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  Biting my lip, I typed out, “sorry but I can’t. got to help mom pack.”

  The reply came within the next thirty seconds: “nooo! pls come. Julie can handle it on her own. don’t make me go alone!”

  Jessica was also a master of the guilt-trip. Time and time again she had pouted hard enough to convince me of doing some things I certainly would not have done otherwise. But I steeled myself against her attack and responded, “I really can’t. besides, u know I’m scared of heights. a rooftop party? no thanks!” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

  There was about a minute of silence, and then: “fiiiiine. but if I fall off a balcony because ur not there to stop me, I’m totally blaming u! ; )”

  “pls be careful, Jess. talk to u later,” I sent back, and closed my eyes in relief.

  I stretched out on the bed and thought about how weird it was to be boxing up all our stuff and moving across town to live with some big-time celebrity. My mom had shacked up with some truly shocking guys in the past, but this one was by far the most well-known. He was constantly in the spotlight, being photographed wearing head-to-toe Armani, usually talking on his phone about some huge new multibillion dollar project in a foreign country. I remembered one particularly scathing article about Todd which had accused him of being “a boozy philanderer.” Naturally, I made sure my mom didn’t find that issue of the magazine. After all, my mom wasn’t exactly a saint herself by media standards, but she was a good person at heart. I figured I might as well extend that same benefit of a doubt to Todd van der Hausen. And it didn’t hurt that he was ridiculously, absurdly, phenomenally filthy rich, either. I wasn’t exactly the kind of girl who went on shopping sprees or anything, but the idea of a debt-free college experience was pretty appealing. Plus, my mom deserved someone who could treat her like the Tinseltown Princess she so desperately wanted to be.

  I sat up and rolled over onto my stomach. From there, I had a clear view of the mirror attached to my dresser. I blinked at my own reflection. There were definitely some hints of my mom’s looks in mine. I had the same long, shiny blonde hair, even though my mom usually dyed hers a fairer shade and curled it. Mine hung straight and rippling around my shoulders when it wasn’t pulled back into a messy bun. I had my mother’s wide, round-cheeked smile, as well as her petite stature and curvy hips. But while she had toasty-brown eyes, mine were a vibrant, pale blue, with long lashes which went blonde at the tips. On the rare occasion that I wore mascara, my eyes were admittedly pretty attractive. My mom always complimented them and pointed them out to new people: “This is my beautiful daughter Mackenzie. Look at her eyes! Gorgeous, right? I know, aren’t you jealous? I am!”

  She told me they were my dad’s eyes. But that was just about all she ever told me about him. And for the most part, that was okay. I had never really felt as though the lack of a father created much of a void in my life. Of course, there were a lot of times when I wanted to know more about him, just out of curiosity. But in general, I caught onto the fact that my mom had kept him a secret for a reason. He just wasn’t necessary to our life together. All I’d ever needed was my mom. And besides, a string of failed father figures ranging from merely lukewarm to downright horrible hadn’t exactly made me any more eager for a dad.

  Still, I had begun to hold out hope that this Todd van der Hausen would be a good choice, for both of us. Either way, as long as my mom was happy, I knew I would find a way to be happy, too.

  Cole

  It was a little after 10:00 AM when I left Tonya’s place the next morning to go pick up some coffee and bagels from the corner store. The day was starting out a lot better than I’d expected. Tonya turned out to be a fox I’d run into a few nights now, and I was surprised I hadn’t swung by her place before. At least, neither of us could remember it, so we assumed nothing had happened. We’d chatted for a while and planned to meet up with our usual circles of friends in the city…but not before fooling around a little, and fooling around a little turned into fooling around a lot. I was texting one of my friends to let him know where we’d be meeting up, and the next thing I know, she’s pushing the phone out of my hand and straddling me on her kitchen counter, running her hands up my shirt and across my abs.

  I let her push me back as I helped her pants off and felt her pussy wet on me as her hand felt the hardness in my crotch. Before long, both of us were naked on the granite countertop, my cock sliding up and down against her pussy as her red hair spiraled down onto my pecs, her breath hot on my neck as I rocked her back and forth against my manhood. Her groaning became a sharp gasp as I slipped into her, sheathing my cock in her cunt and letting her gently slide around me. She tossed her head back, my mouth went to her erect, pink nipple, and we lost ourselves for the next hour, clearing half the kitchen counter in the process.

  We met up with our friends, albeit a little late, but we weren’t too sloshed to forget to come back and get back to it afterwards. The next morning, I figured I’d get us some breakfast. I was behind on doing that for the one-night stands, after all. While I stood in line at the coffee shop waiting, though, I saw something out of the corner of my eye on the shelf next to the cash register that made my gut churn.

  I was used to seeing my dad’s face in the tabloids. Even before mom had walked out, there was usually a new issue or two that featured him in some way, but this one was just unreal, even for him.

  “Hey,” I casually asked the girl at the register who’d been eyeing me as I came up, “how recent is that magazine?” I gestured to the tabloid.

  “Hm? Oh, I think that’s this week’s issue. Do you read that stuff? You don’t seem the type.”

  “I’m not,” I murmured, clenching my fists before leaving without breakfast and heading out the store, leaving the cashier bewildered. The tabloid had read:

  SHOCKING! Todd van der Hausen Engaged to 90s Actress Julie Mason!

  There was a picture of the two of them on the cover, his snidely grinning face leaning toward a shapely woman in her 30s with dark eyes, curly hair that couldn’t be a natural shade of blonde, and a smile that rounded out her cheeks. He’s actually doing it, I couldn’t stop repeating in my thoughts as I stormed out to my motorbike, the bastard is actually going to do it.

  Not if I had anything to say about it. This took some stones, even for him.

  My engine roared down the road at what must have been 70mph, and I didn’t even think about the police. Dad’s mansion was a palatial, out-of-the-way villa in the middle of rolling green hills that held so many others like it. He’d put his on as high a hill as he could find, surrounded by thick woodland that did its best to hide him from passersby and the media. Easy to miss, if you didn’t know what you were looking for, which I did. I tried to keep the motor quiet as I rolled up to the gate of the place.

  He’d changed the access key as soon as I’d moved out, like I figured he would, but fortunately, a few of the serving staff owed me favors, and I’d gotten a hold of a keycard without much trouble. I slid it in and out and sped up the driveway before the security cams that must have been watching me could react.

  It’s about 10:30 AM, I thought as a green light clicked on at the front door after I swiped the keycard at the front lock, he’ll be down in at the minibar right about now. I stormed down the marble hallway at the front entrance just as one of the staff members ran up to me with her hands up.

  “Mr. Van der Hausen,” she breathed, looking back towards the back of the house with a worried look, “please, your father—this is a very bad time, he has guests, and—”

  “I’m sure he does,” I growled, holding back the fact that my blood was boiling. I didn’t have time for this shit. “But I’m a guest, too, aren’t I? Look, I don’t have time for this bullshit, and I don’t care what he’s paying you. Now, where is he, the basement?”

  The maid seemed to hold her breath, wringing her hands in response, which told me all I needed to know. Exasperated, I pushed her aside, storming down the hall toward the hideout dad used to keep aw
ay from us the few times that he did decide to spend the night at the house. I headed down the long hallway, past the reception area where we’d host the occasional party of our own and into the part of the manor that had held our rooms. I glanced sidelong at Chelsea’s old room as I advanced past it, and I felt a lump in my throat as I stormed by the room that had been shut for over eight years. In the very same house where she lived, Dad? Seriously?

  I rounded a corner at the windowed back of the house that overlooked a sloping hill which spilled into a vast swimming pool. Memories of our tutors teaching Chelsea and me how to swim came to my mind. Around the corner was a large mahogany door that smelled like cigar smoke, and I shoved it open, storming down the stairs.

  Just as I thought, there he was, sitting at the bar with a glass of imported gin in one hand and a yacht magazine in the other, already hiding from whatever new family he was trying to build up before the memory of his real one had even faded.

  “Where the fuck do you get off?” I announced myself, and his wide eyes told me the security staff hadn’t gotten word to him yet, surprisingly enough.

  “Cole?! How the hell—what do you think you’re doing here?”

  “Me? I’m not the one acting stupid, how do you think you have any right—” I was so angry that I couldn’t even string together a proper sentence. Honestly, I hadn’t even seen Dad in person more than once or twice since moving out. I’d thought up just the right things to throw in his face when I had a real conversation with him again, but in the middle of all this going on, everything was almost a red haze. Dad was already rolling up his magazine and setting it aside while he composed himself.

  “Now, Cole,” he started, his voice marshaled into being as calm as ever, “I can see you’re upset about something, so why don’t you take a drink, and if there’s anything I can do…” he trailed off, raising an eyebrow as he moved around the counter. Even hanging around his house, he was wearing designer clothes, a violet dress shirt and grey vest tucked into jet-black pants. He wasn’t hiding the fact that he was dressing to impress today.

  “It isn’t what you’re doing,” I snapped, “it’s what you aren’t! Christ, Dad, one huge scandal wasn’t enough for this family, was it? You really need to pretend to be settling down with some other woman and do it all over again before you’re happy?”

  Todd’s expression darkened. “How did you find out about that?”

  “God, do you even pay attention to your own press?”

  “Son, settle down,” he warned, putting a hand out with a hardening face.

  “No, this is too far, Dad! Changing the locks on me was one thing. Yeah, I noticed that. And having those goons of yours keep an eye on my apartment was another, whatever the fuck you were planning to do with that, but I’m not going to sit back and let you just pretend the three of us never existed in your life while you sweep us out and trot in a brand-new family you can ruin!”

  “Cole.”

  “I bet you’re even giving her the same car mom drove, aren’t you? I saw it in the driveway on the way up here. Too cheap to even try out some new moves?”

  “Cole!”

  Todd was standing up now and taking a step towards me. As he did so, I noticed a slight sway in his step, and about then I noticed the fact that his bottle of gin was about half-empty already. It wasn’t even noon.

  “You’re drunk?” I was shouting by now. “For fuck’s sake, dad, are you even trying to look functional anymore, or are you gonna just start getting sloshed before dinner and yelling at this one before bed right off the bat?” Cheating hadn’t been the only thing that had driven mom away, nor me, and both of us had sported the bruises at one point or another to prove it.

  “COLE!” Todd pounded his fist on the mahogany bar so hard the glass of gin shook a little. “Enough of this bullshit! I let you pull your little stunt of playing the runaway son, and you got your little hour in the limelight, but after letting you freeload up in that penthouse on MY credit line and live like a damn king draining MY accounts faster than the biggest parties in L.A., I am not going to let you storm in here like you still live in the place and try to wave this guilt card you’ve been holding onto for years just because you don’t like that I have what it takes to stay afloat in this business! And you will not ruin this for me, understand?”

  My fist clenched, but I was quiet for a moment. This was too familiar. I remembered sneaking into Chelsea’s room and hugging her close to me while we listened to yelling that sounded not too different from this coming from our parents’ room. Any expense, and Dad was screaming at Mom, and it wasn’t unusual to hear her sobbing echo down the long marble hallways.

  “And another thing,” he was pointing at me now, a little vein in his forehead, “if you so much as think about trying to put a wrench into everything that I’ve got going for me now, don’t pretend for a second that I’ll hesitate to have you out on the street. See what those friends you’ve been buying think of you when Daddy’s cash goes away.”

  “You haven’t changed at all,” I barked, “you were always threatening to kick mom out for trying to give us a good childhood—for trying to run the damn house you left behind so much—but when she was the one to leave you, everything fell apart! That’s what you were always like, Todd, possessive of the people around you but never around in the first place. Maybe if you’d have been in the house with us a little more, Chelsea might still be alive!”

  I only just barely caught the backhand that came flying up towards my face at that. Dad’s face was red, and not just from the alcohol. He snatched his hand back and used it to grab his glass and empty it, looking away from me.

  “Get out of here, Cole,” he said curtly.

  I couldn’t stand looking at him anymore. I turned around and left him shaking behind me, probably thinking he’d warded me off with empty threats. But I knew he wouldn’t make good on anything that would put his precious reputation at risk.

  A group of the staff was dispersing from the top of the stairs as I came back up, undoubtedly listening in on my dad trying to defend himself.

  “Get a good show?” I yelled after a few of them, “lot of fucking help you all were!”

  I could hardly see straight I was so mad, but the path back to the entrance was so familiar to me that I could navigate it without even thinking. But as I headed towards the front of the building, my heart skipped a beat. I was passing my little sister’s old room, and the door was ajar.

  No, I thought, not even dad would be so thoughtless as to put up some new broad in his dead daughter’s own room. But I didn’t want to put anything past him, and there wouldn’t be any other reason for that door to be anything but shut tight, so I headed toward it and pushed it all the way open. I froze at what I saw.

  Inside was an absolutely stunning young woman. She had blonde hair like strands of light gold that spilled down just past her shoulders to dance playfully at her back, swinging around gently as their owner turned her head around to look at me. Bright, icy blue eyes met mine, shining with just as much life as Chelsea’s. Long lashes batted in surprise as she took in my appearance and stood upright.

  She was at least a full foot shorter than me, with a petite frame that somehow kept luscious curves around her hips and her breasts, the latter of which were just barely held in by a striped tank top, their nipples trying to peek through the white of the shirt. I couldn’t stop my eyes from following her gorgeous frame down to her legs, so much of those milky-white thighs exposed by short denim shorts that begged to show off more of the beautiful form that wore them, but everything from her knees down was kept covered by high socks that hid everything but the toned shape of her calves and tiny feet.

  The woman brought a narrow hand up to the most delicate mouth I’d ever seen, her lips glistening with whatever gloss she’d used. I held up a hand to try to reassure her that I didn’t mean to barge in, but the perfectly innocent expression on her features seemed to tell me that I was already welcome.

&nbs
p; “E-excuse me,” she breathed, and I realized my mouth was open.

  Feeling myself blushing, I stood back a little and peered around the room. “Sorry, I uh… I was expecting someone else, I guess.”

  You look just like my sister would have at this age, I meant to say.

  “This room hasn’t been used in a long time; I was surprised to see someone in it.” I realized right about then that she was standing around suitcases and boxes, and the room was apparently either being packed up or unpacked into.

  “Oh,” she sounded surprised, but just as polite as any of the serving staff. “I’m sorry, I’m only just moving in now, I didn’t realize. Do…you live here?”

  I blinked a few moments, dumbstruck. “No, I’m Todd’s son, Cole, I moved out a few years ago. But you can’t be…you’re not his…?”

  “Soon-to-be daughter-in-law.” She gave a little laugh, and I blinked in confusion before I saw it. This must be what Julie Mason had looked like in the days when she was getting some of the biggest roles in Hollywood, but that name was only a vaguely memorable one from my childhood—and I had even less of a clue that she might have a daughter.

  “I’m Mackenzie,” she said after a moment more of silence, the two of us looking at each other and taking in our expressions, “and I suppose we’re going to be step-siblings soon!” Another nervous laugh. I realized then that she didn’t have any more idea that Todd had a son than I did about Julie having a daughter.

  “Sorry, I just didn’t realize Julie Mason had a daughter.”

  “Yeah,” she gave a pitiful little smile, “no one ever does.”

  My gut clenched a little, wondering what else my dad had left out when talking to this new family of his.