“Aaron!”
“What does it say?” I look at her. She bites her lip. “Dottie. Tell me now!”
“She said that if you don’t pay within the hour, she’ll have it distributed to a large number of websites and presses ready to run a breaking news story first thing tomorrow. They’re waiting for her story.”
“Will she f**k.” There’s no wavering in his voice. Despite his lack of jacket and tie, Aaron looks as serious as ever. “Dottie, get me her on the phone ten minutes ago.” He turns. “Alexander, get something drawn up that prevents her from contacting either Dayton or me for the next f**king lifetime. This ends right now.”
“Aaron, you can’t pay her!” I wrench myself from his mom’s grip. “Don’t be so f**king stupid!”
He brings his eyes to mine. “I told you before that there isn’t a price I wouldn’t pay for you, Dayton. And now I’m telling you to sit the hell down and let me deal with this.”
I breathe in deeply. No. He can’t do this. He can’t pay her off. “You can’t. Your divorce terms.”
“Stated she can’t contact me. Not the other way around.”
“She’s on the line,” Dottie interrupts, holding the phone out.
Everything in me wants to reach forward and grab that phone. I want to tear it from his hands and scream into the receiver. I want to yell and cry and scream until I’m hoarse, until she understands what she’s caused.
Carly reaches for my hands, but I pull them away, shaking my head. Everyone in this room, this packed room, is on high alert. There are phones and tablets and laptops everywhere. There is no silence, not for the constant ringing and keyboard-tapping and talking. Even Monique is standing in the corner, her cell to her ear, speaking frantically into her phone. It’s a crazy kind of organized carnage.
I follow Aaron into his office and slip inside quietly.
“No, Naomi. No. You’re un-fucking-believable… No, I found out through necessity. She kept it from me because she was willing to destroy herself to protect me… No, you wouldn’t understand that, would you? You have no concept of love… Regardless, your demands have been met. Visit your bank in the morning and you will find the requested amount deposited into your account, plus interest for the last four weeks. You’ll also be receiving a call from your lawyer in New York explaining about the lawsuit being brought against you should you contact either of us again… Slander. Defamation of character. Invasion of privacy. Blackmail.”
Silence.
“Fantastic. Then we’re on the same page. One more word to Dayton or me and you’ll find yourself in the middle of a legal battle you’ll never win. And don’t doubt me for a second. I told you before you don’t f**k with the woman I’m in love with. Goodnight.”
The phone hits his desk with a clatter. I bite the inside of my lip and stare at his back. At the way he leans forward, grasping the edge of his desk, and takes a deep breath. At the way he stands, turning to me, his eyes finding mine with a fierceness I’ve never seen before.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I whisper. “Paid her. She doesn’t deserve it.”
“But you do. You deserve every f**king cent I have and more. Money is expendable, gorgeous. There’ll always be more of it. I can always make more. I can never have another you. She can have everything, but she can’t have you.”
I lean against the mirror and hug myself. God, to be loved this much. To be loved in a way you don’t feel you deserve, in a way so utterly that you are the center of their world. That you’re the f**king axis their world hovers on, the gravity making it spin.
To be loved so much that you really are the most valuable thing they have.
Aaron touches his lips to mine gently yet firmly. A promise. A certainty. A forever.
I wrap my arms around his waist because I need him to hold me. I need to feel the warmth and security that comes from his arms, and I’m not afraid to admit that, after years of being so strong, I feel weak.
Like my world is being ripped from under me and torn into pieces. Like my fear could overwhelm me until I can no longer breathe. Like the very man I’m holding on to could be tugged away from my grip.
“Strength comes from giving yourself to another. It comes from deep in your heart, the very thing you share with that other person. It comes from knowing that fear isn’t an option where a future is so certain.” He cups my cheek and touches his forehead to mine. “It comes from every time we look into each other’s eyes and see every ounce of love we feel reflected back.”
I close my eyes and turn my face into his palm. “But it’s not over, is it?”
“No, sweetheart. Not yet. So you need to let me go again and let me finish this. Okay?”
I nod. “Okay. I’m going to bed. I need to be alone.”
Wordlessly, he takes me into our room. He pulls off his shirt and hands it to me. “Never alone, Dayton. Never.”
My dress falls from my body and I wrap myself in the soft, warm cotton of his white shirt, buttoning it before I bury myself beneath the covers. I feel almost childlike, needing to escape the horror situation born from me.
Aaron crouches before me, cupping my head, and takes my mouth in another promising kiss I feel beating away at the fear in my veins.
“When this shit is all said and done, I’m going to take you away to somewhere no one can find us and we’re going to make up for every second we’ve lost to another person,” he whispers in the dark. “I’m going to be the most selfish bastard in the world and keep you all to myself for as long as I can.”
“I’m totally okay with that,” I whisper.
“It was happening anyway.” He kisses me again, and a hint of amusement tugs at the corners of my mouth. Even now, in the midst of a hellish disaster, my man can make me smile.
True love, people.
Right f**king here is true love.
When everything seems dark, like it’s all going to shit, but the love you have still lights up your body and sends your heart racing, you know you have a love worth holding on to. Even if it destroys you.
The door clicks shut as he leaves the room, and I pull the covers up farther. I tug them over my head until I’m fully encased beneath the warmth of our sheets and close my eyes, hoping that, tomorrow, everything will be a little bit brighter.
***
I wake to darkness and a welcome silence. The earlier hum of noise from endless conversations is no more. I stretch my arm to the side, feeling for Aaron, but instead, my hand lands on empty sheets.