“And Sian was allowed to fade from view.”
Griff stood up and jammed his hands in the pockets of his pants. “Essentially. But Sian is tired of being in the shadows and she wants to help fight the stigma around mental illness. She called the press conference to talk about her diagnosis and explain that I acted like a jerk to protect her. It was her truth to reveal.”
“I’m with you so far, but I still don’t understand how Stan and Ava fit into this picture.”
“The story of Ava and me having an affair was bullshit, and it was a way to give a persistent reporter a scoop.”
“So you didn’t have a thing with her?”
“Of course, I didn’t!” Griff snapped, looking affronted. Then his expression changed to resignation. “Look, all that happened between us was what everyone saw in that club. Sian was pregnant and she’d been spotted, somewhere, I can’t remember where, and some intrepid reporter was going to run a story about the baby and her depression. We needed something big and bold to minimize that news, so Ava suggested we fake a hookup. I was reluctant, but Stan agreed with Ava. He’s always been super protective of Sian—she’s like a little sister to him. We set it up immediately and it worked. The news spread like wildfire.”
Kinga couldn’t resist asking her next question. “So, what was it like kissing the world’s most beautiful woman?”
Griff glared at her. “Stan told me that if my hand landed anywhere other than her back and if my tongue passed her lips, he’d castrate me. I believed him.” He shrugged. “Honestly, it was awkward and...wrong. Thank God we are both decent actors, because there wasn’t a flicker of chemistry between us.”
She heard his unspoken words...not like the firenado that sprang up between them.
But Kinga couldn’t be distracted by the heat in his eyes, the quirk of his sexy lips. There was still so much ground to cover. “Okay, your make-out session with Ava was a scam, but why were they at the press conference? They didn’t need to be, not really.”
Griff flushed and Kinga thought it was the first time she’d seen him flustered. “Ah, that was for you, actually.”
“Me?” What on earth was he talking about? She had nothing to do with his past or their press conference.
“I was reasonably sure the press would drop everything, including Pritchard’s cocktail party, to attend Sian’s press conference. But I wanted to be certain they would. Because Stan and Ava are seldom in the public eye and never engage with the press, Iknewevery reporter with a heartbeat would attend the press conference if they were there.”
Kinga placed her hand on her heart as it flung itself against her rib cage. He’d asked his friends to change a habit of the past few years to deny Mick the publicity he so desperately wanted...and it was all for her. How...sweet. A little Machiavellian but very sweet.
“I don’t know what to say,” Kinga whispered.
Griff’s face hardened and she knew his anger was directed at Mick and not at her. “Friends don’t act as he did, and I was happy to put a metaphorical foot on his throat. Besides, Stan is working on a new album and Ava punted her climate change foundation, so they were happy to be there.”
“No, they weren’t,” Kinga countered.
“No, they weren’t, but I asked, and they stepped up to the plate. It’s what friends do,” Griff said on a soft smile.
Yeah, it was what friends did. And by arranging this press conference to coincide with Mick’s opening night, Griff had sent him, and her, the message that nobody messed with the people he cared about. And he did care about her, she knew that.
But there was a universe between friendship and love.
“Thank you,” Kinga said, her chest and throat tight.
“There’s something else you need to know, something media-land doesn’t know. It might come out later, or not, but I want to tell you. You’ll be the only person who knows, outside of my family and Stan and Ava.”
God, he sounded so serious. What on earth could top what he’d already told her? And why was he confiding his secrets to her?
“We can’t go forward until everything is in the open,” Griff stated, his eyes on hers.
Did he want to go forward? What did that mean?
Kinga clasped her hands together and waited, holding her breath.
“I told you that I left Sian under the care of our manager, Finn. Well, he cared for Sian a little too much. Sam is his biological child.”
Holy hell...what?
“I was furious. I’ve always believed that she was in a terrible place, mentally, and that he took advantage of her. Sian says it wasn’t like that, that she never felt bullied or coerced.” Griff said, his voice saturated with pain and anger. “I was incandescently angry, still am to an extent because she was vulnerable.”
He rubbed his palm up and down his jaw. “Anyway...when she was diagnosed, I gained power of attorney over Sian’s financial affairs and I fired him the moment I heard. He was on his way to meet with me when he wrapped his car around a tree.”