His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan) novel Chapter 79

Chapter 79: The Anonymous Donor

Edrick

As soon as I saw the picture on the tabloid, I knew that I had to have it taken down as soon as possible. I immediately felt my heart sink and, without another word to Selina or Moana, I called the tabloid straight away. This specific tabloid had been known to cause trouble in the past, so it was needless to say that I already knew the CEO somewhat well.

When I called his office, however, he didn’t sound too keen on selling me the image.

“I don’t know…” he said into the phone. “Tell you what; let’s talk about this in person, and maybe we can make a deal.”

I frowned. Why couldn’t he just speak over the phone, just like he always did? Either way, I had to get that image taken down; if my father saw that picture, and it was very possible that he already did, it would cause an uproar. So, I did what the CEO asked and immediately drove over to his office.

When I arrived, he was waiting for me in his dinky little corner office. It was honestly laughable to me that I had to meet a weasel like this in person.

“You can take your mask off,” he said, leaning back in his chair as I entered his office. I closed the door behind me and warily slid my mask down once I was certain that I wouldn’t be seen.

“So… You wanna pay me off, huh?” he said with a condescending chuckle. “You know, that’s a very valuable image I’ve got. You’re gonna have to offer more than the first person did.”

I felt my eyes widened. “Someone else paid for it already? Who?”

He shrugged. “That’s confidential, unfortunately,” he said. “They paid me a pretty penny to keep it on the website, if you’d believe that. How much are you willing to pay me to take it down?”

I was flabbergasted by this situation. Who would seriously pay this tabloid to keep that photograph public? I couldn’t imagine anyone who would be willing to pay so much money for something like that.

“Fine,” I said with an exasperated sigh. “How much did they pay you?”

The CEO grinned. “A hundred thousand.”

My jaw practically hit the floor. I stood, shaking my head and folded my arms. “You’re bluffing,” I said angrily. “No one would pay a hundred thousand to keep that photo up.”

However, the CEO merely shrugged. He then pointed to a check that was sitting on his desk; when I leaned over to look at it, I saw that it was made out to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. The beneficiary seemed to use only their initials: K.M.

I frowned, holding the check up to the light. It looked legitimate.

“Time is ticking,” the CEO said as he tapped his wristwatch. “Do you want the picture to stay up or not?”

Moana had fallen asleep in the armchair. There was a book sitting on her lap; she must have fallen asleep while reading.

I went to shake her shoulder and wake her up, but then paused. She looked so peaceful. Her chest was rising and falling gently with her head leaning to one side on the back of the chair, causing a loose curl from her hair to fall into her eyes.

For several moments, I just stood there, admiring her. Maybe it was the alcohol… But I thought that she was beautiful. I couldn’t bring myself to wake her up when she was sleeping so soundly, especially after all the stress she’d been under lately — so, slowly and quietly, I gently took the book out of her hand, then slid my arms underneath her and picked her up.

Surprisingly, she didn’t even stir when I lifted her up. She let out a small, content sound that made a slight smile twitch at the corners of my lips, then nuzzled her head against my chest.

I gently carried her to her room, where I laid her down on her bed and pulled her quilt up to her waist.

In the moonlight, she looked even more beautiful. She was like a sleeping angel, and all I could think about was the baby inside her belly. For the longest time, as I watched her sleeping, I didn’t think about the tabloid or the mystery donor. I didn’t think about my father or the differences between her status and mine. I only thought of how lovely and peaceful she looked, and for a brief second, I couldn’t help but hope that our baby had her curly red hair.

As I watched her sleep, something strange happened. Maybe it was the alcohol after all — but, without thinking, as though I was in a trance, I slowly walked around to the other side of the bed and laid down.

And within just a few moments, I was fast asleep beside Moana.