Back to the Top (Ross Records) (3) (18 page)

“It’s a great car, Iz,” Jake said, putting the roof down. “Dependable. And we got a great price.”

“It’s still your car,” I insisted. “Not mine.”

“Whatever you say,” he replied with a maddening grin. “But you can drive it whenever you want.”

Rolling my eyes, I turned my head to admire the scenery outside the window. Summer was quickly encroaching on spring and the foliage was overwhelmingly green. Wild flowers were springing out of the ground, coloring the sides of the two lane road with blues and yellows.

The gates were reporter-free for once and as we pulled up the drive, I gazed across the grassy grounds, picturing the barren flower beds bursting with color.

“Do you have a gardener or anything?” I asked. We stepped out of the car only to be greeted by an energetic BK, slobbery tennis ball in his mouth.

“No,” Jake said. “Matty’s uncle takes care of cutting grass and stuff like that. Last year, Greta planted some flowers and put plants on the deck – but it got to be too much for her taking care of my yard and hers.”

I nodded as I patted BK’s head, taking the soaked ball from his mouth and launching it across the yard.

“I could probably find a good gardener or something,” he mused as we stood next to each other, watching BK bound across the yard.

“How about if I do it?” I suggested, ducking my head to avoid his eyes.

“Yeah?” he asked, ducking to meet my gaze. “You like doing that sort of thing?”

Smiling, I shrugged. “I did a little gardening with the kids at the Center. I liked it.”

I wasn’t sure where the idea had come from – I wasn’t even sure how long I would even be staying with Jake – but it sounded fun in my mind.

Pulling me into a hug, Jake kissed the top of my head. “Have at it, Iz. You can do whatever you want. I think it would be great to have some color out here and I don’t know much about flowers or plants.”

I didn’t know a whole lot, either, but I was willing to learn.

Linking our hands, Jake led me into the house, musing aloud about what to make for lunch. As soon as we stepped into the kitchen, Jake’s phone rang.

“Hey, Greta,” he said. “What’s up?”

As he listened, his face tensed, lines deepening around his mouth as his forehead developed deep grooves. My heart slowed as if waiting to see what sort of news Greta was delivering now.

Ending the call, Jake looked at me as Nick walked into the room.

“What’s up?” Nick asked.

“Greta has something to show us,” Jake said, arms folded across his chest. “And I don’t think we’re going to like it.”

***

Huddling on the sofa, my eyes followed Jake as he paced back in forth in front of the big window. Nothing anything Nick said removed that tension in Jake’s shoulders.

I’d tried to get answers out of him but he merely shook his head, asking me to wait for Greta to get there.

The sound of tires on the dirt drive rolled into the open windows, alerting me to Greta’s arrival. Jake was out the door before I even got to my feet, Nick right behind him.

I stood back, wrapping my arms around my middle, as Jake thrust open the door, hurrying Matt and Greta inside.

“Let me see it,” Jake demanded.

“Hold on,” Greta said, dropping her bag on the sofa. “Let me get inside, would you?”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Matt flashed me a grim smile as Greta removed a magazine from her bag. And what do you know; it was my old favorite,
The Star Gazer
.

Jake ripped it open, barely giving me time to see Brad’s forlorn face on the cover. My blood chilled as I waited for Jake to finish reading the article.

“How bad is it?” I asked Greta.

Draping an arm around my shoulders, she gave me a squeeze. “Not that bad, I don’t think, but I doubt if anyone will be calling you sweet Isabella anymore.”

I snorted, earning a grin from Matt. Nick stood next to Jake, reading over his shoulder, his body tensing, too.

“Hurry up, speed reader,” Greta urged. “Let Iz see it.”

Jake finished and handed me the paper. I scanned the headlines with trepidation, preparing myself for what I was about to read.

Is Sweet Isabella So Sweet? Her Fiancé Tells All.

I refrained from rolling my eyes and I began to read.

Rumors have been circulating that Controlled Environment front man, Jake Johnson, has recently reunited with old flame, Isabella Ames. But at what cost?

Star Gazer
has learned that when Johnson and Ames split, Isabella dropped out of college and met Brad Stanich, a wealthy business man. They quickly became engaged but Isabella ended the engagement just months before the nuptials were to happen.

“What the hell?” I asked aloud. “Seriously? We’d never even set a date!”

“It gets better,” Jake growled. “Read on.”

“I loved her dearly,” Brad Stanich told us. “I gave her everything she wanted – would have given her the world. But the whole time we were together, she kept sneaking off to meet up with Jake Johnson.”

Stanich, clearly distressed, went on to tell us that when he met Isabella, her family was in dire financial need. He helped them out the best he could and in the meantime, fell in love with Isabella.

“I was delighted to finally meet a woman that completed me,” Stanich said. “And when she agreed to have dinner with me that first time, I was ecstatic.”

Stanich says that as the relationship grew, he helped Isabella’s family to get back on their feet. He and his father bought the Ames family law firm and paid off hefty gambling debts accrued by Richard Ames, Isabella’s grandfather.

“I recommended Isabella for the administrator’s job at the Children’s Center,” Stanich said. “They hired her as a favor to me. The children loved her but she resigned. Now the children wonder why Miss Ames left them. They aren’t old enough to understand that she left to be with her lover.”

Stanich claims that Ames has been meeting with Johnson since early spring, possibly longer. He only recently found out after they set a wedding date and he gave her a credit card to shop for a dress.

“She laughed in my face,” he said, choking up. “She threw the card back and said she was leaving.”

He explained that she told him that she was going to move in with Johnson.

“I don’t know what it is about that fellow,” Brad said as tears formed in his eyes. “Maybe she’s fallen in with his drug habits. If that’s the case, and certainly it must be, I’d be more than happy to get her the help she needs and welcome her back home.”

I inhaled deeply, allowing the oxygen to soothe some of my anger. It didn’t work. Wadding the paper in my hands, I threw it to the floor.

“That lying bastard!” I said, my hands trembling as I tugged my phone out of my back pocket. Storming through the room, I headed for the deck, eager for fresh air.

“Don’t call him, Iz,” Jake said as he followed me. “That would just be playing into his hands.”

Shaking my head, I fought tears as I dialed a familiar number. “Daddy? Please tell me Grandpa hasn’t read
The Star Gazer
today.”

My father laughed. “I doubt it. Your grandfather isn’t much for tabloids. Why?”

“Brad went to
The Star Gazer,”
I said, sucking in air to prevent hyperventilation. “He told them a bunch of lies.”

“Okay, Belle, calm down,” Dad said. “I’ll run out and get one to see what it says. You stay put and I’ll call you back. All right?”

I nodded and then realized that he couldn’t see me. “Yeah. Okay.”

Ending my call, I turned to Jake and the others, summoning the courage to spill all and tell them the truth.

“My grandpa has been sick,” I explained. “Heart problems. I don’t want him to see that article and get upset.”

“Sure,” Jake said, crossing the deck to take my hand. “Sit, Iz.”

I shook my head. “My dad went out to get a copy and is going to call me back.”

“He can call you back while you sit,” Jake said, gently urging me into a chair. “Your knees are knocking so hard I’m surprised the neighbors can’t hear it.”

I hadn’t realized that I was trembling that badly until I sat. “What a mess. He’s such a liar.”

“Yes, and we know that,” Greta said. “We know you, Iz, and we’re going to believe whatever you tell us.”

“It’s obvious that Stanich is grasping at straws,” Matt continued. “He’s doing whatever he can to try to convince you to go back to him.”

“Well, it’s not going to work,” I said. “He hit me. And he was so calm and cool about it that it made me wonder if he’d hit other women before. If that’s the case, do you think that the time he hit me was going to be an isolated incident?”

“No,” Nick said.

I plunged forward before Nick could continue his comment. “And even if it was an isolated incident, I didn’t love the man and there was no way that I could marry him. I was an idiot to even agree to the engagement.”

“Why did you?” Greta asked, sinking into a chair next to me, cocking her head like a puppy hearing a strange noise.

Groaning, I dropped my head to my hands. “Brad blatantly lied about many things in that article. But he also told some truths.”

“What’s going on with your family?” Jake asked as he dropped to the deck beside my chair. “You can tell us anything, you know. We’ll help if we can.”

Lifting my head, I tossed it back so I could stare at the blue sky. A few scraps of cloud marred the otherwise perfection, reminding me of cotton candy being pulled apart.

“My grandfather developed a gambling problem,” I sighed. “No one knew – at least, not at first. It wasn’t until he owed a lot of money to several people that the truth started to come out. By then, though, it was too late. He’d been filtering money from the firm to pay bookies and other people. The firm’s books were audited by the IRS and Grandpa nearly was arrested and prosecuted. I still don’t know how my parents managed to get him out of that mess.”

“How does Brad factor into this?” Jake asked.

“Brad and Henry buy struggling businesses, tear them apart or turn them around, and sell them,” I explained. “They bought out the firm; placing partner’s from Henry’s original law firm there, keeping some of the employees, letting some go. Pretty soon, the firm was thriving again.”

“Who is Henry?” Nick asked.

“Brad’s father,” I said. “Once Henry got the firm running again, Mom and Dad resigned, deciding to go to work for another firm. At least, that’s the story I got. They may have been let go. I’m not sure.”

“So, Brad stepped in and did what?” Jake asked.

Sighing, I gave Jake a weak smile. “I was at college at West Village. I came home after Seth called me, explaining everything that was going on. I dropped out in order to be around to help my parents and my grandfather. I was at the law firm, helping my mother to pack up some of her personal belongings when I met Brad.”

I shuddered, remembering his smooth, suave charm that had seemed so genuine to my broken, shattered heart. “He seemed nice. He seemed to really care what happened to my family. When he asked me out to dinner, I agreed.”

Dropping my head, I toyed with a loose thread on my shorts. “Soon, he was calling me all the time. I did enjoy spending time with him, but I wasn’t in love with him. I didn’t really have romantic feelings. I just sort of went with it, thinking that we were sharing a friendship. But then he proposed.”

“And you accepted,” Greta finished. “But why?”

I released a long, tired breath. “I was desperate. My grandfather was ill, in the hospital after a massive heart attack. He was stressed and depressed and worried and ashamed. And he still had people calling the house and the law firm looking for money.”

“Brad offered to pay all that off, didn’t he?” Jake asked.

I nodded, too ashamed to speak.

“Iz,” Jake said in a soft voice as he took my hand. “Iz, don’t be ashamed or embarrassed. Who the hell are we to judge? You were in a tight spot and thought that you’d found a solution.”

“I didn’t know what else to do,” I admitted. “I tried to tell myself at night that it was all for Grandpa and my parents. I tried to think of the positives so I wouldn’t feel like a … prostitute.”

“You’re hardly a prostitute,” Greta said. “It was more like an arranged marriage. That thing used to happen all the time – still happens today, too.”

“I made a total mess of things,” I said.

“You didn’t gamble that money away,” Matt said.

“No, but by agreeing to marry Brad in exchange for help, and then breaking the engagement…” I couldn’t finish the sentence – didn’t want to think about it.

I managed a wry smile. “I think Seth knew, though. I think he realized that I wasn’t marrying Brad for love. We had a huge argument after the engagement and our relationship has been strained, since.”

“We’ll help however we can,” Jake said.