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The tagline read:It seems our heartbreaking bad boy has found a secret flame, and they got hot and heavy last night.
Thank god Violet was too young to read.
I continued to read the words below, my eyes drawn to the key phrases. Phrases like:Torrid affair, keeping it low key, has been in love with her since high school, high school lovers… Many other words framed the story exactly as Nick wanted—with the two of us as star-crossed lovers. It was laughably wrong, but it fit the narrative he wanted. He described a lot of secret rendezvous and meetings that he would have with Kim, and I wondered how she would feel if she were reading this.
Because instead of Kim, it was my picture on the paper, and under it were the words:Who is this mystery woman?
Apprehension instantly spread through me. Would this spur the reporters to start digging into my past? Would they find out about Violet and how she was conceived? I instantly closed the page and got on the phone, dialing Nick’s number.
“I’m in a meeting,” he said instantly.
“The reporters. I don’t want them digging into my past,” I told him firmly, ignoring the fact that he was in a meeting.
He was quiet for a few seconds before saying, “You can’t exactly avoid that. You’re in the limelight now.”
“Yes, I know, but….” I hadn’t fully thought about that part when I agreed to this. I should have, but I didn’t. I rubbed my hand over my face, wondering what the hell I could do now. My history wasn’t exactly squeaky clean, and I knew if they dug deep enough, they would find out about my mother and her issues, and…well, all of it would come back to affect Violet.
I didn’t want that.
“Lisa.” Nick’s voice was firm and concerned. “What is it? What do you want to hide?”
“My family,” I said with a loud breath. I didn’t want to admit all my dirty laundry to Nick, but I didn’t have a choice. He was the only one who could help me. “It’s not exactly squeaky clean. As I said, my mom was an alcoholic, and that is kind of downplaying a lot of the things she did. The mayor wouldn’t want all that to come to light, and frankly, neither would I. I don’t want other kids teasing Violet about it.”
He was silent for a few seconds, and I waited for him to make fun of me for being a worry-wart. It might seem far-fetched, but I’d already been heavily bullied because of my mother. I didn’t want that for my daughter.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Nick said instead and then hung up the phone. It was a few agonized hours later when he called me back.
“No one is going to dig into your past,” he said reassuringly.
Relief flooded through me. “How do you know? Did you threaten all the reporters in the area?”
“More like arranged for them to receive false information. No one will dig past that. And if they do, well, they’ll have to answer to me.”
“Oh my god, thank you.” Gratitude beat in my chest. “I mean it. I know it couldn’t have been easy.”
“Anything is possible if you have enough money.”
“Did it cost a lot?” The relief I felt melded with the guilt.
“Don’t worry about it.” He sounded amused. “I’ll pick you up for our date later.”
“Oh, okay,” I said and then hung up.
* * *
“Nick!”Violet called out excitedly as she dashed to him.
“Violet!” he greeted in the same tone of voice as he dropped to his knees and grabbed her, swinging her up to his waist.
I shook my head at the pair of them. It seemed my daughter had already gotten comfortable with Nick after only meeting him a few times.
They were staring at each other in fascination until Nick ran his finger over a streak of white at the corner of her lip. “What is this?”
“Ice cream,” she announced happily. “Mommy let me have some ice cream today.”
“Ah. You like ice cream?” he asked her, and she nodded excitedly.
“Yes, I like it a lot, but Mommy said it’s not good for me to have too much of it. I can only have it if I brush my teeth after and if Dr. Yummers says I’m a good girl.”
