The Dom Identity (Masters & Mercenaries Reloaded 2)

“So tell me why you look like you lost your last friend,” Dani prompted.

Vanessa took a moment to compose herself. There were about twenty reasons to be sad and depressed. She picked the one most relevant to Dani. “The homeowner’s association has asked me to vacate my sister’s house as soon as possible. I recently got word that they are going to bring legal action against me if I don’t move within the next month.”

“What?” Dani’s eyes had gone wide. “Why?”

“Why do you think?” It wasn’t like it was the first time they’d had this conversation.

“Reporters? I thought changing your hair and how you dress fixed things.”

She’d gone back to brunette when she’d moved to Dallas. Honestly, the only reason she’d stayed a blonde was that George had loved the long blonde extensions she’d worn, and she would have done anything to make him happy in those last days. Between that, gaining a little weight, and changing how she dressed, she looked different enough that she’d managed to avoid the press. She’d moved into the house her sister had left her, and for a while things had calmed down. The lawsuit over her late husband’s estate was in limbo while waiting for an appeal, and no one seemed to care now.

Then a national magazine had published a tell-all story from her used-to-be best friend about how vanity and greed had ruined Vanessa’s promising career. It was all bullshit, but it had made her ache because Ashton had been as close as a sister to her. Closer than her own sister since they’d lived in completely different worlds for the last decade and a half.

“It was only a matter of time before they found me again,” Vanessa admitted. “There have already been a few incidents. One news van broke the gate trying to get in, and some of the photographers are jumping fences. They’re going to send me a bill for the gate.”

“That’s not your fault,” Dani insisted.

Fault in this case didn’t matter. “The easiest way for them to solve the problem is to get rid of me. And honestly, I can’t afford another lawsuit. Everything I have is tied up in legal fees over George’s estate.”

“Maybe if you told the press what you intend to do with the money, they would let up,” Dani offered.

For all her money and power, Danielle Lodge-Taylor was still naïve about some things. Of course that’s probably what happened when one found oneself married to not one, but two overly protective men. She knew some people would find Dani’s personal life objectionable, but Vanessa was fascinated by how the trio worked. Julian, Dani, and their partner, Finn, had been married almost twenty years and had three lovable kiddos. Julian’s fierce reputation and ties to every powerful person in Dallas had kept them off the press’s radar. But that could change.

“They would never believe me. It would be just one more of my manipulations,” Vanessa replied.

“You are not manipulative.”

That was where Dani was wrong, and guilt wrenched through Vanessa. She had to give this woman an out. “I need you to think about what could happen…what will happen when the press eventually connects me to your business. They’ll look into you.”

Dani shrugged off that worry. “Let them. I don’t care.”

“What about Chloe? What about the boys? They’ll get dragged into it.”

“Chloe loves her family, and so do the boys. Do you think we haven’t had to have this conversation about a million times?” Dani’s voice had gone soft. “When you don’t conform to what the world considers normal, you’ll have trouble. And when you do conform there’s different trouble. I don’t care what the world thinks of us. I have the enormous privilege of my husbands’ money and power, and that makes it infinitely easier to not care. But Chloe goes to a private school, and she’s absolutely been teased about it. I sat her down once and asked her which dad she wanted to get rid of so we could be normal. She cried for a long time, and I cried with her, and the next day she explained to her friends and teachers that if they had a problem with her family, they could fuck themselves. And then we all got called into the office because she was thirteen.”

“I hope you didn’t punish her because they should go fuck themselves.” She hated the thought of that little girl having to defend herself.

Everyone has to go through it. Why should you be different? Suck it up or lose your place.

The words of her ex-agent ran through her head. The woman had previously been an actress and thought anyone who didn’t have to go through what she had didn’t deserve a career. Unfortunately, what she’d been through was harassment and borderline assault. A pretty nineteen-year-old was fair game in Hollywood.