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***
Sloan glanced over at Jay, who was bent over his work, concentrating hard but with a small smile playing around his mouth. It was September, and JWM were about to launch their cable channel. Sloan had to admit — without Norah Quinn working her pert little butt off for the last six months, they wouldn’t be here now. Norah had more than proven herself but still…Sloan hadn’t missed the lust-filled looks between Jay and Norah, the brushing of hands as they passed in the hallways, the fact they left work together — and came to work together. Jealousy churned and writhed inside of her as she witnessed their happiness and now she was about to see the results of her plotting.
Sloan casually picked up the remote control and flick on the flat-screen on the office wall. Jay glanced up, at her and she shrugged. “Just want to hear some white noise. Do you mind?”
Jay shrugged in his easy-going way. “Have at it.” He ignored the t.v. and went back to reading. Sloan flicked through the channels for a few minutes before choosing one and sliding a sideways glance at Jay. She gave a gasp. “Jay…look.”
She nodded to the screen. A picture of Norah was on the screen. Jay grabbed the remote control and turned the sound up.
Seems the new woman in the billionaire hottie’s life is a Harvard grad but some say she has an agenda all of her own.
A redhead about Norah’s age, with split ends and mean eyes, came on camera. She was real quiet, you know, I always thought she might think she was better than us but she didn’t have any family, y’know, no money. Doesn’t surprise me she’s hooked up with Jay McKittridge, you could smell the desperation on her for a mile.
GG News has discovered Ms. Quinn’s only family is a mother with Alzheimer’s who she rarely visits and has let languish in a poorly run care facility in New Orleans. Let’s hope playboy Jay has his eyes opened about his new love. Stay with GG for more on this story. Smirking, the presenter started to hum ‘Gold-digger’ making her co-presenter laugh.
Jay stood slowly. “What the hell?”
Sloan feigned shock. “What are they talking about? Jay?”
He was already heading out of the door. “I have to get to her.”
Behind him, unseen, Sloan smiled.
Jay ran the length of the building to get to Norah’s office but it was with a sinking heart that he saw it empty, clearly abandoned in a hurry. The flat-screen was on the same channel he’d been watching. Poppy, the intern Jay had assigned to help Norah, hovered nearly, biting her lip and shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.
“She just left,” she said in a timid voice when Jay looked at her, desperation in his eyes. “She was crying.”
Jay rode the elevator down to the lobby and ran out of the building, searching for her. Instantly a pack of paparazzi descended and he pushed his way through them, calling her name.
. Jay ran around the block, into the city searching but Norah was nowhere.
“Oh damn it, damn it…” He put his face in his hands. It was all over, It was all ruined.
Norah was gone.
***
She crashed into her apartment, not noticing how dank the air was. It had been so long since she was here, except to pick up her clothes which were now all at Jay’s apartment. The place she’d come to think of as home over the last six months.
And now….Norah sank to the floor, trying not to hyperventilate. The shock of seeing her own face on that gossip site followed by the utter, complete humiliation of being publicly labeled a gold-digger and worse, a cold-hearted daughter. She felt the eyes of her co-workers on her and she’d wanted to shout at them that none of it was true, none of it. Instead, she’d taken flight, throwing the folder she was holding onto the table and running…she’d taken the stairs in her eagerness to get away.
Because the worst thing of it wasn’t the judgment, the lies…it was that only one person knew about her mother and could have let the secret out. The people at the care facility had no idea she was dating Jay. There was only one source who knew both things…Jay himself and the pain of that betrayal was overwhelming. Why?
She’d been sitting there for an hour when she heard the intercom buzz. Looking up, she suddenly scrambled to double-lock the door and switch the lights off. She knew it was him, knew it was Jay but she couldn’t face him, not now, not yet. Even when he started shouting and banging on the door, she went into her bedroom and pulled her pillow over her ears. Eventually, the shouting stopped and all was quiet.
And that was when she let herself break.
***
Sloan had watched her best friend over the past week and didn’t recognize him. Jay was broken and it was her fault. The launch was today and her major player wasn’t in the game but more than that, Sloan felt a tremendous guilt weighing down on her. The day of the new story, she had gone home, reveling in the success of her scheme but then her father had called and asked her to come over and as she looked at him, the early stages of the disease already showing on his face, the weight of what she had done came down on her and one word kept springing to mind, keeping her up at night.
Cruel. Her father’s — Norah’s mother’s — disease was a cruelty to everyone it affected but it was a disease that hit anyone, at any time for any reason. And what she had done was spiteful, selfish and cruel. And that was something she could do something about.
“Jay, you have the speech, ready? I need to duck out for a half hour.”
He looked up, dark circles under his tired, sad eyes. “Now?”
She nodded. “It’s important. You got this.”
