Page 25 of All the Forbidden Things

“Nothing.”

“How desperate is she? How likely is she to make shit up?”

My stomach does a couple of backflips as I blow out a breath. This is my biggest fear. “A week ago, I would’ve said absolutely no way would she do something like that. Now, though? I honestly have no fucking clue.”

I finish the water left in my bottle. I’m not thirsty, I just need something to do.

“Right, I’m not gonna bullshit, our biggest problem is your past reputation. Yeah, you’ve behaved the last couple of years, but if she spouts off and comes out with a load of crap, no one will remember that because it hasn’t made the headlines. They’ll only remember the stories that did. The bar and nightclub fights, the hotel rooms that were smashed up. The women, especially the mother and daughter debacle. All of that.”

“But half of what got reported back then wasn’t even true.”

“You really think anyone cares about that?” His sharp brown eyes study me.

I crush my now empty, plastic, water bottle.

“We’re prototyping a pair of trainers made by recycling those.” He gestures to the now compressed plastic.

“I know, I donated five-hundred-thousand quid to the charity that’s funding the research.”

He nods. “We need to make a press release about the progress and ensure your name gets mentioned.”

We’re both silent for a few seconds. “Look, the last thing I want is for you to go public with anything that might influence the courts when it comes to granting you custody of your daughter. If you publicly call her out, tell the world she was cheating and was in that car with Gardener because she’d left you for him, she could play the victim and retaliate by making up a load of nonsense that might not be true but will be up to you to disprove.”

I stand and walk towards the floor-to-ceiling windows and take in the view of Canary Wharf and London’s bustling Docklands.

“Taking all of that into account, inviting her to stay at yours while she recovers might actually be a genius move on your part.”

I turn and look at him over my shoulder. “How so?”

“What you could put out is that you and Whitney were separated at the time of the accident, but that you’d invited her to move back into the marital home while she recuperates and you attempt to salvage your marriage.”

Lennon stands, moves around his desk, and paces in front of it. “This could actually work. We can portray you as the forgiving husband, then when you do finally kick her arse into touch, we can just put it out there that you’d tried, but the differences were irreconcilable.”

Just the thought of divorce makes me wanna throw up. One of the main reasons I’d stayed single so long was because it was my biggest fear. Divorce equals failure. Especially if there are kids involved.

But after being in her company this morning, aside from the anger which appeared from nowhere, there’s nothing, I feel nothing for Whitney, and I know I’m doing the right thing.

“I’m gonna set up a meeting with you, me, and Aaron,” Lennon says, interrupting my thoughts. “I might even bring Jimmie in on it—”

“Why Jimmie?” I ask, unsure of what Len’s wife can do to help.

“Because she’s a fan. She’s up on all the gossip, her and my girls know things about my artists even before I do. She’ll give us a different perspective on how this might go down with the press, the public, but, mostly, your fans.”

“How’s Paige?”

Talk about his wife and kids reminds me that the last time we spoke, he was having some problems with his eldest daughter. She’s a well-known model in her own right, but coming from a family considered rock royalty in this country, the press and public felt doubly invested in every detail of her life, and she wasn’t handling it well.

“Still keeping up with her attempts to be the death of me,” he responds.

“You’ve got two girls, right?”

“Yep. Two girls, two boys.”

“How are the others doing?”

“They’re good. Jimmy, my eldest boy, is working for me. He’s over in New York on a scouting trip right now, and Ziggy’s at uni studying business management and commerce, he wants to work here eventually but not in a music capacity. He’s all about numbers, strategies, and marketing. And Harley’s enrolled at St Martin's, studying some fashion design course I’m not sure the exact title of, but she’s also working part-time for my sister's clothing label.”

“Quite the empire you’ve got going.”