“Then maybe we should go somewhere else.”
“We?” she challenged. “You plan to run and hide with us?”
Avoiding her question, I elaborated by saying, “I’ll set you up, come visit as much—”
“Stop, Trey. She finally has you, and you expect her to go back to not having you?” Her expression went on to say all the things she didn’t.
I knew we were moving too fast.
I knew I should’ve protected her from you.
I knew this would happen.
“It would just be for a while,” I pathetically said.
“Really?” she barked. “Until the next thing sparks their interest, and then we move again?” Something clicked inside her, making her pace my apartment. “This is on me. I should’ve insisted we take it slower. I can’t be here and think rationally while your reality is literally pounding on the door,” she said, pointing out the window. The more she wore a path through my floor, the more she mumbled to herself. “They can’t stay out there all night. Is there a back door out of here? I’ll have Alec take us to Debbie’s. I’d rather stay there while I figure things out.”
Not we… I.
She instantly removed me from the equation.
“Camilla—” Her hand flew up to stop me. And at that moment I knew it didn’t matter what plan she would concoct to protect our daughter—she’d most definitely do it alone.
Camilla’s idea to escape in the middle of the night meant having our doorman smuggle them out through an emergency exit, where Oscar, Jack’s main security guard, waited in an ordinary sedan to drive them to Debbie and Carson’s place.
Once they arrived and settled Alivia back to bed, after she’d cried hysterically for me, Oscar stayed out front to be sure they hadn’t been followed. It didn’t matter, though… because when Carson went out to survey the damage the next morning by driving by their apartment, sure enough, a shady-looking dude was sitting in a car across the street, watching Camilla’s door like a hawk.
I forced Camilla to talk to me often, calling her repeatedly to the point of insanity. There was no detection of fear when we spoke, more so that determination I had witnessed back when she’d first appeared in my life. I didn’t doubt I’d still be part of their lives, but I was absolutely sure it would be a fraction of the time that I needed it to be.
Jack and Leila were relentless in communicating with me. They both believed I should give Camilla the space she needed to work things out on her own, for the time being, while keeping her protected. As we all knew from experience, this would die down. How long it took for another bout of stalking to commence was anyone’s guess.
The nature of the beast now had both Camilla and Alivia on their radar. That meant a lifetime of intrusions, whether they liked it or not.
My heart ached for my daughter. It’d been almost ten hours, and I missed her more than I ever knew possible. I also missed Camilla. I couldn’t help but fear that intense, amazing connection we’d recently experienced would forever be altered, if not gone altogether.
As predicted, the entertainment news channels exploded with the story that Trey Taylor had a daughter. They revealed details of Camilla’s life, of Alivia’s life. They found photos that weren’t grainy, completely exposing their faces for the masses to memorize.
Forever gone was their anonymity.
The reality had the familiar sense of suffocation building. If I didn’t hold it together, all the progress I’d made in therapy would come dangerously close to imploding. But there was nothing I could do to stop the belief that this disastrous train was about to careen off the track. It may have been a dramatic conclusion, but it was true.
And still that little voice kept barking, What did you expect?
Twenty-four hours later, I felt like a caged animal. The die-hard paparazzi were still dotting the sidewalk, waiting me out. I hadn’t spoken to Camilla in an hour, and I frantically dialed her number. She was supposed to have Alivia FaceTime me, and I hated that it hadn’t happened yet.
“Hi.”
“How is she?”
“Okay. She fell asleep watching TV.”
I knew it hit her hard when she realized not only couldn’t she see me, but she couldn’t go to camp, she couldn’t play in the park, nor could she even go out for the ice cream she loved. It wouldn’t be forever, but to a six-year-old, an open-ended deadline may as well have been.
Another call coming in interrupted us. Seeing Lori’s name on the screen had me ignoring it. I appreciated everyone’s concern, but not having the desire to speak to them during an actual crisis couldn’t be held against me. I wasn’t that type of person and never would be. I needed to marinate in my trauma a bit.
But when the alert sounded that I had a new voicemail, curiosity on what she’d said got the best of me. “Babe, call me back when she’s awake.” Using that term of endearment wasn’t accidental. It was just another pathetic attempt to keep Camilla connected to me.
“Okay,” she said with no emotion whatsoever before the line went dead.
I listened to a benign message unlike what I expected. “Call me, Trey. I have an idea.” And that was what had me punching at her contact icon. “Hi,” she said.
“Hey.”
“First off, Cannon and I hate that this is happening to you.”
“Thanks,” I responded half-heartedly. It had nothing to do with the fact she was one of my exes sympathizing for me along with her current boyfriend. Lori and I had been through quite a bit over the years.
She’d loved me. I hadn’t been ready to love. I’d pushed her away.
It was that simple.
Regardless, I’d always love that feisty redhead in my own way. She’d had to endure some pretty nasty shit from me, and she’d taken it like a champ, never cowering away. Instead, she’d forced her friendship on me until I’d eventually caved and accepted it… like now.
“Okay, what you need to do is hold a press conference. Tell them everything. Eliminate the mystery. It’s just what Cannon did when news got out he was having an affair with his agent before his tour.” Her being the agent. “Once they got the truth right from his mouth, he stole the need for them to search it out on their own. Cut the head off the snake.”
It sounded so fucking simple… too simple. “That won’t have them backing off.”
“No, they’ll still do their thing, but only until the next scandal hits. You know that.”
“And when that next scandal dies and they’re back to me?”
“You’re prepared now, and you’ll protect them.” Then Cannon mumbled something that I didn’t hear, just before she repeated it for me. “Have your time on camera, have Camilla and Alivia all prepared to escape before they are able to go to commercial. Then head straight for Jack and Leila’s beach house and relax for a few weeks.” She allowed my reflective silence for longer than was comfortable. Anyone else would’ve left me to it, hung up to give me the time I needed to process the idea.
But not Lori. Lori remained on the phone, just in case I had something to say, even after fifteen minutes had passed while my brain still spun with optimism over her idea.