Chart Toppers (Star Maker Book 3) (23 page)

She
walked back into the office, trying to look composed, but her appearance gave
her away.
 
Her eyes were red and
swollen, her nose red.
 
She sat down
and lit up a cigarette.
 
“Thanks for
getting all that information, G.”

Giselle
stared at her, horrified.
 
“You mean
to tell me this could really be true?
 
I mean I know you said it was a possibility, but I thought it was a long
shot, honestly.
 
Do you know that
girl?”

She
looked down and successfully held back tears.
 
She sighed and looked up.
 
“Yes.
 
It’s time to get Sully involved.
 
We need to move this forward.”

Giselle
nodded sadly.
 
“Ok, Kit.
 
Whatever you need.”

“I’ll
be back in a bit.
 
I need to get rid
of the band for the night and pull him in.”

She
nodded.
 
“Ok.
 
I have some stuff to do, so take all the
time you need.”

Kit
strolled into the studio where the band was laughing and carrying on in the
lounge.
 
MTV was on and they were
drinking.
 

She
looked at them.
 
“Hey, guys.
 
Any of you drunk?”

They
all shook their heads.
 
Remo chimed
in.
 
“We’re not, but we could if you
wanted us to be!”

She
forced a grin, but the flat tone in her voice gave her away.
 
“No, but thank you for offering to go
the extra mile, Remo. That’s always appreciated. You guys are done for the
night, except for Sully.”

Jimmy
looked at her.
 
“Are we done with
the song?”

She
stared at him and shrugged her shoulders.
 
“I dunno.
 
I can give you an
answer when we start our session tomorrow.
 
Don’t worry about it.”

They
all shuffled out, and Sully greeted her with a hopeful look.
 
“What are we working on tonight?”

She glanced
at him and then shifted her focus to Fred.
 
“Fred, we’re done for the night.
 
You can take off.”

He
looked surprised.
 
“Early night
tonight, Kit?
 
I like it.”
 
He waved as he walked out.

Sully
looked at her, confused.
 
“What’s
up?”

She
sighed and folded her arms in front of her chest.
 
“We’ve got a situation.”

“Ok.”
 
He leaned back against the boards.
 
“What’s going on?”
 
He found it impossible to read her.

“Let’s
shut down for the night and go up to the house.”

He
frowned.
 
“This isn’t about the
album?”

She
started to shut down the power on certain equipment in the room.
 
“Nope.”
 
She stopped and looked at him.
 
“Shut down the studio and meet me in my
office when you’re done.”

He
stared at her.
 
“Kit, are we ok?”

She
stared back at him, almost as if she were looking through him.
 
“No, Sully.
 
We’re not.”

CHAPTER 13

Giselle
sat across from Kit, shifting in her seat uncomfortably as she stared at
her.
 
“Are you sure you want me
here?
 
Under normal circumstances, I
would stay, but it seems this situation has a highly charged personal element
to it that should be resolved between you and Sully.”

Kit
shook her head. “No, stay put.
 
I
need you to share your findings with him.
 
If things get intense, I’ll have you step out.
 
I’m going to need your help executing
this regardless of the outcome.
 
It’s important that you’re here.”

Sully gingerly
entered the office approaching like he would the principal’s office after being
sent there by an angry teacher whose buttons he had pushed.
 
He looked a bit surprised, yet relieved
to see Giselle.
 
He forced a
grin.
 
“Hey, G.
 
Kit, what’s up?”

Giselle
tried her best to give Sully a welcoming look that made him feel more at
ease.
 
“Sull, why don’t you have a
seat here next to Kit?”

He sat
down next to Kit and met her gaze.
 
She tried to force a grin, but it came out looking more like a
half-assed smirk.
 
He focused his
attention back to Giselle.
 
“What’s
up?”

She
folded her hands and set them on the desk in front of her as she leaned
forward.
 
“Sully, we’ve got a
problem.
 
There is a paternity suit
being filed against you in the state of Indiana.
 
We’re trying to stop the suit from being
filed, but we need your help to do it.”

His
eyes widened.
 
He looked at Kit in
horror and then back at Giselle.
 
“What the fuck? This is a mistake! It has to be a mistake.
 
There is no way.
 
I don’t have any kids out there; I’m
married for God’s sake!”

Giselle
knew he would be upset, but hadn’t anticipated he’d reach this level.
 
She had never seen him so angry.
 
She used a calm tone of voice in hopes
of smoothing his feathers.
 
“Sully,
the claim states that the child was conceived before you were married.”

He
shook his head vehemently.
 
“There’s
no fucking way. It’s not mine.
 
Does
this girl want money?
 
This is so
fucked up!”
 
He turned to face Kit,
his eyes alert and insistent.
 
“Babe, you know this is complete bullshit, don’t you?”

She
looked at him and sighed.
 
“I’m
sorry, baby.
 
I’m not sure that it
is.”

He
stared at her, immediately feeling a jab of betrayal and disappointment.
 
His heart ached as he gazed into her
eyes for that reassurance he always received—the look that told him
everything would be ok even when things were crazy and chaotic, but it wasn’t
there.
 
Her eyes reflected worry and
sadness, making him even more confused.
 
He shifted his attention to Giselle.
 
His steel blue eyes blazed with rage,
his voice thick with anger when he spoke.
 
“Who is this fucking bitch?
 
What’s her name?”

Giselle
stared at him and wondered what his reaction would be after seeing Kit’s
earlier response to the name.
 
“Phoebe Peterson.”
 
Upon
hearing the name again, Giselle noticed Kit almost shrivel in her seat, putting
her hand over her eyes.

Sully’s
eyes widened, and he immediately became enraged.
 
He stood up and yelled, throwing his
hands in the air. “That gold-digging whore!
 
She is not getting a fucking dime of my
money.
 
She’s lying!
 
That kid is not mine!
 
No fucking way.”

Giselle
stared up at him as he hovered over her desk.
 
“Sully, calm down.
 
Sit back down, please.
 
We’ll get this worked out.”

Kit
looked at him and tried to stay as levelheaded as possible.
 
“Sull, are you going to sit there and
tell me you didn’t bang her when we were on tour?
 
I seem to remember many nights when the
two of you went back to your suite together and put out the do not disturb
sign.
 
I don’t know what went on
behind closed doors, but baby, I know you better than anyone.
 
Sex is a vice of yours, and my intuition
tells me she tapped into that weakness pretty successfully.
 
She was a manipulator and knew exactly
what she was doing.”

He stared
at Kit silently for a long moment. He was still breathing hard and trying to
keep his temper in check.
 
He looked
over at Giselle.
 
“G, can you give
us a minute alone, please?” Giselle met eyes with Kit, who nodded in
confirmation, giving her the go ahead to leave the room.
 
She scurried out and shut the double
doors behind her.
 

Sully
focused his attention back to Kit.
 
“Are you saying you don’t believe me?”

She
shrugged her shoulders.
 
“I dunno,
Sull.
 
All I do know is that it only
takes one time and if you weren’t careful, which I’m sure you weren’t, then you’re
done and she’s knocked up.”
 
She
looked up into his eyes.
 
“How do
you think I got pregnant, huh?
 
It
was because
we
weren’t careful.
 
We got completely caught up in the
moment, and it happened.
 
It really
is that easy.”

He
shook his head and stared at her.
 
“I cannot believe you don’t trust me.
 
I
was
careful.
 
I remember being super
careful with her,
especially
her.
 
I used protection, Kit.
 
I’m not that stupid.
 
And don’t be putting any shit on me that
I cheated on you because you were with Simon at the time, and I was hanging out
with other girls.
 
We were on a
break.”
 
He pointed at her
accusingly and then started pacing.

She shook
her head.
 
“You’re going to bring
that into this now?
 
Wow.
 
I don’t even know what to say to that.
 
Want to talk about how I lost our baby
too?
 
May as well just keep hitting
below the belt tonight, Sull.
 
You’re on a roll.”

He stopped
dead in his tracks, closed his eyes and shook his head.
 
“Ok, ok, I’m sorry, I’m just so
frustrated and angry right now.”
 
He
blinked his eyes open and stared at her, his steel blue eyes speaking volumes.
 
“You have got to believe me, Kit.”

She noticed
the pleading look in his eyes and wanted to believe him, but her head was still
spinning.
 
“Babe, I know you
probably were careful, ok?
 
But, at
that time when we were on the road, we were all partying pretty hard, except me
‘cuz I was pregnant.
 

“I’m not
judging you for this, believe me there were plenty of nights where I was drunk
and high too after I lost the baby.
 
It’s easy when you’re that drunk and that high to have a slip-up and I’m
afraid that’s what happened, and now she’s trying to capitalize on it.”

Sully
looked away and shook his head.
 
“No.”
 
He met Kit’s
eyes.
 
“That kid is not mine.
 
I know it in my gut.
 
I was careful.
 
I didn’t make a mistake.”

She gazed
at him, the reality of the situation finally hitting her hard.
 
She saw the conviction in his eyes but
knew how groupies could be.
 
With
tears welling up in her eyes, she put her hand on his knee.
 
“You may have, babe.”

He
stared back at her and got choked up.
 
He shook his head and swallowed hard.
 
“No, this cannot be real.
 
That kid is not mine.
 
The first child I bring into this world
will be ours Kit, and that’s how it’s going to play out.”
 

She
couldn’t hold back anymore.
 
She
broke down crying.
 
He took her into
his arms and held her, while he gently spoke into her ear.
 
“I’m going to prove this to you,
babe.
 
This is all a big
mistake.
 
I’m going to make this
nightmare go away.”

She
pulled back to look at him.
 
“What
are you going to do?”

“Well,
first I’m going to talk to her.”

Her
eyes widened.
 
“You’re going to call
Phoebe?”

He nodded.
 
“She probably wants money and
attention.
 
I’ll talk to her nicely
and she what happens.
 
If she
doesn’t come clean, then we’ll have to do the next obvious step, which is me
taking a paternity test.”

Kit let
out a sigh.
 
“Ok.
 
I’m not feeling good about you calling
her, but if you think you may be able to sweet talk her out of this, I’ll go
with it.”

He took
her hands in his.
 
“How about you
listen in on the call?
 
It would
actually make me feel better if you heard everything.”

She
nodded.
 
His proposed idea made her
feel a bit better and had the potential to offer her reassurance.
 
“Ok.
 
Do you have her number?”

He
shook his head.
 
“No.
 
We’ll have to get her number. I haven’t
talked to her since our show in Philly.”

Kit
raised her eyebrows.
 
“That was well
over a year ago.”

He
stared at her intently.
 
“Baby, it’s
like I told you.
 
She was just there
when we were on the road.
 
I saw you
with Simon at the time and felt jealous.
 
I wanted to show you that I really could handle being on a break.
 

“I remember
seeing her backstage at our show in Indy, and she looked like you, so of course
I was instantly attracted to her.
 
And she seemed ok to play around with for a bit, but ultimately she
wasn’t you, obviously.
 
I found that
I was getting farther away from what I truly wanted, so I cut her off.
 
Kicked her off the tour in Philly, and
that was that.
 
It wasn’t the best
way to handle it.
 
I should have
been nicer, but I had made up my mind.
 
I wanted to clean up my act and find my way back to you, and nothing was
going to stop me.
 
She was in the
way, so I had to let her go.”

Kit
stared at him and knew every word he had spoken was the truth.
 
“Babe, please tell me she was at least
legal.”

He
nodded.
 
“Yep, but barely.
 
At the time, she was eighteen.
 
She had just graduated high school, so
her being out on the road with a band and all that was a big deal to her.
 
The bottom line is she’s young, and
she’s dumb.
 
She sees me as a big
meal ticket for her and her kid and she’s probably still pissed at me for
dumping her on the road.”

Kit let
out a long sigh.
 
“Two million
dollars of vengeance plus monthly payments of ten grand.”

He
shook his head.
 
“Baby, that’s not
gonna happen.
 
I’ll fix this… For
us.
 
I promise you.
 
Ok?”
 
He kissed both her hands.
 

She
nodded.
 
“Ok, let’s get a plan
rolling.
 
I’m going to tell G to get
her butt back in here so we can figure it all out.”

Sully
sat at Kit’s large desk the next morning and positioned the phone in between
them.
 
She stared at him from across
the desk and took a sip of her coffee as he reached out for her hand.
 
He used his other hand to dial the phone
number that Giselle had given him moments earlier, acquired from Phoebe’s
attorney. He pressed the button to activate the speaker function, giving Kit a
grin as he squeezed her hand.
 
They
listened intently as the phone rang.