“I have.”
“I just don’t know,” I reply. I want to have the answers about what to do. I just don’t.
Jake comes to sit beside me. I notice him eyeing my bare legs. How did I not see all the signs before that he liked me? I sit up, holding the darn robe closed.
“My life is over Jake. We will have to move cities. We will never be safe here again.” My head falls into my hands as I allow myself to feel sorry for myself.
He tugs at my hands until I look at him and then signs, “Your life isn’t over. This is just a hot new story, it will die down, and something new will come up.” Jake looks to me, confident that he has made a good argument. I’m not so sure.
“How will we go to work?” I wait for an answer, but Jake doesn’t provide one. “I can’t take time off work. The students will have exams soon.” I pause. “And that’s if they don’t decide to fire me. How will my students ever look at me with respect again?” I am shooting off questions, and each one makes me feel like my grave is dug a little deeper. I am in quicksand with no way out.
“We’ll figure out a way,” Jake signs then takes my hand in his. He stares blankly into the space in front of him and me. I want to believe him. Jake and I usually find a way. He helped me graduate college with an infant son after all, and that was a huge challenge. At times, I felt like giving up, but he had my back and kept me together. I force myself to believe in his words now because the other option isn’t very promising.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Colton
Al and I are sitting in Cassy’s dining room strategizing my next move. It is no secret to Al that I haven’t put my full heart into wanting to run for the presidency.
“This is your out, Colton. Your big break out of the invisible chains your father had around your neck,” Al smiles crookedly. He hates that my father controlled me for so many years but he is also too familiar with powerful men who manipulate no matter the cost. His father is very much like mine. Only Al walked away. He hadn’t realized my father could be so selfish and manipulating when he came along on this journey with me.
“A break, huh?” I repeat Al’s words. I feel dazed and confused which is so unlike me. I usually have my shit together. I was generally in control.
“Snap out of it, man. Your new PR firm will be here any minute. You will make a few statements. Bow out of the race and move on.” Al claps me on the shoulder and stands up from his seat. “Where the hell does Cassy keep the coffee?” he grunts, spinning in a circle. I laugh at him. As smart as Al is, he is spoiled rotten. He has a maid bring him coffee every morning and breakfast too, for that matter.
“Go fuck yourself,” he chortles back at me.
“It’s in the kitchen doofus,” Cassy shouts from her bedroom leaving me to understand she was eavesdropping on our conversation. I know she wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, but I need space from her. My heart is breaking over Evie. I don’t want to have to deal with Cassy on top of everything else in my life.
I get up and walk over to the kitchen. “Come on, I need coffee too,” I murmur and Al follows.
Cassy has an easy setup, and I know my way around her kitchen well enough since I have spent enough nights with her. I hit a few buttons and bam. Coffee is made. I take a sip closing my eyes.
“Fuck man, watching you is depressing.” Al snaps me out of my quiet moment enjoying my cup of coffee. “It’s her, isn’t it?” he asks, and it surprises me that he would. I told him how vital Evie had become in my life. He just isn’t getting it.
I nod.
“Colton, you’re looking at this the wrong way. I think you were so enamored with Evie because she was deaf. Something about her must have reminded you of Jake.”
I blow out a long-frustrated breath. “You just don’t get it. Yeah, maybe her being deaf intrigued me at first. Maybe somewhere deep in the depths of my mind, I had little snippets of a baby boy I tried to communicate with, using my hands, maybe they were short dreams.” I shake my head. I’m not really sure. “But that wasn’t what I loved about Evie. I fell in love with her, man. Everything about her was perfect, the way she smiled, the way she listened to me, the goodness in her heart, the way she treated her son.” Fuck, listen to me, I am a fool. She lied to me, screwed me over. I am sick just thinking of all the times I opened up to her. Forced myself to share things with her that I wasn’t comfortable sharing. Al watches me with his lips twisted. He doesn’t understand how I could have fallen in love because Al has never been in love. He loves his sister and mother. Hell, I am sure I am on that list too but he never actually fell hard for a woman even though he left many broken hearts along the way. “It doesn’t fucking matter anyway. It’s over. She fucked me over and it just goes to show you why relationships suck. If I ever tell you that I want to be in a relationship again, I give you the right, no, I insist that you clock me one, seriously.”
Al takes a long drink of his coffee. “Just get your head on straight,” he says. There is a knock on the door. “And stop looking so fucking doe-eyed and sad. We need to come up with a new game plan. You are still governor, the people of Illinois still rely on you, and you need to make a statement, even better, we need to push this scandal under the rug.”
I go back out to Cassy’s dining room with Al. Cassy lets my new PR rep in. I am expecting just one person, but there is a team.
“Rebecca Caufield. Nice to meet you.” The tan woman extends her hand for me to shake then walks past me to the dining room table where she places her suitcase on the floor. “This is Chuck, John, and Larry,” she continues, and I feel like she is shitting me because the person she called Larry is very much a woman. She is wearing tight black leather pants, a leather top and her almost white blonde hair is tied in a high ponytail on top of her head. She gives me a nod then Chuck and John give me a grunt. I quirk my brow giving Al a side glance. He throws his hands out for a minute but tilts his chin back to Rebecca who begins to speak. She is the leader of this crew.
“We checked into your past. The media has done quite the job spinning this story.” She reaches down to her briefcase and pulls out some files. “Your father banished your mother. He found out she was having an affair. He told her he didn’t believe Jake was his baby and told her to leave. He felt your baby brother would ruin his chances to have a political career, but by banishing them, he ended any chance he had to run in politics. Your mother and brother were your father’s dirty buried secret. If he ran, it would have been easy for someone to dig up the story. Instead, he focused on you, obsessively wanting to make you into something he dreamed of but could never be. Almost thirty years later the story of your mother and brother was dead.” Rebecca states, a matter of fact.
“How do you know this?” I ask, a little dumbfounded. She quirks her brow at me and gives me a look that says, ‘shut up and listen.’
“Your brother is, in fact, a Mathis. His blood tests located in that file will prove that to the 90th percentile. If you want more accuracy, we need to run a full DNA test. Your father threatened your mother. He told her to leave the house and take Jake. If she didn’t leave, then your father threatened to hurt her and Jake. Your father had ties to Jeffrey Davis,” she says, then pauses. “Does that name ring a bell?”
It takes me a few seconds…Wayne Davis…drug dealer. He had been in court when I was a prosecutor. His father Jeffrey Davis was the head of a drug cartel. There had been numerous CIA and FBI investigations into the Cartel, but they had always been untouchable.
“What are you saying, Ms. Caufield? That my father threatened to have, my mother and brother, killed?” I swallow hard. My world isn’t just tilting sideways it is being turned upside down. The man I had revered all my life is a horrible, deceitful man. All the guilt he made me feel, all the times I conceded to his every whim because of his so-called sacrifices he made for me…it is all a sham.
Rebecca leans forward on the dining table pressing her palms onto the surface with a sure look in her eyes. I don’t know what
her sources are, but she seems professional and confident. I choose to believe her even though I will verify everything later.
“And Evie Harper? What role did she play in all this? Was she hired by one of our opponents?” Al takes a step forward and asks. He had been standing off to the side this whole time just listening. Leave it to Al to ask the question I am not brave enough to ask myself. Or maybe I just don’t want my heart to splinter further than it has.
Rebecca cuts him a look and pushes off the dining room table, straightening herself out. “She has no ties to anyone. She’s a teacher, works for a school for the deaf, she is a single mother, and from what I understand, you pursued her, Mr. Mathis.” Rebecca’s stare cuts from Al to me on her last words. “The poor woman has been put through the wringer.” She purses her lips and glares at me.
An anguished laugh escapes my lips, and I shoot up to my feet swiping a hand over my mouth. “You mean to tell me that this is some sick coincidence that I was dating a woman connected to my long-lost mother and brother?” I begin to pace. I think Rebecca said something but my mind was in overdrive.
“Here.” Al pushes his cell phone into my chest. “Don’t even think about her, Colton. Look at this.”
On the screen of Al’s cell phone is an article from the Sun with a large picture of Evie in a bathrobe. You can’t see her face, but her long red hair is hard to miss. Standing at the entrance to the hotel room is Jake. He’s shirtless, all abs of steel and muscle. He has a sad smile on his face. The headline reads.
Ms. Harper Can’t Decide Which Brother She Wants.
I begin to read the article. It starts by giving a physical description of Jake and says how good genes must run in the Mathis family. I can’t read anymore, so I push the cell phone back into Al’s hands and stalk off. I head for Cassy’s balcony, needing air. This is just too much to handle. The thought of my brother touching Evie when she’s probably feeling vulnerable makes me want to tear this place apart. I lean on the railing of the balcony when I feel slender arms around my neck, and a head pressed against my back. I don’t need to turn around to know that it’s Cassy.
“I’m sorry, Colton. I heard everything. I didn’t mean to listen, but that woman just speaks so loud.” Her voice purrs as her hands rub all over my body trying to console me. Only I’m not comforted. She begins to press soft kisses on my neck, and I cringe. I pull out of her grasp and hold her hands in front of me so that she will stop touching me.
“Cassy, please.” I take a breath because I need to show her patience, she doesn’t deserve to be snapped at by me. “I appreciate all the help you’ve given me. For allowing me to stay here. I just need time to figure things out in my head,” I say softly.
“I have an idea, Colton,” she says, and I let go of her hands. She crosses her arms over her chest. She’s wearing a tight black tank top and black tights. She looks ready for a workout. When she crosses her arms, it makes her breasts bunch together. My eyes drop to her chest because hell, I am a man, but I don’t feel that same spark I used to feel for her. Hell, I feel nothing other than the thought she has a nice set of tits.
“What is it?” I put my hands in the front pockets of my trousers and listen.
***
“You have two options, Mr. Mathis,” Rebecca says sounding very matter of fact. Her team stands around the table holding on to her every word. “One…you work things out with Ms. Harper, and you two make a joint statement to the press that the mere coincidence of life brought you together, then you go on to live happily ever after. The media will stop treating Ms. Harper like some harlot.” She pauses, and I let her words penetrate, only that scenario will never work for me. Evie must have known about my connection to Jake and Veronica. That day at the Navy Pier her and Veronica couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.
“What’s my second option?” I ask. Al claps me on the back indicating he wasn’t a fan of option one either.
“The second option is that you make a public appearance with Cassandra Steel. You go on a talk show and say that you and Ms. Steel have recently decided to take things to the next level. You buy Ms. Steel a diamond ring. You tell the public that you and Ms. Harper were a short-lived fling. That it was a mere coincidence that she had ties to your mother and brother. And as the mother of your nephew you will continue to see her at family events,” Ms. Caufield stops speaking, but her gaze remains trained on me as if she is dissecting my every thought. It probably doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that I am not crazy about proposing to Cassy. Cassy is in the living room listening to the options and decides at that moment to plop herself in my lap. Fucking great.
“Cassy, give me a minute sweetheart.” I slowly help her off me then cut Al a look that says, ‘follow me.’ We both go out to the balcony. This time I close the doors behind us.
“Where did you find this crew?” I ask.
Al tilts his head to the side and breathes in slowly. “A little over the top, aren’t they? For what they cost, they should be.”
“I’m not following. Where the hell did you find them?” I repeat.
“Issy, my sister,” he says plainly. “Apparently the Walsh clan has used the Rebecca Caufield agency to avert more than one scandal. Although I’ve been assured that she knows how to bury the scandals that do make it to the surface. In your case, it’s erupted like a fucking volcano. Nevertheless, she can put this thing to sleep and then we can get on with our lives.” He smacks me on the back. If I ever for a moment thought I led a normal life then this was a perfect reminder that my life was far from ordinary.
“I don’t like any of the options she offered me,” I say through shallow breaths.
Al guffaws. “I can see that. Can’t say I blame you. In both scenarios, she has you tied down,” he cringes. The truth is, I cringe too.
“There must be another way.”
“Okay, let’s head back in there and tell her we need option three.”
“Let’s do that because there’s no way in hell I’m committing ever again,” I hiss and we walk back inside.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Evie
If things were supposed to look brighter in the light of day, they didn’t. I had to text another absence into school today and tell my principal I couldn’t come to work. My text message didn’t come as a surprise. The whole city, heck probably the entire country, knew. I thought she’d be mad about me bringing the negative publicity onto the school, but she only had questions for me as to what Colton Mathis was like. Then she told me not to worry and that this would all blow over. I had been working with her for five years now, and I was relieved when she texted.
Evie, you are a kind young woman who possibly fell for the wrong man. He’s famous, so this is a big deal. It will blow over. Nothing stays top news forever, but please don’t run away from your students and this school. We are like your family here. You should come back soon.
I stare at the message a long while. Was she right? Would everyone at work just see this as a relationship gone wrong?” Or would I be the harlot the newspapers had made me out to be? Will they view me as the woman who stabbed the handsome and charming Colton Mathis in the back? I blow out a long breath and text back.
Just give me another day, and I will be back. I don’t want to leave the students before they have to write exams.
Smart woman.
She texts back, too bad I didn’t agree with her. I was feeling low. I had told myself from the start that Colton was all wrong for me yet I didn’t take my own usually sound advice.
Carter is still sleeping in the bed beside me. It is already after eight am. I slip the door open slightly and see Thatch sitting on a chair between mine and Jake’s door.
“Good morning, Ms. Harper,” he smiles.
“It’s Evie.” I give him a friendly smile back.
His eyes turn to the floor, and he says, “Hotel wanted to leave you this morning’s paper.” His lips twist apologetically, and I don’t know why until I look at the front
page of the newspaper. Colton is standing on a balcony. It looks like an air shot. A beautiful woman with a long blonde braid embracing him with her head pressed to his shoulder. She looks slender, model perfect. The headline says, Rumors That Colton Mathis is Back Together With Socialite Cassandra Steel
My heart dips in my chest for a moment, but I plaster on a smile and look back up to Thatch as if I’m not affected. By the sad gleam in his eyes, I know I’m doing a poor job.
“Here is a suitcase of clothes for you and Carter. Hope I did a good job getting things together for you.” He stands from the chair and passes me the suitcase. I’m a little embarrassed that he had to rummage through my panty drawer, but he’s been very professional about everything, so I try not to blush too hard. Of course with my complexion, it’s a losing battle.
“Thank you. I’m sure it’s exactly what we need.” I pause. “If you’ll excuse me.” I turn and walk back to my room. Thankfully, Carter is asleep, and I take the newspaper and look at the shot of Colton and Cassandra. I remember seeing the name on his phone the first night we spent together. She had texted him a picture of her breasts. It seems he ran right back to her open arms. The shot taken of them is an intimate one. It shows me that if I ever had a tinge of hope for Colton and me I should stop because we are truly over.
With nothing to do, I lay back in bed and scroll through the articles on Colton and me. It seems like the Colton, Cassandra story is the interest of the reporters this morning. By the time I’ve had my fill of seeing Cassandra draped all over Colton. I place my phone on the nightstand and open the TV on mute. Maybe I can find a movie to distract me from my life. Only on the first channel, I flip through I see cool blue eyes staring back at me. Blue eyes that once used to gaze at me through warmth and love. Colton is holding a press conference. I quickly play with the buttons on the remote and set the television to English subtitles.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the press. As you know, some information about my family has come to light in recent days. I was completely unaware of the facts that were brought forth to me but have since been updated. As many of you know, I was raised by my father who ran a single parent household. I know many of you have questions and there is a lot of speculation circulating certain issues in my private life, but I am here to speak to the people of Illinois. As your governor, I believe you have the right to know certain things about my personal life when they pertain to our great state and how it is run. From the start, I have advocated for transparency in the judicial process, and I expect to offer you the same transparency with my life since I am an elected official.
Mr. All Wrong Page 23
