Chapter 37

I could not sit or stay put as I paced around the room until I heard the unmistakable sound of the chopper and my legs galloped to the door. I opened the gate for him, and he gathered me in his arms. Comforting me for whatever it is that had me riled up.

"Are you alright, Debs?"

"Can we talk inside instead?"

He followed me inside and took a seat on my bed. I fidgeted a little, not knowing how to begin as he waited impatiently with his foot tapped religiously.

"Debs, you are going to tell me what is going on or do I have to die of curiosity first?"

I handed him the package and watched his eyes go wide as he read with an impressive amount of speed and shot to his feet as he read the last sentences with his fingers rapidly dialling his phone.

"They have compromised her security team and invaded her home. I want a swift and thorough sweep of her residence as soon as this call drops, and any rat found should be dealt with meticulously. Send another team to my home."

The call ended, but not his pacing back and forth before me.

"Sit down, Sam. You are making me dizzy."

We sat in silence until the new security team arrived and got rid of the camera. They did a sweep of the house for any other recording device and declared it clean before leaving.

He closed the door after them and sat on the armrest of my chair, and kept tapping his fingers on my knees.

Say something, Debby.

"You were engaged to Amanda?"

"It is complicated, Debs."

"Then uncomplicate it."

"She was my first love. We dated since we were about fifteen years old, so deciding to get married at twenty-five was expected. We got engaged, but we have always had problems. She wanted us to go public about our relationship, which meant going public about who I am. I remained uncompromising because I did not want the press invading my life and making things harder than they should be. She took matters into her own and reached out to Miss Zhang Meng, Prince Wang Wei Li's publicist. She hoped to force my hand by releasing an exposé article, but word got back to me. I blocked the article, and she announced our breakup and moved on to a movie star within a week. That was the end of both our relationship. Christopher is threatening to release it to the press because he knows I do not want to be shoved in the public eye, and the scandal will have an immense antagonistic effect on my companies."

How is someone as nice as you even related to Christopher? Water sometimes is thicker than blood.

"He said he wants something from you. What is it?"

"He wants one of my companies, Teas and Seasons in particular, and some money wired to an offshore account."

"You know he has nothing on you, right? Tell the truth that you are not her father, and this misconception will be over. We just met a few days ago, for fuck's sake. If they want proof, then we will provide it. DNA analysis… chat history… anything to render his absurd claim vain."

"The public does not care about what is true or not. Once that article is out, no one will listen to our side. Debs, Sam does look a lot like me, so it would be hard to convince anyone otherwise. We share striking features that any proof presented after the circumstance will look fabricated. No one will be on our side. Sometimes, the lie sounds a lot better than the truth."

"Then walk away from us, put a distance, and save yourself the stress."

"I will not do that ever. Do you hear me? Never!"

I want to hit something to release my fucking anger.

How did I go from looking for a friend online to this much life drama in a week?

You did say you were bored.

Damn!

I cannot even run from this, even if I want to. Christopher has us backed far into a tight corner we cannot escape from, and he knows it.

Fucking bastard!