Page 37 of Faking It with my Bestie's Billionaire Brother

Beneath the pictures was the simple message, This does not have to be difficult. I want ten percent more than the measly amount you coughed up last time. As long as I get that, you will be left alone.

Connie.

So, my suspicions had been right. Penny's mother was rearing her greedy, little head yet again. Part of me was relieved by this information because I knew I could handle her, but another part of me was ready to bite nails. I had been fending her off for all of Penny's life. It's not like she had any real interest in her daughter, or what she had missed out on in her child’s life. No, she was just interested in the money that she missed out on from not being my father's mistress anymore or from receiving his hush money payments. They had all gone away once I had entered the picture, but I had more than paid for it over the years. The last time I paid her off, we had agreed that it was the final payout. Penelope was an adult, well into her twenties now. But obviously, Connie didn't care to keep to the agreement anymore. Penny was her payday, and Connie must've been drying up on funds if she was slithering back after all this time.

I let out a frustrated growl.

I did not want to negotiate with this woman, but I also knew how much she held over my head. Penny thought that she lost her mother in childbirth. Dramatic, yes, but at the time, it seemed like the best explanation to give her.

I had worried about what would happen if she got too curious when she got older and started trying to track down her mother, so just saying that she wasn't alive anymore seemed like the best option possible.

Others might think it cruel, but anybody who knew Connie at all would understand why I was so determined to protect Penny from her. Connie and my father were cut from the same cloth, totally unfit to be parents. And if poor Penny had been left in their care, only God knows what would've happened to her. I suspect it was much worse than what happened to me, and that thought made a shiver go down my spine.

Dealing with Connie always made me face memories better left buried. Not only was I forced to go back to that time of wheeling and dealing with my father for his daughter just to ensure her safety, but I was also reminded of everything that my father had put me through due to his negligence and his lack of love. How easy was it for him to just send me away, and even after I told him what those people did to me at my fancy boarding school, he'd just shrugged and said, "It'll toughen you up, boy, quit whining."

He and Connie had put their heads together and decided that they would send Penny as soon as she was of age, a decision, mind you, that was made before she was even born. I knew that I had to step in and do whatever it took to get my little sister out of harm's way. There was no way that I was going to let another child go through the hell of that boarding school or being parented by two apathetic, greedy narcissists.

I briefly contemplated not giving in to Connie’s demands this time, but I was fairly confident that she would make good on her threats of outing herself to Penny, and then, Penny would know that I'd lied to her. And I wasn't sure that, even though I had nothing but good intentions behind my decision, she would ever forgive me. I knew how much that girl longed to have a mother, but God help me, Connie would've been no mother for her.

Still, I wasn't sure that she would ever completely understand, so I let out a frustrated breath and ran my hand through my hair, resisting the urge to throw the laptop across the room. Quite frankly, the only reason I didn't was because I feared it would wake up Ava, and then, another painful tug attacked my heart.

Thinking of Ava did remind me that, despite the terrible decision I had to make when Penny was younger, she had had a good life because of it. She was young and successful, and she had amazing people around her—the most amazing of whom I had just had sex with.

God, I was fucking things up left and right. The least I could do was make sure that Connie wouldn't fuck up the rest. I fired off a response of, Fine, I'm assuming I wire to the same bank account as before?

Her response was almost immediate, as if she was waiting by her computer. Excellent, yes, same as before. Thank you for being a dear, Spencer.

I could practically hear that shrill voice saying the words with her signature, feline smile, and I gritted my teeth against the memory.

All I wanted to do was go down the hallway and crawl back into bed with Ava, and for the briefest of moments, I considered doing just that.

But my guilt over Connie and over what I'd had to do time and time again to get her to stay away from Penny wasn't enough to influence me to make another mistake. I had enough of those to atone for.

So, I waited, irritated and trying to get some work done until the hour was late enough that I knew I wouldn't be waking Ralph, although he still sounded somewhat groggy when he answered the phone at five. "Spencer? It's a little early, even for you," he grumbled.

"Ralph," I said gruffly, "I have a situation that I need your help taking care of. "

Ralph must've heard the intensity in my voice because he immediately became alert. "What's going on?"

"I found the source of our pictures. It's you-know-who yet again. Listen, I'm tired of dealing with her, but I can't risk her blowing the lid off this whole thing, so I told her I would just send her the requested amount. We should be done with her…at least for a little while, anyway. I need to arrange for a wire transfer to the same account as last time."

There was a strange silence that made me prompt, "Ralph? You there?"

"Um, yes. Spencer, are you quite sure that it's just her?"

"It's the same account, who the hell else would it be?"

"I have no doubt that she's somehow involved. That doesn't surprise me at all. But you're forgetting that a couple of those people you fired know more than we want them to. The thing that gives me pause, Spencer," he said, "is the fact that we gave her a very large sum several years ago, and it was with the understanding that it would be the last amount since Penny had become an adult."

I huffed out to laugh. "Yeah, but do you really think that was going to stop her?"

"It doesn’t make much sense that she would wait all this time—"

"So, she's run through her money. She's irresponsible, no surprise there."

I could practically feel Ralph picking at his nails, a habit he did when he was nervous. "I know, but there's just something that's off about this, Spencer. It's hard for me to explain, but I knew Connie for a long time before you did. I was part of that conversation the last time she was paid off, and I felt reasonably comfortable that she wouldn't be back. So, for her to appear again…I can't help but feel like somebody else is involved. Plus, she never stalked you or took pictures before. She usually just made a phone call, and that was that."

He had a point there. Connie was old-fashioned and usually stuck to ominous phone calls. She didn't normally do all this hiding stuff, either. She'd just call to make her demands. We would negotiate back and forth until we were both satisfied with a price to make her go away. But the previous time had supposedly been the last time, and she had seemed to understand that.

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