Page 57 of Claimed
Chapter Eighteen
December 22nd
The auditorium was packed. The publishers had rushed my new book,The Dark Christmases, to print. It was touted as my best work yet—so well written, so thorough, and showing my maturity since the publication ofThe Howsley Project.
Jasper and I were now living together in his three-story penthouse apartment in New York with Katie and Zach, who were married on Valentines Day. There was more than enough room for all four of us. She was studying biology at NYU. Jasper had pulled some strings to get Katie accepted into such a prestigious university. So far, she was passing with flying colors, and rightfully so since she was alwaysstudying. Zach was still the second-hardest-working man I knew, slaving away as a resident at the hospital. But Jasper took the prize for working the most. The fallout from my book exposing all the sins of his family was astronomical. I was his girlfriend, and Jasper wasn’t shying away from the controversy—he’d disclosed all his father’s dirty secrets, from the kidnapping of Doris to having childrenwith fifteen-year-old girls to the extreme sexual misconduct that had taken place for years in the Lower Manhattan office. He also discovered all the aliases his father used to do his dirty deeds. I wasn’t able to publish them all, but since Benjamin Dow was out there, I included the big payoff Randolph had made to a foreign criminal element to make sure he had first pick of human cargo comingfrom across the Bering Sea.
How people received Jasper’s truth was mixed. Some people wanted to fillet all the Christmases, especially when it was leaked that Asher and Spencer were provided prostitutes by the same madam who’d supplied their father with underage girls. Needless to say, the name Christmas had put a bitter taste in a lot of people’s mouths. There was no rising out of theashes of their destruction. At least, that was how I saw it. I wasn’t sure if Jasper was convinced of the same. He ran the family’s businesses without missing a beat, increasing their bottom line.
Spencer and Asher were still trying to discover their own business instincts. Unlike Randolph, Jasper didn’t float them copious amounts of cash to waste however they saw fit. Even Bryn had tofigure out what she wanted to do to make her way in the world, which was why she moved to California to be with her new boyfriend—a guy who called himself Domino—and closer to her mother. Beth remained in a premium sober-living house on the coast. The damage done to her psyche was extensive, but the longer she stayed in rehab, the closer to happy she believed she was getting. As for Domino, Jasperdisliked him more than he had Dale. And even though Bryn wasn’t with Dale romantically, because she could never forgive him for that day in Nashville when he’d walked out on her, they were coproducing a film about her version of the Christmas family story, focusing on her life. She and Dale argued a lot, which led to the frequent shutdown of production.
But the success of my book was amiracle. I wrote it during the days Jasper and I spent on his compound in Connecticut. We even remained there long after Arthur Valentine, like a cat with nine lives, had figured out a way to land on his feet. His daughter Julia was engaged to one of her third cousins, a billionaire who owned a successful sports team. Already, the unwitting relative had given Arthur enough cold hard cash to fund atleast one of his old businesses. But Arthur had lost interest in Jasper and Bryn since, as far as politics were concerned, the Christmases’ reputation was even more irreparable than his own. The last I heard, he was trying to push his future son-in-law toward the highest seat in the land.
Jasper was to appear on stage with me at the auditorium. He was the new owner of BCN, and they weregoing to cover our interview with Stan Rochester for the night’sRochester Report. The station predicted that ratings would be high. America and the world were too curious about how one man could get away with such dastardly deeds and die before paying for them.
Careful not to mess up my makeup, I sat in the green room, eating finger sandwiches. Jasper was still late. There was a knockon the door.
“Come in,” I said excitedly.
My heart stopped as Kylie Roberson stepped inside and closed the door behind her. I finished swallowing the sandwich in my mouth then rose to my feet, determined to not be dwarfed by Kylie. “What are you doing here?”
She scoffed bitterly. “Is that really the first fucking thing you have to say to me?”
I shrugged indifferently.“Is there something else you want to hear?”
Kylie snarled. “You ruined my reputation.”
“You ruined your own reputation,” I snapped. “I never told you to run with that half-baked story of mine. You actually tried to steal it from me.” I folded my arms defiantly. There was no way I was going to reveal that Jasper had told me about her underhanded deeds. “Are you here to apologize forthat?”
A girl wearing a headset poked her head into the room. “It’s time to move to the stage.” Her eyes shifted between Kylie and me.
I glared at Kylie with my eyes narrowed to slits. “I’m ready. And get her out of here.”
Kylie sniffed. “I’m leaving. But know that you’re on my shit list.”
I crossed my arms tighter. “Bring it.”
The girl wearing the headset seemedconfused by what was going on between Kylie and me, but she barely focused on Kylie as she passed her. The girl craned her neck, looking down as if listening to someone in her ear. Then she looked up at me again. “Now, now. We have to move.”
Shit.I was still a little rattled by how Kylie had popped up out of nowhere, but more than that, I was anxious about Jasper not being there.
“But where’s Jasper?” I asked.
“We have to go. Let’s move.”
I sighed forcefully. She was the one in charge of the moment, so I went with her. We walked fast down the hallway, our feet beating against the concrete.
“Jasper’s supposed to be on stage with me,” I said, trying to figure out how to quickly inform him of Kylie’s little visit. The only way he’d allowed Rachel to keepher show on BCN was if she fired Kylie. Rachel had done it without a hint of hesitation.
“I know. Don’t worry. He’s on the way,” the girl replied and continued talking to that person in her headset.
I took her word for fact and was able to lower my anxiety a few levels, figuring Jasper would show up before the taping began. He was a stickler for being on time.
When I madeit to the stage, the audience roared with applause. I was shocked to see Marie and Harold along with Jasper’s mother’s half sisters—Debbie and Langley—and her half brothers Jerrod and Kevin in the first row. All of their children were with them too. I recalled the first time we met the other side of his family. It was during an Easter picnic. Jasper had not been able to relax to save his life. Buthis aunts and uncles were patient with him, and I was there to make the meeting more congenial and tolerable for him. I was happy to see his family on his mother’s side, but even more, I was shocked to see Spencer and Asher there. They’d never supported Jasper in anything. Instead, it had always been the other way around: they felt Jasper had to tote and fetch for them.
Suddenly, Stan Rochestertook his position. I was about to jump out of my seat and tell him we were going to have to delay recording for another fifteen minutes when Jasper walked down the center of the aisle, carrying a big bouquet of beautiful red roses.
My buttocks felt glued to the chair even though I wanted to get up and run to him. He looked so handsome with his nicely tailored black suit and sexy physique.We hadn’t stopped fucking like rabbits yet, and I was thinking the day would never come when we would stop. If only I could have had him right there and then. I cracked an impish smile, and only then did I notice that the crowd was on its feet, clapping again.
