Chapter 65 Dealt With
Daxton
Seagulls soared over our heads, waves crashing in the distance as the wind kept blowing her hair back. Everything was harsh with her. The world and now, this damned wind.
Verena leaned back on her hands—numb—as she stared ahead—into nothing. She now looked so calm, peaceful, and lost compared to the past two hours when she had a meltdown in the car when I had taken the phone out of her reach and had threatened to hurl it out of the moving car if she wouldn’t stop asking for it.
The tears on her face ripped my heart out completely. I’d never seen her this broken and right now, I wanted to hunt down whoever was behind that article.
Her gaze jerked up to mine and she held out her hand. “Can I have my phone now?”
That damned phone. Again.
“Nope”
“I would not cause a scene or even shed a tear. I only want to know what people think about me—”
I heaved an exasperated sigh, blocking her view—thankfully, it stopped that horrible wind— as I dropped to my haunches before her. “I don’t trust you, Verena. That phone is the reason you are a mess right now. I am confiscating this shit until you have the mental capacity to handle it,”
“Read books, watch movies, and drown in the peace that nature brings. No more phones for now,”
She tsked. “You are such an old soul” Her voice croaked.
“Old soul!” I sounded alarmed, my expression shifting into a serious one.
“Yes, old man!” Life slowly returned to her eyes as the sadness on her face cracked, and a small smile slipped through it.
And God! The relief I felt seeing that beautiful smile on her face warmed my heart.
I made her smile.
“I am thirty-seven. I will be thirty-eight in a few months. I am definitely not old.”
“Yes you are,” she teased, sticking out her tongue and I was so overwhelmed that I almost pulled her into my arms but that would make her cry again. And I didn’t like it when she cried, it broke my heart so bad.
“I don’t look old—” I tried to hold back my smile.
“Yes, but you are still old. Old man” She taunted, sighed in defeat and tears watered in her eyes again. “Daxton, leave me alone. I am not really in the mood…” She whispered, falling with her back to the sand while I sat right next to her.
Seconds stretched into minutes, silence pervading between us, before she sat upright and leaned her head on my shoulder.
“What do you think people are saying about me right now? Is it that bad,”
“Don’t care,”
“I guess it is that bad” she sighed. “I have gone through so much this week that—” she held her breath before releasing it. “I don’t know. I feel like everything is turning against me,”
I pressed my nose into her hair, drowning in that sweet scent. “I am still here by your side, Verena. I am not against you,”
She lifted her head, her eyes burning into my face before they held mine and turned it into flames. “You don’t hate me because of my family's scandal? Almost everyone left me after it happened. I think that was when Kian and I also drifted apart,”
“So, are you going to leave me too? I am sure you must have seen the old news that resurfaced,” Her voice tinged with pain, her eyes searching through mine for answers.
I reached for her hand, staring at her and I could practically hear the way her heart was pounding in her chest. “Do you want to know how long I have known you?”
“When?” Her eyes perked up.
“Since my step-mom’s funeral,”
Her eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. “No way. No fucking way. Were you there? I didn't see you…”
“I was in the car, watching you”
She gasped. “What the fuck,”
I smiled. “So I know you, Verena. I know every single thing about you. I know all the countries you have been to with your parents. I know the schools you have attended. I know everyone who has been in your life. If I know that much, do you think that I care about that?”
“I know this sounds weird but I don't actually give a fuck about what your dad could have done. Don't care…” My fingers brushed through her skin as I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I care about you, Verena,”
“And fuck everyone and their stupid opinions. They don't know you as I do”
Yes, fuck @user11022 for saying that she had the same soulless eyes as her dad and the idiot with the username—@manicguns209, who had written that he would fuck her to death on her father’s grave, calling her names that I wouldn't dare utter to Verena.
I had gotten the names, pictures, home and work addresses of these faceless accounts who thought they were hidden.
They would have to repeat those words by the time they saw me.
“So, you stalked me?”Her lips curled in amusement. “I am stunned,”
“I like you so much, Verena,” My eyes dipped to her lips before they fluttered back to her face. “More than you can imagine,” I twirled her hair between my fingers.
“Thank you,” She got on her knees and looped her arms around my neck. “Thank you so much—” Her words trailed.
“I think he is here with my doughnuts,”
“Who?”
“Your secretary. Josh,”
Verena moaned in ecstasy as she ate the doughnut, sharing some with the dog that kept wagging his tail at her before she jogged with the dog along the seashore.
The smile on my face faded when Josh spoke. “Kian released a statement, refusing to address the issue but he had warned the public to refrain from slandering the parties involved,”
Anger flared in my chest as I skimmed through the bullshit his press team released. “This good-for-nothing boy—” I clipped, handing the tablet to Josh. “The least he could have done was defend her,”
“Defending her and revealing the truth about them would take a hit on the company’s image. With the wedding at hand—”
I cut in. “Nonsense!”
“I made most of the publishing houses take down the article except for the Krator Media and the blog that started all of this,”
I scoffed, eyes following Verena who carried the dog into her arms. “We will sue. My woman needs to stack up her bank account,”
“Alright,” He chuckled softly.
“Who was behind it?”
Josh exhaled, handing me the cigar he had lit. “Mandy and I guess she got the information from Zita. The two had met outside the hotel,”
A strange laughter bubbled from my throat, fresh anger coursing through me as I blurted out the name. “Mandy?”
“Yes,”
“After all I have done for her? Taking responsibility for her two boys and…” I bit back my words. “I should have never helped her. I was the one who gave her another chance at everything and I will be the one to bring her down and clip those wings.”
“Get Verena and Kian’s marriage license and divorce certificate at all costs. Pictures of their wedding. Anything to prove that they were married and the cheats were Zita and Kian,”
“Zita is pregnant and I don't think that this is the—”
I shot him a glare that made him swallow the rest of his words. “I don't give a hoot about some damned baby. She could lose the baby for all I cared,”
“Release everything and that stuff we have on Zita, I want it all out by tomorrow.” A tendril of smoke covered my face, swirling into the air.
“The heat needs to go back to where it came from. It is about time Zita is dealt with.”