ZORA'S POVI dropped the glass of water I had absent-mindedly picked up and forgotten I was holding. My mind was still entirely on the conversation I had with Elliot at my office this afternoon. I scrubbed my hand across my face and tried to think of something else, but it was useless. Thoughts of the conversation kept intruding. On a second thought, I decided that 'conversation' was a mild word for what had happened. At the end, we had more of an argument. I began to think that I perhaps shouldn't have asked for Elliot's opinion on what to do about the rumors. I had asked that question once before when the rumours about the kids paternity first started making the rounds. Elliot had given me a solution I didn't want to even consider. I should have known that was the same solution he was going to peddle this time. Now, Elliot and I were now not exactly on good terms.I had adamantly refused to agree to all he had said about telling the world the truth about the kid's paternity. My refu
ELLIOT'S POV"Shit!" I exclaimed.I dropped the phone on the table and angrily brushed aside the file in front of me. It opened and some papers fluttered out of it. Some ended up on the table, some on the floor. I massaged my temples and willed myself to calm the hell down. The conversation I had just had with Zora was frustrating to say the least. I had known she would be stubborn about this issue."But not to this extent, damnit!" I said aloud.Right now, I didn't know which made me feel worse, the crap and cooked up stories that had been over the news and internet, or Zora's stubbornness. For someone who was so smart and had gotten to the height of her career, she could make the most absurd decisions sometimes.It was times like this that made me hate the facet of Zora's character that tended to avoid confrontation at all costs. I had just told her that, in a harsh way, I admit. But she wasn't even willing to admit that was a problem. Instead she had pointed accusing finger back at
ZORA'S POVThe next day at work, I plodded through my tasks. In the aftermath of all that had happened the previous day, the mood at the office was somewhat glum. At the back of my mind was still the argument with Elliot. Trey had just been in to give me a report for on how far he had been able to carry out damage control. He hadn't made that much progress. Barely a couple of minutes after he left, I heard running footsteps heading my way. I pushed away my computer and stared at the door."What now?" I muttered to myself.To my surprise, the usually self contained Cheryl came barging into the office. She was waving a tab in front of her like a banner. She came around to my side of the desk."Ms Zora," she cried excitedly. "You need to see this." She pointed to the tab and handed it over to me.I blinked in confusion. "Huh? What's going on? Is it another item of news about me? If it is, I don't think-""Just look," Cheryl insisted.She thrust the tab into my hand. I stared at the scre
ZORA'S POVI tapped the steering wheel impatiently. My gaze kept darting from the time display on my dashboard to the building where Finn and Freya would come out from. So far, I was the only parent here and it was almost half an hour to the school's closing time. Cars began to drive into the compound a few minutes later. As soon as it was closing time, I sagged back into the car seat with relief when I heard the closing bell for the day ring. Almost immediately, I sat up and felt my body tense up again.This was the moment I had been dreading all morning. Had my kid's day at school been ruined? Were they suffering yet again because their mother was always in the public eye? I groaned as I again wondered if this was the day they got to ask the question I had been dreading, the question about who their father was. One of the school's security guards came into view. He was behind Finn and Freya, leading them in my direction. I got out of the car slowly. The security guard said something
ZORA'S POVI leaned back on the sofa with a sigh."It's really bad, but just calm down, Kathy.""Don't tell me to the calm down because I can't," Katherine said irritably. Her voice over the phone was shrill. She sounded a little out of breath and it seemed that she was pacing. "I don't even understand how you can be so calm about this. Thank goodness I'm not a public figure and that I'm not you. I would have flipped my lid.""Trust me, I completely lost it, but then what would my display of anger have accomplished?""Oh, mine would have accomplished a lot. If only I could get my hands on that loud mouthed, bloody bitch who Elliot was unfortunate to marry, I would have taught her a lesson that she would never forget. Does she actually think that she is going to get away with this shit?""I honestly don't know at this point. I think she may have one or two more aces up her sleeve."Katherine snorted. "She can't do much more damage than she has already done, can she? But she must know t
ZORA'S POVFreya tugged on my sleeve. "Come on, mum. Say something," she urged. After a few seconds, I nodded. "Okay. We are going out."The kids let out a whoop of delight, hugged themselves. They came down from my lap, jumped up and down excitedly."We are going out! Out! Out!" Finn chanted excitedly, and began dancing in circles around Freya, who giggled and kept turning to keep him in sight until she began getting a little dizzy. "Alright. You two-" I said after a while in which they had indulged in unrestrained merriment. "-go and get dressed. I've laid out your clothes on your bed. Make sure you dress properly."They darted off at once to obey. It felt good to see them so happy, happier than they had been in a very long time. After a while, I went after them. They had already gotten dressed, or at least attempted to. Finn had put his shoes on wrong and Freya had somehow gotten her hair into a mess. I rolled my eyes. "You call this getting properly dressed?" I told them as I
ZORAS POVI plonked down on the couch in front of the television with a sigh. I leaned forward, picked up the remote control which was between Finn and Freya. With a grimace, I dusted off the cookie crumbs on it. "Mum," Finn said, turning to me and pausing in the act of conveying a cookie in his mouth, while eyeing the remote control. "Freya and I are watching the cartoon."Freya nodded and grunted assent, not bothering to speak, as her mouth was crammed full of cookies. "Well, I want to watch the news." Finn scrunched up his face. "Mums also watch television, you know."Finn was about to say something else when a giggling Freya snatched the cookie he was holding and ate it all up. Finn let out a cry of protest and proceeded to grab as many cookies as he could from the jar. "Take it easy you two. The cookies aren't running away," I said as I leaned back against the sofa. I put on the entertainment news channel. They were showing a news article about the just concluded fashion week
ZORA'S POVThe room was silent for a long moment. The tension in it was thick enough to be cut with a knife. I could feel strain rolling in waves all over me. Trey was muttering under his breath, his eyes darting here and there. "How the hell did we get here?" he ground out. He looked from me to Cheryl and back again. "In the past, things have been bad, no doubt, but not this bad, damnit! Not like this."He banged his fist on the table so hard that the things on it rattled. He seemed to realize what he had just done, and snatched his hand back. He sighed tiredly. "How does this all get to go away?" he said, half to himself. He looked to Cheryl again. She looked clueless, probably the exact same way I looked. Her shoulders were hunched and she kept mussing up her perfect beauty shop curls in her agitation. Now that things had gone out of hand, I had to inform Cheryl and Trey about what was happening with the CSP. Cheryl had known that something was afoot, of course, but had beensho