Dazzle: The Billionaire's Secret Surrogate (Contemporary BWWM Romance) (14 page)

Kady had not returned to Dazzle since the day of the interview that she had walked out on. The place was a lot less crowded this time, and the décor was just as nice. Also, Athena or perhaps her secretaries had added a few more personal touches here and there. She walked over to the bulletin board and had a strange urge to run her hand over the spot she’d found the ad that had brought her and Archer together that day.

Unfortunately, the place was usurped by a carelessly placed copy of a newspaper clipping about Mia and Archer’s expected bundle of joy. Angry beyond words, Kady grabbed the paper and ripped the offensive article off the wall and threw it into the nearest waste bin. “I hate her! Mia has seriously got to get committed for some kind of psychiatric evaluation, I swear!”

“Miss?” the secretary called when she saw this, giving Kady a strange look as she watched her complaining to herself in the middle of the expensive lobby.

“Oh, sorry,” said Kady as she turned to look at her at last.

“Hey, you’re that girl!” she gasped. “The one Athena’s been looking for.”

“Yes, well, she’s found me,” Kady replied with a smirk, thinking of all the many coincidences that led to them being thrown in one another’s paths. “She wants me to do a pregnancy shoot for her.”

“Uh, wait,” said the secretary, scrunching her nose in confusion. “Athena said that I should be watching out for Archer’s girlfriend. Isn’t that the one whose picture you just tossed into the trash?”

Angry all over again, Kady bit her lip and rolled her eyes. She read the woman’s name tag, and in a carefully calm voice she said, “Ellen, let me tell you something. Mia is not, nor has she ever been, Archer’s girlfriend. If she comes in here again, you should make her leave immediately. She has no place anywhere near Archer, Athena, or myself.”

“Seriously?” she gasped, her face going red. “Because I’ve seen her come here practically every day for weeks now. If she hasn’t been meeting with Athena, then who in this building does she actually know?”

“I’m not sure,” Kady said, her mind whirling with the new information. “But I think it would be a really good idea to find out.”

The secretary led her behind the giant front desk, and reached for the little white button that connected all the rooms with a speaker system.

“Athena, your missing model slash future daughter-in-law is here, and we have a huge question for you,” Ellen said into the intercom.

“Oh? What might that be?” came Athena’s response, crackling back at them over the speaker.

Kady spoke instead the next time Ellen pushed the button. “Did you know that Mia has been coming to this building for weeks, according to your secretary? You haven’t been meeting with her, right?”

“Why would I want to meet with that gold-digging, lying little trollop?” Athena demanded hotly. “Ellen, have you been letting her come in here?”

“I thought she was Archer’s girlfriend all this time,” Ellen apologized, still looking confused as she tried to untangle the story that Kady was telling, and the one all the newspapers and gossip rags were telling. “I assumed she was meeting with you.”

“Well, that’s what you get for thinking, then,” Athena said, and Kady could almost see her shaking her head, her French twist shaking back and forth. “Bring Kady into the shooting room, will you? Alfonso’s been waiting for her there. I’ll join you as soon as I am able, Kady, and the three of us can have an early lunch to discuss this matter. And Ellen, next time you aren’t formally introduced by me to a person, you should let me know they’re here and have me come down to make sure they are who they say they are. Got that?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, flipping the off switch again. “Come on, Kady—Ross, is it? I remember the name well enough after the search we were put through.”

“Really?” Kady asked curiously, remembering what Athena had mentioned about searching for her, but she had never heard the whole story.

“Yes, as a matter of fact I’m the one Athena sent out to your old apartment, but the landlady said you had moved out,” she explained. “I even called your mother as well. She called back here about a week ago trying to find you.”

“Why would she—“ Kady began.

“Sounds like her husband heard about your change in fortunes,” Ellen scoffed. “She said she’d heard you got a rich boyfriend, but I had no idea what she was talking about Archer. Well, come on, follow me. You’ll love Alfonso, he’s a real sweetheart.”

Kady’s stomach dropped at the news that Ellen had casually dropped. So that’s why her jerk husband had tried to call. She knew it was about the money, but she had held out some small flicker of hope that they cared about her, and were worried. She laughed cynically to herself. She guessed not.

When they entered the room, they found a bald white guy in a gold silk shirt and some tight-fitting white jeans. He wore jewelry everywhere but on his hands, which were noticeably devoid of rings. Curious, Kady stared for a moment as she tried to figure out why.

“Girlfriend, the rings get in the camera’s way,” he chuckled as he saw where she was looking. “But as soon as I’m done here, I guarantee they’ll all be right back where they belong.”

“I see,” Kady replied with a laugh, instantly like this man.

“Well, especially the one from David,” he added. “He hates it when I take it off, but I can’t stand anything to hinder my hands at all when I’m working. This room is my canvas, and you, sweetheart, you are my work of art. So, how far along are you anyway?”

“Twenty-two weeks,” Kady said with a smile.

Glancing at her body, he said, “You’re having a boy, I see.”

“I wouldn’t know,” she said, wrapping her hands around the swell of her stomach as she shook her head. “I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.”

“A conventional kind of girl, huh?” he smirked. “Well, anyway, all the clothes were selected for your size, and they are waiting in the dressing stall. Why don’t you go ahead and pick one out.”

“What, you don’t have a particular preference then?” Kady asked.

“No, honey, go ahead.” He grinned at her, “I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.”

With a nod and a chuckle, Kady did exactly that.

Kady, Ellen, and Athena sat together in a booth at a nearby restaurant waiting for the waitress to serve their food. The atmosphere was a bit snarky but somehow also rather lively as the three discussed Archer’s problematic fan-girl in depth.

“I mean, the only time I ever saw Archer anywhere near that girl was at the restaurant one time, and Kady has already confirmed that he went home with her that night,” Athena pointed out. “Where does she begin to believe that she’s going to convince anyone that she’s having his child when she isn’t even showing—assuming she is pregnant at all?”

“How do you know she’s not just waiting for Kady to have her baby so she can steal it?” Ellen pointed out, not helping Kady’s frame of mind at all.

“Oh, I really did not need to hear that!” Kady protested. “I’m stressed out enough as it is.”  She had to let out a forced chuckle as a thought occurred to her. “Besides, the baby will be half white, and half black. Not even a little bit Asian. Don’t you think people would notice?”

Ellen conceded the point with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

“You are right about the stressed part, though,” Ellen smirked, remembering what she’d done at the office upon her arrival there. “But the good news is that since you’re the one sitting here at this table with me and Archer’s mother, it’s pretty apparent which one of you is the real girlfriend, at least to my way of thinking.”

“I just wish I could get her to stop printing lies in the papers,” Kady complained. “You would think that was a violation of the restraining order, wouldn’t you?”

“I believe it must be,” Athena agreed, and Kady could practically see the wheels in her head turning as she thought it over. “I’m going to have Samuels look into that right away. By the way, Kady, there’s another matter I need to mention that he told me about. You know that Archer was attacked the other day, yes?”

“Yeah, don’t remind me,” Kady frowned, remembering the awful black eye and numerous scrapes that she saw on his beautiful face on that day she had visited him. “I’m just glad he’s okay.”

“Well, it sounds like his employee, Parker Chou, was a bit disgruntled that Archer refused to admit to any complicity in the skimming, and I guess he’s really been holding a grudge. Anyway, Samuels is also a bit of a detective as well, so I had him spy on Mia,” she explained. “The woman has been visiting with Parker Chou every week since he was sentenced. That means she must have known exactly who Archer was before she ever went to his home.”

“Well, who is Mia to Parker then?” asked Kady with a frown, trying to make the connection, but failing.

“The documentation lists her as his sister,” Athena said.

“So, the sister of a man who attempted to ruin Archer’s business is now in hot pursuit of him?” Ellen asked. “God, this big business stuff is so weird.”

“So the real question is, why would Mia become involved in a scheme with her brother—assuming that’s who he really is—that targeted Archer?” Kady pointed out. “What good could it possibly do her to go after a man who can’t even access his own money thanks to her brother?”

“Maybe it’s not about his frozen accounts,” Athena speculated. “Maybe she knows about his offshore accounts. Parker would know about those, wouldn’t he?”

“Why does Archer need offshore accounts?” Kady wanted to know.

“I’m the one who started them for him, truthfully,” Athena admitted. “You see, all my life I was surrounded by wealth, and everyone I knew had accounts in other countries to keep part of their money safe. So I made sure Archer had them as well. His first one he’s had since he was sixteen years old. But I suppose that might make him look suspicious to the government if you think about it.”

“So why would Parker necessarily know he has those accounts?”

“They were never a huge secret from his top employees,” Athena said, with a shrug of her shoulders. “But Parker, in particular, knows about them because he wanted me to create an account for him in the same bank. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but now in hindsight I wonder why it was so important to him. Having me make the account specifically, and in that same bank. It’s very suspicious, if you ask me.”

“So this guy, he’s skimming the funds and putting them into the bank, how did he get caught anyway?” Kady wanted to know.

“One of the clients figured it out,” Athena said. “Some woman, I guess.”

“What was her name?”

“Cheryl Jenkins,” she said, after a moment to remember. “I’ve never seen what she looks like or anything. I think she’s in her thirties though.”

“Have you asked Samuels to find out more about her as well?” Kady wanted to know, feeling like she was still missing a piece to the puzzle. “It couldn’t hurt, right?”

“I did, but I haven’t heard back from him yet,” Athena said. “But, back to the point at hand. Ellen, now that you know Mia is not to be trusted, if she comes into Dazzle again I want you to have security escort her out, and inform her that she is not welcome on my property. I don’t have the time or the inclination to put up with that woman or her malicious lies about my son. Kady, however, may come and go as she pleases from now on.”

“Wait a minute, did you just say Cheryl Jenkins?” Ellen asked, slapping herself on the forehead. “There’s a Cherry Jenks working up on the third floor, isn’t there?”

“Yes, there is, as a matter of fact,” Athena said. “So what?”

“What if she’s who Mia has been coming to see?”

“So you think that the accuser came and interviewed for Dazzle after discrediting my son?” Athena scoffed. “Why would she do that?”

“I really don’t know,” Ellen replied, with a small shake of her head, looking as confused as the other two women.

“We could easily find out if it’s her if we can tap into the footage of the trial,” Kady said. “We could get a picture of her face and see if it’s the same person.”

“You know how to do that?” Athena asked.

“I didn’t go to school for four years for nothing,” Kady reminded her. “Just lead me to a computer that’s connected to the internet, and we could possibly solve this mystery ourselves.”

Kady stared with a look of shock at the picture of Cheryl Jenkins that she was now watching on her screen. This woman had a very familiar face. In fact, she was one of Mia’s sidekicks, and was the one who had been with her in the kitchen of Archer’s home on the day she returned with news of her pregnancy. But that being the case, it made even less sense now than it had before.

“Do you know her, Kady?” Ellen asked curiously. “Shall I call Athena and let her know you have her on your screen?”

“Have a look yourself, and tell me if this is the woman from floor three,” Kady suggested instead.

Ellen stepped over to look at the screen over Kady’s shoulder and nodded her head. “Yeah, that’s her all right. Who would have thought a woman like that would be in our midst? Athena must be told right away.”

“Yes, have her come here, but don’t say anything about the outcome yet, will you?” Kady said. “I am wondering if we’d be better off to watch her than to throw her out on her ear. Maybe we could determine what she really wants.”

“Money, of course,” Ellen scoffed. “What else?”

“This woman broke into our home along with Mia a few months ago,” said Kady, glaring at the image accusingly. “If all she wanted was money, she should have gotten that from the settlement when Archer admitted the wrong-doing of his employee and sent her the amount she’d been shorted. There must be more to it than that.”

“It’s blatantly obvious what Mia’s after,” Ellen said, making Kady scowl even more. “But what purpose does this woman have in all of it? Why would she extend herself to become involved when she doesn’t stand to profit further?”

“She and Mia are friends,” Kady said. “And from what I’ve seen, she pretty much will do whatever Mia tells her without question. Why do you suppose she’d do that?”

“I’m not sure,” Ellen said. “Maybe she’s somehow involved with Parker as well.”

“Oh, so now there’s a big ol’ conspiracy going on, and they are all out to get my boyfriend?” Kady sighed. “This situation just keeps getting worse as the months go by, doesn’t it?”

“Are you happy with Archer, Kady?” Ellen asked her, her tone suddenly soft and serious at the same time.

“I am,” she said, wiping at a tear as she smiled. “We just seem to get each other somehow, you know? Which is really the weirdest thing of all.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re from completely different worlds. I mean, I’m a girl from the slums who managed to pull myself out with just my brain and some really sharp claws,” Kady said. “I still can’t figure out what Archer wanted me for when he could have had anybody he wanted. But I wouldn’t change it, though. I may not come from the same place as him, but I intend to end up wherever that man does when all is said and done.”

“And if he became poor and you had to support him?” Ellen wanted to know.

“Why would that matter to me?” Kady scoffed. “I’m used to being poor in the first place, right? Besides, Archer is too smart and driven to remain poor for very long. I’m sure he would find his way right back up to the top again.”

“That’s great, Kady,” she smiled. “Let me get Athena back down here and we can go from there, okay? Why don’t you keep an eye out for Mia now? She usually shows up around two and it’s already a quarter till.”

Even as she spoke Mia stepped up to the secretary’s window and glanced inside. With a gasp, she gaped at Kady, and Kady glared back at her. Mia looked hurriedly around her, and seeing no easy escape, she went on the attack.

“What is that little tramp doing here?” asked Mia, feigning outrage, her shrill voice piercing the silence in the marble lobby. “She doesn’t belong here, she’s trying to steal Archer from me. You need to throw her out right now!”

“Sorry, Mia, your little game won’t work anymore,” Ellen told her, an edge of hostility sharpening her usually friendly expression. Her voice brooked no nonsense. “Just turn around and leave, and don’t come back here again. Athena and Kady have told me all about you.”

“But—but it’s not true!” she wailed. “Those two are conspiring against me! Archer’s mother hates me and wants her for a daughter-in-law, but it’s never going to happen. Archer’s my boyfriend, not hers! We’re even going to have a baby of our own.”

“How would you be having a baby with Archer?” Kady snapped, finally losing all patience with the woman’s obvious lies. What made it worse was the edge of desperation in Mia’s voice that made it sound like she had almost convinced herself that what she was spewing was actually reality instead of complete make-believe.

Kady shook her head, driving the point home. “You can’t have had sex with him, he’s in prison.”

“Don’t be stupid,” she said. “We had sex before he went in there, of course. He only wanted sex with you so you’d get pregnant anyway, but now that I’m having a baby after all, he’s not even going to keep you around at all. You might as well pack up and leave right now.”

“Why are you doing this?” Kady demanded. Mia’s paltry excuses to get her out of Archer’s life were almost laughable. Well, they would be if she wasn’t causing Kady so much trouble and drama. She just didn’t understand what Mia could possibly gain from all this. She must know that she had no chance in hell with Archer, and her lies would only put them further at odds with each other. Kady took a step forward, her words sharp as she demanded the truth from Mia.

“Why are you lying like this? You can’t possibly prove what you’re saying it true. All they’d have to do is check your baby’s DNA to prove what a liar you really are.”

“You are so stupid, Kady,” she replied. “You’ll see, they’ll find out this baby belongs to Archer, and then you would have to believe what I’m telling you. Don’t you remember when you found me in your kitchen? We had sex right before that, when you were gone to your appointment.”

“You’re lying!” Kady yelled, temper finally snapping, and she surged forward to slap Mia right across her face.

“Don’t you hit me again!” Mia shrieked, slapping her back. She grabbed the collar of Kady’s shirt and awkwardly hauled her right across the desk into the reception area. Kady landed hard on the marble tiled floor, curling around her stomach instinctively to protect her baby against the mad woman’s attack, when what she really wanted was to strike out with a few more slaps of her own. Or she quickly thought, punches would be more forceful and hurt Mia even more. Before she had a chance to duck away, Mia struck out with her foot,  landing a kick in her side before the security guard who had rushed in could stop her.

The fight had started and ended in a matter of seconds, and everyone stood, stunned as the security guard had to physically hold back Mia, who was still shooting daggers at Kady through hate-filled eyes.

“Ellen? What the hell is going on here?” the guard demanded as he struggled with Mia, who had started to complain that he was injuring her, even though it was definitely she who was the threat.

“Pregnant cat fight,” Ellen replied, with a wide-eyed look between Kady, who was still standing with her arms around the swell of her tummy, and the instigator. “Throw out the yellow tabby, would you?”

“And the black cat?” he asked with a shake of his head as he pulled Mia farther away for Kady.

“That one’s probably a new resident,” she said. “Best leave her here so I can help her lick her wounds.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he agreed. Mia shrieked with outrage all the way out the door.