Page 50 of Beautiful Noise

He leaned in and kissed me seconds before he was walking away, answering a call from someone who had obviously seen the post. Probably someone on his team.

“Yeah, and you better be working on it,” he growled to the caller.

I mindlessly traveled to the kitchen and lifted a dish towel and a roll of paper towels before returning to clean up the mess I’d made dumping my plate when I erratically reached for my phone. Luckily most of the food was already eaten.

I scooped up what was left, then cleaned the wood floor, carrying everything to the kitchen where I dumped the contents in the sink and headed to my room, closing myself inside before I crawled in bed, pulled the covers up over my head and closed my eyes. Maybe I could just hide here, in this room, under these covers until the world decided I was no longer relevant enough for them to focus on.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Ezren.

One hour turned to two and then three. The first call I received was from my manager Ty West. My career was pretty self sufficient after years in the industry so he didn’t have to be as hands on with me like he had years ago, but Ty still did his thing. He definitely earned his money so I wasn’t surprised he was the first call.

After going over all the leaked information, which was mostly about Kori, he asked me one question and one question only. “Is she important to you?”

I answered yes without hesitation. I didn’t know what was between me and Kori. This was new. Even though I felt things for her that blossomed out of nowhere, I trusted those feelings and wanted to further explore where this could go. I didn’t give a fuck what the world thought or expected.

After I confirmed what he was already thinking, Ty simply stated with confidence, “Then we’ll make it work.”

That was it. This was why I fucked with Ty. Most people would have demanded I cut my losses to salvage my image.Women were a dime a dozen. Ty knew me. He understood that if I was claiming Kori then there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to steer me away from this shitstorm. Knowing your client was good management.

After Ty, the calls continued. My publicist, my social media team, my image consultants, and lastly Ty’s investigator, Wil, hit my line with the final blow that pissed me the fuck off. The person responsible for exposing Kori’s life online…

Chantel Dior, owner of Elite Cleaners.

“You have enough evidence?”

“More than enough. The emails where she solicited several outlets, the confirmation from the one that agreed to pay, the money transfer where they did, and the email where the file was sent after the payment was recorded.”

“And it’s federal because the information was posted online, right?”

“Yes. All she has to do is file the report and we’ll do the rest. I’ll turn over everything I have. I assume she’ll want to press charges.”

“We haven’t discussed how to navigate this yet, but I’ll make sure she does. Did you obtain what you have legally?”

“No,” he said confidently. “But as far as the authorities are concerned, everything I have was delivered to me by an anonymous source.”

“I don’t give a damn as long as it doesn’t come back to us.”

“It won’t, Ty would fucking kill me, Ezren.”

I smirked because he would if my mother didn’t get to him first.

“Let me go talk to her. I’ll let you know what she decides.”

“I’ll be on standby.”

I ended the call only to answer the one which followed. “I assume you’re working on this?” was the first thing out of mymother’s mouth. I smiled at her shifting into protective mode for Kori.

“As much as I can.”

“There is no as much as you can, Ezren. Make some calls and get it done.”

“I’ve already handled most of it. I know who leaked Kori’s personal information and now I just need to get her on board with filing an official report.”

“She’s opposed?”

She’s probably packing her things to get as far away from me as she can and the only way I can keep her here is to make this go away.

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