Chapter 101: The secrets
1955words
After I got off the phone with luis, he quickly texted me and said that he got a flight and would be here in six hours. It was perfect timing for me to get as much sleep as I could and be up to meet with him before lynn woke up.
I was so afraid to tell her everything because what I was about to tell her would change her whole world. I couldn't help but wonder if she'd stay with me through all of it. That's why I called her best friend. Luis helped her through the divorce and got her away from Jason. I was hoping he could do that again.
I slipped into bed next to Lynn and stared at her perfectly sleeping form before I drifted into a deep sleep. My phone was in my pocket, ready to vibrate when my alarm went off.
And when it did, the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon. We needed to move fast before lynn woke. I needed to give Luis all the details and go through the emails that buzzed me awake a few times through the night. To say I was nervous was a huge understatement.
I washed my face, got dressed, and saw a text from Luis saying he'd be at the hotel in ten minutes. Perfect.
Lynn was still in a dead sleep as I went to the curtains and closed them. I didn't want the rising sun to wake her any sooner. I needed time with Luis first.
I kissed the top of her head and left our suite, riding the elevator down to the first floor. The lobby was buzzing for being so damn early in the morning. And as I scanned the area, I picked Luis out of the crowd. He was rolling his suitcase in with a tired look on his face.
"Luis!" I called out.
He found me with his eyes almost immediately and smiled.
"Drake, tell me she's okay! I've been losing my mind the whole flight over not knowing what's going on." He truly looked worried sick and I loved that he was such a good friend to her.
"She's fine. Upstairs sleeping, actually. We don't have much time, though. Why don't we sit in the restaurant there and I'll tell you everything." I led the way into the lobby's restaurant and got us a back booth for some privacy.
"I've never packed so fast in my life," Luis laughed. "I don't even know what's in this thing." He kicked his luggage and made me laugh.
"I can assure you that lynn won't care what you're wearing after we speak with her."
Luis sighed. "What's going on, Drake?"
I ran my hand over my face and blew out a breath. "It's Jason." I watched his jaw tighten and pure anger roll off of his shoulders. "And her family."
His eyes whipped over to me. "What have they done, now?" The hiss in his tone told me he trusted them about as much as I did, and he didn't even know the half of it yet.
"I don't even know where to start. We came here for the BBQ and then Melissa showed up with her kid, pointing the finger at me again."
Luis cocked an eyebrow at me. "Again?"
"Yeah, I worked with Melissa years ago on a film that never got produced. She began stalking me and tried to pin her pregnancy on me." I waved that part off, it wasn't important right now. "Anyways, then we ran into Jason and he said some shit I wasn't too pleased about and I punched him in the face."
Luis clapped and bounced in his seat. "God, I wish I was there to see that." I laughed. "Yeah, well that's not the worst part. We went to the BBQ and Melissa and the kid were there again, but then Jason showed up too. Apparently, him and Melissa are getting married and her kid is actually Jason's. They'd been seeing each other when he was still married to Lynn."
His hands balled into fists as he glared over at me.
"I'm going to kill him."
I knew that feeling all too well. If the officers hadn't shown up, I probably would have killed Jason with my bare hands. He didn't deserve any less. That mother fucker deserves to be in the ground.
"Well, when lynn heard this news, she went up and kneed Jason in the balls and slapped Melissa. And then..." I paused as I remembered how it all went down. Seeing Jason punch lynn in the face would forever haunt me. "Jason punched lynn."
"That mother-" he paused when he remembered we were in a public place. "I swear, Drake," he whispered and leaned in, "I'm going to kill him."
"You and me both, Luis. I tried, actually. After I saw him hurt her, I lost it. I punched Jason over and over and over until the officers pulled me off. He's wanting to press charges against Molly and I for assault."
He rolled his eyes. "That doesn't surprise me."
"Yeah, me neither, but after the party, we went in and sat with her parents. They tried to tell us that Jason bailed them out with half a million dollars and that's why they let him come around. He owns them."
Luis snorted. "And where did he get that kind of money? He couldn't even pay Lynn's lawyer and court fees like he was supposed to." He looked around before he looked back at me. "Don't tell her, but I'm the one who took care of that. I didn't want her starting a new life with all of those debts hanging over her head."
I smiled at him and slapped his arm. "You're a damn good friend, Luis. And that's exactly why I've called you here today. I need your help to tell lynn what I've done and found out."
"What did you do?" He whispered dramatically.
"Not what you think. I know this guy who's helped me in the past. He's like a private detective and can find things out about people. I called him last night to look into Jason and her family. This is what he found." I pulled my phone out and started to pull up all of the emails. Luis squinted at the screen and leaned toward me. "Here, let me forward them to you and we'll look at them together." I sent him a copy and Luis opened them on his phone.
"Jesus. What the hell am I even looking at?"
I laughed. "It's confusing, I know, but look at the first attachment." I waited and then continued. "Jason owes an obscene amount of money to some loan sharks and it looks like he needs the money fast."
He held up his hand as he continued to read through the emails. I stayed silent as I let him ingest everything that he was reading. It was a lot to handle and I hoped that he could get through them without freaking out because I'd need him when it was time to tell lynn.
"Ohmygod," he whispered. "Lynn is going to be devastated."
I felt a tightness in my stomach and nodded at him. "Now can you see why I've asked you to come? I can't do this on my own. We're--" I paused and took a deep breath, "we're on shaky ground right now."
He inhaled a breath. "No, don't say that! I've got money riding on this."
Confused, I cocked an eyebrow at him and watched his eyes go wide.
"Shit, did I just say that outloud?"
"Loud and clear, buddy."
He fumbled with his hands in his lap and nervously laughed. "Yeah, so about what I said... I, um, may have set you two up."
I raised my brows at him. "Come again."
"I, um," he cleared his throat, "made a bet with someone that you two would hit it off. I'm winning, so if you two break up, I'm out a grand."
I wanted to be angry, but how could I be? Even if this was all a setup, I wanted to kiss him. I've never met a more amazing woman in my life and because of him, I was finally finding out what I wanted out of life.
"I'm not upset with you, but please explain yourself."
"Fuck, okay. It started when she couldn't stop talking about this asshole on her flight to Miami and then when she said you, her neighbor, was the asshole, I knew it was fate. The bet didn't come until I met Chrissy Kavana. She spoke similarly about you and I knew you two were the same men. Lynn deserves to be happy and from what I dug up on you, you were the perfect candidate for her. I planned the trip to Ibiza when you were there.
I planned for the meetup at the club. I've basically planned this all out. Well, besides you being her neighbor. That was pure coincidence, but it worked out, right?" He giggled and shook his head. "Chrissy bet that you would never leave the industry for someone as plain as lynn and I disagreed. We made a bet there in Ibiza and so far I'm winning. She isn't happy."
Wow, that was a lot to take in, but it didn't bother me. Now I know why Chrissy was pushing to get into my bed so badly on the yacht, though. She was trying to win a bet with luis.
"With the amount of skeletons we have to tell Luis, let's keep this to ourselves, shall we?" I'd make Luis tell her eventually, but not yet. We needed to get her over this big hurdle first. But either way, planned or not, lynn was meant to be in my life and I wouldn't have it any other way.
"Agreed. But please tell me that you haven't given her family any money."
I shook my head. "I thought about it because their story was so convincing, but I hesitated because if I gave them all that money, I wouldn't be able to leave the industry and I knew Lynn wouldn't be okay with that..."
"No, she probably wouldn't. Don't give them a dime, Drake. They played a pity party on me too, but I actually gave them money. It wasn't much, but after I gave it to them, they pretended like I didn't even exist. I just pegged it as her dad not liking gay men." He shrugged. "Whatever."
I blew out a breath. "This is all so jacked up, luis. Do you think lynn will believe us?"
He stared back down at his phone and nodded. "With this kind of evidence, yes, but she's going to be a mess.
"Fuck," I blew out. "I don't want her to hate me, Pierre."
"Why would she hate you?!" He shrieked.
"Because I dug all of this up without her knowing about it. Do you think she'll hate me?"
He studied my face for a long moment and then finally shook his head. "No, she isn't going to hate you. If anything, lynn will see this as you being her hero. Again. She'll be upset but not at you."
I nodded, hoping like hell that he was right.
"Well, shall we? Lynn will be waking up soon and I want to tell her about all of this before her mother calls again."
We stood up from the table and made our way to the elevators. My heart was nearly pounding out of my chest, but this was something that had to be done. I won't let anyone hurt lynn ever again.
