Chapter 37

[James’ POV]

The moment James came into the office that morning, it was as if the entire building was put on high alert to keep their distance from him. The alpha emanated an ugly, venomous energy from the day before and was more than ready to direct it to anyone who made the poor decision to cross him.

A vicious scowl had permanently fixed itself onto James’ face as his head whirled with thoughts of his mate. Never in his life had he felt such a troubled strain of heartbreak when he saw the broken look in her eyes the night before.

Of course, losing Evelyn had been the worst thing to have ever experienced. James had done all that he possibly could to try to find and recover his wife. However, what was going on with Mia was completely internal.

What was James to do, knowing that he had no power to deal with the emotions that were eating away at Mia?

It left him feeling useless and without a single clue. The empty feeling left him suffering in his own head. At the very least, James was able to convince Mia to stay home for the day and rest herself.

At the very least, James was fairly certain that this ordeal would never meet the public’s attention. If and when his mother ever tried to make deals like the one she tried to make with Mia, discretion was always taken into consideration.

‘She would never risk such a scandalous endeavor leaking to the press,’ he thought assuringly to himself.

Nonetheless, this didn’t solve the problem that Mia was facing.

‘I say we call up your mother and give her a piece of our mind,’ his wolf announced bitterly.

James pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long disgruntled breath.

“What right did she have to try and meddle in my life like that?” he asked himself. “Haven’t I done enough to appease this goddamn family?”

He’d been on the fence about reaching out to his mother since he heard about her ridiculous offer to Mia. But, in truth, James didn’t fully trust himself not to completely go off on the woman for trying to interfere with his life.

Whatever meetings he previously had scheduled, James made sure they were pushed for a later time. With half of the day already gone, Daniel eventually came into his office.

“Sir, I’ve noticed that you seem a bit closed off today,” he acknowledged lightly. “Please, know that I am here to offer any assistance I can.”

James leaned back in his seat and tried to loosen his grizzly attitude. “I appreciate the thought, Daniel. But, I’m afraid this situation is slightly more complex,” he said.

The Beta nodded his head. He shifted rather awkwardly in his spot while still holding firmly onto the tablet in his arms.

“I see. Would this have anything to do with the fact that Mrs. Derek tried to proposition Miss Johnson for three million dollars?”

The alpha’s eyes widened and he shot his assistant an incredulous look. “How the fuck do you know that?!”

It wasn’t possible. How could anyone have known about what went on between his mother and Mia? Hell, James didn’t fully know because he wasn’t even there and Mia refused to speak much about the ordeal in general.

Slowly, and with great caution, Daniel moved from his frozen spot across the room to hand James the tablet. James placed the device down on the table and reluctantly glanced at the screen, revealing the latest news articles pertaining to his mate.

His heart dropped into his stomach.

‘Trouble in Paradise’ - It would appear that the new Mrs. Derek is not quite up to standards according to the elder Mrs. Derek. An anonymous speaker revealed to us that they had witnessed the scandal firsthand as Diana Derek offered Mia Johnson a solid five hundred thousand dollars in hopes of her bailing on her marriage to James Derek. Our source claims that Mia’s reaction was pure astonishment with a bit of modest hesitation...’

Jesus Christ, it took everything inside of James to not throw the tablet across the room out of sheer anger.

“This is complete bullshit!” he shouted. “Mia would never even think of taking the money. For God’s sake she was so distraught last night I held her for hours as she sobbed over the whole fucking experience.”

The only half-decent thing that came out of that whole experience was that he got to hold Mia for an extended period of time. His wolf relished the ability to keep his mate so close.

Daniel shared a sympathetic look. “I believe you, sir. How is Mia doing? Many of the other workers around the office noticed that she hadn’t come in today.”

James buried his face in his hands and sighed. “I’m making sure that Lily is taking care of her today. What the hell are we doing about these damn articles? I can’t let her see them.”

He was well aware of the attention Mia ended up receiving on account of letting their marriage become public knowledge. James knew about the ongoing murmurs and constant stares that his mate received. He hadn’t decided to intervene mainly because he noticed that Mia was taking the unexpected boost of attention rather well.

But this...This issue had completely sideswiped him. There was no immediate way anyone could somehow spin the story in Mia’s favor.

What the hell was he going to do now?

James rubbed a roush hand over his face. “Daniel, we’re going to stop this story from getting out any further,” he said. “Reach out to every single news company that’s displaying this billshit story. Tell them to stop running the story—if not, we’re going to sue them for slander and defamation.”

He couldn’t spin the story in Mia’s favor, then he was going to do the next best thing. Make it disappear from the public eye.

Daniel nodded his head and already began jotting down notes. “Do we know who this so-called ‘anonymous source’ could be?” he asked.

Deep down, James knew exactly who was most likely responsible for blabbing to the press about something like this. It wasn’t his mother. Knowing well how the woman chose to operate her private affairs, she would never have allowed such a scandalous situation to ever reach the media. No...

Instead, another person came to the forefront of James’ mind.

‘Monica,” he thought. ‘And if not her then it had to be one of her close friends who somehow overheard the conversation.’

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

James glanced down at his phone to find that a message from Lily had come through.

‘Sir, you may want to come back to the house. Quick.’

His heart slammed into his chest. “Shit,” he grumbled.

An awful, nerve-wracking feeling washed over the alpha. He shot to his feet and hastily grabbed his jacket. He should have responded to Lily’s message and inquired about some of the details regarding the situation. But all his mind could process was Mia and the potential fear that she somehow discovered the articles.