193 The Scandal (8)

A few hours later, once Fred went to sleep, Jessica disentangled herself from him and stood up with determination shining in her eyes. Since Kyro was so prone to mistakes, she had to make sure he didn't make any this time.

If she knew her son at all, he would not have even went out of his way to say that he and the woman in the photo were dating. It would put expectations on him, push their relationship up a level, and he would not want that.

'But I won't give you a chance this time! Since you like that woman, she must be special enough that I'll end up approving of her in the end, so there's no need for me to meet her before making sure you stay with her!'

While thinking about that as she sat on the terrace, her lips curled into a wry smile. It wasn't like she had much of a choice between meeting and not meeting. If she went to look for the woman instead of pushing her and Kyro together straight away, they might separate before she even had the chance to see anyone.

That was exactly what had happened with that Jane girl!

In her contacts, Jessica found a number she hadn't called in a while. Kyro would not like her butting in, but she couldn't let her possibly last chance at a grandchild vanish into thin air. Her son was unreliable in these matters, so she had to make sure he wouldn't fail by herself.

"Mrs. Hemming! What a nice surprise! I thought you've already forgotten about me," a pleasant young voice greeted her, laughter in its tone.

"Ramirez, you're my favorite. How could I ever forget about you?" Jessica answered, smiling as well.

Although Ramirez was little different from most journalists who would sacrifice a leg and an arm for a story, he didn't publish pure gossip. If he wrote something, it had at least a drop of truth to it. And he was always jubilant and easy-going, which made the highest levels of society unwillingly trust him and let slip a few truths they might not have mentioned otherwise.

"But it's been almost a year since we last talked, I've missed you. How have you been?"

"You want to write a story about me?"

"Maybe…"

Jessica laughed, shaking her head. "There's nothing to write about this old woman, but my son however…"

"You want me to stir that pot?" Ramirez asked, his reluctance evident in his voice. "There's no point in me trying to save him now. His reputation is in tatters already."

"Oh, that's not it." Jessica smirked as she motioned for Queen to come closer. The white princess gave her a sidelong glance and left. "I want you to see if that guy, Aniston, has any more photos of Kyro with the last girl. If yes, get them and write some sappy thing everyone will forget after they see it about how the big CEO has a girlfriend."

"And in exchange?"

This was the reason why Jessica liked dealing with Ramirez. Even if he thought a story would be useless, he was going to write it for the greater good: earning a real story. One could never really buy him, but he accepted being influenced for a price.

He had his own moral compass and didn't care what anyone thought of it.

"I'll tell you a few things about Lady Montell. Her daughter is pregnant, did you know? And there's no father in sight…"

Jessica felt no guilt over sharing this, since in her circles everyone who wasn't your best friend was likely to share your worst secrets. They spoke with each other with this knowledge and it wasn't like Jessica hadn't suffered from this herself. It was only natural.

"Juicy!" Ramirez chuckled, and Jessica could just imagine his eyes begin to shine. "I knew I could always trust you to give me something good."

"Always, but get me that story before I send you any details."

Satisfied, the two of them ended their call and went their separate ways. Jessica returned to her husband who was taking his afternoon rest and fell asleep as well.

They woke up around three o'clock, but didn't get up. There was nothing they needed to do, so Fred picked up his book, and Jessica got her manga. It wasn't as interesting when her mind raced with the possibilities of how Kyro might react, but she still pushed through one page after another.

After half an hour of this, her phone rang. She grabbed it with claw-like fingers and ran out of the room. "How did it go?"

"I've got two things to say," Ramirez replied, sounding a bit tired. "First, that Aniston is a total nutcase. He has hundreds of photos of Kyro, having followed him all the time. Second, why didn't you tell me that this was a real story? I thought you just wanted to annoy him, but this… Kyro is hot goods now, and a new story about him would totally sell better than any Montell scandal."

There was a real story there? Jessica suddenly didn't feel that good. What story could there be? Had Kyro done something wrong? But no, Ramirez would have mentioned it right away. What in the world was in those photos then?

"Send a few photos to me. I want to see them."

Her phone beeped soon, and her jaw fell slack. In the first photo, Kyro was strolling through a park near his home with the girl. He was telling her something animatedly, his hand raised to point at something out of shot, while the girl was laughing, her dark eyes fixed on him.

In the next photo, the two of them were standing by a clothes shop. The girl was dressed simply, but it worked well with her youthful appearance, and Kyro seemed enchanted as he was caught a moment before saying something to her.

After that, they were in the animal show, moving about while holding hands, and even caught entering a house decked in flowers to the point that it couldn't be seen. In all photos, their attention was always on one another, and they were always smiling, laughing.

Yet Jessica had no idea who that girl was. It was now obvious to her that Kyro hadn't been doing too badly this far, but he had never shared anything! What kind of son was he?!

"Mrs. Hemming? You still here?"

"Yeah… I didn't know there was this much material…"

"Well, if I were you, I'd tell your son to be a bit more careful. So far Aniston hasn't done anything, but he has stalker tendencies. There's a difference between following someone for a time to get a story and stalking them 24/7 for years."

"I will, send me the first draft of the story once you have it."

"Thinking to check on me?" Ramirez asked with some annoyance.

Jessica chuckled. "Oh no, I'm gonna forward it to Kyro to blackmail him. But don't worry, I won't let him know where I got it. Just personal matters, don't mind it too much."

"Right…"

In a few minutes, before Jessica could even return to her room, her phone beeped again. Ramirez had sent a picture of a doc file titled "Beauty and the Beast: Kyro Hemming Has a Girlfriend?". The title was probably going to change after an edit, but it was enough for Jessica. In the shot, there was also the photo of Kyro and the girl in the park while Ramirez had started his story next to it. Only a few sentences had been written, but they already promised a juicy article.

Without any hesitation, Jessica forwarded the picture to Kyro with an attached message. [You can make the declaration first, or someone else will. This article will go live tomorrow morning, when everyone wakes up and checks the news.]