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Adam smiled kindly. “Well, I think we all expected that, kid. No one would blame you.”
“The other thing…” he couldn’t help but grin as his heart surged with thoughts of Ellie… “I’ve met a woman – she’s amazing.”
Sarah clapped her hands excitedly. “That’s great news, Joseph! I knew there was something going on.”
Joseph’s smile faded as he gazed at Ivan on the laptop. “Thanks. But I’ve really fucked up – Ellie’s not what she seems. The papers are about to reveal the truth about Ivan – everything about Ivan. And there’s nothing I can do to stop them…”
Silence encompassed the room. Joseph listened as the ticking clock on the wall carved up the seconds.
Ivan sounded baffled. “What? What the fuck are you talking about?”
Joseph rubbed his forehead. How was he going to explain this? “Ellie’s a journalist. I confided in her…”
“And she betrayed you?” Adam asked. “Jesus, Joseph, I thought your judge of character was better than –”
“No, she didn’t. This other reporter bugged my apartment. Gerald Stinger – he writes for a gossip column. Remember I said someone was hacking my phone, Adam? I think that must’ve been him. He’s blackmailing her to get the story. She’s playing along until we can figure out how to stop him.”
The others exchanged glances of shock.
Sarah leaned forward and smiled tenderly. “Where’s Ellie now Joseph?”
“She’s waiting in the car. I told her s
he should come in, but she was afraid you’d be upset.”
“She’d be fucking right we’re upset!” Ivan said, fuming on the screen. “I was about to tell you my plans to come home next year.”
“It’s freezing out there Joseph,” Dylan said, ignoring Ivan’s fury. “Go tell her to come in.”
Joseph held out his hands to placate his oldest brother. “This is my fault, okay? So don’t any of you blame her. Alright.”
This was met with silence. Dylan gazed at his dinner. Adam coughed.
“Ivan?” Joseph said. “Promise me you’ll be nice.”
Ivan nodded imperceptibly. “Sure, whatever. You’d better go get her, then hadn’t you?”
Chapter Seventeen
Eleanor reclined in the comfortable passenger seat of Joseph’s car and enjoyed the soothing sensation of the heat as it blew directly onto her face. The reason she’d wanted to stay here was because she felt as if she was going to cry again and she didn’t want to break down in front of Joseph’s family. It was going to be strained enough once they found out what was going on. Her stomach churned with a graveyard eeriness, causing her confidence to collapse and implode. She’d been so excited about breaking up with Matthew and starting a new life – she’d never expected any of this.
She knew she shouldn’t blame herself, because Stinger probably would’ve planted the bug and got something on Joseph whether she’d gotten involved with him or not. But it was her profession that was corrupt, and it was her editor who was now blackmailing them both.
She sighed. What a mess. Her thoughts raced with ideas of how she could use this situation to try to expose Stinger. Was it illegal to eavesdrop? It was certainly against the law to break into someone else’s home. Surely you couldn’t plant a bugging device unless you were the police? She tried to remember what underhand techniques the rogue reporter Bob Crowe had used, prior to him being sent to jail – and then coming back for revenge on Blair Robertson the other day.
One thing was for sure, Eleanor wasn’t going to allow Stinger to publish anything about Joseph’s family secrets or about her sexual relationship with him. What would her parents think if they read that in the paper? Not to mention all Joseph’s female fans who’d probably lynch her. But more importantly, Ivan’s privacy needed to be respected and upheld, not splashed over the front pages like some tacky soap opera plot.
Speaking of soap operas… Eleanor pulled out her phone and composed a message to Pierre – the guy whose affair she’d been planning to expose for her front-page scoop.
‘Hi Pierre, I won’t print the story. Please just make sure you do the right thing from now on. I know I will…’
She sent the message then opened up a web browser, with the intention of searching online for the legality of what Stinger was doing, but there was a tap on the window which made her jump. Her head whipped around to face the glass and her heart surged with emotion as she looked into the eyes of her beloved, who was grinning at her behind his shades. She unlocked the door and he pulled it open, then he offered her his hand – which she grasped and climbed out of the car with dignity. They faced each other and he bent to kiss her, but stopped at the last second in case any photographers were lurking in the dark.
“They’re dying to meet you,” he said. “And they’re not mad.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, come on, let’s go inside. You okay?”
