Chapter 12

MARIAH

She had slept with him. Mariah couldn’t get the smile off of her face as she walked out to her car. Nothing about the situation was normal, and she knew right away that she wasn’t going to be able to resist him again. The attraction Mariah felt toward River was powerful; it made her feel out of control, but it also scared the hell out of her.

As she drove back to work, Mariah did her best to shake off the huge smile that still crossed her face. She couldn’t just show up to work smiling like a maniac. Even though she was normally very happy, the kind of smile that she had at that moment wasn’t anything she had shown up to work with in the past.

“You’re wearing the same clothes!” Elizabeth exclaimed as she saw Mariah in the parking garage to their office.

“Shhh, you don’t need to advertise it to the world,” Mariah quietly said as she held a finger up to her mouth.

Mariah knew there was no way to keep the events of the previous night away from Elizabeth, but she certainly wasn’t going to have the rest of the office finding out, even if there were other people in the office who had slept together. Mariah was the boss’ daughter, and she knew her father would kill her if he found out what had happened. He wouldn’t care at all if there were other people in the office doing it; the only thing that would matter was that Mariah wasn’t setting a good example for the rest of the employees.

Elizabeth didn’t think that Mariah’s father would really fire her. But despite the fact that she was on all their media information, Mariah wouldn’t put it past her father to set an example out of her. He sometimes did things that she didn’t think made sense at all, simply to make sure people understood his point.

“We can talk about it later. I need to tell you something I found out,” Elizabeth started to say as the pair made their way to their offices. “The governor is going to announce for sure, we, at least, know this much by now. Did River have any idea who it was that called him?”

“No, he had no idea. But I’m pretty sure he received another call before, and that was what spooked him. He wouldn’t admit to it, but his face looked like I had struck it when I mentioned the possibility of something freaking him out enough to hire our firm.”

Elizabeth walked with Mariah into her office and took control of Mariah’s desk. It was a bigger office and bigger desk than Elizabeth had, and she liked to sit there and drive Mariah crazy when they worked on accounts together.

“I still don’t think the story is as bad as Kimberly and River think it is. People have illegitimate children all the time,” Elizabeth commented as she logged into the computer.

“Well, Kimberly was married. I think that’s a big deal in a presidential race. Plus, look at the company River is trying to do business with for his new product roll out. Wholesome Foods isn’t going to think twice about dropping River once they hear this news.”

Mariah knew that Elizabeth was just trying to minimize the situation. But Mariah had a horrible feeling about everything. She felt that the story was going to come out, and it was going to destroy River and his company. There was no way Mariah wanted to be any part of destroying River’s company that he had built up all by himself over the years. She had to figure out how to stop the news from being released.

A text came in from River, and it instantly made Mariah smile. She couldn’t help it; there was still an afterglow from her evening of fun with him, and just seeing his name pop up on her phone made her giddy.

“Oh, yeah, you got laid last night,” Elizabeth said as she watched Mariah look at the text message.

“He said he heard from Kimberly, the press conference is going to be tomorrow. We need to get ready. How the hell are we going to stop this?” Mariah jumped up and started pacing.

Pacing was the way Mariah dealt with things. She needed to be moving to clear her mind, and her mind had to be clear for her to figure out the situation they were in.

Somehow they needed to find the person who had called River and stop them from releasing whatever information it was that they were threatening him with. The problem was going to be figuring out what the anonymous person had to gain from the news being leaked. There had to be a benefit for the caller.

“Why do you think this guy is threatening River? Maybe a past business deal gone bad? Perhaps someone who wants money? We need to figure out what it is the person wants, and then we can narrow down our possible suspects.”

“Elizabeth, it’s not that easy. If we knew what they wanted, we would just give it to them,” Mariah muttered under her breath as she continued to pace.

“Hear me out, Mariah. We know this caller wants to embarrass River. What exactly did they say?”

“Basically, he said he would release information about River’s son after the governor announces his run.”

Elizabeth seemed baffled by what Mariah had just told her. She sat back and waited for Mariah to elaborate, but there wasn’t anything else she could add to the story; that was all that River had said the man told him.

“So what did he want?” Elizabeth asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think he asked for anything.”

Mariah started to see how absurd it was that this person had called River at all. They basically called him to warn him but didn’t offer him any way to keep the information from getting out. Usually, a caller would ask for money or some other item to keep quiet. It was much scarier when the person didn’t have any requests. It was also much harder to figure out what the true driving force was behind the caller.

Elizabeth and Mariah were on the same page by that point. They knew they had to figure out the real driving force.

“If they weren’t asking for some sort of monetary amount from River, I think it has to be someone close to him or Kimberly who is angry with them,” Elizabeth said as she made some notes.

“Like an ex-boyfriend or something like that?”

“Maybe, or even an ex-girlfriend of River’s who hired a man to make the phone calls. This is too personal; the person has to know River at least and possibly both of them. How else would they know the child was a son?” Elizabeth raised her eyebrow.

“You’re right! If the caller only knew they had a child together, they wouldn’t know the gender. This person knew they had a boy. And you’re right, it has to be personal, or they would have definitely asked for money from River.”

The two women sat in silence as they both wrote down possibilities for who it could be. The person making the threat was hurt, they had to have been hurt when the governor originally ran for office; why did they wait? There were still so many unanswered questions that Mariah had. She couldn’t imagine someone being so upset with River that they were willing to ruin the life of a child.

“We still have no idea who it is; do we?” Elizabeth laughed.

“Nope.” Mariah joined in with the laughter.

The two women knew they had to figure things out before the press conference, otherwise they were going to be in real trouble. If River’s secret were released to the press at the news conference, it would be likely that they would check the facts before any news station went public with the story, but it wasn’t a guarantee. Some news stations didn’t care if the story was true or not; they just wanted to be the first people to break a story.

“We need to talk with Kimberly, alone. Don’t you think?”

“No, I think we need to talk with River again.”

“Of course, you do, that’s just because you boned him and think he’s the best thing since sliced bread now.”

Mariah couldn’t help laughing at Elizabeth’s analogy. But she didn’t want to talk with River because of what happened the previous night; she wanted to find out who hated him. Obviously, River hadn’t come out and said there were people that didn’t like him in his past, but it was becoming abundantly clear that was exactly the type of person they needed to be looking for.

“I’ll talk with River; you talk with Kimberly. Does that sound like a deal?” Mariah asked as she started to text River back.

“Sounds like I got the bum deal.”

“I don’t care who I talk to. Do you want to talk with River?” Mariah offered.

“No, no, I’m teasing. I’m fine talking to Kimberly.”

Mariah text River and asked him to come to her office to work through some questions. It was going to be a little uncomfortable because Mariah needed to delve more into River’s past than he was probably used to, but she was convinced that his past was where the secret would come unraveled.

“I’ll talk to you when I’m done. Thanks for the help on this case Elizabeth; I couldn’t have done all this without you.”

“You owe me big! I get the next rich single client that walks through the door.”

“Deal.”

As Mariah waited for River to arrive at the office, she started to research his company. Perhaps there was a competitor who didn’t like River and who had done some research on him or followed him. She needed to make herself useful so reading the local financial news on River seemed like a good place to start.

It appeared that River made a lot of enemies in the business world. He often bought small companies when they were in crisis and ended up firing off much of the staff. Mariah could only imagine how many of those people hated River. But did they hate him and know his secrets? That was the big question. Someone could hate him all they wanted, but if they didn’t know his secrets, then it didn’t really matter for the moment.

There was one company that stood out even more than the others, though. Rolled Oat Life was a small company that River took over. Initially, the press was great for the two companies. The CEO of Rolled Oat Life was in many pictures with River, and they both seemed very happy, but then after the sale, things went wrong. River bought out the CEO’s contract and relieved him of his duties. Originally, he filed a suit against River but later withdrew it. Mariah wasn’t sure if there was anything more there than a financial story, but she wrote his name down and took some notes to discuss with River later.

There had to be someone that hated River for something more than just a financial reason. If they were bringing his child into the discussion, it was personal and not just business. Mariah started to look through the online tabloids to see if any of the stories about River seemed to pop out at her.

“That story isn’t true,” River said as he stood in the doorway and looked at Mariah.

Mariah was at her desk so River couldn’t really see what she was reading, only that she was leaned over and intently scanning the computer monitor.

Her heart fluttered like a schoolgirl at River’s voice, and it took her a second to get herself together and try to think of something witty to say in return. Unfortunately, no witty response came at all, and instead, Mariah just pointed to the monitor and then to a chair across from her desk for River to sit while she finished the story.

“So I’m looking for someone that hates you. On a personal level, not in business. Do you have any ideas?”

River laughed at first but then realized that Mariah was totally serious, so he started to think. Mariah knew a man like River probably had tons of enemies, but which one hated him enough to bring up his son and make threats to ruin his son’s life?

“I don’t know. I didn’t think anyone disliked me enough to do something like this. Sure they tell stories to the tabloids and stuff like that, but this is a whole different level.”

“What about an ex-employee? Is there any way someone overheard you talking to your assistant while at work?”

River seemed totally surprised by the idea that it could be an employee or ex-employee of his. He hadn’t even considered it a possibility, that was clear from the expression on his face.

“An employee? I don’t know. I’ve fired several people over the years.”

“Specifically, I would say it was someone more recent; like within the last couple of years. Is there anyone that you can think of that would be capable of something like this?”

Mariah paused while River seemed to be contemplating all the employees that he had released over the last few years. Certainly, there had to be someone that stood out in his mind. There had to be that one guy, or girl that River had been afraid of after he fired them.

“Stewart Pine, I fired him about four years ago. He was always going through April’s desk. I thought he was stealing the petty cash, but he certainly could have found something that pointed to me having a son. I’m not sure how he would know who Jackson’s mother was, though. And I never had any issues with him after I fired him.”

“That’s good, a great place to start at least. Oh, what about the CEO of Rolled Oat Life? I saw a story where he was bad mouthing you. What happened there?”

“No, it couldn’t be Greg, we are friends now.”

“Really?” Mariah said without being able to hide her surprise.

“Yes, he filed a lawsuit against me, and I insisted that we sit down and have a beer and discuss things. We worked things out, and he ended up dropping the lawsuit. We still go golfing about once a month.”

Mariah nodded her head in understanding, but she was a little disappointed her one suspect had to be removed from her list.

“Who else hates you?” she asked urgently.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Mariah, but I don’t know who hates me enough to do something like this. I really didn’t think there was anyone that felt that strongly about me. Even the people I’ve fired over the years didn’t seem all that angry.”

Mariah let her head fall to the table as she tried to think of what to do next. They were running out of time and had to come up with someone to go after. Otherwise, they were going to be watching the news as the biggest secret in River’s life was released for public consumption.

“Mariah, it’s alright. I mean the worst thing that could happen would be my company would go under, my son would hate me, and I would be on the street. But at least, I wouldn’t be dead,” River said as he tried to get Mariah to smile.

“You aren’t helping at all. This is serious, River. I need to figure this out. There has to be a link to this person, Kimberly, Jackson and you. We just aren’t seeing it yet. We need to think harder.”

River laughed at Mariah, and she instantly got defensive. Didn’t River understand, this wasn’t just his life on the line? If she screwed this up, it was going to mean working the second chair for at least another year before her father would allow her to work on a case again. She had to handle this better than her father or anyone else could even imagine if she was going to prove her worth to the company. Being the daughter of the owner didn’t really have very many benefits at all. Mariah felt like she had to work harder than everyone else just to prove herself.

“Let’s take a break; maybe if we clear our heads, something will come to us,” River offered as he stood up and towered over Mariah.

“We can’t just be fucking around. There is work to do.”

“Who said anything about fucking,” River winked as he grabbed Mariah and pulled her out of her office and down the hallway.

“Jennifer, I’m going out for a little bit. Just send my calls to my cell for me. Thanks so much,” Mariah said as she pulled her hand away from River so the secretary wouldn’t see them holding hands.

Mariah didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but she couldn’t think straight in her office and loved the idea of going for a walk or something. She did need to straighten out her thoughts if she was going to figure out the mystery phone call that River had received.

The two of them walked around for most of the afternoon as they discussed River’s past and the people who had been in it. Mariah was surprised by all the kindness that River had in his life, even with all the companies he had taken over.

In the news stories, she had read the business deals seemed so contentious, and Mariah had thought one of those men was likely the person they were looking for. But as they discussed more and more of his past business deals and River’s personal life, Mariah got lost in thought. None of the people he talked about seemed like the type of person who would make the phone call that River had received.

By the time night fell, Mariah was farther away from finding the caller than she had felt early in the morning. Although she was happy that she and River had found the time to talk and get to know each other more, Mariah still had no idea who was making the threats.

They only had about twelve hours before the governor called his press conference and announced he was running for president. There wasn’t enough time to stop things anymore. Mariah resigned herself to moving into a defensive position as soon as the news came out.

“I guess we should start discussing how we can defend this information when it comes out.”

“Yes, we should be prepared,” River said as they sat on a bench in the park across from Mariah’s work.

“We could admit you have a son from a previous relationship and see if that satisfies people. What do you think about that?”

“I think it will depend on how much information they let out. If they know Kimberly is the mother, I suspect they will let that piece of information out. Everyone knows that Kimberly and her husband have been married for fifteen years. I won’t be able to explain why I have a ten-year-old son with her, that’s for sure.”

“Okay, so let’s make a list of possible responses based on how much information is released. Alright?”

“Yes, I want to try and spin this as positive as possible.”

“As positive as an affair can be,” Mariah said solemnly. “I don’t think you’re going to end up looking like a good guy after this.”