Page 23 of Reputation (Tempt)

When Trinity’s lawyer had contacted mine a few weeks ago to see if we needed to revise our custody agreement because of some of the leaked excerpts, I’d balked. But now, I was feeling less confident. This time, she might have some actual ammunition against me.

I sighed. Lately, it felt as if all my time and energy went to fighting legal battles against the women of my past. The judge had refused to issue a temporary restraining order or block the publication of Annalise’s book.

Fortunately, Pierce and I had been working on my image in anticipation of such an event. Emerson had posted fewer bikini photos—thank fuck. If for no other reason than my sanity.

My new film was certainly generating a lot of positive buzz. Unfortunately, it also seemed to be prompting increased presales of Annalise’s tell-all. And once the book released—assuming we couldn’t stop it—my legal team would continue to try to get it removed from the market. Regardless, people were going to form an opinion of me from the leaked excerpts alone.

But for now, I had to trust that my team was handling it. And focus on spending time with my daughter and shielding her from all of it as best as I could.

“I appreciate it,” I said to Emerson. “I’m sure you have many other fun things you could be doing on a Friday night.”

She scoffed. “Um. I’ve been living with you for how long?”

“Five months.”Five months and four days.

“Right. And in that time, how often have you seen me go out?”

I had to think about it. Thanks to the security system, I was aware of anyone who entered or exited the house. I had monitors in my office, and I would’ve known if she’d left the property. “Not very often.”

“Exactly.”

“I guess I’m just surprised someone like you is single,” I said, immediately regretting it. “I mean,” I backtracked, “I shouldn’t have assumed that.”

“I’m single by choice,” she said with a hint of defiance. “Because I have yet to find a man worth my time.”

“Oof,” I joked. “On behalf of all men, I apologize.”

“I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I didn’t mean to sound so…” She waved a hand through the air. “Whatever.”

“Bad breakup?” I asked.

“Just…disappointing, I guess. We were both very driven.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “And after I got injured, he decided I was no longer useful to his social media presence. So he dumped me.”

“And since then?”

She lifted a shoulder. “There seem to be a lack of worthy candidates.”

I nodded, wondering what Emerson would consider a worthy candidate. Would I make the cut?

I pushed away the thought. I shouldn’t care.

“I just figured you might have plans with Kendall,” I said, knowing they often hung out. Especially since Knox and Kendall had broken up, though I didn’t mention their split. I didn’t want to get in the middle ofthat.

“We’ll probably go to yoga this weekend before she…” Emerson trailed off, quickly closing her mouth as if to swallow back whatever she was going to say.

“Before she…?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Ah, but now I’m curious. Tell me.” I narrowed my eyes at her.

She sighed, seeming to relent. “Before she moves to Paris.”

“What?” I nearly choked on my tongue.

Did Knox know?

Even if they were no longer together, I couldn’t imagine he’d be okay with it. I’d seen the way he’d looked at her. I knew how much he loved her, likely still loved her.

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