Dear Diary: Book 7 in the Love Daddy Series of Standalones

by Wyatt, Dani

  “What is going on?”

  I hear her huff.

  “They said you were on vacation.” My mind is racing.

  “Vacation? You liar. You didn't call to check on me, because you know you’re the one who got me fired.”

  “Fired?” I hunker down lower into my desk when I notice that I now am attracting the attention of my colleagues. “What are you talking about?” I whisper into the phone. “I didn’t get you fired. You’re fired?”

  “Such a liar,” she spits out.

  “Sasha, I swear, I didn't know you were fired. I didn’t call because I didn't want to bother you on vacation. Hell, I was so jealous and upset you didn’t tell me that you got to go to Greece!”

  “Greece? I can’t even afford my apartment anymore. You’re the one who played me. Acting like my friend. Working with me, then blaming me for stealing your ideas.”

  “Whoa. What the hell are you talking about? Listen, Sasha, I don’t understand. I’m working with a different team now. I haven’t talked to anyone, so I didn’t know. I’ve been so busy. Why don't we meet somewhere? I’m so sorry, I don’t know what’s going on…” My voice cracks.

  She pauses on the other end. “You really didn’t know?”

  “Of course not. Meet me at Leo’s.” It’s the deli slash coffee shop across the street from the office building. “Can you be there in like, an hour? Maybe I can do something to fix this.”

  She agrees, still sounding suspicious of what I did and didn’t know. As I hang up, my stomach is in knots once again, wondering if my promotion was as simple as Jack said.

  * * *

  It takes me a while to spot Sasha at a corner table. As I fall into the seat across from her, taking a napkin from the dispenser and wiping my face. A fine drizzle has started outside, the sky clouding over as the wind whips garbage through the streets.

  Her blue eyes are puffy and swollen and a little wild with deep shadows underneath. Her skin is pale and splotchy, her usually perfectly slicked back hair in a messy bun and for the first time her lips are not perfectly tinted with her Gwen Stefani signature red.

  “How are you holding up?” I ask, knowing what the answer will be but not sure how else to start the conversation.

  “How does it look?”

  I shrink back into my chair. “Look, Sasha. I promise, I had no idea. And I didn't get you fired. I even asked the twins, Mariana and Martha, about your sudden vacation. They just shrugged and blew me off.”

  “I didn’t tell them. I didn’t tell anyone, but I was sure word had gotten around. I was humiliated. That group is nothing without me.” She chews the corner of a broken fingernail, then points it at me.

  I flatten myself against the seat as the fury and distaste pour off her in waves.

  “I want to help. Tell me how I can help.” I know what I can do. “Wait. I know.”

  “What is it?” Her eyes narrow.

  “I can ask Jack—” I catch myself before I say his last name. “I can ask someone in the executive office to review your case again and bring you back. Rehire you.”

  “No, you can’t,” she scoffs. “You’re an intern.”

  “Actually…” I bite my lip. I don’t really want to tell her, but I have to say something. “The fact is…” I look around. “I'm trusting you with confidential information because I want to help.”

  She leans closer, her eyes clearing. “What?”

  “The CEO, Jensen Harold, isn’t the only one in charge. I mean, he’s the boss, for sure, but, well, someone else owns the company. He just doesn’t usually get involved in the day-to-day operations.”

  “Who?”

  I inhale deeply. “Jackson Carter.”

  Her brows lift higher. “Really? How do you know that?”

  I don’t like the hardness in her eyes, but I can’t step back anymore.

  I hesitate, wondering how much I should say. But Jack did give me the collar, didn’t he? He said that it was to tell the world that I was his. “Well… He and I are…”

  She gives me a disgusted look. “You’re what? Old friends from Nowheresville? Your father’s went to college together?” Her eyes narrow then widen with revelation. “You’re fucking him, aren’t you? You’re practically jailbait.”

  My cheeks feel like they are on fire. “Why are you being like this? I'm trying to help you.”

  “Don’t fucking help me until you help yourself.”

  She picks up her phone and starts poking at the screen.

  “What do you mean? Help myself...”

  “Here, look.” She turns her phone toward me.

  There’s a headline on the screen, dated today from some weird pseudo-news site.

  My cheeks are still hot but my fingers are cold as I read...

  Jackson William Carter, in the hot seat as several employees come forward with accusations of sexual harassment and coercion.

  I’m up so fast my chair knocks over and clatters to the tile floor. The few other people around us turn to stare at me, but my eyes are on Sasha. “You're lying.”

  Her brows lift and she laughs. “I'm lying? Honey, I didn’t make this up.”

  I feel like I’m on the Tilt-A-Whirl at the carnival my mom took me to for my birthday when I turned eleven.

  This is why he keeps us a secret.

  This is why his limo picks us both up outside the building and we drive back to his apartment. I haven’t met anyone in his life besides Alice who he probably pays to keep quiet.

  Is that why he doesn’t want anyone to know he owns this company? Why his office is tucked away with its own private elevator?

  He hides behind an office and a bogus CEO, creating a whole elaborate scheme to get off on his sexual needs? His Daddy fetish. The play like I’m his little girl…

  I cup my mouth as my body jerks with a retch. “I think I'm going to be sick.”

  “Imagine how many other employees he's fucking right now.”

  My head spins wildly as I remember how sweet he’s been, how gentle, how generous and compassionate.

  “Not my Jack.”

  “My Jack?” Sasha drawls. She crosses her arms over her chest and regards with me cool contempt. “He's your Jack, now? Honey, he’s hiding for a good reason and you were naïve enough to fall for it. Think about it.”

  “No!” I laugh, and I think it might be shock. Because there’s nothing funny going on here. “I don’t believe any of it. He wouldn’t force anyone…”

  “Did he force you?”

  “He loves me.” That’s not an answer, and I know it’s not.

  “He loves you? Or, you mean he loves fucking interns.”

  I think about the promotion. Did he just pull strings so I’d stay inside his little game a bit longer? When he’s tired of me I’ll be discarded?

  Silly girl with Daddy issues from Nowhere, West Virginia.

  I step back, bumping into the table behind me, listening to Sasha’s vindictive laugh. I turn around fighting the tears as the sore spots down low remind me of all the places Jack’s been.

  He took everything from me. I gave it to him. Things I’ll never get back…

  I step out into the cool drizzle and inhale deeply, stifling the tears from pouring down my cheeks as the wind whips my hair into my face.

  As I pass the office building, my stomach turns and that horrible sharp bile taste burns my tongue, but I keep walking.

  I turn in to a coffee shop, suddenly dizzy as the drizzle turns to rain and I need to sit. To breathe. Somewhere. Anywhere.

  Before I pull open the door to the shop, I stop thinking I’m hallucinating. I shake my head and look again.

  It’s him. Jack sitting at a small table in the corner.

  The stunning blonde across from him looks impassioned and intense, a heated discussion making them unaware of anyone else around them.

  Jack looks defeated, but he’s arguing back.

  A lover’s tiff.

  She’s beautiful. Polished. That feeling of bein
g a Hobbit next to the glamorous women in this city covers me like a defeated cloak.

  Then, the death blow is delivered. Jack pulls a box out of the inside pocket of his jacket, and holds it between them.

  A red velvet box.

  She gasps, her eyes widening, as she pulls the ring out.

  The sound of Sasha’s evil laughter is following me. I cup my ears and turn my back to the glass, new tears streaming down my face mixing with the raindrops.

  This is why he insisted on always calling the shots, on always being in charge. Everything had to be carefully coordinated, didn’t it? Because clearly, he has another life. Clearly, he has lots of red boxes with rings inside.

  Diamonds. I huff. They are probably cut glass and he orders those collars and promise rings by the gross.

  Silly girl.

  You fell right into the game.

  I always wanted what we have. I just didn’t think what I wanted existed. I thought it was all guilty pleasures, the things I wrote in my diary just for me.

  Until Jack.

  Jack made me think I could have it all. For the briefest flicker of a moment, he was my Daddy and I was his little girl. And now my heart is breaking into a million pieces as I turn and run. And run.

  And run.

  Chapter 19

  Jackson

  “What the hell are you thinking?” Isabella is losing her shit drawing a few stares from a table of uptight looking teenagers next to us.

  Isabella Monroe isn’t just my attorney. She's also an advisor of sorts. She’s like the sister I never had. A pain in the ass too, but sometimes that’s what I need. Between her and Alice, I’ve got the pain the ass thing covered.

  “I don’t know how to explain it. It just happened. But, she’s the one. I have zero doubt.”

  “It just happened?” she snaps. Her hands slap the table, her gold bangles clanging against the wood top. “I can’t believe this. You’re digging a deeper ditch for yourself. This absolutely cannot happen. She’s nineteen, Jackson. Cut all contact. Like, right now.”

  I smile as the memory of eating Chastity’s pussy while she slept just hours ago crosses my mind. She woke with me fucking her, trying to figure out if it was a dream, and I told her I’d take her when and how I wanted, conscious or not. No fucking way I’d tell Isabella that because I’m pretty fucking sure it’s illegal as hell.

  My baby liked it, she even pretended to go back to sleep while I drilled her damn near through the mattress. We came together like freight trains, then laughed about her playing possum like anyone could really sleep through that kind of fucking.

  “No fucking way I’m breaking anything off with her, Bella.”

  “I’m not giving you an option. I'm your attorney. I'm fighting you hard on this. You’re drowning in sexual harassment cases. Which you deny, and I believe you. But the evidence seems to be piling up and I don’t know what to say…this morning I saw it had been leaked somehow into the low-level internet news, it’s just a matter of time before it’s a real story.”

  “What can I do?” It doesn’t matter what I say or do. I know in my heart that I’m digging myself a deeper legal grave with this. But I don’t give a shit. They probably just want money and I’ve got plenty of that.

  Isabella loses the color in her cheeks. “I don’t know how to get this through your skull. I'm worried about you. Our whole defense against this is weak to begin with, and that’s no secret. And now you’re in a relationship with another employee? No, sorry, not an employee, an intern, for God’s sake. An intern who, by the way, is half your age. There’s nothing good about this, Jackson.”

  “Too bad,” I mutter, more to myself than to her. My phone starts buzzing, and I take it out, ignoring the look of consternation on Bella’s face. It’s George Claude, but his message doesn’t make much sense but he’s horrible at texting.

  George: Urgently need to speak to you. I found something in some court records. Something that could explain some things, but also could be dangerous for you.

  I frown but put my phone back in my pocket. He can wait. I’ve got too many balls in the air right now and all I want to do is go find Chastity and start planning our future.

  “To make things worse,” Isabella’s voice hardens in her last-ditch attempt to change my mind, “you promoted her, Jackson. You fucked her then promoted her. She has her own office, an office that’s not suited to her position.”

  “She isn’t an intern anymore. She’s one of the creative heads on a team.”

  “Really? She went from being an intern to creative head real fucking fast.” Isabella rubs her forehead. “You and I both know everything you stand to lose. Just one example, that new women’s shelter you’re funding? The one that you say is so important to you? Well, they’re not going to work with you when all this comes out. It won’t matter whether you are guilty or not. You know that.”

  I know what’s she’s saying is true. It’s just Chastity means more to me than any of this other bullshit so it’s time to shut this down.

  “If all of this comes out, if the situation with Chastity comes out and you don’t deny it…we’ve lost. You lose your new venture for the micro-loan charity. You lose stock price and your money. Your reputation. And you lose Chastity anyway.”

  My jaw clenches tight. “I won’t lose her.”

  Isabella tilts her head, her eyes sympathetic. “Does she know three employees are accusing you of sexual harassment?”

  I swallow against the sudden lump in my throat. “No. I haven’t told her.”

  “She’s not going to think that she's just one in a string of many? It’s going to break her heart.”

  “She won’t doubt me. I won’t deny that I'm in a relationship with her. Not here. Not anywhere. Not in court.”

  “You need to understand. You’re doing this all wrong. Why did you promote her? It’s all bias and-”

  “She was promoted for a reason. I have everything on record. She was the creative force behind us securing some real-world accounts. And she deserved it.”

  Isabella prepares to launch into another tirade, and I decide it’s time.

  “As for the relationship…” I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out the little red velvet box, placing it in front of her. Isabella eyes it suspiciously, then snaps it open.

  “Oh my God, Jackson, please tell me that’s not what I think it is….”

  “It’s got Chastity’s name on it. I’m marrying her Isabella.”

  She struggles to fight a smile. “Honestly, Jackson. Okay.” She throws her hands up in defeat. “You really are this serious about this?”

  “Chastity has changed me. I know it’s been fast, but I’m a different man.” I think about that for a moment, then shake my head. “You can approve or disapprove that’s up to you, but this isn’t going to change. You need to work out how to defend me. That’s what I pay you for.”

  Isabella sighs, shaking her head, but she’s smiling now. “If that’s the way it has to be then that’s the way it has to be.” She bites into her lip, then nods. “God forbid you could make my job easier.”

  She hands me back the ring and I slip it back into the pocket inside my suit jacket.

  “Okay.” She draws a deep breath moving on which is a fucking relief. “What did your PI find on the other complainants?” Isabella is back to business.

  I shake my head. “It’s confusing.” I reach into the manila folder next to me on the table and pull out a picture. “This is a copy of the photo Annabel Enrique, the first accuser, is giving as evidence that I was in DC the day she was assaulted. CCTV camera image. Means they have a whole video of me walking into her house that night. I’m not the average guy and they say it’s me. Sure looks like me.”

  Isabella’s brows shoot together. “But you and I both know you were not in DC. We have cast iron proof of that.”

  “Of course. I was here.”

  Isabella picks up the image and stares at it closely. “If it’s fake, it’s damn
good. Hold on. When did you buy a gold Rolex?”

  “I didn’t. I hate them.”

  “Right? You think they’re gaudy.”

  “Exactly. What's that got to do with this?”

  Isabella’s eyes light up. She slides the picture toward me. Short, neat, perfectly manicured fingernails tap at the photo. “The Jackson in this photo is wearing a gold watch.”

  I give the photo along look and see she’s right.

  “I know it’s not me. So gold watch or no watch doesn’t really make a difference. But how do we prove that in court? My distaste for something hardly seems compelling.”

  “We’ll have to find a way. But we need to see the evidence they present first. Until then, you need to make sure you keep things super-secret about Chastity, no one can know. And I mean no one. You can’t trust anyone right now.”

  I glance out the window again, and the familiar sound of police cars and fire truck sirens resound in the café and I notice it’s raining.

  “So, I guess that’s it. We just wait and see what kind of mud and slime they throw at me and then take it from there?

  Isabella sighs. “You know I believe you. I'm trying my best. But the court of public opinion will not wait for proof of your innocence. You’ll be convicted as soon as the first press conference ends with a crying employee. Sorry, it’s just how it is.”

  I nod and pull out my phone as it rings.

  “Yes, Jensen?”

  His voice is tight with panic. “Jackson, the office is on fire, and it’s spreading fast.”

  I stand up so fast the chair tips over and crashes behind me. Patrons turn and stare. But I'm not the least bit concerned about them. “Did you get our people out?”

  “Yes, everyone is safe. But Jackson, everything’s going up.”

  I shake my head. “Things can be replaced. Just make sure every single one of the employees is accounted for. I’ll be right there.”

  “Okay.”

  “Wait, Jensen, is Chastity out?”

  It feels like a thousand years pass in the second it takes him to answer me.

  “She's out. She's safe. She left the office a few minutes before we went up in flames. I saw the security footage of her leaving.”