ”
I took a deep breath. “You’re going to shoot yourself in the foot, not me.
” I hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed.
I slammed my laptop shut and screamed into a pillow.
Why am I letting this guy get to me? Is this really our life?
Will people always use our relationship to try to blackmail us?
Fuck that. If that was the case, then I was going to scream our relationship from the rooftops and beat them all to it.
My family came first, and I was not letting a scumbag like Martin hurt them.
I got myself ready and arrived at the office a little earlier than usual.
Liv was approaching from the other direction at the same time and smiled broadly as she jogged to catch up with me at the front door of the building.
The air was cold, and her breath swirled between us as she kissed my cheek.
“Hey,” she said. “Fancy meeting you here.”
I forced a smile, but it was strained, and she knew it, her eyes immediately narrowing. I pulled the door open and gestured for her to walk through first. We both waved to Cole and got on the elevator.
“What’s going on?” she asked, pressing her hands to my chest.
“Nothing, I’m handling it,” I said. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“Is it Martin?” she asked.
I scoffed. “Isn’t it always? He found out about us.”
“What?” She stepped back, eyes wide. “How?”
“We haven’t exactly been subtle, sweetheart. And when I say ‘us,’ I mean all of us,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “Look it’ll be fine, I just need to talk to Sutton and we’ll come up with a plan.”
Olivia’s face paled. “He’s using our relationship against you?”
“Yes,” I said. “But I will be fine. I’ll explain the situation to the board. Sleeping with my assistant is definitely a morally gray area but I am not the first person to fall in love with someone who works for him.”
“What’s going to happen if they don’t accept this?” she asked, wiggling her fingers nervously against her thighs.
I took her hand and squeezed it gently. “I will figure it out.”
“Are you going to lose everything because of us?” she asked, voice high with panic.
“No, he’s just pissed about the transition plan and he’s grasping at straws.”
“But that straw is us,” she said, looking sick. “Because our relationship is always going to be something that people think they can use against us, isn’t it?”
I sighed and pulled her against my chest. “No, Olivia. Not everyone is going to be accepting of this, but not everyone is an evil fuck like Martin either. We’ll get through this.”
The elevator doors opened and I kissed Olivia on top of her head one more time before turning and finding Sutton standing in front of the elevator with one hand on her hip.
“So, Martin wasn’t entirely full of shit for once, huh?” she said, looking exhausted and exasperated.
I let go of Liv and Sutton turned to her with a tight smile. “Good morning, Olivia. I need to talk to Jace for a while. Can you please clear his morning?”
“Of course,” Olivia said, sliding past Sutton. She gave me one last glance before sitting down at her desk. The look of fear on her face and the doubt about our relationship I was afraid her fear would create invoked so much more dread than Martin’s little ploy.
“Coffee?” I asked Sutton, gesturing to the kitchen.
“I’ve made us plenty,” she said, leading the way. I followed her in and poured us each a cup in silence before walking to my office and closing the door behind us.