Secret Words (Secret Dreams Contemporary Romance 1) (19 page)

She pressed her hands on her head. George looked like he was telling the truth. If it wasn't him who was responsible for all the blackmail, then who was?

*******

"Kane is arriving any minute. Don't be surprised if he tries to hit you when I tell him who you are," Jasmine said to George in warning.

"I still don't know what I've done that we need to have this … meeting," George said, glancing nervously at Jasmine's parents, who sat quietly on the couch, looking equally concerned.

Jasmine propped her elbows on her thighs and leaned her head on her hands. She was so confused that she didn't even know how to explain to her parents why she brought George to dinner.

"Are you okay, Jaz?" her mum asked.

"Yes, Mum. I just need for Kane to get here already." She needed him not just to help her sort the whole story out, but also for comfort.

"Jazzie," her dad said softly. "Can you start somewhere for us?"

"I guess we could start with the fact that George and I used to go out together," she responded. "One day, he saw a lovemaking scene I was writing on my computer and assumed I write for porno magazines. Then he suggested we have a threesome with someone else."

Her mum gasped in horror and her dad jumped to his feet.

"But that's not what this is all about," she said hastily, waving at her parents to calm down. Goodness, they hadn't even got to the worst part yet and they were already up in arms.

Where was Kane? Her mind flashed a picture of him lunging at George and worried things might actually get more out of hand when he got there. She cleared her head and took a deep breath. It was up to her to control the situation and manage everyone's emotions.

The doorbell rang and she hastened to open the door.

Kane had a breathtaking smile for her and she couldn't help but respond in kind.

"Hi, baby," he said, kissing her on the lips.

"Hi." She grabbed his arm while she closed the door, not wanting him to rush to the other people in the room.

"Hello, Kane," Alice said warmly, walking towards them. "We're glad you and Jaz could come visit us again so soon."

"Hello, Alice. It's good to be here," he responded, giving her mum a hug and a peck on the cheek.

"How was your meeting, Kane?" her dad asked. He patted Kane's shoulder a little too enthusiastically, a sign he was impatient and itched to know what was going on.

"It was very productive, thanks, Joe," Kane responded, unruffled.

"Uh, baby," she interjected, slipping her hand in his and squeezing tight. "There has been a new development about that matter we still haven't discussed with Mum and Dad. And there's someone here who can hopefully help us shed some light on a few issues."

Kane gave her a quizzical look before spotting the stranger standing a few steps away from them.

"I'd like you to meet George," she said, watching Kane's face carefully.

His face reddened and he stepped purposefully towards George with a decidedly menacing expression. She quickly stepped in front of him and cupped his face, forcing him to look at her.

"Kane, I don't think it was him," she whispered.

"What?"

"I bumped into him in the shopping centre and he said he didn't know what I was talking about when I asked him about it. So I invited him here so he could tell us his side of the story."

"Jasmine!" Kane exclaimed angrily. "Why didn't you wait for me before you did anything? How do you know he can be trusted?" He glared at George furiously.

Whoa. That was a scary look. She didn't know how George reacted to that since she kept her gaze on Kane. He needed to calm down.

"We'd really like to know what's going on," Joe interrupted in a low voice.

She and Kane looked at her dad.

"Okay, we'll start. But please, no fisticuffs," she said authoritatively, looking pointedly at Kane.

His lips twitched. "Okay."

She went to sit on the couch, dragging Kane with her. When they were all seated, she relayed the whole story, starting with Tim's behaviour at Jessa and Rob's wedding, with Kane interjecting some details here and there. They mentioned Kane's broken engagement to Hannah and the baby they lost, and the fact that he practically lived with her at Jessa and Rob's to protect her from Tim's stalking. They also divulged Hannah's hostile email.

Her parents listened without interrupting, their eyes wide. George was just as wide-eyed, which made her feel more sure he'd told her the truth.

When she told them about the last email she got, including the veiled threat to send a naked picture of her to a porno magazine, their audience of three couldn't have looked more shocked.

"Jasmine, I swear I never sent those emails," George blurted out. "I didn't even know who Kane and Hannah were before today. And like I said earlier, I haven't seen or spoken to Tim since we had a fight after I asked you out. It was most definitely not me who told him you sleep around to seek ideas for your stories."

"So if you're not responsible for this, who is?" Kane asked George, his expression still antagonistic.

"I have no idea."

"Who else did you tell about Jasmine's chapter that you stole from her computer?"

"No one! I swear that on my mother's life. I deleted it as soon as I got home that day," George replied before a horrified look formed on his face. "Wait a minute. I did tell my ex-fiancée Minerva that the woman she blamed for our breakup was someone I was just having a casual relationship with, that she was like her cousin's ex-girlfriend who wrote for porno magazines," he said dazedly as some realisation dawned on him.

"What? I don't understand. Explain," Kane commanded intimidatingly.

George leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes. ""Before I met Jasmine, I got engaged to Minerva, the daughter of the owner of the company I worked for. I dated her because she pursued me and I proposed to her because I was two months away from bankruptcy and was desperate for money. But a couple of weeks after we got engaged, I realised I'd rather go bankrupt than live with a domineering woman I wasn't really in love with so I broke off our engagement.

"Minerva is an immature spoiled brat who never worked for anything in her life. Her dad gives her everything she wants so she has this attitude of entitlement. She thinks if she wants something, she should get it.

"When I broke up with her, she went ballistic. I think her reaction was more to do with her fear of being a laughingstock amongst her friends rather than her feelings for me.

"She continued to pursue me but I made sure she didn't know about you, Jasmine. I didn't want to deal with the drama if she found out about you. But after you broke up with me—after what I'd done—I was really down in the dumps. Some friends guessed I was in that state because of a woman. I think that was what made Minerva guess I had a girlfriend after I left her.

"One day, she came to my place and demanded I tell her who this girl was that came between the two of us. I told her no one got between us. I simply didn't want to marry her. Typical of Minerva, she didn't believe that. She ranted that she would make life hell for the relationship wrecker.

"I already felt guilty for what I did to you, Jasmine. I knew I had to make Minerva believe I didn't have a real girlfriend because I knew she could hound you and make you miserable. So I told her that the girl I went out with was just some passing casual sex partner. Minerva said if I'd wanted sex, why did I have to go to someone else for it."

George rolled his eyes upwards, shaking his head. "Minerva was that thick. She just couldn't believe someone would reject her. Anyway, to appease her, I said you weren't relationship material, that I didn't go out with you to replace her but just to enjoy myself. I said you were similar to her cousin's ex-girlfriend who was sexually aggressive and would try anything and everything sex-wise because you also wrote for porn magazines. I was making things up as I was talking to her and that was the story that came out of my mouth," he said with embarrassment.

"So you did tell Minerva that Jasmine was a … slut?" Kane hissed, his body tense from controlling his anger.

"No, no! I never told Minerva Jasmine's name!"

"But she did know who I was," Jasmine said. "She accosted me in a coffee shop and said I stole you from her."

George's face paled as he shook his head vigorously. "I never told her your name," he said insistently.

"There's another person who could clear this up for us. I'm calling him right now," Jasmine said as she retrieved her phone and started dialling. She turned on the speaker and put the phone on the coffee table so everyone could hear.

"Hello?"

"Tim, it's Jasmine."

"Hi, Jasmine. I'm afraid I still haven't found George or a number to reach him on."

"I want to ask you something else, Tim."

"Go ahead."

"Who told you that George said I was into casual sex and that I write porn stories for XXX magazines?"

"Uh, it was Minerva, George's ex-fiancée."

She shook her head in dismay. "Why didn't you tell me that before?"

"Well, you didn't ask and it didn't seem important."

George stood up and moved closer to the phone. "Tim, it's George. Did Minerva specifically mention Jasmine's name when she spoke to you?"

"George?
Where the hell have you been, man?" Tim asked in obvious shock.

"Later. We need to sort things out for Jasmine and Kane first."

"Well, Minerva stormed into my apartment not long after you and Jasmine broke up and asked me what I knew about the … uh … slut you replaced her with. I got angry and told her that Jasmine Allen was not a slut and that she shouldn't use that term on her."

"And then what did she say?" George prodded.

"That's when she started telling me what you said about Jasmine."

"Tim, it's Kane. Can you tell us the story using the exact words Minerva used, as best as you can remember?"

"Uh, hi, Kane, okay," Tim answered, sounding flustered.

"Take your time," Kane said encouragingly.

"Minerva said I was wrong, that Jasmine was only after hardcore sex with various men because she wrote stories for porn magazines. I was shocked, of course. I said we must be talking about a different girl. She said if I was talking about George's girlfriend, then we were talking about the same girl because that information came from George. She said Jasmine liked going out with different men to get ideas for her stories.

"I told her that wasn't the Jasmine I knew, that in fact, I'd been wanting to go out with Jasmine for months and she kept on turning me down. Minerva said it must be because I was some goody-two-shoes and was too boring for someone like Jasmine. She even suggested I should try being more aggressive, more predatory, because that seemed to be what Jasmine preferred. It was hard for me to believe her but she swore all that information came from George."

There was silence around the room as a major piece of the puzzle was revealed.

"I can't believe you swallowed that story, Tim," George said eventually.

"I know. I'm sorry. I did try to contact you to confront you about it but your phone was disconnected and no one seemed to know where you went. I called Minerva to ask if she knew where you were and she said she wasn't surprised you disappeared because you stole money from her."

"What?!" George exclaimed.

"She said you took money from your joint bank account."

George slumped into the nearest chair, disbelief written in his features for the umpteenth time that day. "We didn't even have a joint bank account," he said weakly.

Heavy exhales were heard from around the room.

"Mystery solved, by the looks of it," George said. "Now I know why a lot of my friends have deserted me. They think I'm a thief, a cheat and, what did you say earlier, Jasmine? A blackmailer?"

Jasmine gave him a sympathetic smile. "There's one more thing that's unclear. How did Minerva know about Kane and Hannah?" she asked.

"I'm afraid I'm responsible for her knowing about Kane," Tim said contritely. "After I realised how wrong I was to believe that crap talk about you, Jasmine, I called Minerva and gave her a piece of my mind. She said your new boyfriend must be some lowlife thief like George. I said she was wrong about that, too, because your boyfriend was Kane Summers and if she Googled Kane, she'd find out that he was a high-profile, well-respected architect. I don't know anything about Hannah, though. Who's she?"

"Kane's ex," Jasmine explained. "Minerva could have found out about Hannah through Googling Kane."

"Gosh, guys. I'm so sorry. I really am," Tim said sincerely. "And I thought I was doing the right thing by defending your reputation, Jasmine."

"It's okay. I think we finally got to the bottom of things," Jasmine said softly.

"Yeah," Kane agreed.

~~~~~~~

Jasmine settled herself on Kane's lap and laid her head on his shoulder, feeling exhausted yet hopeful that the situation was well on its way to being resolved.

That it was Minerva who was blackmailing them was now clear. The woman obviously thought she was responsible for the failure of her relationship with George and hated her guts for it. In any case, Minerva clearly didn't have any naked picture of her. That was a bluff.

She felt so sorry for George. Heaven knew what other falsehoods his ex-fiancée had been spreading about him to other people. She hoped he could get his finances sorted and get his life back on track. He'd made stupid decisions in his life and had done some idiotic things, but she could now see he wasn't a bad person.

"So what's the next step, Kane?" Joe asked as he sat back down on the couch after seeing George off.

"I'll speak with Ray Thackery and tell him about these new developments. I'm hopeful Ray will be able to influence Minerva's father to get his daughter to toe the line. No business owner in his right mind would want to antagonise the owner of
Lifestyle by Design
magazine. It also wouldn't hurt to point out that the people Minerva is hurting are the sister of
Lifestyle's
senior writer and the future brother-in-law of the owner himself."