Trust (60 page)

“Can I come with you?”

“You want to come with me to a board meeting?”

She looked down at her shoes. “But it’s about me.”

I walked over and tilted her chin up. “No. It’s about me. About what I did.”

“To help me. To save me.”

Curling my fingers at the base of her neck, I hugged her to my chest. “You need to stop feeling guilty about this. It was my choice, and I don’t regret it for one moment.”

She circled her arms around my waist and sighed. “I want to help you. Please, let me help you?”

Sighing, I leaned back and looked into her eyes. I knew what she was asking. Brianna would defend me against anyone, including the throng of people outside that scared her to death.

Closing my eyes, I rested my forehead against hers. When I opened my lids again, meeting her gaze, hers eyes were almost pleading, and I realized that on some level she needed to do this. Not only for me, but also for herself. “All right.”

Brianna breathed out a sigh of what felt a lot like relief. Did she really think I would say no after she pleaded with me like that?

“There are conditions, though.” I gave her a stern look.

“Okay.”

“You are to stay by my side at all times holding my hand. If things begin to get too much for you—if you reach a seven or higher—you are to squeeze my hand twice, like this.” I reached for her hand and demonstrated. “The minute we go outside, people are going to start shouting questions at us. At you. You are to ignore them. At least until we get to the press conference.”

She nodded.

Sighing, I pulled her back against my chest. I was not looking forward to Monday.

Brianna

The strange thing was, Monday morning felt more normal than the previous three weeks had. Neither of us slept much on Sunday night. But then again, neither of us had gotten a good night’s sleep all week—all because of my nightmares.

Stephan tried to help. He’d sacrificed a lot of his own sleep so that I could rest. I don’t know what it was about hearing his heartbeat that chased the nightmares away, but it was the only thing that worked. He would lie there reading a book or watching television while I drifted off to sleep, fighting off his own need for slumber so that I could get some of my own.

There were bags under his eyes as he got dressed in his usual suit and tie on Monday morning. I made us both breakfast, and we sat at the kitchen table eating. Normal. The only difference was that this morning, I was going to the office with him. He’d picked out one of the dresses I’d worn to have dinner with his family once. The press conference was going to be in the lobby of the foundation, so we didn’t have to worry about the weather. That was good, because according to the news, we were supposed to get three or four inches of snow before nightfall.

He worked beside me to clean up after breakfast and then helped me into my coat. “Are you sure about this? You can still stay home.”

“I’m sure. I want to do this for you. For us.”

Stephan smiled, but his eyes were full of worry. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

We walked hand in hand out the door to the elevator. The moment we stepped off, into the parking garage, a camera flashed. Another reporter had breached security.

Just as that thought occurred to me, Stephan turned to shield me from the cameraman as much as possible, and two burly men—security—came rushing through a side door and practically tackled the trespasser. He kicked and screamed. Not about them attacking him, but because once they had him on the ground, one of the guards took his camera.

Stephan didn’t wait around to see what happened next. He ushered me into his car, and we wound our way out of the parking garage.

As soon as we pulled out onto the street, I realized I’d underestimated the amount of media attention today’s press conference was going to receive. When I’d moved back in with Stephan, there’d been roughly ten reporters hanging around his condo building. Today, there were at least fifty. I saw logos for every news outlet in the Twin Cities, plus all the national ones. My stomach began to do flip-flops, and not in the good way it did when Stephan walked into a room.

I reached for Stephan’s hand, needing reassurance, and he laced our fingers together, squeezing. “We’ll be home by lunch.”

“Promise?”

He smiled and kissed the back of my hand. “Promise. And when we get home, we can cuddle up in bed and stay there for the rest of the day.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. Spending the rest of the day in bed with Stephan sounded perfect to me, and I knew from experience it wouldn’t only involve watching movies. There would be sex as well. Stephan didn’t like for me to wear clothes in his bed, so he rarely did either. The two of us naked together in his bed was pretty much a guaranteed avenue to sex.

Rounding the corner, Stephan drove into the parking garage for The Coleman Foundation. I hadn’t gotten a good look at the front of the building, but I had to imagine the scene was probably similar to the one outside his condo. We were the big news of the moment.

Stephan parked the car in his spot, which was thankfully not far from the elevators, and helped me out. We held hands as we rode up to the top floor that housed his office and the boardroom.

The elevator doors opened, and I saw Jamie. She looked up and smiled. “Good morning, Mr. Coleman.”

“Good morning, Jamie. Is everything set for the meeting this morning?”

“Yes, sir. Everything’s in the conference room.”

“Wonderful. I’ll be in my office. Once everyone’s here, come get me.”

Stephan steered me into his office and shut the door. Before I knew what was happening, he had my back pressed up against the door, and his mouth was covering mine. It was totally unexpected, but I responded eagerly. A kiss from Stephan was always welcome.

He plunged his tongue into my mouth and lapped possessively against my tongue, my teeth, and the inside of my cheek. I dug my fingers into his arms and held on.

When he pulled back, he was panting, and so was I. “I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not. I needed that.”

I smiled, happy I could give him what he needed, even if it was only a kiss.

“Come. I want to hold you for a while before we have to go face the sharks.” I had no idea if he was talking about the board or the press conference to follow.

We were only able to spend about ten minutes cuddling on the couch before there was a knock on the door. Jamie stuck her head in. “Everyone’s waiting in the conference room, Mr. Coleman.”

“Thank you, Jamie.”

The board meeting went about as well as could be expected. Some of the members wanted Stephan to step down, resign. Others, while not approving of his actions, felt that asking him to walk away from the foundation, which was essentially his family’s charity, was a bit harsh. All of them, however, were afraid of the media backlash.

By the end of the meeting, it was decided that Stephan would take a leave of absence. I could tell this decision wasn’t what he really wanted, but everyone felt it was best for the foundation if he took a backseat for a while—at least until the media frenzy died down.

Stephan and I made our way downstairs to the press conference. The moment the elevator doors opened to the lobby, there were shouts of both our names and questions.

“How did it feel to buy another human being, Mr. Coleman?”

“Brianna, is Stephan forcing you to be his girlfriend?”

I stiffened and edged closer to Stephan’s side. He squeezed my hand and walked forward. Thankfully there had been a barrier set up with a stand and microphone for the press conference. Stephan stepped up in front of the microphone, and as if by magic, the room grew quiet. The only exception was the sound of cameras flashing. There were no shouts of questions, though. Everyone was waiting to hear what Stephan had to say.

“Thank you all for coming. I know there has been a lot of speculation lately regarding my activities in relation to the charges and trial of Ian Pierce. Earlier this week, I took the stand at Mr. Pierce’s trial for the prosecution. Much of what I said on the stand has already been publicized, so I won’t reiterate it here today.”

There were a few groans that sounded from the crowd.

Stephan glanced down at me briefly, before readdressing the reporters. “We found out Saturday morning that Ian Pierce did not survive his injuries. I’ll be honest in saying I have mixed feelings about this, and so does Brianna. He did horrible things, and he deserved to be punished for them. Death almost seems too easy.”

A shout sounded from the back of the room. “What about what you did, Mr. Coleman?”

At first, I thought Stephan was going to ignore it, but he surprised me by answering the woman. “What about what I did? I saw a young woman who needed my help, and I acted on it.”

“But you admitted on the stand that she’s now your girlfriend.”

“Yes, she is.”

Stephan looked down at me, his eyes softening. I smiled up at him, trying to ignore the mass of people.

“Brianna? Did Mr. Coleman force you to be his girlfriend?”

I swallowed.

“You don’t have to answer them if you don’t want to.” He said this loud enough for the reporters to hear.

Even though he said I didn’t have to answer, I knew that I did. If I remained silent, then everyone would believe he had forced me, and that wouldn’t be good for him.

Taking a deep breath, I held Stephan’s hand in a death grip and faced the reporters. “No. He didn’t force me.”

More questions were shouted, including a few about our sexual relationship. I didn’t like those, and neither did Stephan. He held up his hand to silence the crowd. “Brianna and I will not be answering any specifics regarding our relationship other than to say that yes, we are in a relationship and that we’re happy. This has, however, been a very trying and difficult time for us emotionally with the trial and the media attention. Because of that, I will be taking a leave of absence from The Coleman Foundation. I need to focus on what’s most important in my life right now.”

He paused and took a long, lingering look over the crowd.

“Thank you all again for coming.”

Before they could get over the shock of his announcement, Stephan stepped away from the podium, pulling me with him. A man I didn’t know held the elevator door open for us, and we disappeared inside, leaving the reporters shouting questions behind us.

Epilogue

April 11
^th

Five years ago today, my life changed forever. It was the day I first saw the man I now call my husband.

So much changed for both of us that day. My life certainly changed, but so did his.

I wasn’t what he was expecting. I know that now. We’ve talked about it many times since he bought me five years ago. He thought he’d pay Ian, give me some money, maybe set me up in an apartment, and have me go on with my life. It didn’t quite work that way.

As it turned out, I’m glad it didn’t. The life I have now is much better than I could have ever hoped it would be. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t had our share of bumps in the road, though, because we have. A lot of them.

After Ian’s death, and Stephan’s press conference, he spent the next week transferring everything to the senior vice president of the foundation. Glenn, who I’ve gotten to know well over the last four years, is a very nice man, and he’s done a great job with The Coleman Foundation.

Stephan planned to step away for six months—a leave of absence—to let things die down and to give the two of us some time together. Six months turned into a year, and then two. Eventually Stephan decided it was best to make it official, and he stepped down as president of The Coleman Foundation. He was still on the board and took an active role in what was going on, but it was all behind the scenes. Glenn was now the face of the organization.

Another thing that changed was that Stephan and I no longer live in Minneapolis. Once Stephan realized that he would no longer be head of the foundation—that he didn’t need to stay in the city—we talked about it and decided it would be best to get away from the constant media scrutiny. Even with so much time passing, it wasn’t uncommon for him to get stopped in the streets and questioned. I didn’t feel comfortable going out without him, and he didn’t feel comfortable letting me. We wanted a life together, and we wanted it without having to worry about the press every time we stepped outside.

Last summer we officially moved out of the city. We now live about an hour outside of the Cities, less than twenty minutes from his aunt and uncle, in a house that sits along the Minnesota River. I can sit on our back porch and watch the water flow by, and I often do. Stephan also set up a cozy reading area for me upstairs that has a large picture window where I can look out and see the water when it’s too cold for me to go outside. It’s perfect, and I love it. I’ve spent many hours reading and writing in my journal there.

“Brianna?”

I looked up from my journal as Stephan peeked inside the library.

“Ah. There you are. Are you about ready to go?” He lowered his gaze and noticed the journal in my hands. His face softened, and he walked over to give me a kiss. “Finish writing, and then meet me downstairs. I’ll text my aunt and let her know we’ll be a little late.”