I sat silently in the car with my hands folded in my lap while Nolan drove to the station. How will I get over this nightmare? Just one moment of happiness and now I have been thrown into mourning. I looked outside the window at my reflection in the side mirror noting the puffiness of my eyes from lack of sleep and hours of crying. My nose was red and swollen and my lips were dry and cracked. I don’t think I would have had my bath if Nolan hadn’t helped me to the bathroom and even helped me brush my hair.Even though he wasn’t looking like his usual self he wasn’t any better than I looked. His hair was rough from where he had thrust his fingers in and pulled and his eyes were red-rimmed. Between us was his ashtray and he had smoked half a pack of cigarettes before we got to the station.The head of the missing persons department was already waiting for us when we arrived and I think that had something to do with Nolan yelling at him through the phone moments before we left the hotel.
I met her housekeeper who was surprised to see me. With my face plastered all over gossip columns as the woman who stole Nolan Pierce, I’m not surprised she recognized me instantly. But she had a friendly smile on her face for me.“Good morning ma’am.”“Where’s your mistress?” I asked, going straight into the heart of the issue. While she seems like a nice woman, I don’t care right now about being pleasant when the life of my son is at stake.“You just missed Miss Grant, she’s on her way to DNC’s morning show.”No doubt to gossip some more about me. I don’t care what Nolan thinks, Lurane is a bitch and bitches don’t change. They molt, revealing a new layer of bitchy. But not this time. This time I’ll stop her before she destroys me.“Thanks,” I hurriedly said to her housekeeper and ran back out of her property onto the major road and hailed a taxi. I gave him the address and sat back, twiddling my thumbs, too impatient to sit still. Eventually, we made it to the DNC broadcasting compa
Fiona was waiting in front of my office with a gloomy look in her eyes.She tried to smile. “Congratulations on your engagement,” she said trying to sound cheerful. But her face fell and she added. “I’m sorry about Nolen.”I nodded, unable to speak. I need to get this meeting with Douglas done and over with. I pushed the door and tried not to cringe at the sight of him standing there with a condescending look on his face as he took a look at my office.“Douglas.”He turned to face me with a patronizing smile. “Nolan. Look at you, son. Looking as good and ravishing as ever. Are the ladies still throwing themselves at Simone Pierce’s heir? Or maybe he will come back to his senses…”“What do you want?” I cut him off, eager to get him off my back.He laughed. “Impatient. Is this all you can afford after everything you’ve taken away from me?” he swept his hands around my office, looking condescendingly at the comfortable space.“I will not have insult me, Douglas. I believe Lurane must hav
“That doesn’t sound like the Nolan I know, baby. He is a good man and always has been. He loves you…”“But this is going to affect him negatively,” I cried. “His public image is ruined because of me and…”“You don’t Nolan well if you think he cares about that kind of stuff over his family,” Mom argued heatedly and desperately wanted to believe her but right now it felt as though the whole world was crashing on my head and there was nothing I could do about it.Mom didn’t stop there, she continued to defend Nolan’s honor. “Nolen is his child too, remember? We are women and we are emotional and Nolan would be the same too if he were in your shoes, which he is. You have to call him, Coco, this is a hurdle you both need to cross together.”I sniffed. “Okay, mom.”And right as I was about to hang up the doorbell rang and my heart beat sped. I walked quietly to the door and opened it and Nolan immediately swept in and pulled me into a hug.I collapsed in his embrace, clinging tightly to him
Nolan’s POVI sat in the bar nursing a glass of scotch, one of several that I had tossed down my throat in the darkness of the private lounge. I had a bottle in front of me and it was almost empty.At this time I was no longer just pleasantly tipsy, I was teetering off the edge of being very drunk to my eyeballs.Being in the private lounge gave me privacy but bits of music and noise seeped in from the main area. At least it was still quiet enough to leave me to my thoughts. And thoughts were back to those of a lanky teenager trying hard to accept that I was no longer a weird kid but the heir to an empire. That was not an easy pill to swallow but I still had to deal with the stigma of being the son of a murderer.But I am more than that and I continued to repeat it to myself. That’s probably why I have too much scotch to bury those memories deep enough so that they will never hunt me again.I know Chantelle is hurt but so am I and it’s unfair to…I struggled to suppress another sob. T
Coco’s POV“What the hell are you doing here?!”Jason held up his hand. “I am not here to fight, Chantelle. Good morning.”“Keep your greeting some place hairy where the sun don't shine!”Jason’s eyes shone with humor. “I don’t know, you might want to take a look.”Groaning, I reached for the door, stepped back, and started to swing it shut when he held it open and held his other hand up. I pushed but he was much stronger and his eyes turned pleading.“Please, l-let me start over. This wasn’t how I wanted this to happen. Look, I know you don’t trust me and you would rather see me in hell –““Good, now fuck off!”“Chantelle!” his voice was forceful, then his voice dropped and he added softly, “You look like hell.”Against my better judgment, my shoulders slumped and my guards dropped as tears pooled in my eyes again. Jason saw this and walked in slowly, his hand reaching out from me. When I shied away from him, his hand dropped to the side and he sighed.“I heard about what happened. I
Nolan’s POV. I glared at her with all the hatred I could muster. Behind this angelic face was a monster. “Nolan, come on, we are past this aren’t we?” I glared at her through blurred eyes. “Come on, Nolan,” Lurane said bending one hip so that she could rest one hand on it. “You don’t have to treat me like an enemy. We used to be…” “Whatever we were ended long ago. I want you to leave!” “You look like hell, Nolan,” she said nonchalantly even though I just made it clear that I didn’t want her around me. “You used to look a lot better when you were with me. Don’t you want to go back to the way we were?” I narrowed my eyes at her remaining at the door to block her entry into my house. “Lurane, you claim you have nothing to do with my son yet here you are just a day after, desperately trying to throw yourself at me.” “A woman has got to be resourceful. Life goes on, Nolan, with or without your son.” I fought the urge to reach out and grab her throat and she saw my struggle. She lo
Coco’s POVI sat down with Sophie for a long time and honestly, I wanted to remain silent while crying my eyes out and looking very ugly. Sophie, ever supportive, remained by my wait and waited for me to gather myself together.I don’t know how long we stayed the way we were but at some point, my eyes were too dry to cry anymore and I snatched a tissue from the box in front of me and blew my nose. When I snuck a glance up at Sophie her face was drawn with concern.I threw the tissue aside, hugged myself, and moved back so that I was resting my shoulders against the couch.“I should have a master class in foolishness,” I said in a croaked voice.Sophie was brutal with her response. “Self-pity. Is that really your defense against your foolishness?”I looked up at her shocked at the hardness in her voice. She still looked concerned for me but there was a brutal honesty etched in her face, one that I am sure that she has held back from me until this day.“You let this man into your home k