“I uh… I might need to go in there alone,” Nadia told Dean who frowned down at her.
“I think it’s a little too late to be worried about us being seen together,” he said.
“No… uh, I need to talk to Luke’s teacher for a moment, give me a minute,” Nadia insisted as she got out of the car and made her way hastily toward the school where Mrs. Payne was anxiously waiting for her at the door.
“What does he want?” She asked her and Mrs. Payne shook her head with worry.
“He wouldn’t tell us what he wanted. He asked whether Miss Talbot was here and then corrected himself to your last name. I led him to the office when I called you claiming that you agreed to see him,” She explained, and Nadia nodded with determination as she made her way into the building.
“What in the world is going on, Nadia? Why is there a reporter here looking for you,” Mrs. Payne asked as she followed after her worry evident in her voice.
Mrs. Payne was one of the few people who knew about her past. So she was evidently worried about this because she knew what it would mean if a reporter uncovered her real name. It would be a nightmare coming back to haunt her. Which Nadia had a feeling was already happening.
A shiver ran down her spine at the thought, but she braced herself, she needed to remain strong.
“I don’t have the time to tell you the details right now, but I think things are going to be a mess for a while. I need you to keep away from us, Luke and I are nothing but a parent and a student for you.” She explained to Mrs. Payne who gave her a confused expression,
“I will explain everything when I’m done with this person. There’s a man outside in the car, if he comes in, ask him to wait for me. And please call the nanny and ask her to bring Luke back,” She instructed.
“Alright, I understand. I already called the nanny to come back I will go out to anticipate her,” Mrs. Payne said with a nod as she made her way back out toward the entrance.
The school was empty except for the few remaining staff and teachers and Nadia was glad for that.
Entering Mrs. Payne’s office, she found a middle-aged man there standing behind the desk and looking through the papers.
“What are you doing?” She asked startling him but he recovered quickly smiling at her.
“You must be Miss. Nadia Rowell,” He said walking toward her and extending his hand, “Troy Rolland, I’m a reporter,”
Nadia stared at his hand before looking up at him, “What do you want Mr Rolland?” She asked.
Rolland looked at his hand then smiled pulling it back fishing his phone out and scrolling through it.
“I want to make a deal with you, Miss Rowell…” He said with a smile motioning to the sofa at the side of the room, “Please, sit down. I don’t see your boyfriend with you. Did Mr. Wess abandon you when he learned that you had a son?” He asked with a smile and Nadia raised one eyebrow at him.
He was trying to provoke her. To distress her before he began discussing what he really wanted from her. She wasn’t going to fall for his tricks. No matter how annoying the man was.
“I… Unlike before, you seem to have grown a backbone, Miss Rowell. Or should I call you, Miss Talbot? Because that’s your real name, right?” He said with a smile and Nadia’s heart beat faster at the mention of that name.
Something must have shown on her face because Rolland smiled before he sat down on the couch seeming quite pleased with himself.
“Now… Why don’t we talk about that deal? I heard that Nadia Talbot had a lot of wealth accumulated even without her father’s inheritance. Her mother’s side of the family was quite loaded I hear. And they had so few family members left that she ended up inheriting most of their money. I wonder where all that fortune went after Miss. Talbot disappeared…” He trailed off.
“I wanted to make a deal with Mr.Wess’ money but maybe we won’t need him after all…” He said with a smile.
Nadia reached for her phone and started dialing a number.
“Are you calling your knight in shining armor?” He asked, “I am fine with that,”
“I am calling the police. This is clearly a case of blackmail and you even broke into my son’s nursery school which makes it two crimes. I hope you realize that your charges won’t be light,” She answered coolly as she looked down at her phone.
Before realizing it, Rolland was out of his seat and grabbing her wrists forcing her to drop her phone. He was strong. Much stronger than her. Nadia realized for the first time that maybe she shouldn’t have come in here alone. She was so bent on keeping this a secret from Dean that she’d overlooked this detail.
Rolland leaned in toward her squeezing her wrists harder making her wince.
“Are you sure you want to play this game with me? Miss Talbot? I know who you are, and I know what you are and everything there is to know. You shouldn’t be treating me like this. You know…”
Rolland was whispering into her ear as she tried to lean back away from him to no avail. When suddenly the door burst open and Dean entered the room in a flash.
Quickly, he seized Rolland by the collar dragging him away from her and pressing him against the wall.
“What the f**k do you think you’re doing?” He growled out his voice sounding savage.
Nadia was shocked her hands trembling from the pressure that had been put on them.
“Here comes the knight in shining armor…” He said with a smile as he gasped for air against Dean’s gasp.
“What was this man doing to you?” Dean asked looking back at Nadia and she gulped at the wild harsh look on his face.
“He… he was talking about some information,” She murmured and Dean smiled.
“I see… So you’re one of those… I knew that you would start appearing by now but aren’t you a little ahead of the bunch?” Dean said with a smirk as he let the man go so suddenly that he fell to the floor.
“You’re wrong there Mr. Wess. I am not one of them, I AM them…” Rolland said as he coughed his smile never leaving him.
“What are you talking about?” He asked.
“The article who ousted you two. I was the one who wrote it. And I have so much more juicy information that I was hoping to share with you. Because it seemed like your dear girlfriend/secretary didn’t tell you anything. But I don’t like the way you treated me, so you’re just going to have to find out in tomorrow’s article. You should be looking forward to it,” Rolland said as he stood up.
A shiver ran down Nadia’s spine as he made that declaration. Her mind spun as she thought about the possibilities of what could the information she was talking about be. There were just too many possibilities.
Rolland picked up his phone again tapping on it then smiling at them as he made his way to the door.
“I’m sure there are a lot of things that the world would be delighted to know about you, Miss Ta- I mean Miss. Rowell,” He added, then as he passed her by her whispered, “And so would a certain someone. I heard he hadn’t stopped looking for you over the last five years…”
A certain someone… That could be one person. Only one person. He was looking for her, all these years. He can’t find her now.
“What was your name again?” Dean asked before Rolland left.
“Troy Rolland. Nice to make your acquaintance Mr. Wess…” He answered with a smirk.
Dean then looked back a cruel smile on his face as he walked toward Rolland.
“I will make sure to remember that, Rolland.” He said leaning into the much shorter man to the point of making him stumble back.
“Especially if I see you within reach of my girlfriend again,” He added and Rolland was shocked for a moment before he made an awkward laugh.
“Woah, that was scary… Reminds me of a certain someone… How you always end up with the truly fucked up ones is beyond me,” He told her with a smile.
Right then the door to the office opened and the bodyguard came in.
“Restrain him and hand him over to the police,” Dean said.
“Yes, Mr. Wess.” Said the bodyguard as he pulled Rolland away.
Nadia stood there in silence as she looked at Dean’s back. Her mind raced one mile per second. She heard her phone ping snapping her out of her thoughts and she looked down at it reading the message that popped up on her screen.
“I finally found you.”
Her knees buckled beneath her as the whole world disappeared around her leaving only the screen of her phone before her and the massage which she kept rereading until she could practically hear the words inside her head whispered in that person’s voice.
“I finally found you, Nadia…”
Dean took deep breaths trying to reign in his anger. He wanted to punch the daylight out of that Rolland guy, but he couldn’t do that. Not with all the press keeping their eyes on them. Not while he didn’t know the exact story behind this.Nadia is clearly keeping a secret from him. A secret she didn’t want Rolland to reveal to him.He heard Nadia’s phone ping and then the sound of her knees hitting the ground. He turned around to find her looking at her phone with a shocked expression. A mixture of pure disgust and horror, the exact same expression she was making moments earlier when she was being chased by the reporters.“Are you okay?” He asked kneeling down beside her and she looked up at him with a dazed expression as if she was trying to make out what he was saying in her jumbled mind state.“Hey, Nadia, are you with me?” He asked again shaking her shoulder lightly his heart catching as he peered into the empty look in her eyes.She blinked and looked at him for a moment then no
Nadia sat down at Dean’s kitchen counter silently watching him as he read through the article that already made its way to the media and was now infesting most of the news outlets. Her picture was palstered in the front showing her face from before and after her transformation to Nadia Rowell. Not that she did much except for dye her hair back and add the glasses. Sometimes simple modifications made radical changes. “To think that you were a Talbot…” He said with a sigh rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly looking at her. “You don’t have to treat me any different now that you know the truth…” She told him with uncertainty, and he looked up at her with a smile. “You think I would be upset about this little bit of news?” He asked and she shrugged internally relieved by his reaction. Last night, she had hacked into the newspapers’ system looking for Rolland’s article. It took her moments to find it, and minutes to realize that most of Rolland’s threats were bluff bravado. The story
"Dean..." Nadia said with an exasperated sigh as she leaned back from him.She really was taking him seriously there for a moment."Hey! I'm being serious," He said and she shook her head."How can it work out after all the mess that happened? Your best course of action is to announce that you gave me the job to help me out and that everything is a misunderstanding. Otherwise, your reputation is going to suffer and they may even take you for Luke's real father," She said."I don't care about what they say. Besides, I don't mind being called Luke's father," Dean said and Nadia's eyes widened."Dean. You must realize what you're saying right now," Nadia said her tone darkening, "This is not a game!""Listen to me for a moment, will you?" He insisted grabbing her hand to stop her from leaving her place. Sighing, Nadia looked at him and waited."I know for a fact that things are complicated right now. But I think that this is the simplest and surest way to resolve this problem. The media w
Nadia rubbed the back of her neck before she returned to typing on her laptop. As soon as she began working, she realized that this was a false alert and that she didn't need to follow the tracks of this hacker. It was simply an internal glitch, someone from the development department must be testing her firewall. Some of them were having a hard time accepting that WhiteFlower, an outsider, is doing a better job at protecting their digital system than they were. Wich was why she was paid a hefty sum of money which all went to support her multiple investments. If these fake alerts kept going she was going to have to report it to Dean to deal with the development team. It was high time they hired some female IT employees to drop those men's edge a few pegs down. She was always in for letting a little male ege take a healthy fall. Nadia then realized one thing. If she was going away in a few days, there was no way that she will be able to continue her relationship with WTech. So her pl
Nadia sat alone in her apartment her mind traveling miles away when she heard a knock on the door. Luke was asleep tired from his agitation and panic and having cried himself to sleep. Nadia’s heart still hurt remembering her son’s reaction to her suggestion. She felt ashamed to be reminded of her connections by her affectionate five years old. But her mind had still been set on their departure. Opening the door, she noted how the house was dark as the sun set so she turned on the light to face a somber-looking Dean. “Come in,” She said and he abided by her command not speaking a word as he went inside. “Would you like something to drink?” She asked leading him to the kitchen. “Are you really leaving?” He asked and she sighed turning around to look at him. “Was it Daniel?” She asked him and he gave her a blank look. “He was more than a bit confused. And so was I when I heard that you were planning to leave…” He said then hesitated, “Listen… I have no right to stop you from leavi
“Mommy, are we still leaving?” Luke asked making Nadia’s heart go out to her son. Before she could muster the words to reassure her son, Dean was already making his way toward him. He knelt before him looking him in the eyes. “Don’t you want to go away with your mommy?” He asked and Luke shook his head vehemently. “No, I want to stay here with everyone,” he answered with a small frown. “Then why don’t you stay here with Uncle Dean? We can wait for Mommy here,” he said. Luke frowned and then looked at her his eyes filling with more tears. Then mustering his strength, he seemed to try stopping himself from crying before speaking. “No, I won’t leave Mommy alone. She will be lonely without me. I have to stay with her!” He exclaimed giving Dean the challenging look she suddenly remembered. It was the exact same look she’d given her father when she’d told him that she would be having Luke. She was ready to let go of everything to be with him. And now he was ready to do the same for h
“You will never know how glad we are to hear that you two are still going through with your engagement,” Said Dean’s mother as she sat before them with an excited smile. “We know, Mother. You’re practically brimming with happiness,” Dean teased and she frowned at him and sighed. “I had always wanted a daughter. But I was only blessed with a son, so I always considered you as my own daughter Nadia,” She said completely ignoring Dean. He was getting used to his parents’ preferential treatment of Nadia. At first, he was shocked but over the years he grew used to it. His parents had always wanted a daughter, somehow this felt more like him being introduced as the boyfriend, not the other way around. “Thank you, Mrs. Wess. I mean Maria,” Nadia said blushing slightly as she looked down. It seemed like Nadia was the one having more trouble getting used to their affection. Nadia’s phone rang and she looked down at it. “You can take that, I’m sure it’s important,” His father said and Nadi
“Here is what’s going to happen, gentlemen,” Nadia said as she stood in the meeting room the group of developers who turned out to be responsible for the hacking incident were standing before her their heads bowed and their skins as white as a sheet of paper. Dean sat at the back of the meeting room watching everything. His presence was in case she needs his intervention but now he realized that his intervention wasn’t needed. They didn’t even seem to notice his presence. This is how scared they were of Nadia. He smiled as he watched her lecture them to the point of tears, it was ridiculous to watch, they were grown men, and Nadia wasn’t exactly a big woman. But still, her presence was no joke. Dean was simply glad that this time he wasn’t on the receiving end of her anger. She came into the office all eyes on her. Whispers followed them around about the article but she paid them no mind, she didn’t seem to notice at all and even if she did, Dean had the impression that she wouldn’t