“I didn’t hear anything about illegal activities,” my lawyer spouted.
“I’ll get right on it,” the detective said before he hung up.
“Get with the local police and find out what they know and where they’re at with the case. I want to be kept in the loop every step of the way.”
“They’re not going to tell me shit on your behalf, Ridge. For all we know, you’re a suspect in your ex-wife’s hit and run. The minute Fiona’s name came up, you bet your ass they put you on their list. It wouldn’t be farfetched if the ex-husband put the mistress up to killing his wife after he found out she was having his baby. Stranger things have happened.”
“I would never stand beside a woman who drugged and raped me!” I yelled into the phone.
“Considering you never bothered to clarify what happened for the police or the public, they’ll find that hard to believe, Ridge.”
“Release the video.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, edit out any parts that talk about Violet in a negative light for the public version, but otherwise release it. Give every angle to the police. Explain to them why I had her under my watch here in Australia due to her pregnancy claims and tell them that I fully believe she was faking the pregnancy since she wouldn’t prove it or agree to a DNA test. Let them know that I think she may be trying to take Violet’s baby to pass off as her own because the DNA will confirm it is my child.”
“Holy fucking hell,” my lawyer hissed. “When you step in shit, you dive right in neck-fucking-deep, man.”
“It appears so,” I agreed and hung up. I had a flight to catch. I was taking the private jet this time because I wasn’t about to get held up for stupid reasons.
Chapter 22
Ridge
I had a Gulfstream 650ER waiting in the wings to fly me straight to Atlanta. I’d flown commercial to Australia on my way over because I’d loaned the Gulfstream out to shuttle clients to various award shows and interviews during a press junket to promote their upcoming tour. It was easier to shuttle them around privately than rely on them to hop across the country from coast to coast without missing flights or something going wrong.
I was thankful for the jet and the full crew who planned to get me straight to Georgia in roughly fifteen hours. Despite the nerves and anger burning inside me, I knew that I’d be no good to anyone when I landed if I didn’t get some sleep. When I wasn’t sleeping, I was working on ways to make the transition to Nancy taking over for me in Melbourne. My mind stayed occupied when it wasn’t asleep. It was necessary.
I was fucking shattered by the fact that Violet felt it necessary to hide her pregnancy from me all while I was stuck playing a sick fucking game of cat and mouse with Fiona over her fake pregnancy. What made it worse was that everyone in my life knew about the baby - the real one - and kept it from me because they agreed. That, above everything else, made me realize I hadn’t just broken Violet’s faith in me, but the rest of my family’s as well. If anyone had stepped up to tell me about the baby, I would have put an end to the charade with Fiona and been there for my baby. I didn’t even know if it was a boy or girl. Had it been born yet?
They all said Violet and the baby were doing fine, but was the baby born or was it still inside of her? Had I missed every damn thing?
I was exhausted, frustrated, and nervous as hell by the time we landed. As soon as I got into the waiting car, I instructed the driver to take me to the hospital.
“Did you have any luggage, sir?” he asked.
“No, just get me to the hospital.”
We drove there in silence with me trying to figure out what to say and how to keep my calm about being left in the dark where my real baby was concerned. If anyone had told me, I could have made sure that my wife and child were safe. I would have had charges brought on Fiona, and her child - if there had been one - could have been born in the prison system, where a DNA test would have been required by the courts anyway. The more I thought about it, I wondered why in hell’s name I hadn’t done that from the beginning.
I didn’t want my child, if there was one, to be born in a prison. I tried to tell myself that was the excuse I had, but truthfully, I hadn’t started the process when it should have happened long before Fiona told me she was with child. I didn’t do it because court seemed like a step too far. It felt like an invasion all over again and not just for me. Ugly things about the situation were going to come out, and I didn’t want anyone to judge my wife for how she handled the situation, especially when they couldn’t possibly understand where her anger was coming from.
I had fucked up in so many ways.
I managed to get up to the maternity ward, but that was where I was stopped from getting to Violet. “I’m sorry,” a nurse told me. “We can’t let you inside without express permission from the patient and she is unable to give it at this time.”
“What do you mean she’s unable to give it? Where is my wife?”
The nurse stepped back at my tone. “Sir, you need to calm down. You are not on the approved visitor’s list. As soon as I am able, I will check in with the patient.”
“Why aren’t you able?”
She must have realized that she said a bit too much to me, and she turned and walked back through the doors that only opened when a code was punched. I didn’t bother to try to slip through, as I knew that would get security called on me immediately.
“Ridge?” I turned to see Mark Dupont standing at the end of the hall.
“Thank God! They won’t let me in to see Violet and the nurse said she wasn’t able to give consent right now. What the hell is going on? My parents said she was fine yesterday.”
