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As the car emerged from the parking garage, I spotted a group of reporters standing by the front door of the apartment building. A handful of them turned our way, but the windows were so tinted they couldn't see shit.
Among them, I spotted the paparazzi Lucas hated. Jake fucking something. Was this doomed to be our life? Would I ever be able to just walk into a building on the street again? What the fuck had I gotten Claire and myself into?
Claire was holding her favorite doll and telling Lucas how I bought it from a high-end store for her sixth birthday. I'd never tell her I bought it from the dollar store. It still surprised me that it'd lasted this long.
Lucas was nodding along, asking questions and agreeing with Claire in a way that most adults didn't have the patience for.
My thoughts must have been spilling onto my face because Lucas glanced and did a double take when he saw my face. Reaching over Claire, he squeezed my wrist.You okay?
He didn't ask the question out loud because he would have had to not only interrupt Claire's story, but also redirect Claire's attention to my concern. The fact that it was just second nature for him to do that surprised me. Had he thought about having kids and how he would act, or were these just instinctive reactions?
I forced a smile and nodded, not wanting to give away the depth of my fears.
This was more than the press discovering my past. Quinn contacting me had changed everything. I'd not only hacked into Lucas's company, but now I'd seen the video Jessie Isaacs wanted.
There were two things I knew for sure. Someone else was clearly blackmailing Jessie, and it was most likely that it was the woman in the video. But why did she look so familiar? I couldn't pin it. Maybe I'd seen her at the masquerade ball, but then again, everyone had been in masks, so that made no sense.
The second thing I knew was that Jessie—and Lucas, by proxy—knew of my existence, or rather my alter ego, the anonymous me as a hacker. I didn't know if he suspected whether they were connected or what, but none of this looked good.
So as we arrived at the park on the south side of town, a new timeline appeared in my mind. This was the arrival of Point A: telling Claire that Lucas was her father. Point B would be the day that I handed this video over to Quinn, received my fifty grand, took Claire and left.
That was still part of my plan.
Except Part B depended on two factors.
As long as I was in the clear when it came to the hacking plot, it wouldn't have to be so dramatic as starting a completely new life. I would break this off with Lucas and do my best to protect Claire from the public eye. And that, way they could have a relationship with each other. That was what I hoped, at least.
Yet, if something got fucked up in the process, then this wouldn't be as smooth of a breakup. If I somehow got implicated in my crime, then Claire and I wouldn't just leave Lucas—we'd have to disappear and start over somewhere new.
Just how long of a path it was between Point A and Point B, I had no fucking clue.
But one thing I'd decided for sure. If Jessie and Carter were already being blackmailed by the woman in the video, I needed to find some way to twist this around and pin it on them. I hoped I could get Quinn's help on that, but if I couldn't, then that would have to be on me.
That plan was a bit later down the road, though.
Right now, I needed to focus on the goal ahead. Rip apart Claire's entire world and reveal something that will change her life forever.
"Are you freaking serious?" Claire leapt over the edge of the slide, lunging for Lucas.
Lucas caught her mid-air, his hands catching her under the armpits, her arms linking around his neck.
I touched my face, my back stiffening. She was...happy. This was far from what I had expected.
The bodyguard Lucas had hired to keep an eye us was too far away to hear the conversation, but from the bench he was sitting on, he cocked his head. And he wasn't the only one. The entire park had been watching us since we'd arrived. Lucas had picked a park with a concrete wall surrounding it, blocking the view from the road—and any press who might have caught wind of us being here.
Lucas spun her in a circle, his gaze catching mine, his eyes widening in shock. As he set her down, Claire sprinted for me, throwing her arms around my waist. I embraced her, tightening my arms around her back.
Crouching to lower myself to her level, I ran my hands through her hair. "You understand what I said, honey?"
"You said that Lucas is my dad."
I cocked my head. "Do you understand what that means?"
Claire rolled her eyes. "Mom, I'm ten, not eight. I've seen PG-13 movies."
"Oh, good to know."
Claire took a deep breath and pressed her fingers together. "Do you know what this means?"
