Page 48 of Battle with a Billionaire

“I don’t think you’d dare. And Grant would never let you.”

“Try me,” his wife said with a glare. “Grant has enough on his plate than to have to deal with your running commentary.”

“Seems he has enough in his bed, too,” she answered as she grabbed her mimosa and stormed from the room.

“I really hate her sometimes,” Grant said with a sigh.

“Only sometimes?” Kyle asked him.

Grant eyed him. “That may be the first thing we agree on.”

Julia slid her hand into his. “You know, Lydia may be aggravating, but this scandal isn’t going to be much easier to live through.”

Grant sipped his juice. “I know. Kathryn told me the same thing.”

“You need to take a breath. You can’t let them get to you like that.”

“I’m innocent of this. If I had done it…fine, but I didn’t. It’s just…frustrating.”

“I know that.”

Grant squeezed her hand, focusing on her reassuring face. “Sorry. Lydia just…pushes my buttons.”

“Maybe you ought to ask her to move out, too,” Kyle said. “You had a pretty easy time doing it with me.”

“Lydia hasn’t kissed Julia.”

“No, she just agitates her at every turn.”

Grant heaved a sigh, reluctantly admitting that his son made a great point. Lydia was a thorn in everyone’s side. Why did he allow her to stay? Simply because she was Sierra’s mother? Perhaps that reason wasn’t good enough anymore.

As he pondered it, his cell phone rang. He checked the display. “Sorry, it’s Kathryn.”

“Take it,” Julia said as she stirred fruit into her oatmeal.

After swiping to accept the call, he asked, “Well?”

“Well, it’s out there. Now we wait. But I gotta tell you, the numbers do not look good, Grant. I think we may lose this race.”

Grant’s nostrils flared at the words. Had he made the right decision or had everything he’d been doing lately been one long string of wrong choices? And would they all add up to one outcome: the loss of Julia?

CHAPTER 12

JULIA

For the second time in as many days, Julia stood behind Grant with the glare of cameras bearing down on them both. The room was a flurry of activity as reporters thrust microphones forward like weapons. The air remained charged with anticipation, with all eyes trained on them.

Grant read the statement Kathryn prepared nearly word for word. The scene reminded her of the one that had occurred almost one year prior when a murder charge loomed over him. She’d stood by him then, and she would now.

The entire year had been fraught with false accusations and bogus charges that threatened to undo everything they’d worked toward with their fake marriage. Ironic that they were fighting all these fraudulent claims with deceit.

Reporters clamored for questions as he finished with his statement, but Kathryn stepped to the podium, hushing them to silence. “We will take a few questions, but one at a time.”

Grant stepped back next to her, sliding an arm around her waist. She smiled up at him as she looped her arm around him, too. She would have done it even if Kathryn hadn’t told them to appear as close as possible today.

“We want it to look like you’re very much still in love. No tension, no reason for body language experts to pick apart what you’re doing. No hands clasped in front of you, no leaning away from him. But don’t be too clingy. Don’t look like he’s your sugar daddy, and you’re just worried about being sent on your way with a fat check. True partners. That’s the look we’re going for.”

Julia pulled her mind back to the present as Kathryn’s shrill voice echoed in the microphone. “In this day and age? Photo manipulation is a cinch. With the money poured into our opponent’s campaign, I can’t imagine he didn’t have the funds to pull this off. Lady in the green blazer.” She pointed at another reporter.

---