Chapter Fifteen
Bella rode up the elevator by herself after Michael dropped her off. She was anxious to see Caleb.
She hadn’t seen him since this morning after he’d dropped her off. Fear tightened her stomach and frazzled her nerves at the thought he could have left her.
She knew he had promised, but she didn’t fully trust that he would stay. Who would want to stay with her and her crazy mother? Sure, she knew Caleb enjoyed egging her mother on, but dealing with the bickering every single day had to get dull after a while.
The show was finally on hiatus. The year’s production only took two months to produce, so she had the next ten months free. She wouldn’t sit around. Her mother would spend the rest of the year pushing her into doing every commercial or anything else her mom signed her up for.
The fact she would be stuck with her mother every minute made her stomach ache, and she didn’t know if she could deal with it on her own.
The doors swished open, and she exhaled. The first thing she saw was Caleb with a smile on his face. She was shocked when Caleb opened his arms.
“Come to me, baby. I need to hold you.”
She looked over his shoulder. “Where’s my mother? I don’t want her to get you in trouble.”
His grin widened, but his eyes stayed sad. “You don’t have to worry about her.”
Bella raced to him and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. From the sad look on his face, she had a sneaking suspicion that she was about to lose him. Tears burned her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
Caleb leaned back and looked at her with concern as he used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. “Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, alarmed.
Bella sniffed. “You’re leaving me, aren’t you?” She watched him flinch like she’d smacked his face. “I don’t blame you. Really. Now, since there’s not a stalker, you can go home.”
“What the fuck, baby? Why would you think that?”
“You looked sad, and then you’re hugging me goodbye.”
He lifted her into his arms and walked to one of the big chairs she loved to sit in and read. He maneuvered her on his lap until she was comfortable, and he could see her face.
She swallowed and tried to keep the pain from overtaking her because she was afraid she’d start bawling and never stop. That wasn’t fair to him.
****
Caleb watched her fear grow, and he needed to crush it. “Baby, remember I promised you from the very beginning that I wasn’t leaving you, and I’m not.”
“But you’ve got your company to go back to and your friends.”
God, there was so much to tell her, but he was afraid of scaring her along with the despair she was about to feel.
“Baby, where I go, you do.”
Bella bit her lip. “I would love that, but my mother…”
He pressed a finger to her lips when she opened them.
“Shh. There’s something I need to tell you, and it’s going to be a shock. Just know you’re not alone, you’ll never be alone, and you’ve got me.”
She nodded and waited.
“Baby, your mother was arrested.”
She gasped. Her eyes widened dramatically, and she laid a hand over her mouth.
“Just wait, and I’ll tell you everything,” he said as he slid a soothing hand up and down her back. “She’s being charged with embezzlement. She has been taking every cent of your money since the beginning. Nothing was in your name, and she was hiding it in overseas accounts.”
She looked dazed, but it was the pain in her eyes that tore at him because he knew it was going to get worse.
“There’s more. We’ve also got evidence that your mom was behind the stalking you were going through.”
“What? Why would she do that?” she cried.
“At first, I think it was to get you publicity, but then she was actually paying a guy to kill you.”
Bella pressed her face into her hands and sobbed.
He held her tightly to his chest and murmured soothing words, rubbing her back and letting her get it out.
Fuck, the next part was even worse, and he thought to keep it from her, but he knew she would learn all about it from the publicity.
When she finally settled, he kissed the top of her head. “I hate to have to tell you this, but you will eventually hear about it. Remember when you were sick?”
She nodded. “Yes.”