A Very Bad Billionaire (BWWM Contemporary Romance Novel) (15 page)

“Oh shut up Kaiden. What are you gonna do? Call the cops? You sound as pitiful as your little housekeeper here.”

“I don’t need to call the cops. I employ a security detail to handle things just like this.”Anna started to laugh.

“Oh yeah, that’s some security detail you’ve got there. I was able to walk right in through the front door and come straight to your office without anyone having a clue. You might want to look into hiring some better security.”

“Yeah, I do. Preferably the kind of security that sees an intruder and then shoots them on site. No questions asked. Now, I’m going to ask you this one more time. Did you need something? If not, I’d appreciate it you could get the fuck out of my house.”

“You need to chill out Kaiden. I’m only here to discuss a business proposition with you. One that could potentially make your life much easier or much harder than it is right now. The choice is yours.”

“What is it, Anna? What is it that you want? What do I have to do to make you go away for good?”

She stepped around from the other side of my desk and began walking toward me. I took a step back but it didn’t dissuade her as she kept approaching. Continuing until she was right in front of me, Anna reached up and grabbed my tie, pulling me into her until our faces were inches apart.

“What do you have to do to make me go away for good? Come on, Kaiden, we both know that’s not what you want. Why don’t you go ahead and admit that right now?”

“Are you crazy? I’ve wanted nothing more than for you to go away and disappear from my life forever.”

“Oh Kaiden, you never cease to amaze me. I don’t know why you always try to lie to yourself. You may do a great job convincing everyone around you that you don’t want me around, but you don’t fool me. I know you’ve always been crazy about me. You know you’ve always been mad about me. We’ve always been crazy about each other.”

“Anna, the only thing you got right in that whole statement was the word crazy. You are insane. No, you’re crazier than crazy. You’re fucking nuts.”

Anna started laughing, which all but proved my point that she was crazy. She didn’t seem to be able to grasp the fact that I was over her and had been for quite a long time. It was true that there was once a point when I would have taken her back in a heartbeat. Those days were long gone, however. No matter what I said or how I presented it to her, she didn’t seem to get it. Instead, she continued with her little tirade.

“Here’s the thing, Kaiden. I know that I’ve done some pretty terrible things to you. I know that I broke your heart when I moved on and no longer allowed you to be a part of my life. I know it destroyed you when you lost the love of your life. I know it killed you to see me walking around town with a new stud on my arm. I know it made you jealous to know that I was sleeping in someone else’s bed. That’s all over. I’m here now. I’m ready for the two of us to pick up where we left off.”

“Are you being serious right now? Yeah, it sucked to see you with another man and it was really hard on me when you took off, but it wasn’t because I was jealous. It was hard because you didn’t just abandon me. You left our son as well. I don’t care what you did to me, but that little boy is growing up without a mother in his life because you wanted to make selfish choices.”

“Maybe I can make up for those choices. I’m no longer with that guy anymore. We split up a few days ago. It’s time to work on us now.”

“You think I’m going to be your second choice? That’s not going to happen. I’m over you and I’ve been over you. I’ve even stopped wishing you were around for our son. He’s better off without having you in his life. Besides, I’m with her now,” I said, looking over at Natalia. “I’m with her and I’m happy. I’m not going to play your games. You’re too late. I’m over you. I’m happy.”

“You’re with
her
? Since when do you go for black chicks? Is she one of your little pet projects or something? What could she possibly bring to the table in a relationship that I couldn’t?”

“She brings a lot of things to the table that you never did. Trust, for one. I feel like I can tell her anything and everything and not have to worry about who she is going to run and tell in order to make herself a quick buck. Natalia also likes me for me. She doesn’t want to be with me because of what I can give her. She hasn’t asked me for anything other than my companionship and I love that about her.”

“Are you sure, Kaiden? Are you sure you want to throw this away forever?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I have the person I wish to spend my life with. It just took me a little longer to realize it than it should have.”

“Fine, if that’s what you want then I don’t give a shit. You want me out of your life for good? That’s fine, I’m gone. You give me a hundred grand and you’ll never hear from me again.”

“No, I’m not doing it. I’m tired of paying you off anytime you want to make a threat. It doesn’t work for me anymore. I refuse to pay you another cent.”

“Okay, if you want to do things that way then I’m more than prepared to play dirty. If you don’t want to give me my money, then I’m going to expose you. I’m going to expose you as someone who is supposed to be a role model in the community but is really nothing more than a pervert who spends his time in underground sex clubs. I’m going to expose you as a man who uses his power and position to take advantage of and sleep with his help. I’m going to expose you and I’m going to ruin you. You might want to think twice about who you’re messing with.”

“You know what, Anna? Shut up. Shut the fuck up. I’ve had it with you. I’m tired of your threats. I’m sick of you always trying to hold things over my head in an attempt to extort more money from me. I’m not going to take it any longer. You want to go public with everything you know about me? Go ahead. I don’t care anymore.”

Anna didn’t seem to know what to say to me. I was pretty sure it was the first time that I had ever seen her be rendered speechless. Eventually, she was able to speak again.

“Don’t think I won’t. I’ll go straight to the media. You know they’d love to take a story like that and run it at the top of every newscast. I’m sure it would be on the front page of so many newspapers across the country.”

“Tell them, Anna. I just said that I don’t care anymore. Tell everyone. Go sing it from the rooftops. Yell it off the highest mountains. Just know that if you do, I’m going to expose you as well. I’ll let everyone in on the fact that not only do you have a son but you have a son that you abandoned. Don’t you think that might throw a little wrench into your plans? Don’t you think that might make you lose out on some of your credibility? How are you going to feel when everyone finally sees you as the cold, heartless bitch you really are.”

Anna’s face turned crimson. She was fuming with anger, but she knew I had her right where I wanted her. She acted like she wanted to say something but changed her mind. Instead, she stormed out of my office and out of the house. I didn’t know what was going to happen or what she was going to do. All I knew was that it wasn’t going to be good.

I walked over to Natalia and wrapped my arms around her. It was important that she knew that I was invested in her. I wanted to be with her and make things work as much as I could. I kissed her on the forehead and told her that I chose her and I didn’t care who knew.

“I know you do. You don’t have to say anything else,” she replied before burying her head in my chest and squeezing me as tight as she could.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Natalia

I couldn’t believe what had just happened. Not only did he stand up to his ex-girlfriend, the girl who was his high school sweetheart and who he planned to spend the rest of his life with, but he also told her that he was with me. Kaiden had been so concerned about people finding out about us before he was ready, but now he was telling her that he didn’t care who knew. For the first time, I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he really wanted to be with me. Not only that, but he seemed proud to be with me. He didn’t see me as a lowly housekeeper like the rest of the world probably did. To him, I am just Natalia and I like it that way.

We didn’t know what was going to become of Anna’s threats. Kaiden told me that she had made many threats in the past and never followed through with them. He had to assume she was just blowing smoke in this situation as well. Still, with so many people employed under him, he wanted to cut things off at the pass. He wanted to everyone to hear things from him first just in case she actually decided to go to media.

Kaiden called a meeting and brought every member of the staff into his office. He told them everything about Anna and the threats she had made. He told them that he had a son that she had abandoned. He told everyone about how his son lives with her parents and how he goes to see him nearly every day. He told everyone about the fact that Anna had tried to extort him for a lot of money. Finally, he told everyone that he and I were in a relationship. He explained that he hadn’t hired me under the pretenses of having a relationship with him. He simply found that he enjoyed spending time with me. He let everyone know that he would be making several promotions that afternoon. He apologized for not hiring for the housekeeper position from within and promised that he would be replacing me with someone in the room. Since one person would end up being promoted, others behind them would move up as well.

I was amazed at how cool everyone was about it all. Everyone in that room was loyal to Kaiden and they weren’t going to let anything they heard about him skew their perception. Of course, he didn’t tell them about the sex club but figured he could explain that when and if the time came. Later that afternoon, Kaiden called another meeting and announced that Lupita was going to be the new housekeeper. I was so happy for her and everyone else seemed to be glad for her as well. As promised, every member of the staff was promoted to a new, better-paying position. By the time the day was over, all Kaiden had to do was hire a new gardener.

About a week later, Kaiden and I were relaxing on the couch and watching some television. He’d had his big acquisition meeting and the clients were looking over all of the paperwork before making their final decision. When the news came on, an image of Kaiden came across the screen. He was the top story with a headline of “A Scandal in Manhattan.” Anna told them everything. She told them about the sex club, their son and me. Of course, a lot of the things she said were full of lies. She told them that Kaiden had a history of going to sex clubs, often leaving her at home by herself while he satisfied his perverted desires. She also told the media that he took their son while she was experiencing postpartum depression and refused to let her see him. Finally, she told everyone that when she tried to reconcile with him so the three of them could be a family again, Kaiden threw me in her face and told her that he was sleeping with the maid and had no interest in her.

Kaiden knew that the news reports were bad. He would have to hold a press conference to give his side of the story. He also knew that he wasn’t going to have to go through it alone. I would be right by his side through all of it regardless of how bad things became. We were going to brave it out together no matter what.

The next day, Kaiden’s parents showed up at the house unannounced. They were not happy that they had to learn about me and his son, Andy, through a news report in the media. His mother looked at me and told Kaiden that she wanted to speak with him alone. He told her that anything she had to say could be said in front of me.

“Fine, she probably needs to hear what I have to say anyway. Are you trying to throw your life away Kaiden? Are you attempting to ruin everything that you’ve worked so hard for? I can’t believe that Anna was willing to give your relationship another chance and you threw it away so you could slum it with the maid.”

“That’s enough mother. First of all, I’m not slumming it with anyone. She’s not the maid. Her name is Natalia and I would appreciate it if you referred to her as that from now on. She is an amazing person and I’m crazy about her. I’m going to be with her and nothing you or anyone else could possibly say or do is going to change my mind. As far as Anna goes, she’s gone crazy mom. You haven’t bothered to ask me for my side of the story. You’re just going on what you’ve heard, assuming that everything she’s said is true. Well, guess what? It’s not. Her smear campaign was full of lies. She’s been blackmailing me and trying to extort me for a long time now. It wasn’t until I put an end to it that she pulled this. I told her I wasn’t going to give her another dime and suddenly all this stuff is leaked to the media. It’s not a coincidence mom. This was planned all along.”

His mom didn’t have anything else to say at that point. She seemed to be caught between wanting to believe him and wanting to spew more hatred in my direction. All she could do was give me a dirty look before leaving the room to going to speak with her husband. Before long, the two of them decided that it would be best for them to leave before someone said something they regretted. However, on the way out the door, Kaiden’s mom turned around and gave Kaiden a hug.