Exposure_A Stone Billionaire Series Novel Read online

  I do not have a fitful sleep because I have dreams of Isa and have nightmares of being locked away in a cell with no light or water for days at a time.

  Chapter 10: Corban

  May 8, 2017

  When I'm finally fully awake, Ava has already had breakfast and looks ready to go.

  Anywhere.

  “Shouldn't you be resting?” I ask.

  “I almost died,” Ava answers with a smug look. “Do you know what that feels like? Your life flashing before your eyes?”

  “Yes,” I pull her down onto the bed and I receive a satisfying yelp in return

  We both laugh.

  “I couldn't lose you, not yet, I had to save your life,” I smirk.

  “Thanks for that by the way,” Her smile lights up the entire room, and a part of me that didn't exist, for a long time.

  I thought all women were merely scheming debutantes, but apparently, some of them aren't soulless, like Ava, who now absolutely has my heart.

  I. Am. In. Love. With. This. Woman.

  I can't tell her who her mother is, because it would positively destroy her.

  “I don't want the money,” She tells me. “I mean… Corban let's just take all the money, off the table. I don't want it. I want you. I don't know what I want from this,” her honesty is blinding, but this is exactly what I want to hear from her. “I've shared more of myself with you than I intended to, so, if this is going to be real, I want you to call Isa, and tell her that the deal is off.”

  She knows what this means.

  I can’t do that.

  I swallow hard and nod. “Alright. I was hoping you'd say that. It's your call, but if it's what you want to do,” I say as I take both her hands.

  Her guard is still up, and I'm sure I know why.

  She has a hard time trusting people; I'm sure she's been through absolute hell.

  I need to call Noah. I

  know that.

  He needs to explain things.

  “I might go for a run, clear my head a bit,” Ava smiles at me, already putting her running shoes. “It's so beautiful, running along the beach.”

  I can't call Isa because she will blow her top if she doesn't get her money.

  Ava will realize that once she comes back.

  “You're beautiful,” I tell her, picking up the phone already, and dialing Noah's number.

  Ava blows me a kiss and is out the door just seconds before Noah picks up his phone.

  “Am I to assume this isn't all for pleasantries?” he sighs.

  “Ava Darlington is her real name, right?” I ask.

  “Right.” Noah sighs. “What is this about? Elizabeth?”

  “I know you use that Private Detective occasionally, the guy that found out who Athena's fiancé is cheating on her? But I can't remember his goddamned name. Is that the guy you used to find Elizabeth?”

  “Corban-” Noah interrupts me. “I didn’t use a private detective, I found her myself with the help of Lucius.”

  “How do you even know she's her mother?” I continue anyway. “All I have is her adoptive name, Ava James… even that doesn't tell me all that much because she doesn't even remember the names of her adoptive parents because she was six years old or something to that effect when they were killed in a car crash. No birth certificate, because the hospital didn't have one.” I blabber on, my pen is poised over the paper.

  “Corban!” Noah shouts, and I stop talking.

  “What?” I ask.

  “I took it. I took the birth certificate from the hospital some time ago. I always knew her name was Ava Darlington; I just didn't know where she was, I couldn't find her. I didn't know who had adopted her because Elizabeth was cutting me off.” He explains.

  “What?” I stare at the phone.

  “Okay, get on your phone, and search Elizabeth Darlington,” he sighs.

  I sigh, still not believing his theory on Elizabeth Darlington, but hooking up to the resort Wi-Fi anyway. I search Elizabeth Darlington.

  “You know there's nothing but old photos on here. I don't know why…” I trail off when I see the photos.

  I see what he's talking about.

  “I needed to meet Ava in person, speak with her, hear her,” Noah explains. “That's why we ambushed you yesterday, I couldn't wait.”

  I look at the pictures I see; they're all older pictures, of Elizabeth when she was around sixteen, seventeen, maybe older?

  If I had a picture of her at twenty-five, she’d look eerily similar to Ava.

  “Who do those pictures remind you of?” Noah asks me.

  “Ava.” I say.

  I've come to a shocking revelation; this information is mind-blowing.

  Even though he's already told me this, and I wasn't sure if I could believe him.

  “Do you remember in Miami? There was a young woman with a man? You got into a bit of a tiff with that man at your launch party? That young brunette woman was wearing a wig and bore a strikingly similar resemblance to Elizabeth. I thought I'd seen a ghost. It turns out there's a woman with long black hair, pale white skin, and brown eyes that runs a glorified brothel behind that young woman, who also happens to be her mother.” Noah Explains.

  I remember that night. I remember thinking about that woman often, wondering what happened to her.

  We both remembered that night.

  I wanted to protect Ava even before I met her.

  Elizabeth Darlington and Ava share enough similarities that there's no way this woman isn't her mother.

  “Noah… she'd be how old now? Elizabeth?” I ask.

  “Not sure,” Noah doesn’t offer a direct answer.

  His answer is evasive because they are the same age, and as I said, he turns the same age every year so I'm never sure how old he is.

  I can't say anything.

  I don't say anything.

  His implication is positively clear.

  Isa and Elizabeth are the same people.

  As he told me.

  I put the phone down, putting my head between my legs, taking a deep breath.

  If you scrape away Isa's intense make-up, her hair color, the eyes, and her intensely awful attitude, I can see the resemblance to Ava. The physical is there.

  When I pick up the phone again, my tone is accusatory. “You've been angry with her all these years because she had your daughter, and you couldn't find her.”

  Noah doesn't say anything for a long time. We're both silent because I've discovered his secret, and Ava's and neither of us knows what to say.

  He wasn't protecting me at all; he was protecting his daughter from media backlash, and possibly from anything that Isa or Elizabeth, could do to her.

  We stay silent as if neither of us knows what to say. I'm about to ask Noah what to say to Ava when Ava walks back in the door.

  “I'll talk to you later,” My voice is confident.

  “I don't know that she is mine for certain,” Noah points out, though I don't believe him.

  “I've been looking for her for the Darlingtons; it was my fault that Elizabeth ran way, yes, so I've been doing this out of guilt, it's my fault that Elizabeth has done, all of this.” Noah says.

  This is too much.

  “I'll talk to you later.” I tell him, then I hang up.

  ***

  Ava and I are just about to have lunch, sitting down with both our menus and waiting for our drinks when there's a commotion at the hostess stand, and I see a familiar face.

  There's a posse, and I recognize those people, save for a couple of new faces.

  It's Rowan.

  Rowan and her posse of friends.

  They're headed straight for us.

  “Ava, you might want to hide your ring, pretty fast,” I whisper quietly.

  “Why?” Ava asks.

  She looks up, and sees Rowan, but not fast enough.

  I take a good look at Ava.

  Her blonde hair is bleached even lighter by the days of sun, and her browned skin needs no makeup
, her lips are soft and tinted ever so slightly with some color, I think that's natural.

  Her lips are swollen somewhat from kissing all morning.

  Trying to kiss away the guilt.

  She's gorgeous, compared to Rowan's face full of make-up, crop top, and too tight mini skirt. I'm confident we can handle her, and their phones, she's probably live.

  “And here we are in Fiji,” Rowan announces to one of her lemmings.

  They follow her around wherever she goes.

  “Here's my ex-boyfriend, soon to be fiancé, with the woman he's about to leave because we're pregnant!” Rowan announces with a snarky look.

  There's no way in hell.

  “Actually, we're kind of married,” Ava points out casually. “I don't think my husband would leave me for you, even if you were pregnant,” Ava smirks and points to Rowan's flat stomach.

  That garners some giggles from people watching the show at nearby tables.

  “You two just wait until I get a paternity test!” Rowan shouts.

  “Whatever Rowan,” Ava sighs. “Can you just, leave us alone now? Please, we're trying to eat?”

  “Should we leave the happy couple?” Rowan asks her followers, then she shakes her head.

  She turns to Ava, sinking down to her level, so they're face to face, she's also got her legs wide open, giving me a view of what's under her skirt, and I'm forced to avert my eyes because I can see that she's wearing no underwear.

  Absolutely nasty.

  “Jesus Christ Rowan…” I mutter.

  “Ava, how does it feel to know I got to your fiancé first?” Rowan asks.

  “Husband. We're married,” Ava holds up her ring again. “He's got one too. We're married.”

  Rowan shrugs. “That doesn't mean anything anymore.”

  “It does to me,” I point out.

  Rowan is fixated on humiliating Ava, who won't give an inch.

  “Whatever geek boy.” Rowan winks at me, licking her lips.

  Ava looks at me with a stupefied look on her face, wondering what goes through Rowan's head all the time. “Give me something.” She mouths.

  “Eyes,” I mouth to her. “Implants.”

  Ava smirks, winking at me.

  “Did you ask my husband about getting eyeball implants? Your contacts are kind of obvious in this light.”

  Rowan swears that her eyes are really that shade of blue, but they’re contacts.

  Her eyes are dull, and brown.

  I hear literal squawking behind me, yelling and Rowan screaming at the top of her lungs to her posse to cut the feed.

  However, some of the other guests are filming her now, and they all storm out in such a flurry, that Ava cannot stop laughing.

  “Oh my god, that was not what I said,” I laugh. “I didn't say eyeball implants!”

  My sides are hurt from laughing so hard.

  “No, I know, but I thought making her look stupid and pointing out how obvious her contacts were, would just be too, funny for me.” My wife smirks at me.

  I agree.

  ***

  I hold my breath as Noah's seaplane glides seamlessly into the water and glance over at Ava, who doesn't seem to be bothered in the least by the little twin-engine. The thing is rickety even for my tastes.

  She's too distracted by his amazingly lush private island.

  It is mostly mountain with a protected reef and a fantastic beach.

  His compound of a house built right into the hill.

  The house is modern, mostly hurricane-proof glass and cement, level after level of contemporary design and luxury, the best money can buy.

  Every debutante, divorcee and A-list actress would kill to visit but only a select few have gotten to visit.

  That list includes my brother Evan, myself, now Tinsley and Ava.

  Noah's boat and mega yacht have a permanent home here, and this is the only place he vacations other than Venice, where he owns more property.

  I only have my homes in LA and New York.

  It makes me feel like small potatoes.

  Especially when Noah and Tinsley greet us with drinks and cigars, both of which I accept, as Ava accepts a drink and a hug from Tinsley gratefully.

  Tinsley, fresh out of a broken engagement, is her usual smart, positive self.

  Warm and generous, Tinsley doesn't have a spiteful bone in her body.

  Ava needs a woman around, I decide.

  We need to get away from the resort because Rowan's sudden presence made us both feel the need to get away for a few days.

  Staying with Noah is the best sort of getaway I could think of, where we can't get into any trouble.

  At least I hope not.

  Now that I know the truth, it's all I can do not to tell Ava.

  Plus, I want to rehash what Noah knows at length. I want to see the birth certificate but he insists it's in a safety deposit box in New York, and I can see it when we get back.

  But I want to look at him, side by side with Ava, I want to ensure that he is not her father.

  But seeing them now, side by side.

  Their eyes are so similar, they have the same eye color, the shape is different, and she looks more like a mixture of the two of them.

  But the eyes.

  She is precisely a Stone.

  Now I wish Evan was here.

  To compare them, if Evan is Noah's son with Elizabeth, Ava would be his sister.

  He is the miniature Noah, in every way but there are some things that seem a touch off.

  I don’t even really know who Evan’s mother is.

  Noah never told.

  I fight the urge to pull up a picture of Evan on my phone.

  The first thing Noah has planned is lunch on the rooftop patio, prepared by Magda, for Tinsley and Ava, while we talk in the study about some business things.

  “So, are you going to announce your marriage via press release when you get back?” he asks with authority. “Assuming you two are going to make this work?”

  “I want to make it work,” The words are as true as ever. “I mean; I haven't told her.”

  “What, you're afraid she doesn't love you?” Noah laughs harshly. “It's written all over the woman's face.”

  “You think Ava loves me?” I raise an eyebrow.

  “I know the Darlington's well. I know Elizabeth, and I'm fairly certain I can read her daughter just as well,” Noah laughs again.

  “About that, how are we going to deal with Elizabeth?” I ask.

  “Let me deal with her,” He puts a hand up. “You just play along with whatever little arrangement you had with her.”

  Arrangement.

  That was a big mistake.

  I should've never agreed to it, but then I would've never had Ava in my life.

  None of this would've happened so I could never call this a mistake.

  Nothing is a mistake because things happen for a reason.

  “What about Clint? Is he going to be trouble? That stupid roommate of yours?” Noah asks.

  He hates Clint.

  “Are you still going on about Corona?” I groan.

  The man lets nothing go.

  “CORONA 150, was a fuck up. A big one,” He rehashes old news.

  “We've made millions since then,” I point out.

  Noah pauses thoughtfully for a second.

  “Do you still have a version of Corona 150, somewhere?” he asks.

  “Sure. In our archives. I'd have to go dig it up in LA, but it's somewhere. We don't delete anything. The only thing about Corona 150 is that it leaves a damn signature, we could never get that fix, so we rewrote it, that's how we got in trouble in the first place I guess,” I shrug.

  Corona 150 was developed to remotely delete files.

  We were selling it, and all along, everyone knew it was our program because Clint didn’t know it was leaving a damn signature.

  Then we got sued, but that settled out of court.

  “That's how CORONER 180 was born?” He ask
s.

  “Yeah. CORONER 200, is what we built for the FBI,” I nod.

  “But Corona 150, leaves a signature,” Noah repeats.

  “Noah, what are you getting at?” I ask in confusion.

  “Listen, Elizabeth deserves whatever is coming to her, I am not the CIA, I am not the FBI, but I have no intention of turning her in, without making sure that none of those girls she's got involved, especially her daughter, are implicated,” Noah explains.

  “Okay,” I say slowly.

  “So, are you willing to do whatever it takes, to make sure that Ava doesn't get hurt?” He asks.

  “What do you mean?” I'm a little leery about whatever he’s got planned.

  Knowing him I will wind up in jail.

  “Are you willing to go to jail? Give up your business? Possibly go bankrupt and have to start fresh?” Noah confirms my suspicion.

  “You want to use Corona 150 to erase all her files, don’t you? Why not CORONER 200?” I ask

  Using the public version of CORONER 200 would be so much simpler.

  “Because you did something,” Noah tells me matter-of-factly like he knows something already.

  He knows my secret.

  “I know you did something, and if Ava is going to forgive you for that, she's going to have to know that you're behind bringing her mother to justice, for everything she's done. You've got to be part of this,” He states matter of factly.

  “I'll do anything,” I reply instantly.

  I have to do whatever I can if I'm going to keep Ava in my life.

  I need her.

  “Go to jail?” He asks.

  “Yes.” I nod.

  “Give up your company? Your investors? Put everyone at risk?” He continues.

  “As long as you can guarantee my employees won't lose their investments and their retirement funds, if you'll back them up, with whatever you can.” I tell him firmly.

  They’d all be completely lost.

  “I'll find them jobs. All of them in the LA, and the New York office,” Noah promises instantly.

  It's clearly, we're both all in on protecting Ava.

  “On one condition,” He tells me.

  “What's that?” I ask.

  “You have to tell Ava, that her mother is Isa.” He replies.

  “Oh, dear god,” I take a deep breath.