Chapter 10

MARIAH

“What was all that about?” Elizabeth asked as Mariah got back to her office.

“I thought I told you to go home?”

“Let’s remember that I’m the one with the experience here little lady; I don’t need you bossing me around,” Elizabeth joked.

Elizabeth was only a couple of years older than Mariah, and they were more like equals than any other people in the office. The pair had known each other in college, and Elizabeth had been only a year ahead. It was a running joke between them that Elizabeth was the boss and Mariah was the boss's daughter who needed tough supervision.

“I don’t know what it is, but River just drives me crazy.”

Mariah started to pace back and forth in front of her desk while Elizabeth sat and watched. It was hard to describe just how crazy River made her feel. It wasn’t as easy as just feeling like he drove her mad. River made her whole body feel like it was short circuiting, and there wasn’t anything she could do to control it.

The feeling of being out of control wasn’t something that Mariah liked at all. She liked to be in control, she always wanted to be in control. Throughout her life, Mariah had planned and controlled all aspects of her personal and work life. She wasn’t about to let someone like River swoop in and take away the control that she cherished.

Just having River in that close of proximity to her made Mariah feel like her brain had turned into a jumble of scrambled eggs and didn’t work anymore. Why did a guy like him want her? She couldn’t help having that question running through her brain. He was rich, handsome, and ran in a totally different crowd than Mariah did. She doubted they would have anything in common at all.

“You should go after him, just have some fun,” Elizabeth said as she watched Mariah pacing the room.

Mariah stopped pacing and looked at Elizabeth skeptically. Surely she wasn’t suggesting what Mariah thought she was suggesting. Elizabeth knew that Mariah’s father would freak out if he found out she was sleeping with their biggest new client.

“What? No, you know I can’t sleep with him while he’s a client here. My father would freak out if something like that happened.”

As Mariah continued to pace, Elizabeth stood up and walked right in front of her. She knew Mariah better than Mariah knew herself sometimes, and Elizabeth knew that Mariah needed to relax. Sure, her father said he would fire someone for messing around with River, but he wasn’t going to fire his sweet little girl. Mariah was the pride and joy of her father, and he wasn’t about to take her away from the office. They used Mariah in their advertising ads both on television and in print. Mariah was the face of Public Waves, she was the one new clients looked for when they walked in the office door.

“People have done it before,” Elizabeth said as she stood there.

“What?”

“Slept with a client. It’s happened with a couple of the higher up clients and staff. I think Stan’s wife was even his client once before.”

“No? Really?”

“Listen, Mariah, if you don’t like the guy, then don’t sleep with him. But this publicity issue will be over soon enough, and if you want to have a thing with the guy, then I say go for it. Just don’t be obvious about it.”

Mariah couldn’t believe what Elizabeth was saying to her. Elizabeth was a rule follower like Mariah, so it was a huge surprise that she would even consider something like having a fling with a client.

The thought of actually giving in to her desires for River was more than she could handle, though, and Mariah had to change the subject. They needed to be prepared, or it wasn’t going to be possible to prevent the bad publicity from hitting River.

If the news got out that River Anders was a home wrecker, it wasn’t going to be news that they could keep quiet for long. It was essential that they either prevented the news from getting out at all or minimized the information that could be confirmed.

“Is it weird that I actually think of him as less of a ladies’ man now that I know all this dirt on him?” Mariah said as she finally sat down.

“I know, it’s weird. He had an affair with a married woman, and you would think that would make him even less likable. But I think I like him even more. It’s too bad the news would ruin his deal with Wholesome Foods.”

“Elizabeth, do you think it would really ruin that deal? I mean it’s the twenty-first century and his affair happened over ten years before.”

Elizabeth typed some information into the computer and took a few notes as Mariah sat and processed everything that was going on. It was more than just an affair that they had to deal with. There was a child, a governor, who was going to announce that he was running for president, and a huge business deal for River’s company. There were so many things that needed to be considered and weighed out. Mariah and Elizabeth certainly had their work cut out for them. It was going to take day and night of them researching and working on the case so they could do the best job possible.

No matter what her feelings were about River, Mariah had to make sure she did her job. Doing her job well would ensure her job security as well as keep River and his situation under the radar. She was nervous to deal with such a big case, but it was the perfect opportunity for Mariah to show her father that she really did know what she was doing.

Mariah knew she had to figure out what would be the least damaging solution for River. As much as she worried about Jackson and Kimberly, River was her client, and she had to minimize the effect on his business dealings; that was what she was hired for. Keeping the client happy was always their biggest priority, and that meant that Mariah would juggle everything about the case that River said was most important to him. She would try to keep the details of their secret private, prevent the press from getting a hold of it, and keep his deal with Wholesome Foods from falling apart.

“Uh, oh, I think we are in trouble,” Elizabeth said as she stared at the computer.

“Big time trouble?”

“Yes, everyone loves Governor Emerald. Not like a little love, they are bat shit crazy in love with him. His supporters will turn River into the villain within a day of the news coming out.”

“Well then, we need to keep the news from coming out,” Mariah added.

Mariah leaned over and scanned the article that was pulled up on the computer. It was a story from a girl that knew Governor Emerald in college. She had said, ‘he wasn’t always nice. In college he was a jerk,’ and the press went crazy. People called into the news station to report the woman was a fraud, and she hadn’t even known the governor all that well. His supporters took to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to protect him from the negative press. Even going so far as to egg the woman’s house that had made the comment.

“Yikes, he’s got super-fans,” Mariah said as she read the story and sat back down. “I wish I had that many people that would defend my honor in light of bad news about me.”

If even the slightest gossip got out, Emerald’s team would release those super-fans and let them protect him. Especially during a campaign, those rogue supporters would make sure that River was seen as a horrible person and that his business felt the burn from the news. Mariah knew more than ever that she was going to have to make sure the news did not get out.

“Okay, so I’m sure there are people from ten years ago that will come out of the woodwork and say they saw River and Kimberly together. We can’t stop those people. But we need to stop anyone who has real information, anyone that knows for a fact that River is the father of Jackson. The problem is, both Kimberly and River don’t think anyone knows the truth.”

“Mariah, from what they have said, no one really knows except his assistant. Do you think they are lying to us?”

“Oh, people know! People don’t have an affair and a baby without someone knowing. I think Kimberly and River are trying to be proactive, but they don’t really think this news will come out,” Mariah said as she scribbled some notes down.

“I think River knows someone else that has information on him; why else would he have hired us?”

Mariah wasn’t quite sure, but something felt off. Kimberly’s husband had run for governor and been elected without the secret coming out. That was a pretty big deal. If someone in their past knew about their child, why wouldn’t they have released that information during that political campaign?

No. Something had scared River and Kimberly into seeking public relations help. Mariah was convinced there had to have been an incident or some other event that made them react the way they had. Something that made River seek help in preventing the truth from coming out. Now the only problem was that Mariah needed to figure out what had scared them so much.

“I’m going to head home; let’s talk about this more tomorrow,” Mariah said as she grabbed her things and rushed toward her door.

There was something bothering her, and Mariah needed to figure it out. Her mind swirled with the information she had on the case so far. It was beyond clear to her that River wasn’t telling her everything. She had to either figure it out on her own or go talk to him and get him to tell her the missing pieces of information. It wasn’t fair for him to expect that she could protect him if he weren’t going to be honest with her.

“Oh, Mariah is developing a plan … you always rush away when you think of a good plan,” Elizabeth yelled after Mariah as she hurried down the hall.

Mariah made her way down to the parking garage and her vehicle as quickly as she could. She had to figure out what it was that had scared River into coming to her. If she knew what had precipitated him seeking her firm out, it would help her decipher what to do next. They couldn’t possibly protect him from everyone who would gossip about the governor’s wife, but they could protect him from the one person who contacted him and scared him.

As Mariah left her work, she decided to go for a little drive. Using her phone, she googled to see if River’s address was easy to find. With a simple search, she did get an address that was reportedly his home, so she followed it. Certainly, it couldn’t be that easy to follow the uber rich River Anders right to his home?

The home she pulled up in front of wasn’t anything like the mansion she imagined River lived in, though. There was no security gate out front, and it appeared as if there was no security at all around the home. She parked on the street and walked up to the house to get a closer look. It baffled her that the house she was in front of could possibly be River’s. He was leaving himself exposed to anyone and everyone who had access to a computer search engine.

Her adrenaline spiked as she walked past a black sedan and up toward the home. The yard was manicured and looked well kept, but that was normal for any home in the Portland suburb she was in. As Mariah continued up toward the door, she got a sinking feeling that the home she was at wasn’t River’s, and she was about to knock on some stranger's door.

She slowly raised her hand and hit the door with three quick knocks as she tried to think of a good story for why she was there. It wasn’t something she had planned on doing, but Mariah needed to know if River was as exposed. Was he leaving himself open to anyone who wanted to follow him to get dirt on him?

“Hello,” River said as he opened the door. “Mariah, what are you doing here?”

“River Anders, what the hell! You don’t even have a gate. Oh, my God!” Mariah yelled as she looked around at how easy it had been for her to find him. “Anyone could follow you. Anyone could come to your door. You could have national news stations standing outside the second there is the hint of a story.”

“Calm down, Mariah, I’ve never had any problems,” River said as he pulled Mariah into his home.

He looked around and seemed a little embarrassed by the commotion she was making. Mariah couldn’t believe that River was just living in a normal house without even a security gate out front. If Kimberly had ever come to his home to visit, that would have been enough for someone to get the idea that there was something improper going on between the two of them.

“River, you are too exposed. I didn’t even have to work hard to find you. I simply searched Google. This is bad. This is so bad,” Mariah said as she pulled her notepad out and started to write things down. “We need a gate out front as soon as possible. Do you have an alarm at least?”

“Yes, I have an alarm.” River laughed. “I think you are overreacting. It’s Portland, not Hollywood. The press doesn’t just show up at your door here.”

Mariah started to take in deep breaths and let them back out again. She began to walk around his home as she breathed and quickly realized he didn’t live like a man who had as much money as he did. His home was a small ranch style house with modern décor. His kitchen looked like it had been upgraded to the latest technology, but otherwise, the home seemed decidedly plain.

“Your house seems so normal. Do you have another house?”

Mariah looked skeptically at River as she continued to give herself a tour of the home. There wasn’t anything elaborate about his house at all; she couldn’t understand why a man with his kind of wealth would choose to continue to live in such a basic home.

More importantly, Mariah couldn’t understand why a man with as big a secret in his past as River had wouldn’t protect his privacy more. Even the local television news hosts had more security around their homes than River did, and River was in national news stories.

“No.” River continued to laugh, “This is my only home. I do travel often and spent about half my time in hotels.”

“I just don’t get it. There is so much about you that I don’t get.”

River walked into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of wine out of a floor to ceiling wine cellar that stood in the corner. He just watched Mariah as she walked around and mumbled to herself for a little bit. She could see him in the kitchen watching her but couldn’t quite figure out what was going on.

“Wine?” River asked as he handed her a glass of red wine.

Instead of refusing like she had intended, Mariah grabbed the glass and started to sip from it as she made her way to the couch in the living room. River baffled her; everything about him seemed so different than what might be expected from a man of his wealth.

Even learning that he was a father and how he was working to have contact with his son had surprised Mariah. River wasn’t the playboy guy she thought he was, but he wasn’t a family man either; River was somewhere in between the two extremes. He wasn’t anything like she had expected him to be, and that was hard for her to reconcile.

River found a seat next to Mariah, and they both sat quietly and drank their wine. Mariah had so many different thoughts running through her head. She couldn’t figure River out, and that really bugged her. At first, she had expected him to be a player who just wanted to get laid, but then he had turned down her offer to stay with her at her apartment.

Then learning everything she had learned that day at work had blown away the persona that Mariah had attached to River altogether. He wasn’t a jerk like the tabloids made him out to be in his personal life. River also didn’t seem like the kind of guy that chased after as many girls as the tabloids made him out to do.

“Do you really have as many girlfriends as the tabloids say you do?” Mariah asked questioningly.

She couldn’t keep her inquisitive nature to herself any longer. If she was going to work with River, she wanted to know more about him. She had already been surprised enough by River over the previous two days, she couldn’t take any more surprises.

“How many do they say I have?” River laughed.

“I don’t know. It’s like every week they have a picture of you with a new woman. That doesn’t seem like the real you. Is it?”

River paused for a long moment and watched Mariah, but she wasn’t about to let him off the hook. She wanted to know his answer. How was it that in person he seemed like such a nice, normal guy, but in the press, he was a man whore?

“I enjoy going on dates, but I’m often not in one town long enough to date anyone.”

“So you’re a serial dater?”

“I guess that would be a good description. But I don’t think of it as dating, more like hanging out with nice women.”

“Do you sleep with them all?”

“Ha, no,” River responded quickly.

“You aren’t as much of a jerk as I thought you would be,” Mariah said as she sipped her wine, watching River’s amused expression.

“Thank you, I guess.” He laughed.

“So tell me what scared you? What made you come to my office after all these years of keeping this secret? I mean, the governor ran for his current office and was elected; you didn’t fear that your secret would come out then. Why now? Tell me what’s really going on.”