Chapter 12: Nicole Finds Out
When we arrived at the Graystone Residence, He opened the front door and I walked into the house ahead of him and stopped.
It was beautiful. I could not pretend it was not. The ceilings were high and the windows were tall and the light came through. Spanish archways leading from one room to the next. Marble floors that were cool and clean underfoot.
But it was empty.
Not messy empty or moving-in empty.
Just empty.
No photographs anywhere. No books left open on tables. No throw pillows that someone had actually thrown. No evidence of a person living here, just a person sleeping here occasionally between other things. It was a beautiful house that had never been anyone’s home.
I stood in the middle of the living room and turned around slowly and did not say anything for a moment.
Caspian watched me from behind.
"It feels empty," I said.
"It is," he said. He walked past me toward the kitchen. "I am not here very much."
I looked around again. All this space with nothing in it. Something about it made me unexpectedly sad in a way I was not prepared for. This man had everything and came home to nothing.
"You can change it," he said, coming back with two glasses of water and holding one out to me. "You are my wife now, do whatever you want with it as far as it makes you happy. . Do not worry about the budget."
I took the glass and nodded and followed him as he started walking me through the house.
We stood in the doorway of the bedroom where the evening light was coming through the curtains and Caspian was standing close enough that I could smell that cedarwood warmth of his.
"Can I ask you something?" I said.
"You just did," he replied without looking up.
I rolled my eyes. "Did you know Liam before all of this?"
Caspian’s expression shifted. "Yes."
I straightened. "How well?"
"Well enough."
"That sounds suspicious."
A small smile touched the corner of his mouth. "It is."
I folded my arms and looked at him. "Are you going to elaborate or are you just planning to keep sounding like a billionaire supervillain for the rest of the evening?"
That earned a quiet laugh, low and genuine. "I have been looking into Liam for a while."
I blinked. "Looking into him how?"
"He and certain members of his family are connected to things that do not add up." He said it the way he said everything, flat and unhurried, like he was reading from a document he had already memorized. "The kind of things that tend to unravel eventually if you pull the right threads."
"What kind of things?"
"The kind I do not discuss until I have proof."
I studied his face carefully. "You think he is doing something illegal."
"I think Liam is hiding something." His voice was calm. Too calm.
"And when you find it?" I asked.
His eyes met mine. "When I find it, I will deal with it."
I stepped closer. "Just be careful. Okay?"
The hard edge in his expression softened immediately and completely, "You are worried about me."
"Maybe a little."
"That is unfortunate."
"Why?"
"Because now I like hearing it."
I laughed and shook my head. "You are impossible."
"So I have been told," he said gigling.
I reached up to straighten his collar, mostly because it needed it and partly because I wanted to. His hand settled on my waist the moment my fingers touched the fabric, warm and unhurried, and the room suddenly felt much smaller and much quieter than it had a moment ago.
His gaze dropped briefly to my lips. Then came back up to my eyes.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
"For what?"
"For worrying."
I rose onto my toes and kissed him. Slowly and deliberately. His arm tightened around my waist and I smiled against his mouth.
And that was exactly when my phone started ringing.
Nicole!
I actually closed my eyes. Caspian stepped back and I heard him giggle a little that I turned and looked at him. He was already looking at the ceiling with a completely neutral expression that was fooling absolutely nobody.
I answered. "Nicole."
"Valerie." All business, which meant she had something. "Liam released his PR strategy. I read the whole thing. It is exactly what you would expect and it is embarrassing how predictable he is." A pause. "Also I went to your apartment to check on you and you are not there. Your key still works. Everything is still in there. But you are not. Where are you?"
I was standing in the doorway of a bedroom in Caspian Morrow’s estate while my husband tried very hard not to smile at the ceiling.
"I forgot to tell you," I said. "I moved."
"Moved," she screamed. "Valerie. Where exactly have you moved to."
"I will explain everything. I am sending a car for you right now. Just wait outside."
"A car. You are sending a car. Valerie who has been funding you this whole time because I have been asking myself this question for days and I need an answer. Someone kept those rankings up. Someone made Liam’s PR contacts go quiet overnight. Someone with real weight in this industry is in your corner and I want to know who it is right now —"
"Nicole." I said it firmly. "The car is coming. Wait outside."
I hung up and looked at Caspian. "My manager has been drawing conclusions. I need to explain things to her in person."
"Do you trust her?" He was already reaching for his phone. He had looked into Nicole, I was sure of it. That was just how he operated.
"Completely," I said.
"Then I will send Theo."
I relayed the plan to Nicole. She made the sound of a woman who had stopped expecting her life to make sense and agreed to wait outside.
I set my phone down and turned back to Caspian. He was doing up the buttons of his shirt slowly, working his way up from the bottom, and I became very interested in a point on the wall just past his shoulder.
"We have a guest coming," he said, not looking up from his buttons. "The head of the household should be downstairs to receive her." He looked up then and his eyes caught mine and held them. "And besides." His voice dropped just enough. "I wanted to bathe with you tonight."
He kissed my cheek and stepped out.
I stood in the bedroom doorway alone for a moment and just breathed.
..
Nicole was furious for the entire drive. Theo told me later she had talked without stopping for forty minutes and had also kicked him in the shin while getting in the car.
But when the car passed through the gates of the estate she stopped talking mid sentence. She pressed her face against the window. She did not say another word until Theo opened her door.
She walked into the living room and found me sitting on the sofa in white home clothes with no makeup on and my teddy bear in my lap, completely relaxed. She sat down next to me and grabbed my arm with both hands. "Valerie. Tell me you did not do something drastic. Tell me there is not a strange man living in this house. Tell me you are okay."
"Nicole," I said. "I need you to stay calm."
"I am always calm."
I looked at her.
"I will be calm," she said.
"I do not have a boyfriend," I said.
She exhaled. "Good."
"I am married."
She stared at me. The clock on the wall ticked. Outside a car drove past. Nicole sat completely still with her mouth slightly open and did not produce a single sound for what felt like a full minute.
Then: "You are WHAT. You are married. To a person. A real person. When did this happen. Why was I not there. I am your manager Valerie I am supposed to know these things I am supposed to be at these things why did you not call me I would have come I would have worn something nice I —"
Caspian came down the stairs.
He crossed the room without hurry, leaned down and gave me a kiss
He straightened. Glanced at Nicole once with those calm green eyes. Went back upstairs.
Nicole watched him go.
Then she turned to me so slowly it was almost theatrical. "Valerie," she said very quietly. "Pinch me."
"Why?"
"Because that man who just came downstairs and kissed you. She stopped. Swallowed. "Is that Caspian Morrow."
"Yes," I said. "That is my husband."
She asked me to say it again. Then once more after that. Each time her voice got a little smaller and her eyes got a little wider.
She grabbed both my hands so hard I felt it up to my elbows.
"No wonder the rankings held," she said, her voice climbing. "No wonder Liam’s money did nothing. No wonder every media contact he called went quiet." She laughed and it came out slightly wild. "Valerie. If you were going to marry someone it was never going to be that man. It was always going to be someone on a completely different level." She squeezed my hands again. "This fixes everything. This fixes every single thing. And when Liam finds out —" She stopped. Put her hand over her mouth. Her eyes went wide. "When Liam finds out I might actually pass out on the floor and I want you to know I am completely okay with that outcome."
"when do you think we should tell him"
