Before she could respond, Remington’s own cell started to ring. He whispered into her ear. “I’ve got to take it. It could be the hospital.”
“Wait.” Sky placed her hand on his, but Remington had already picked up. His eyes said I’m sorry. “Remington.”
It was his lawyer. “REM, where are you?”
He looked at Sky. “I’m not at the hospital.”
“I know that. I’m here with Bella. Have you looked at any of your social media accounts?”
“No. I’ve been asleep.”
“Check it, and then high-tail you ass to the hospital. We need to get Charlie moved.”
Remington was a little panicked. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine.”
“Okay, checking now. I’ll call you on the way to the hospital.”
Sky mouthed I need to talk to you.
Dread crept over him after he disconnected the call and checked his Twitter account.
Sky touched his arm. “It’s not true.”
After he finished reading, the way Remington looked at Sky sent ice through her veins.
Remington ignored the plea and went to another post. He clicked on the video. Some woman was speaking. “There is a lot to digest folks. Award-winning actress, Bella Lord-Langston, said that she plans to file for a temporary restraining order against her husband and file for divorce from millionaire entrepreneur, Kane Langston. She claims that he was abusive in their relationship and only recently found out that he caused the accident that paralyzed her twelve-year-old daughter, Charlene ‘Charlie’ Kneeland with billionaire businessman, Remington Kneeland. To make matters worse, there was evidence of the physical abuse but the attending physician, Dr. Sky Kirby helped to cover it up because she and Kane were having an affair. There appears to e-mails to back up some of these claims.”
Remington turned tortured eyes toward Sky. She could see his chest rise and fall. This time it wasn’t due to the passion they shared. He was doing his best to control his anger. “I’ve got to get to Charlie.”
Sky saw the affection he had for her drain from his face as she crawled across the bed in an attempt to explain herself. “It’s not true. I tried to convince Shane to contact Child Protective Services. He wouldn’t, and Noah wouldn’t back me up. All I had was my word.”
“So, you knew?” Remington wasted no time putting on his clothes. He growled. “I don’t give a damn about Child Protective Services.” He banged on his chest with his fist. “You should have told me!”
Sky was still trying to plead her case. She stood on her knees in the middle of the bed. “I wanted to. I thought about it a million times. I didn’t have any proof, and then I started to doubt myself. Everything else they said was a lie. I’m not having an affair with Kane.”
He finished dressing and headed for the door, then turned and penetrated her with a hard stare. “The problem is they were telling the truth about the only thing I actually care about—Charlie.”
Seconds later, Sky jumped at the sound of her front door slamming closed.
*****
Later that morning, Nia walked into Sky’s condo. “It’s a madhouse out there. I can’t separate the paparazzi from the real journalists.”
Sky was wearing a bathrobe with her hands wrapped around a hot cup of coffee. “Thanks for coming. This entire thing is crazy. Do you want some?” She lifted up her cup.
Nia hugged her then sat her briefcase down on the sofa next to where Sky took a seat. She pulled out a yellow legal pad. “No. But, before we get started, are you okay?”
“I’m feeling so many things all at once, but the dominant emotion is anger.”
“Understandable. What the hell happened? Are you really sleeping with Kane? I thought you were sleeping with Remington?”
“Are you asking this as my friend or my lawyer?”
“As your lawyer, I don’t give a shit about who you were sleeping with. But as your friend, I need to know what to do to help you get through this. If I don’t understand what’s really going on, it’s going to make helping you difficult.”
Sky rolled her neck around her shoulders. “I’m not having an affair with Kane Langston, and until last night, I wasn’t sleeping with Remington either.”
“Shut-up! Finally, you two did the deed. You could see it coming a mile away. The sexual tension was off the charts.”
“I’m guessing after today’s news, it will be the first and last time. He’s pissed at me, and rightfully so.”
“I won’t lie. It is a lot to swallow. ”
“I should have told him that suspected someone was abusing Charlie.”
“So, you did know?” Nia started taking notes.
“I suspected. I wrote it up in my report after the surgery. Protocol for high-level patients is that those types of calls to the police, or any government agency, must be placed by the Chief-of-Staff or his assistant. I fought tooth and nail with Shane and Noah about making the call. Neither of them wanted to stake the reputation of the hospital on my medical opinion.”
“Is that what you meant that night when you said he put his career ahead of doing what was right?”
“Yes. They are trying to make me the fall guy. I don’t know what happened, but someone had to leak my notes/report to the media about the possible abuse and forge Noah’s name on it. Neither Shane nor Noah would have done it. But, I can see them doing damage control and deciding to blame it all on me. It would kill two birds with one stone.”
“There’s a special place in hell for people like them. You don’t have a copy of the original report do you?”
“No. Not here. At work,
