Page 44 of The Billionaire Player

“How did she feel about running away from her kidnapper?”

The Bailey that I met at JD’s opening had seemed like a strong willed and independent woman and would not take too kindly to anyone telling her what to do or to take a decision out of her hands.

“Well, we never asked her. I wanted to, but the rest of the family didn’t. As far as Bailey knew, he was locked away and wouldn’t bother her again. She had nightmares after the last kidnapping and we didn’t want them to resurface. She was hesitant to go to Italy with me and I could tell she thought something more was going on. When the story broke at school about the allegation of me being with an undergraduate student, it seemed like the perfect excuse to get me and Bailey out of town.”

“You were willing to have your reputation tarnished to keep your sister safe? To keep her in the dark about her kidnapper.”

“I would do anything for my family. For my sister. We told her that my parents wanted her to keep an eye on me and she could go to graduate school out there. She was ready to get away from our parents’ protective behaviors, shall we say, and after the scandal and me asking her to come, she agreed.

“It seemed best to just leave, to get out of town while the story still had legs and hope that it went away by me leaving. For Bailey and the rest of the world to believe the story that we were going to Italy for me, including the woman who said I had slept with her. I hadn’t, by the way. The story was a complete lie,” he said.

He looked so sincere when he talked, and I could tell he was telling me the truth. I could also see he was telling me something that he had never told anyone else. I could almost feel his need to unburden himself and I felt a sense of power and responsibility to do right by him and his family.

“Do you want to tell me about that?” I asked.

“Yes and no. I should tell you about it, but do I want to? No.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I don’t want to push you into doing anything.” I didn’t. The last thing I wanted to do was make him feel uncomfortable or tell me something he would regret later.

“I appreciate you saying that but I want to get this out. If you’re going to do a story on me, I want you to have all the facts, to hear my side of the story. My complete story. I just ask that you not use the name of the woman unless you get her approval.”

His comment seemed a bit odd to me but I nodded my agreement and he continued.

“I was finishing up my master’s degree in culinary management. One of the things I considered doing when I opened my restaurant was to do a cooking show. I needed to see if I could teach someone to cook and wanted to try it out on someone. I thought I found the perfect woman in a freshman who was just starting out and wanted to be tutored.

“She was young, sweet, and honestly, not cut out to be in the restaurant business. It wasn’t something she was passionate about, and I got the impression she went into it because her mother wanted her to.

“As soon as we started working together, I saw all of that. So, I talked to her. I tried to find out why she wanted to go into restaurant management and if she really wanted to. Eventually, she told me she hated the idea of running a restaurant and she wanted to be a writer. I convinced her to try to take some classes in that major and see if she liked it. She did and even after we stopped working together, we kept in touch.

“She reminded me a bit of Bailey, in that she was young and was still trying to find her way. I took her under my wing, I wanted to help her out, make sure that she was all right and that she succeeded. I thought we had a good relationship and she saw me as a mentor. She was doing well in school and talked to me about confronting her mother about wanting to be a writer. I supported her and even gave her some pointers on what to say. She said she was ready to do it and would call me and let me know how it went.”

“I take it, it didn’t go well,” I said.

“You would be right. At least I think so, I never did find out one way or the other. The next thing I knew, I had the editor of the school newspaper calling me in to talk to me about my sexual misconduct with the woman.”

“You two hadn’t been involved at all?” I asked.

“I hadn’t so much as hugged her. I kept it professional but nice. I always met her in public places, never late at night, never alone, all of that. I knew to be careful. My mother had taught me and my brothers how to be gentlemen and how to treat a woman right. The woman accused me of making inappropriate comments to her and that we had slept together. She said I had used my position as her mentor to coerce her to sleep with me. I had pressured her. The editor said there would be an article being published in the school paper about it.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Denied it. Got Mom and Mac involved. He was finishing up his master’s in public relations and was happy to take on the challenge. Mom and her firm tried to stop the article from being published, but the editor did everything he could to make sure it got out. He was young and hungry and I think he was angry at me for stealing a woman he liked. I have no idea; it was just the impression I got. He even tried to get me arrested. It didn’t work. The charges were never filed, and we stopped it from getting to any other news outlets, but by then the damage was done. Rumors were flying and it hit social media. Mac took it on himself to try to put out the fires. And he did, to a point.

“Mom and her law firm confronted the woman and she admitted she made it all up. She said she had been put up to it, but never said by whom. I think she said it to get her mother off her back when she freaked out over her career choice. The woman apologized, said how she never meant to hurt me. Mom wanted the woman expelled and arrested, but I didn’t want to do that to her.

“By then, we knew about Monroe possibly getting out and the damage was pretty extensive. We all just wanted it to go away, which was when Mac suggested doing just that. I would go to Italy and work on becoming a sommelier a little early. It would give the woman her space and get Bailey out of town. It all kind of just worked out,” JD said with a shrug.

“You thought it was all behind you, but it isn’t. People are bringing it back up,” I said.

“Yes. Which is why I figured you should know. If you want, I can get you the name of the woman but as I said, I only want you to use her if she agrees to talk to you and to put her name in. Even if she does, I wish you wouldn’t.”

“This woman practically ruined your life and you’re protecting her.” Just when I thought the man couldn’t surprise me anymore, he tells me this story and I’m floored all over again.

“She made one mistake and was pressured by someone, probably her mother. She doesn’t deserve to be punished.”

“Neither did you,” I said, and I was surprised that he couldn't see that.

He smiled slowly and he could see how upset I was about everything he told me.

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