by Hadley Quinn
“No, they’re both boys!”
“Hmm, how about Simon and Garfunkel? Bert and Ernie? Oh, I know one you’d remember, Ben and Jerry!”
“Shut up!” she laughed.
“Not the ice cream duo? How about Batman and Robin?”
“You’ll just have to get used to Bo and Luke because I love it. And I think it suits them just fine.” She was quiet for a few seconds as they laid in the dark. “Hey, you think they’re okay?”
“They’re absolutely fine. You hear any noise? They’re together, so Ryan said they’d be quiet if we told them ‘bed for the night’.”
“I know. But mainly I want to go cuddle with them like a little kid. They’re my first dogs, you know.”
Max kissed the side of her face. “I know, babe. And you did great, sweetheart. They’re gonna love it here and we’ll love having them here. Thank you so much.”
“I can’t wait for Chase to meet them. He’s going to be so excited. I really hope they’re gentle around him though. What if—?”
“He’ll be fine. And we have a couple of weeks before he spends some time here again, so maybe we can make sure we’ve got all the commands down and stuff. I really don’t want to accidently tell them to search him.”
“Oh my gosh,” Anna laughed.
Max’s phone buzzed on his nightstand. He wasn’t going to answer it, but checked the screen to see who Mary had allowed to be forwarded at this hour.
“Fuck, it’s my dad,” he sighed. And it was almost midnight, so he figured he’d better answer it.
“Yeah, Dad, what’s up?”
“What’s up?” he repeated snidely. Max immediately felt his mood slip. “You read the tabloids lately?”
Max rubbed his eyes and blinked, even though it was too dark to see much. “No, I thought that was your job.”
“Very funny, smart ass. So I guess it’s not a big deal that Olivia Douglas is back in town and you two are starting where you left off six years ago. Oh, and let’s not forget the other headliner… The beautiful one of Kate holding Chase close; the title claiming that you’ve taken her son away from her. And—”
“Come on, Dad. She sets herself up for that garbage.” However, the thought of her using Chase for a tabloid photo op royally pissed him off. “A simple statement to the right people will take care of that rumor instantly.”
“Then do it, Max! You need to do some damage control right now! If you don’t have a new PR to fix this, I’ll hire someone for you.”
“What is there even to ‘fix’? It doesn’t matter what I do or say, those stories will run anyway.”
“This one needs a counter-story, Max.”
“I just don’t care anymore, okay? The only people who have a right to know about my life are the people I care about. And I want you to stay out of this mess, okay? Let it run its course. I have equal time with my son and that’s all I wanted. We both knew this was coming. Just let her dig her own grave.”
The silence on the other end was a bit deafening, but he waited for his father to either hang up on him or come back with something more.
Apparently it was the latter.
“I’m assuming you know about the bloody photos of that prick who attacked Kellie four years ago. So now it’s all over the news that Teague and Jay jumped some poor helpless guy and beat the shit out of him outside of a night club.”
Well, that wasn’t the news he wanted to hear. And yeah, he’d been worried about it, but just the idea of Kate going so low like that really pissed him off.
How far was she willing to go?
“I’ll handle the shit with Teague, but you fix your own stuff,” his dad said.
“Before you do anything, you need to talk to Teague first. He already knows that Kate was willing to throw any one of us under the bus.”
“Oh well that’s just fabulous. Who the fuck knows what she’s going to do next!?”
“It doesn’t matter. I have joint custody of my son, and she’s going to be an angry, selfish bitch all she likes, but my main goal is to keep it away from Chase. Let her look bad, not us.”
“This is ridiculous. You don’t fight fire with a trickle of water. How do you think I’ve survived in this industry? How do you think I’ve accomplished so much? It’s because I never backed down to threats. I’m ready to sue her scrawny little ass for defamation of character! She needs to be buried in her own shit!”
“She can’t touch me, Dad. What is she going to do?”
“Since when did you stop caring about your image? You really want to dump your legacy in the toilet? I can’t do this with you anymore. I’m done! Your name is off anything and everything associated with me or the studio. That goes for Chase, too. The last thing I need is that bitch coming after his share of the company when he’s older. You got your way, okay? Congratulations!”
That time Craig really did hang up on him.
When Max set his phone back on the nightstand, Anna rubbed a hand against his leg. “Obviously everything is not okay?”
With a sigh, Max situated himself back in bed, pulling her closer to him. “My father disowned me. Again.”
“Oh jeez, Max,” she answered with a worried chuckle. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Nothing to say. He’ll come around again. I just wish he could understand what kind of battle he’s fighting. It’s one where no one wins.”
“In his mind, that’s not true. To him, there might not be any other answer except to protect his sons the best way he knows how. That means bowing down is not an option.”
Max considered that for a second and concluded she was right. His father never did go after any minor rumor or anything that was obviously a fabricated accusation. And maybe the mess with Kate was really not the right time to be yielding.
“I truly don’t know what to do,” he sighed, rubbing his eyes in the dark. “Am I being idealistic with all of this?”
Anna paused for a moment, but her hand was lightly rubbing his chest. “I think you’re trying to do the right thing but there are too many variables. Maybe there isn’t a way to win at this, but I don’t think what you’ve chosen to do is wrong.”
“You don’t think I’m trying to sweep anything under the rug?”
“No, not at all. You do the best you can with what you’re given, right? You’ve chosen to lay low and not tangle with anyone on a public level. I see nothing wrong with that and I would do the same thing.”
“But you don’t think it’s realistic,” he stated more than asked.
She paused again. “Well…I think it is the better choice, but I honestly feel like… Shoot, I don’t know how to word it.”
“You honestly feel like I’m going to be fucked over anyway,” he nodded, reading between the lines.
“Yeah, pretty much,” she sighed. She laid her head against his chest. “Maybe it’s just my ‘expect the worst, hope for the best’ mentality but…I just don’t want you to be blindsided. I don’t want you to be hurt anymore than you have been.”
“Just because I choose to keep the peace, doesn’t mean I’m unaware of her intentions. She’s out for blood, I know that, but she’s gonna have to act on that on her own. It’s just not in me to be the aggravator. I texted her to see if we could meet about Chase and she told me to fuck off. So obviously cooperation is not on the to-do list. Never has been and probably never will be.”
The sad reality of that was impossible to overlook.
“Will you tell me more about you mom? You seem to avoid the subject. When I met her in person, you couldn’t sweep her under the rug so easily.”
He hesitated for a few beats. “I wasn’t avoiding it. Well, not entirely. I’m just not that close to her.”
“And why’s that?”
He sighed. “Well, I’m a typical kid of divorced parents. I split my time with them when my mom moved out. And to be honest, neither of my parents are very nurturing people. I grew up in a business family. Hugs and ‘I love yous’ were unheard of. My mom
’s family mostly worked in New York, and I did spend some time going back there with her and working on a couple of projects, but I didn’t want to move there when she did ten years ago. And I’m aware a lot of people have questioned why I tend to accommodate my dad over the years instead of my mom, given what they think they know about him.”
“So why have you?”
He paused, letting the truth roll around in his head for a while. “Because people don’t know it was my mom who had an affair first. Before my dad had his thing with Teague’s mom, my mom was stepping out on him first. A year before I was born, before they’d even been married for a year, she was going to leave my father for Anthony Davidson.”
“Whoa, what?” Anna gasped. “The Anthony Davidson? The one she co-starred with in the Angels series?”
“Yep. But Anthony ended up moving on to another actress, and his affair with my mom was never even known by the public.”
“So how did you know about it?”
“I heard her and my dad fighting about it one night. It was several years later, when I was seventeen. My dad was put through the ringer with tabloids because his affair had legitimate proof—Teague—but my mom kept her name in tact with her indiscretion because Dad kept the secret to himself. He protected her reputation back then, forgave her, and they reconciled and had me a year later. But when my dad had his fling, she never offered him the same courtesy.”
Anna scoffed. “Wow. Why?”
“I dunno. She claimed my dad had a few other women on the side and didn’t deserve a second chance.”
“Well that’s one thing, but she felt it was also necessary to damage his career?”
“I honestly don’t think she was happy in the marriage to begin with. I don’t know how the rumors hit, but once Teague came to live with us, it pretty much solidified anyone’s doubt. But other than trying to get me to move to New York back then, she really didn’t invest much time in me. She supported me and played the role of the proud mom when necessary—and that’s fine, it is what it is—but no, we’re not really close when it comes to anything more. She wouldn’t even be able to tell you my favorite foods.”
“So… Do you resent your mom? I mean…do you feel like you had to choose one parent over the other?”
“Mmm, not really. They both messed up so I feel like their mistakes canceled the other’s out. It put them on equal ground in my eyes. It basically came down to living in California or New York for me, so I chose to stay where Teague, Jay, and Kellie were. But like I said, we’ve just never been a warm family. Teague and I had better relationships with our housekeepers and bodyguards than we did our parents. They didn’t love each other enough to be loyal, bottom line.”
Anna was quiet for so long, Max thought she’d fallen asleep. But a minute later she asked, “Do you worry that the same thing is going to happen to you?”
The question caught him by surprise, but yes, seeing his parents stumble through a failed relationship had probably formed his opinions early on. “It’s always a possibility, I guess.”
“Not with me,” she stated firmly. “You don’t ever have to worry about my loyalty, Max. Never.”
She threw a leg on top of his and squeezed as much of his body as she could, almost like she was trying to prove how tightly she’d hang onto him. He wanted to respond, but really had no words except to hold her securely in return.
He actually felt that was enough for the both of them.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Welcome to the club,” Teague said. “I’m going on, what—? Four years of disownment from Dad now?”
Max couldn’t help but laugh, but the whole situation was a fucking nightmare. Headlines were everywhere, from shit with Olivia Douglas to defamation battles with Kate, and then the added crap about him and his father. Making light of it was seriously the only way he could deal with everything right now.
“I say you go on record with everything she did,” Teague stated matter-of-factly. He slid himself out from under Max’s Chevelle and stood, brushing himself off. “Maybe Dad is right on this one. Fight fire with fire.”
“Not you too,” Max sighed. “Come on, man. Why is this even happening? All I want is peace, not another world war.”
“Well you’re gonna get a war, whether you like it or not. And this is about Chase.”
“Exactly. So I don’t want to do anything that could affect my relationship with him in the future. You know what that’s like. I can’t afford to set myself up for that. You’ve already been there. You already did what you could to make sure Chase’s business stayed private.”
“And sometimes I wish I hadn’t. I mean…maybe it was the right thing to do and maybe it wasn’t. Sometimes I just don’t know.”
“Well neither do I. I’m doing the best I can, though. I can’t do any better than that.”
Teague exhaled as he grabbed the car keys from the wall and tossed them to his brother. “I know you are. And let’s test the timing on this.”
They both climbed in with Max behind the wheel. But just as he got to the gate to exit, another car pulled up the driveway. Max paused, his hand on his phone to call Jake, but he recognized that town car and watched his father step out from the back seat. He walked up to the Chevelle without hesitation.
“This doesn’t look good,” Teague mumbled.
“Return to the house, we have to talk,” Craig commanded. “And before you throw a little toddler fit, this is serious so just do as I say.”
Max’s first thought was something happened to his grandfather, or maybe there was some type of problem with the movie his father was producing and he wanted to bitch at him for causing it. Before he could object, Craig was already returning to his car and it started pulling forward.
Max sighed and began to back his car to the house.
“Grandpa?” Teague made a guess as they pulled back into the garage.
“I don’t know,” Max shook his head.
By the time all three men were in the house, Craig pulled out a tablet and set it on the kitchen table. “Kathryn sent this to me,” he said, referring to his PR specialist.
Neither Max nor Teague said a word as he pushed play on a video. It was an intro to a popular news show, announcing a major story they would be airing.
“You’ve known the McCallans to be one of the biggest names in movie history,” the host announced. “From big screen red carpet to some of the most intriguing Hollywood buzz imaginable.”
Several photos were being displayed during the narration. Max saw pictures of himself, his father and grandfather, and even his uncle, brother, and cousins. Some of the photos he’d seen and some he hadn’t, but it was quite a glamorous production.
“But behind all of that illustrious face time, do the McCallans have more to hide than they’ve let on? Are there secrets that have been hidden by lies and expensive smoke screens?”
Now there were more photos, but they were of the less-than-lovely variety; his uncle being arrested years back, Kellie’s anger lashing out at some paparazzi, and the last one…a very unpleasant photo of Nate Butler—bloody and bruised, and obviously roughed up. Max assumed it was the same photo his father had bitched about the other night.
“And then the latest, a nasty custody battle between Max McCallan and his ex girlfriend, Kate Donnelly.” The picture of Kate holding Chase was plastered on the screen, and then Max’s photo appeared side-by-side. “A bitter conflict that has been going on for years, even involving several members of the McCallan family.”
“I can’t believe she did this,” Max muttered, shaking his head.
“No?” his dad growled. “Keep watching.”
“If you’ve ever wondered what might go on behind the scenes with this family, we have an exclusive inside look for you tomorrow night. I sat down with Kate Donnelly in a full disclosure interview. We talked extensively on the McCallans, some of their dark secrets, and Max McCallan’s relationship with her and her son.”
It cut to
part of the actual interview as proof, and there was Kate dressed nicely with very little makeup on. She looked like a well-respected businesswoman and nothing glamorous like how she normally appeared. Max was positive she had her hair and makeup done on a daily basis and that she had a personal tailor or wardrobe designer, but in the interview…she looked average.
“I think you’d be very surprised at what they’ve been hiding,” she was saying to the interviewer. “And you have proof of these offenses and misconduct?” the host asked. Kate smiled and nodded her head. “Yes. I do.”
Craig paused the video and turned to his sons. He waited for several seconds before he spoke. “This so-called news show will air at ten o’clock tonight.”
“It’s retaliation for the custody hearing,” Max replied. “She threatened she would expose whatever she could, and she’s sticking to it. And…in a grandiose manner.”
Max was going to ask how in the fuck she got on Celebrity Insider but he already knew. That particular nightly news show had begged for McCallan interviews for years and never got one. The show was a bit aggressive with their interviewing, and rarely acquired celebrities who were actually doing well and didn’t need the publicity. They pretty much liked the celebrity sob stories, the legal battles, and all the negative drama they could get their hands on.
“So what’s the worst they’re gonna air?” Teague asked. “I saw Nate Butler. I swear to God that is not what he looked like when Jay and I left him that night. The guy had a bloody mouth and may have puked a couple of times, but that’s it.”
“You think that really matters?” Craig asked. “They show that photo and say you did it, it’s as good as fact to all the viewers who believe this shit.”
“I don’t even care,” Teague answered. “And I have nothing to hide. I haven’t done anything to warrant any kind of public backlash. I don’t care about any of my shit anyway. I’m worried about what this is going to do to Chase in the future.”
Max had nothing to say. He felt sick to his stomach.
“I’ve tried gaining access to the taping but have been unsuccessful,” Craig said.
