Nicholas’ hand squeezed mine as he shook his head. “No. Don’t do that. You were right about one thing, the scandal itself would be enormous. I head a top media company in the country, and if the truth came out, I would be linked to it, regardless of my innocence in terms of legality.” He took a deep breath. “For now, it would be best if you could continue playing your part with Simon. Let him believe I have no idea, even throw him a bone or two that you are working to end my marriage.”
My stomach twisted, but I tried to put on a brave face, despite the tears welling in my eyes. Nicholas pulled my chair closer to his, letting go of my hand and hugging me tightly.
“This will be resolved with Simon soon, one way or the other, but for now just keep up appearances.” Nicholas continued addressing his father while crushing me to his chest. “Don’t tell anyone about Willow being pregnant. We likely have a couple of months before it will be obvious, and hopefully, all this will be over at that point. I’ll figure out a way to deal with Simon.”
His hands rubbed up and down my back, and I concentrated on his steady heartbeat next to my ear. Although it was comforting to know Jefferson would only be pretending, it was still nerve-wracking that someone was out there gunning for me to be gone from Nicholas’ life.
A sob from Clara pulled me out of my haze, and I sat up to find her crying into some tissues.
“It’s so unfair to you both. This should be such a happy time.” She met my eyes, hers filled with tears. “I just want you to know, I’m so very sorry you have to deal with this now. And no matter what, there will come a day very soon when I’m going to shout to everyone listening how excited I am you’re pregnant and you’re my daughter-in-law. I’ll throw you the most beautiful baby shower ever.”
I laughed a little, getting out of my chair to walk over and give her a hug. She meant well, even if I didn’t give a flip about any baby shower. In fact, she was the only one-aside from our friends-who had been on our side from the start.
“You put the reception together despite all this,” I said, watching her eyes.
She lifted her chin. “Yes. The fight I got from wanting to celebrate your marriage was the reason I ended up forcing Jefferson to tell me what was going on. I’m only sorry any of the Hewitt was there at all.” She blew out an angry breath, seething in her chair. “It took me a while after that before I could even look at Jefferson, but I love him. He made a terrible mistake, but he takes up too much space in my heart not to forgive him.”
I nodded. “I understand.”
She placed her hands around mine. “We’ll get this fixed. Nicholas will know what to do.”
After getting her calmed down and taking my seat again, I decided to ask what had been in the back of my mind for a while.
“Before, when Nicholas was talking to me, you seemed surprised when he mentioned the name Willis. Why was that?”
Jefferson rubbed his face with his hand and nodded. “Yes, it’s the oddest thing. Of course, I was aware Rosemary married him and divorced him… both rather quickly, but I hadn’t heard that name in a long time. Back then, Simon would refer to him as ‘The Maggot’ or some other equally derogatory term. But Nicholas mentioning his name triggered a memory from just a couple of months ago.”
He drummed his fingers on the tablecloth, a behavior I’d seen Nicholas do from time to time when he was deep in thought.
“I was at Simon’s house, walking to his office, and heard him talking to someone on the phone. He was shouting, and I had no idea who he was angry with, but I hovered outside until he finished. I don’t think he had any idea I was out there.” He waved his hand. “Anyway, he said something to the effect of you owe me, Willis… see that it’s done and you’ll get paid.”
Nicholas was frowning, and I imagined the wheels turning in his head.
I squeezed his hand until he turned toward me. “Do you think it’s possible? Did Simon put him up to it?”
“Up to what?” Jefferson asked. Nicholas stared at me, anger flickering in his eyes as he told them what we both suspected. “Simon paid Hector to follow Willow. That son-of-a-bitch was behind it all.”
He went on to tell his parents everything that had happened with Hector. The stalking, the pictures, the confrontation. He even mentioned the therapist, which segued right into Rosemary.
“I haven’t told your mother,” Jefferson interrupted. “She doesn’t know what Rosemary did to you in San Rafael. Geoffrey told me…”
Nicholas sighed, and I felt the same exhaustion that was written over his face. Even though it was better everything was out in the open now, it was still tiring and mentally draining to pour it all out at once.
I rubbed his leg and turned toward Jefferson. “I think it’s best if you two discuss that later. In private. While Rosemary did some horrendous things back then to hurt Nicholas, she’s now become another player trying to come between us. Another thing we wanted to talk about tonight was her current behavior.”
I filled them in on Rosemary sending me threatening mail, her confronting me at my reception, and her trying to extract information about me and Nicholas through his secretary and lawyer.
“Like father, like daughter,” Clara said.
Jefferson looked almost ill, sitting there in silence. He didn’t say a word, but I hoped he felt awful about all his attempts to push Rosemary and Nicholas together.
“I feel like I have enough dirt on both Simon and Rosemary to force them both to back off and leave us all alone,” Nicholas said, before looking at his father. “What do you think?”