Chapter 37
LANEY
G wen shut the penthouse door behind us with a decisive click that seemed to echo with permission for me to finally fall apart. This place wasn’t home, but I’d been here long enough that it had become a safe space.
We were also well and truly alone here, in a place where camera lenses couldn’t capture my devastation.
I hadn’t seen any looky-loos or reporters at the store, but I’d still felt like they might be out there somewhere, just waiting for the opportunity to take the picture that would become the next viral meme.
Now that we were here, I stumbled to the couch on numb legs and let go.
Sobs tore through me as soon as I sat down, my chest tight.
My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. All those awful things I’d read about myself and Baby Blossom kept drifting through my mind, like a nightmare I just couldn’t shake.
What they were saying was so terrible, I didn’t know if or how we would ever recover from it.
As a person, I would eventually shake it off. Heal. Possibly in a cave somewhere in a country no one had ever heard of, but in time, I probably would recover.
Baby Blossom was a whole different story. Anyone who looked us up online for years to come would see those bogus reviews, and no one would dare take a chance on a small, family-owned company that had been so negatively rated.
I groaned and pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, that photo of me flashing through my mind as soon as my eyes were closed. I didn’t know who had taken the picture, the one that had gone viral like some twisted joke, but they sure had known how to caption it for maximum attention.
Meme of the week: Gold-Digger Down.
The couch dipped slightly beside me, and Gwen pulled me into a hug. “The studio still has your back, babe. Everyone who knows you knows this is garbage. Your clients and the entire community love Baby Blossom. Whoever is spreading this bullshit doesn’t know a damn thing about you or the store.”
“I know,” I whispered, the sound cracked and tight. “It doesn’t matter, though. It’s out there and people are going to believe it.”
She didn’t say anything to that, but what could she say?
Both of us knew it was the truth, so she just sat beside me and reached for the blanket on the armrest, wrapping it around my shoulders like I was a little kid she was trying to comfort.
Honestly though, that was how I felt, small and powerless.
“The Megan stuff,” she said after a few minutes. “That part’s not a lie, is it? She really had an affair with a married man she met at the store?”
“I don’t know for a fact, but I’m sure it’s true.” I didn’t even feel shocked. Just numb. “She never cared about the store. She didn’t care about the kids or the community. If she met a guy she wanted at one of our events, it’s entirely plausible that she would’ve gone after him. Married or not.”
Tears ran hot and heavy down my cheeks, my entire body drained and exhausted. I couldn’t believe this was really happening, but when Sadie showed up a little while later, pale and visibly rattled, I knew I hadn’t been hallucinating.
If she was here, looking like that, then it had to be real. Her vibrant red hair had been swept up into a messy knot/ponytail I could see had been made in haste, and her denim shorts and tank were a far cry from the elegant, put-together look she’d sported on the other occasions we’d met.
She wrapped me up in a long, tight hug the second she saw me. “I saw the reviews, and the memes, and the tags. Are you okay?”
“I will be,” I lied. “It’s probably not as bad as it looks, right?”
As she pulled away from me, she and Gwen exchanged a glance. Since neither of them bothered to introduce themselves to the other, I assumed they’d met at that god-awful party. I also assumed they knew I was lying, but neither of them contradicted me.
Sadie’s blue eyes skimmed over my tear-streaked face and she held my gaze for a beat. Then she nodded and stood up from the couch. Her chin lifted and her shoulders squared, a new kind of determination visibly moving through her.
“Alright, well, I’m going to make us some tea and then we’re going to figure this out,” she said confidently. “There’s always a way to spin it so that we flip it around right back at Cassandra Saxon and her merry band of bitches.”
Gwen perked up, scooting away from me and nodding her agreement. “I’ll grab a notebook. We should also talk rebranding, relaunch, and maybe even a few PR stunts.”
For the next hour, they did their best to distract me, flinging around a multitude of ideas to achieve our goals. Some were even pretty good. It was just too bad it wouldn’t work. While what they were doing was sweet, it was also pointless.
They meant well, but I was spiraling anyway because I knew nothing we did could change what had happened.
Anything that existed on the internet was out there forever.
I sipped my tea quietly, watching them go back and forth, getting excited about some ideas and immediately scrapping others, but on the inside, I was sinking further and further into despair.
Until Sterling walked through the door.
Suddenly, everything changed. He didn’t say a word at first, just stepping inside all calm and focused like the eye of a storm, still wearing the shirt and jeans he’d put on this morning in Napa.
Despite the day he’d had and how perfectly it’d started before it’d all gone to hell, he looked entirely confident and in control. Those broad shoulders were open wide, his dark hair somehow falling neatly above his chiseled face.
His blue eyes met mine, intense and questioning. I could see the turbulence and the worry in them, but he strode into the room like he wasn’t even aware that anything bad had happened today, making a beeline directly for me.
Movement behind him finally drew my gaze and I realized in that moment that he’d brought my dad with him. I stood, but my legs were frozen. I’d hardly spoken to the man since I’d gotten married, but here he was, in the house of a man he hated, wearing the same old suit he always wore to work.
It was a little baggy and his black button-down was faded.
Shuffling into the room, he looked so darn uncomfortable, his eyes darting this way and that as he took it all in.
When he finally looked right at me, he was only a few steps away.
He was here. Sterling had managed to convince him to come when I needed him the most, and as soon as that knowledge sank in, I shattered and launched myself into his arms.
Wordlessly, I just sobbed into his shoulder while he held me like he used to when I was little and had scraped my knee or had a bad dream.
“I’m sorry,” I choked out. “I should’ve told you. I should’ve?—”
“We don’t have to do this right now, baby,” he murmured, holding me tight and rubbing a hand down my back. “I’m here, okay? I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.”
I held him tighter, allowing the safety and comfort of my father’s presence to anchor me in these turbulent waters. He’d always been my rock, my port in any storm, and I already knew this would be no different.
“Well, we should get going,” Gwen said too brightly, but I appreciated that she was going to give me some time with the warring men in my life. At least they seemed to be standing together on this one thing. “I’ll call you later, Lane. Let me know if there’s anything I can do in the meantime.”
I finally pulled back to say goodbye to my friends, and as I did, I caught a look passing between Daddy and Sterling, sharp, unreadable, and tense. They nodded at each other, but barely, like some silent understanding was passing between them, but they still didn’t like each other.
Sadie cleared her throat and smiled. “We did some good work here today. I’ll keep thinking. Good luck, okay?”
“Thanks,” I muttered, but my voice was still breathy and tight. “Thank you for coming, Sadie. It means a lot.”
“Of course.” Her smile softened and she winked.
“I’ve already told you that you and I are going to be friends.
I’ve got your back. Always. I’m loyal that way.
Besides, one of these days, we’re going to get to have a chilled, stress-free lunch.
You’ll invite me on your next trip to Napa, and we’ll all be besties for life. Raise our kids together.”
Gwen chuckled and glanced at me. “I like her. We should keep her.”
Even though I thought it would be impossible today, I finally cracked a smile. “That sounds good. I’ll talk to you guys later, but I really am fine now.”
Sadie’s gaze drifted to my dad and she nodded, like she already knew who he was and that he would take care of me in her absence. She grabbed her purse but turned to Sterling before she left. “I’ll start doing some recon.”
“No,” he said, his voice flat. “Leave it alone.”
She just smiled in response, wiggling her fingers in a wave and grabbing Gwen’s arm to start pulling her to the door. On their way, I heard her whispering about having a plan and Gwen groaned but kept letting her drag her along.
As the door shut behind them, Sterling’s phone buzzed and he gave me a tight, worried smile. “I’ll see you in a minute. I just have to take this real quick.”
Sliding his thumb across the screen, he strode down the hall and disappeared into his office.
Suddenly, I was alone with my dad. He swung his gaze to mine and sighed, giving the room another onceover before he sat down stiffly in one of the armchairs, clearly not happy about being here but apparently deciding to stay.
“Everything is going to be okay, baby girl,” he said gently, much more gently than his tense posture suggested he was actually feeling on the inside. “I know it feels like the world is ending right now, but it’s not. It’s going to keep right on turning, and eventually, this will all be behind you.”
“Behind me , maybe. Not the store, though.” I swiped my palms across my cheeks and sighed as I sank back onto the couch. “I think it’s ruined, Daddy. Maybe it was always going to fail. Maybe Sterling was right, but I guess now we’ll never know.”
Dad stared blankly back at me. “Maybe Sterling was right about what?”
“About major retailers and online stores creating too much competition for a store like Baby Blossom to survive. Westwood and Sons employs these fancy risk analysts and they’ve given us maybe five years.
That’s not accounting for the community aspect, but still.
Maybe this is a sign that I should just give it up now. ”
Even just saying the words made my throat burn and my heart break, but Dad leaned forward, elbows on his knees, eyes latching firm and serious on mine.
“I didn’t raise you to roll over and die, Laney.
Rhodeses don’t give up and your last name might’ve changed for now, but that doesn’t make you any less of a Rhodes.
We don’t back down and we definitely don’t cave to some bullies online who don’t even have the balls to face us in real life. ”
The words snapped me back like a rubber band that had been pulled to the breaking point and then released. I blinked at him. “What?”
He sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his belly as his eyes stared intently into mine. “You heard me. You’ve got a hell of a fight ahead of you, but quitting? That’s not who you are. That’s not who your mom was, either.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but I didn’t know what to say. Thankfully, Sterling saved me when he came back into the room, sliding his phone into his back pocket and glancing between the two of us.
After taking a beat to read the room and sensing the tension, he strode over to me, taking both my hands in his and dropping to his haunches in front of me. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but you should go pack. We’re leaving.”
I frowned. “What? Where are we going?”
“My parents’ place.” His eyes were soft and warm but worried. “They’re waiting for us.”
I sat up straighter, instinctively recoiling. “Sterling, no. They don’t need to get dragged into this. It’s my mess.”
“It’s our mess,” he said firmly. “You’re my wife, Laney. You’re a Westwood. Nobody fucks with us and gets away with it, but it’s safer for us there right now. Just for a night or two until we get a handle on this thing.”
My dad made a soft noise of agreement, like a low chuckle at the back of his throat. “She’s not wrong to hesitate, Westwood, but Laney, he ain’t wrong either.”
He groaned, but when I looked over at him, his gaze was steady and as certain as it had ever been.
“As much as I hate to say it, you should listen to your husband. If anyone knows how to fix something like this, it’s Harlan Westwood.
God knows, he’s been in a spot or two himself over the years.
Maybe this time, he can actually harness all that power for good. ”