Dad’s name lit up the screen.
“Daddy?” I said into the phone. He rarely called me when he was on tour.
“Hey. I’m headed home. There’s a problem with Emmy. I need to be there. And I want you to be prepared. Things are going to blow up once they find you.”
Find me? “I don’t understand, Daddy. What things are about to blow up? Who’s going to find me?”
“Some motherfucker leaked the info about your mom. Some new staff member at the Manor. When she saw me there, she did some digging. When you came to visit, she discovered you’re my daughter. I was attacked by the paparazzi in fucking Paris tonight. I’m headed home. I don’t want them getting anywhere near your mother. The bitch has been fired and escorted off the property, but the press is covering the Manor. The staff is in a panic. They’ll be after you, too.”
I had always been kept safe from the paparazzi because I was boring. Now my mother’s existence was going to change it all. “What can I do to help, Daddy?” I asked, worried about the man I’d seen protecting the woman in that room as if she were a princess.
“Nothing. Not a fucking thing, sweetheart. Not a fucking thing. I gotta get to your mom. She needs me. I’m sorry, but you’re on your own. Just be prepared—they’ll find you. It’ll all come out. Everything. You understand that, don’t you?”
He meant my life. My secrets. My privacy.
“Yes, sir. I know.”
“I’m so sorry, baby girl,” he said, and the pain in his voice was honest. He really wished I didn’t have to face this. But I had to figure this out on my own.
“Only thing I can think of is you can come to the Manor. I can get you a room there and you’ll be safe, but they will eventually get the story. Too many people know things. It will all come out. You can hide for a while, and I’ll hide you. But it’s time you faced this. You aren’t my little girl anymore.”
He was right. It was time I faced this life. The one I’d hidden from.
“Call me. Let me know how she is and that you’re safe when you get there,” I told him.
“I will. Nan’s story will come out, too. Be ready for that.”
“Okay.”
He hung up and I stared down at my phone.
“What’s wrong?” Grant asked, his gaze on me.
“I . . . they know. The media know.”
“Shit,” Grant moved the notebook between us and slid over to me. I hadn’t even realized we were parked until that moment. “You mean about your mom?”
I nodded. “Yes. My mom. Nan . . . me. They know it all. They’ll come looking for me. I won’t be hard to find. They already know where Rush lives. He makes the papers randomly when they need some Slacker Demon family stories for the smear papers.”
Grant pulled me into his arms and held me against his chest. I had to tell him everything now. I just couldn’t form words. “I won’t let those fuckers get near you. I swear,” he growled, tightening his hold on me.
He didn’t know what they were like. This was a breaking story in the music industry. The world’s most legendary rock band’s lead singer was married to a woman he’d kept a secret from everyone. Even his own daughter for years.
Then there was me. Their miracle child. The child who shouldn’t have lived but did. The one who might not live a long life. The one who couldn’t have kids or it would kill her. The one who wasn’t whole, whose heart never worked properly. The pills I’d taken my entire life. The precautions—it would all come out. And I would be the sick girl. The one everyone looked at as if she wasn’t normal. I didn’t want that. Not again.
I had lived that life before, and I didn’t want it again. I kept my secrets guarded for a reason. And now they were all coming out, and I had no control.
“Shh, it’s okay, baby. I swear I will protect you. I swear, I will,” Grant murmured as silent tears ran down my face. My life was about to completely change.
Grant
Holy hell. This wasn’t something I could fix, and I hated it. Harlow’s shoulders silently shook as her tears wet the front of my shirt. Her life was about to be splashed all over the media. And I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
Rush had never had to deal with this because the world knew he existed. He made the tabloids at times, but his normal life didn’t supply them with the drama they craved.
This would. Harlow would get no peace. I could take her away and hide her. We could get on a plane and leave the damn country. “Let’s leave. Get on a plane and hide. We can go to a secluded island somewhere.”