I wrapped my towel around my waist and reached for the phone on the edge of the sink, my heart skipping a beat when I saw Martin’s name on the screen. He almost never called my personal number and the last time he’d called me this early in the morning it had been to warn me that the board had reservations about a presentation I was giving that day. Once upon a time we hadn’t had such a hateful relationship. It’d always been tense, yes, but nothing like our current dynamic.
I ran a hand through my hair, shaking out my wet curls and put the phone to my ear as I swiped to answer it.
“Good morning, Martin,” I said, keeping my voice calm and neutral.
“Jace,” he said, sounding happy, maybe even a little smug. “I’m so glad I caught you.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at it again.Yep, it says ‘Martin.’
“What do you need?” I asked. I slowly opened a drawer and pulled out deodorant, hair gel, and my beard trimmer so I could resume getting ready for work when this random conversation was done.
“I saw your picture online this morning! They even correctly identified you as a vice president for Acker Real Estate and one of the shareholders in the family business.”
Acid pooled in my stomach. He sounded way too upbeat about this. I’d never been photographed for my role in the company before. Sutton had ensured the company was far less public than when her father had operated it.
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and took the bait. “I’m not sure I know what photograph you’re talking about.”
“Oh, you haven’t seen it?” he said with false surprise. “You should really pull it up. You were at your cousin’s hockey game last night. Yeah?”
What the fuck?I walked into my bedroom and picked up the laptop on my nightstand.What photo would make him so happy?
“Let me help you out,” Martin said, as I unlocked my laptop. “You went to a hockey game last night. Perhaps people were trying to snap photos of your cousin and his wife, I’m not sure, but they managed to catch you and two other adults after the game with them.”
His voice was so littered with amusement, I knew this couldn’t possibly be good. I typed my name into the search engine.
“Imagine my surprise when I recognized both of the people in that photo with you. The one you’re holding hands with looks an awful lot like your assistant.”
The image of the three of us standing outside of my car with Leo and Sophia filled my screen, and my chest tightened as Martin kept talking.Thank God, Kaylee was already in the car.
“And the one you’ve got your arm around while kissing his cheek? I could have sworn that was the architect we just hired. Am I wrong, Jace?”
“What do you want?” I said, muscles tensing in rage.
Martin laughed and the sound rang in my ears like that of an evil villain.Way to play your part, dude.“I don’t want anything. I just wanted to give you a heads up that the board is going to have a lot of questions. I scheduled an emergency meeting for the end of the week to discuss what this means for your future role at the company.”
“Are you out of your mind, Martin?” I asked. “Do you really think Sutton is going to change her mind because of one photo?”
“Nope,” he said. My phone dinged with several incoming messages. “Which is why I sent her all of these.”
I looked down at my phone and swiped through the images. Liv and I holding hands as we exited the office, Kayden and I kissing outside my condo, Liv and Kayden and I leaving The Cohen Club together. The three of us getting into the car last night. There were half a dozen images from the last week, all ones that made it obvious I was in a polyamorous relationship with my assistant and my architect. My stomach flipped. This was not even remotely how I envisioned us coming out, and if Martin’s vendetta against me impacted either of them negatively I was going to lose my shit.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and kept my voice calm. No way was I letting Martin know how rattled I was. “Sutton already knows about us,” I lied.
“See, I don’t think that’s true,” Martin said. “Because when I called her this morning and sent her the photos, she seemed very surprised.”
“Are you having me followed?” I asked.
“I simply hired a PI to make sure there was photographic evidence when you fucked up. There’s no way you’re the golden boy philanthropist that everyone thinks you are, and now I have proof of your sexual promiscuities.” He paused and sighed. “I do hate to see that new up-and-coming architect affected though. I imagine people will beshocked at his involvement with one of his first clients. And Olivia, well, you know how hard it is to overcome the perception of being someone who sleeps with their boss.”
“Fuck you, Martin,” I spat. “You may think you’ve got the upper hand here, but you don’t and I’m not going to listen to you degrade my relationship with Kayden and Olivia because you’re trying to twist this into something that suits you. Sutton won’t care about this and I’m not letting you hurt either of them.”
“Are you so sure she won’t care when it’s the reputation of her company on the line? I’m quite sure you’ve violated a number of HR policies, Jace,” Martin said with atsk tsksound. “Plus,two partners? That’s a bit progressive for any company owner to advertise.”
“I’m not worried about this,” I said, lying again. Sutton was going to be upset that she didn’t hear this from me, and that strain on my personal relationship had me more worried than what he was trying to do to me professionally. She and I would come up with a plan to resolve this and protect Kayden and Olivia at the same time.
“Oh dear, look at the time. I bet you need to get ready to meet with Sutton. You might be able to convince her to let it go, Jace, but don’t forget you have a whole board you’re going to need on your side. It will be awfully hard for Sutton to appease all of them when this comes out. Even if they can look past the unusual relationship, I’m sure they’re going to struggle with the nature of how you mixed your professional relationships with personal pleasure.”
I took a deep breath. “You’re going to shoot yourself in the foot, not me.” I hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed. I slammed my laptop shut and screamed into a pillow.Why am I letting this guy get to me? Is this really our life? Will people always use our relationship to try to blackmail us? Fuck that.If that was the case, then I was going to screamour relationship from the rooftops and beat them all to it. My family came first, and I was not letting a scumbag like Martin hurt them.
