The Game (Wagered Hearts Series, #3)(23)

"I'll see what I can do," I said.

"Good."

We hung up a short while later, after she went through her typical spiel about me needing to eat more to put meat on my bones, criticizing some of my latest fashion choices, and then delving into the latest neighborhood gossip. Apparently Tony Esperanza had gotten his cousin's wife pregnant. Wonderful. And she wondered why I never wanted to go home.

Charlotte hung up her call with Rob shortly after I did, so I never got to hear their conversation.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"Not much. We've planned a meeting for this Thursday at your place. He says he just wants it to be the two of you. No one else, so Arnie, Carl and I will not be attending."

"Oh. Did he say why?" I asked, a feeling of foreboding creeping up.

"No, he was secretive about it. But he was pretty adamant."

I wondered what was going on. Was he going to try to end our engagement earlier than planned? Did he want out of the contract so he could be with the mysterious blonde? I knew I couldn't let him do that. It would be disastrous. I had to convince him to stick to the plans we had made, and ride this thing out until after awards season. After that, then he could do whatever he wanted with whoever he wanted.





Chapter 11: Rob



Over the past couple of months, my life had been growing steadily more uncomfortable. I couldn't move without the press speculating about what I was doing. Anytime I'd been out with another woman, no matter who she was or how completely innocent our interaction, it was followed by more stories of cheating.

I felt a little guilty about putting Emilia through it, but another part of me rebelled at the idea that I had to rearrange my life completely just because of what people would write. Emilia was more than used to the media scrutiny. I was sure she could handle the baseless gossip.

What had set me off was when the bastards started going after my family. I never would have expected that my family would have to deal with the press harassing them when I had initially agreed to the scheme. One incident in particular still got my blood boiling.

My mother had called me a couple of weeks ago, shortly after I had arrived back in New York. Her voice was trembling as she told me she'd almost been in a car wreck. She said there were photographers who had followed her and had chased her off the road. They were outside her car at that moment, taking pictures of her while she was on the phone with me. I wanted to kill them, but I felt completely helpless sitting in my office in New York. There was nothing I could do then but sit and stew.

Once I'd calmed her down, she was able to get back on the road and drive home. I knew that wasn't the end of it though. I couldn't put my family through that kind of harassment anymore. My first instinct was to call the whole thing off with Emilia. I'd been tempted to dial her number right then and tell her I was done playing at this game. The stakes were too high now. What had once seemed like an innocent way to thumb my nose at my mother had transformed into this ugly, intrusive thing that had somehow affected my whole family.

Just as my hand reached out for my phone again, I knew I couldn't do that. First of all, I'd signed a contract. I was a man of my word, and reneging on deals wasn't something I took lightly. Secondly, I knew I couldn't leave Emilia hanging like that. We'd just gotten engaged, and it would be the ultimate humiliation to have that engagement broken off so soon. There had to be some other way.

Ever since getting engaged, something had changed. I couldn't put my finger on it, but everything just felt more...real. That's why I had to get out of LA. I needed to go back to my old life and some semblance of normalcy. It hadn't come as easily as I thought it would.

If I thought the press would leave me alone in New York, I was dead wrong. Naively so. They were waiting outside my apartment day and night. They followed me to work, dinners, even when I went to Roman and Lily's. I could still remember the consternation on Roman's face when I had admitted to him the truth about my relationship with Emilia.

"Jesus Christ, Rob! Do you have any idea what kind of a Pandora's Box you've just opened?" he asked.




"Don't," I said, holding up my hand to cut him off. "I know very well the trouble this has caused."

"Then why the hell did you do it?"

"For stupid selfish reasons, I realize now," I said.

"You know they've been digging around for information about Lily and me too. I can't believe you'd be so foolish. You're a grown man and still acting like a petulant child because your Mummy won't stop nagging you," he mocked in a high pitched voice. "This is the stupidest thing you've ever done, and that's saying something because you've done a lot of stupid things."

I couldn't even bring up the energy to counter him by throwing in his face some of the equally stupid things he'd done--like that bet he'd made with Warren Peters about making Lily fall in love with him. He wasn't perfect either, but still, his actions had only affected him and Lily. My actions had much more far reaching consequences. I nodded silently, feeling another weight being added to my growing burden.

I drove straight to Emilia's house from the airport once I'd arrived back in LA. We decided to meet alone without her entourage there. This was a conversation that we had to have alone. I knew the presence of others would just muddle things up. They'd convince Emilia to stick to the contract and I'd have no wiggle room to negotiate something more palatable.