Chapter 33

Liza

 

 

I stood there, staring at the television, my mouth hanging open. It felt like I was watching a movie. Like an out of body experience. It wasn’t a movie. It was my life being paraded in front of the hungry press. I watched them talk about me. They never said my name, but they didn’t have to. One reporter would do the digging and find out who I was and from there, my every secret would be exposed. My life would be laid bare for the world to judge.

“Mommy, I can’t see. I want to see Daddy and Papa,” Ainsley whined from her spot on the floor where she’d been playing.

I couldn’t speak. My mouth had gone completely dry. I had watched the press conference live, but I couldn’t believe I had heard right. It couldn’t be. I flipped the channel and caught it again. It was only a fluke that I’d seen it to begin with. The ticker at the bottom of the screen announced the press conference. If I hadn’t been watching television, I would have missed it. I wasn’t sure if that would have been better or not. The whole thing was surreal, and I still couldn’t quite believe it was all playing out in front of me.

“That little weasel,” I fumed under my breath.

“Who’s a weasel?”

I ignored her question and turned up the TV. Once again, the words stung. It felt like I’d been slapped, first by Milo and then my own father. Both men stood there and aired my dirty laundry in front of the world. The entire world knew about my mistake. They would assume I was the kind of girl who slept around. I wasn’t about to explain the circumstances about how I ended up pregnant. One time. One wild night had led me to that point.

I turned the station back to cartoons for Ainsley and went in search of my phone.

Turning it on, I waited. The voicemail indicator came on as expected. I took a few deep breaths and listened to the many messages. I had a feeling my mailbox was probably full. Most of the messages were from Milo, with a couple from my dad and one from my boss.

I groaned. I hadn’t even thought about how my job would be impacted. My boss was my first call. The principal knew me well enough to know who my dad was. I had never discussed my child’s paternity, but most of my colleagues knew I had a daughter and that there was no man in my life. Now, along with the rest of the world, they would know my secret.

“Hi, this is Liza Summers,” I started.

“Oh, I’m so glad you called me back. Thank you. How are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m good. You?”

She chuckled. “I doubt that you’re good. I wanted to check in, see if you were okay and to assure you your job is secure. If this thing doesn’t blow over before school starts up, we’ll be ready. One thing about working in the toughest school in the city, no one wants to visit!” she teased.

“I’m so sorry. I hope the press will leave me alone. I can’t imagine them hounding me at my job. I’m not that big of a story.”

“Liza?”

“Yes?”

“They’ve already called the district and the school directly. I was catching up on some paperwork and took one of the calls myself,” she said in a gentle voice.

“Oh no,” I whispered.

“It’s okay. We have a couple weeks. I’m sure by the time school starts in January, the whole thing will be old news, and the sharks will have moved on to fresh meat,” she joked.

“I hope so. What a mess.”

“Take care. We’ll deal with it if we have to. Lay low and let it play out,” she advised.

I sighed in relief. “Thank you. I will.”

“I just wanted to let you know we support you, and we’ll see you after the break,” she said.

“Thank you. I really appreciate it. I’ll see you in January.”

I sat down on my bed and breathed a sigh of relief. There was one fire out; now to deal with Milo and my father. I wasn’t ready to talk to Milo. I was furious and hurt. The man owed me nothing, but I thought we had developed a friendship of sorts. I couldn’t believe he had been so quick to toss me out and drive a bus right over the top of me.

With shaking hands, I found my dad’s name in my phonebook and pushed the button. This was not a call I was looking forward to.

“It’s about damn time, young lady!” my dad said, answering the phone.

“Don’t you dare start with me. How could you do that?” I wailed.

He made a sound that I knew very well. I was about to get a hell of a lecture.

“You are the one that made this mess. If you would have told me from the very beginning who Ainsley’s father was, this whole situation could have been avoided. You didn’t. You chose to keep that from me. Were you embarrassed?” he asked.

“It wasn’t like that,” I said, really not wanting to get into the details of that night with my dad. Some things were off limits. “I don’t see how any of that is the business of the whole world. You two tossed me to the wolves. I can’t believe you made me the sacrificial lamb.”

“Oh, please. Get over yourself. We did no such thing. You’re angry because your poor choices have come to light. It’s no one’s fault but your own, Liza,” he grumbled.

He was pissed. I was pissed. It was not a good combination. “You didn’t have to tell the world!” I said a little too loudly.

“We had to say something! Would you prefer the press do their own digging and come up with their version of events? All of this could have been avoided had you been straight with me. You were the one who lost her in a crowd. Don’t blame Milo or me for your mistakes,” he reiterated.

I scoffed. “Mistakes? That’s nice, Dad. Way to stick up for your only daughter.”

“Like it or not, you made some big mistakes. That is the reality and I stuck up for you the only way I could. Sometimes, you have to be a big girl and admit when you’re wrong. Own up to them and quit being mad at us for your decisions. Do you realize what you have done? I could lose my job!” he fumed.

“Your job? I don’t suppose you thought of mine. You’re not going to get fired anyway. You’re being dramatic,” I reasoned.

“You don’t know that. There is a huge conflict of interest here. You have to see that. You put us both in a very difficult position. You can’t be mad at us for trying to repair the damage and save our careers. You messed with our jobs.”

“It’s not that big of a deal, Dad.”

I heard him sigh. “It is actually, and when you can see that, we’ll talk. Until then, I’m done. I won’t apologize for trying to save my job. The situation was handled the best way possible. You were invited to help and chose not to, so I suggest you think twice before you lodge accusations at anyone. I’m not angry with you, and I don’t love you any less, but you need to realize how serious all of this truly is. Quit playing the victim and realize we’re all in the boat with you.”

“You’re right, I guess,” I conceded. “I’m sorry, Dad. Really, I didn’t think about what it would mean for your job. It never occurred to me.”

“That’s too bad,” he said, still irritated. “You know we tried to call you, to warn you about the press conference. We wanted you to be a part of it, to read your own statement, but you turned off your phone to pout,” he continued the lecture.

“I turned it off because you were kind of mean yesterday, Dad. Don’t you think I felt horrible about losing her in that crowd? You know I am not like that. It was an accident. I didn’t do it so she could go racing for him and calling him Daddy in front of the press,” I explained.

“I don’t doubt that, but the point you have to see is that I didn’t do this. Milo and I didn’t conspire against you to ruin your life or make you feel bad,” he said, in a gentler tone now. “Neither of us wanted to hurt you. For what it’s worth, Milo fought against it, but in the end, he knew it had to be done for all of our sakes.”

“But you both—” I started to protest.

He cut me off. “Milo did what he could at the moment. His agent is the one that guided him into the press conference, which I think was the right move. I don’t know how he’s faring, but my phone hasn’t quit ringing. Your number will be out there soon enough. Then you’ll see what we’ve been dealing with for the past twenty-four hours.”

“That bad, huh?”

He chuckled, which was a good sign. “Yes, you could say that. I’ve got to go and deal with other matters. We can talk more about this later. I don’t think it’s a good idea to do dinner tonight. The press is lined up the street at my house and we certainly can’t go out.

“I understand. I’ll be holed up here, doing what I can to keep Ainsley shielded.”

“Good plan. Someone’s calling me,” he grumbled. “I may as well have this phone glued to my ear.”

“Okay, I’ll check in with you tomorrow.”

“You need to call Milo.”

“Dad,” I started to protest.

“Don’t Dad me. I don’t think he did anything to deserve your ire. Call him.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

I was not ready to eat two pieces of humble pie in one sitting. The first one was bad enough.

He hung up. I stared at the phone in my hand. I had made a mistake. A mistake that could change my dad’s entire life. While I knew damn well Ainsley wasn’t a mistake, hiding her away as if she was, had been my bad decision. I should have been honest from the start with both my dad and Milo. The past was in the past, and it was all out in the open now. It was time to move forward.

“You want something to eat?” I asked Ainsley, heading into the kitchen.

“Daddy’s on TV and me too!” she hollered.

I raced into the living room and saw pictures from the game. Milo was holding her close while the photographers snapped pictures of her. The look of anger on his face said it all.

“What’s that say?” she asked, pointing to the ticker running along the bottom.

“Nothing. Watch something else,” I ordered.

She didn’t need to know what was going on. The news had painted some pretty colorful stories, calling Milo a deadbeat dad and me his secret mistress. The reporter claimed my dad had plotted to get us together. It was ridiculous.

My phone rang. I looked at the number and didn’t recognize it. It was time to shut it off. Milo could wait. I needed to think about what I would say to him. My dad was right. This whole situation was my fault. Milo wasn’t a deadbeat dad and didn’t deserve to be harassed over something he had no control of. I would find a way to fix it.

“Mommy! Look, it’s you and Daddy!”

And there it was. I was an unwilling celebrity.

I groaned. “Let’s turn off the TV and read a book.”

I hoped tomorrow the story would fade a bit. Until then, we were going to be prisoners in this apartment. It was obvious the press wasn’t ready to give up quite yet.