Page 6 of Stormi & Sebastian (Shorts #1)

Sebastian’s POV

Two years had passed since I first met Stormi at the café in town. Something I knew was happening, something I wanted, was that I’ve fallen completely in love with her. Her smile, her laugh, being within her orbit became a drug for me. It was something that I couldn’t escape. She pulled me in, so steadily, so surely. She was a constant in my life while we worked on these books. We were spending more and more time with each other, not just as writer and editor, too.

We were hanging out as friends. I met the two women she considered family. Both over FaceTime calls, but she was private with them, keeping them close, tucked away, until about eight months ago. That was when she answered the door, on a call with them, and introduced me to them. I wasn’t prepared, but they told me they’d heard stories about me. About helping her with her list.

I blushed, harder than I think I’d ever blushed when the woman, Emily, the woman Stormi called Mom affectionately, teased me.

I was the one who helped her check things off her list, and with writing book two, ‘Figuring Out Myself’. We had checked off everything from that first list in no time, except for a few things, but she kept adding more. More things she was comfortable with, or ‘as ready as I’ll ever be’, things she wanted to do. She never did go on that date that was on her list. When I asked her why one time, she said she was holding onto that until she was ready and found someone worthy of being that first date after.

She said she was thinking of turning that into its own book called ‘Dating after Betrayal’. She had been thinking of date ideas and turned that into its own section in the Bucket List Book. We were discussing some of those ideas, and she randomly said.

“There’s someone I have in mind, but I’m not sure if I could ever ask him. Does that make me a coward?’ She was looking out over the waterfall in front of us after we’d just hiked up here. I wasn’t expecting that. I also wasn’t sure who the guy was, but I didn’t like the idea of her dating someone…other than me. I didn’t like the idea of someone else holding her hand, walking her to her door at the end of the night, kissing her, maybe walking inside and…that’s where I had to stop my thoughts because if not, I’d start punching trees like a fucking jealous moron. It made me want to punch that guy, whoever the fuck he was. I wanted her to be mine, not with anyone else, but now with this? Having a guy in mind? I was worried and almost positive that I had waited too long.

Now I was condemned to the friend zone.

It was two days later, and I was still thinking about it, trying to figure out who it would be. Maybe Marty from the softball team? Or was it Tim from pottery class? I couldn’t think of a single guy we knew from any of the numerous classes or clubs, or teams we had joined, who didn’t think we were already together.

Fuck!

Who was he?!

I was on my way to her house with Alex, not fully able to listen to what he had been trying to tell me for the last thirty minutes we’d been in the car. I couldn’t stop running through the possible guys it could be. Who was it?! Trying to shift my focus, I tried to remember the reason we were on our way to see her.

We had seen a campaign over the last few weeks of largely negative reviews on both of her self-help books that we published. We hired a cyber specialist to trace back where the reviews were coming from, and a PI to see if they had any sort of luck. Twenty of the reviews came from her family. Namely, her mother's and her sister’s computers. I was sure the others were from people they knew or had talked to about the books and how they had to be hers. Or they were crazy enough to go to an internet café and make more.

Alex was here to discuss what we could do about it. We had a journalist reach out to us yesterday for a comment, and I knew I couldn’t keep this from her any longer. Not when I was getting questions like, ‘Why is your author writing about private family matters that are completely unfounded? Do you know about the family claiming they’re hiring a lawyer to sue for slander and defamation?’

I was flabbergasted because that was not Stormi. She wouldn’t publish something like thing, where worst case scenario was someone found out Artemis was her, that insinuated a lot of people looked really fucking shitty without some kind of proof. As her friend, and more importantly, the man who loved her more and more each day, I couldn’t keep this from her. It wouldn’t be right. It would hurt her trust in me, and that would be the worst possible outcome. We had come so far, and she deserved to be able to face this head-on. She deserved to know as soon as I did two hours ago when I called Alex for backup.

I was going to throw my weight behind her. It wasn’t a lot of weight in the publishing industry, but I knew I was on friendly terms with the right people.

Pulling up her drive, I saw her SUV in the driveway. The chimney had smoke coming out of it, indicating she was here and probably cuddled up on the couch, eating her comfort food, or grilled cheese and tomato soup with so many saltine crackers that it became mush.

Getting out with my umbrella, I made my way to her door, giving it a quick knock before it was barely popped out. Peeking her head out like someone might bite her cracked something in me, and I wanted to pull her into my arms and never let her leave. She closed the door again, and I heard the chain being slid from its place on the door. It was serious if she was using the chain. She hadn’t used that in eighteen months. She opened the door all the way, waving us in. Her eyes are red-rimmed. She had been crying. Alex walked in and headed to the stools at her kitchen island. I stood in front of her, my voice low.

“Stormi, what’s wrong?”

She didn’t look up at me, just sniffled. I put my hand under her chin, tipping her head up to look at me. Tears brimmed in her eyes. And I hated how beautiful I thought she was. Tragically beautiful.

“What happened, beautiful girl?”

My voice came out slightly strangled and pleading. I hated seeing her like this. I hated seeing the pain in her eyes.

“I got an email. My sister and mother know I’m the one who wrote the book,”

Tears were streaming down her face.

“They said they’re going to sue for defamation.”

“Do you have proof that they cheated? That everything in the book true?”

She paused for just a split second before rushing up into the loft. I heard her printer working as I walked over to where Alex was standing in the kitchen.

“Take it, she found out?”

Alex said as he looked through the cupboards for a glass.

“Her family emailed her, threatening to sue her for defamation,”

I said with my eyes closed, trying to breathe deeply because I was about to reach my limit with these people.

“She has proof?”

I inclined my head towards the loft.

“I think that’s what she’s printing now.”

I was about to cross my arms when I heard her feet coming down the stairs. I kept my arms at my sides in case she needed a hug.

“Here!”

She came downstairs, looking much more confident and determined with two thick folders in her hands.

“I have emails from Jason admitting to the affair. I also have my old phone that I’ve never turned back on. I just got a new number and phone. I traded in an even older phone when I got the one I have now. I’ll plug this into see if I have anything good on it.”

She plugged the phone in as Alex read through the emails from her sister, Jason, and his parents. And all of the other printed evidence she’d gathered. There were photos on social media, messenger apps, and screenshots of everything.

“They had to get a restraining order against him? Why?”

“He wouldn’t leave my boss or friend alone. He showed up at my job demanding to know where I was multiple times. He kept going to Raven’s house, convinced they knew where I was. Eventually, they told him that I was somewhere they didn’t know, they just knew I left the state. Everything went through a lawyer, even the bit about there being no baby.”

She mumbled the last part.

“What now?”

Alex asked, and I was curious too. What baby? She did say, baby, didn’t she? She heaved a sigh before explaining.

“When the confrontation was happening, in front of my family, my parents’ friends, and his family, he hurt me by telling me he picked the wrong sister.”

Her eyes looked dead as she recounted the story.

“Being hurt, I wanted to hurt him back. I told him I was pregnant. I wasn’t sure if I was at the time because my period was two to three weeks off, and we hadn’t exactly been careful because the wedding was right around the corner, and we had talked about a honeymoon baby. So, I told him I was and left, ghosting him. But I would have told him if I were, I’m not a total monster. It was two months later that I told Emily and Raven to tell him there was no baby.”

Her cheeks flamed red. She was embarrassed.

“He wouldn’t leave them alone. Finally, they had no choice but to pursue. It wasn’t my finest hour.”

“That won’t look good in court, but we could always say you got a false positive, and due to the stress and emotional pain you were in, you weren’t thinking clearly when you told him. And then again, when you didn’t tell him right away, there was no baby.”

Alex said, matter-of-factly.

“Let’s power up that phone. If there’s evidence on there, I want to use that instead of the emails.”

Powering on the phone, we didn’t have to wait long before it began buzzing with unread text messages, voicemails, and notifications on her socials. I grabbed it before she could, taking the chance to see everything first from her. I didn’t want her exposed to that anymore.

“I’d like to read it, that way if it’s hurtful,”

she shook her head.

“I need to see this, Sebastian.”

“We all do,”

Alex reminded us. Nodding, we crowded around the phone, flat on the countertop.

“Voicemails first. If we have their voices, it’ll be pretty damning. Text messages next.”

She nodded at Alex’s words. Clicking the first voicemail and putting it on speaker, a woman’s voice filled the air.

“Straight to voicemail?! AGAIN?! You better answer the next time we call you, Stormi Selene Buchcannan! You cannot embarrass your sister like that and walk out on this family! I’m sorry you're hurt that Jason chose her over you, but honestly, what did you expect?!”

A scoff was heard.

“Get over yourself. A year is nothing. And you’d only invested eighteen months with him when you found out about them. Get over it. Call us back, you brat!”

Clicking the next one, putting that on speaker also, a man’s voice rang out.

“Listen, pumpkin, I know you’re upset at your sister and mother. I am, too. I didn’t know anything about that or what was happening. Maybe I was just choosing not to notice. I don’t know. But I do know that you can do better than him if he’s willing to be with family.”

There was a long pause, and then, in a softer, more strangled voice, you heard who I assumed was her father speak again.

“I’m genuinely sorry about her sleeping with your boyfriend, my Stormi girl. Please, call me. I’m worried about you. I love you, pumpkin cake.”

She gasped, hearing, who I assume was her dad, telling her he didn’t know and he loved her. Tears filled her eyes, “Daddy,”

she whispered.

The next seventeen voicemails were pretty much more of the same nonsense.

More blaming her, telling her to be understanding, that family needs to come first, calling her selfish.

Blaming her for tearing the family apart.

That one made me bark out a humorless laugh.

The nerve of these nincompoops.

Her mother and sister are absolutely horrible to her, and her dad is begging her to call him.

There were a few from her ex, admitting to sleeping with her sister, sounding all arrogant to calls where he’s apologizing profusely, begging her to call and talk it out with him.

The text messages were basically the same, but in text form, just more and from extended family, also.

Cousins and aunts and even uncles.

Even ones from months after the confrontation, with pictures her sister sent, with dates they were taken, and mocking her for being so na?ve, and continuing to rub her relationship with her ex in her face.

Her sister even sent photos of what looked like their wedding night.

“This is more than enough to destroy them, and any claims they’ve made,”

Alex said with a positively evil smirk on his face.

I knew this was a lawyer’s wet dream, but he didn’t need to make it so obvious.

“I cannot wait for the judge to hear these.

We could either wait until they serve us…or…we could take this to the media.

If this movement they’re pushing gets any bigger, ya know?”

“How much bigger are we talking? Because they’re already leaving horrible reviews on the book for sale on Amazon, the socials I have set up for the Artemis penname, Goodreads.

It’s a nightmare.

I’d rather not have this get too much bigger if possible.”

Alex nodded, and I was already thinking of putting together an interview with a couple of the smaller news outlets, and maybe a statement from Artemis that we put out there to her fan base on the socials.

Trying to get a handle on the chaos.

“I’ve got a plan.

But…it might involve putting your face out there, if you’re ready?”

I asked, hesitantly, because I knew the pen name was to try to minimize blowback from her family, to keep her life separate from her writing. But that was out the window now, since they knew, since they were calling her out for ‘false claims’.

“Let’s do this.”