Chapter 4 - THE STORM BEFORE THE CALM
We stayed in West Virginia for a week,
but the peace was short-lived.
A private investigator hired by my mother had followed us.
He had taken photos of me at the facility,
of the "three children,"
and of the dilapidated state of Emily’s hometown.
The news broke on every major network.
“Nathan Black’s Secret Family Revealed.”
The media spun a narrative that Emily had used her "sick siblings" to manipulate a wealthy man into marriage.
They called her a con artist.
They called the children a "financial drain."
My phone wouldn't stop ringing.
My lawyers were frantic.
“Nathan,
you need to issue a statement,”
my head of PR told me over the phone.
“Tell them you’re setting up a trust and distancing yourself from the girl.”
I looked at Emily,
who was sitting on the porch of a small cabin we had rented.
She was holding a newspaper,
her face devoid of all color.
“I should leave,”
she said,
her voice a mere whisper.
“I’m destroying everything you built,
Nathan.
Your mother was right.
I am earth,
and you are heaven.”
I took the newspaper from her hands and tore it in half.
“Heaven is a lonely place without you,
Emily.”
I realized that I couldn’t just hide them away or pay for their care from a distance.
If I wanted to protect her,
I had to bring the truth into the light,
no matter the cost.
I called a press conference at the corporate headquarters in New York.
I told Emily to wear her best dress.
“We aren’t going there to apologize,”
I told her.
“We are going there to show them what love looks like.”
The morning of the conference,
my mother stood in the lobby,
her face a mask of fury.
“If you go through with this,
you are finished,”
she warned.
I looked at her,
feeling a strange sense of pity.
“No,
Mother.
May you like
For the first time,
I’m just getting started.”
