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“Call Dr. Morgan back here for her.” Joe’s gruff voice sounded worried as I curled up on the couch. “Text us if there’s anything we need to pick up before we come home.”
“Will do.” Jud spoke from next to me. “I called Stella. Should I call Ken and Mandy about their sick child?”
Collin snorted. “Not unless you want to interrupt their week long sex party. We can take care of her.”
I gagged and tripped over myself as I tried to make it to the bathroom. I wasn’t sure if it was the stomach bug or the idea of my parents at a sex party that nearly wiped me out that time.
53
***Joe***
Icheckedmywatchas discreetly as I could and looked across the ball room at Collin. We’d arrived less than twenty minutes earlier but I was ready to go already. Just a few weeks earlier I’d been excited about the campaign party for Carlos Cortez. He was a friend and the right guy for the Senate position and I’d been ready for what his win would mean for the Carrington businesses. Even when I had more money that I’d ever be able to spend, I was never comfortable with it. Growing up piss poor had guaranteed that I would always feel like we needed more. Electing Carlos meant more.
My heart wasn’t in it, though, not when the kids and Ada were home sick. I wanted to be home with them, making sure they were okay. I’d texted Jud ten minutes earlier for an update but he hadn’t responded so I was feeling antsy.
I’d had a strange feeling since getting out of the limo that something bad was coming. The hair on the back of my neck was on end and my gut wanted us to get the fuck out of there. We both had speeches to make for Carlos, though, so we couldn’t rush home. I told myself I was just feeling the start of whatever the rest of the house had caught. I put on a good face and talked to the people I needed to and silently hoped I wasn’t spreading a stomach bug to everyone.
Another ten minutes passed without a text back from Jud and I was about to slip out to call him when Collin appeared at my side and gripped my arm. My stomach sank when I saw the look on his face. My gut had been right, but I didn’t know about what until he opened his mouth.
“A story just leaked. Some nobody reporter wrote a story about us.” Collin saw me start to shrug and tightened his grip on my arm. “About Ada and us. There are fucking pictures and quotes from an inside source, apparently.”
The room faded to nothing behind Collin. I immediately searched my brain to try and make sense of what he was saying. “How? It has to be bullshit. No one knows about our relationship except the three of us and Ada. Mandy and Ken don’t even know the full details.”
Collin shoved his phone into my chest. “Look. A friend at the Gazette sent me a link. In the time it took me to walk from the other side of the room, it’s already gotten ten thousand more views, Joe.”
I gripped his phone and looked at what was sure to crush any chance of Carlos Cortez winning his race. His largest backers were involved in an illicit affair with their young nanny. He was an outsider, running against an old school politician who ran on old-school family morals. We’d just killed his big for office. Staring back up at me were grainy photographs that depicted various acts with Ada. There I was pinning her to the garage wall. There was the already published photo of Collin kissing her. There were long range shots through the windows of our house that weren’t great quality but it wasn’t hard to make out Ada’s naked body in my office.
Fury uncurled itself from my stomach and stretched out to fill my entire being. “Who took these?”
Collin scrolled down on the article and nodded to it. “Look again.”
Under the pictures was an article about our lack of morals and our perversion but hidden in the article were quotes that turned my fury sour. “No.”
“How else would this shit have gotten out?” Collin’s voice shook with anger. “We’ve got to get the fuck out of here.”
I agreed. I looked up to find Carlos in the crowd and realized that the room hadn’t just gone silent in my rage over the article. It was actually hushed. People in the ball room whispered quietly to each other while staring at us. It was instantly clear that the article had hit and hit hard. I found Carlos and when his gaze met mine, it was dark. He knew as well as I did that we’d just ruined his career. He couldn’t be attached to a scandal and beat the man running against him.
“Let’s go.”
I ignored the looks we got as we left. On a personal level, they didn’t matter. I didn’t give a fuck what they thought about me. Their opinions mattered when it came to the business, though. The future plans I had came crashing own around me as I slid into the back of our limo and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the mini bar.
Collin read aloud from the article while I tossed back the bottle. “‘A source close to Ms. Walton told this reporter that she’s been intimate with all three of the Carrington brothers. Photographs prove at least some of that statement to be true. Ms. Walton also told our source that she took the job under false pretenses to get back at the Carrington brothers for getting her fired from her previous job.’ When the fuck did we get someone fired? This is all bullshit. Right?”
I grabbed his phone and continued reading, just to have words like ‘monster’ and ‘bad fathers’ jump out at me. The words were so spot on to what Ada had said to my face. “Call the nanny agency.”
“I already tried. Much the same way they told the reporter they weren’t available for comment, they pretty much told me the same thing.” He took the whiskey from me and chugged from it. “This is bullshit. She wouldn’t.”
I tossed his phone back to him and pulled mine out. Notifications were growing even as I stared at the screen. So many people in the Carrington Corp were trying desperately to reach me but I ignored them and dialed my assistant. Before she could answer properly I was barking orders at her. “Get me the personal number for the owner of the nanny service we used last.”
It only took Betty three minutes to send it to me. It took another two calls and five minutes for the owner to answer.
“Mr. Carrington, I-”
“What was the name of the nanny you sent us?”
He stammered and then grew silent. When he spoke again, his tone was worried. “I’m very sorry, sir. We received a call from a woman identifying herself as your assistant the day before our nanny was to arrive at your estate telling us to cancel the contract. We don’t have a nanny working for your family.”
I was quiet as my reality shifted and hardened.
