At No Time || Bruno Mars

66

"So, Peter, what's the reason you called us all in here today?"

With folded hands and leaning forward in interest, Ron studied his young C.O.O., who had requested he, SoulWork's image consultant Anya Sadhi, and their media relations manager, Aaron Pines, join him in the boardroom to discuss "private matters" via e-mail.

Peter was never one to cause trouble with the company, assisting with its success much more than acting as a detriment, so all three found it odd that he wanted to see them.

"Is it something with Price-Bennett?" Ron inquired when Peter did not answer immediately.

The younger man disagreed with a shake of his head. "No, this doesn't concern their company. This is about me."

Ron rose a brow. "What about you?"

Peter exhaled, scanning the expectant countenances of those before him. He queried, "Do you all remember Trystan Wildes?"

"I don't recall her, no." Anya shook her head. "Is she someone in the industry?"

"Yes, she was—is—a songwriter."

Recognition dawned on Ron's face and he voiced, "She's the one who worked for Vivacity some time ago, right?"

Peter nodded. "That's her."

"Yeah . . . I remember at some party Akil Benson boasting about adding her to his team a few years back. I thought he was exaggerating until I studied some of her work and credentials. Talented, she was. Too bad she dropped off the radar. What about her?"

Peter looked between them all again, and with a firmness he did not feel internally, he revealed steadily, "She and I have a child together and we want to show her to the public."

Ron sat back, stunned, while Anya's eyes widened and she glanced at Aaron, who was already looking at her with a worried push to his brow. That was not at all what they expected for him to expel when he desired for them to meet him in the board room.

While it was an agreement that he and Trystan had come to together, they were not so insensible to believe that the decision to be open with Raina would be smooth-sailing. Joel had spewed many falsities during Thanksgiving, but what Peter did know as truth was the way the public would take to seeing her.

As a male-figure, his image would not be tarnished beyond people thinking him as disgusting for near-adultery, but as popular as Kimioko was, Peter knew the moment the word got out about Raina, she would be hounded by the press about his newfound infidelity, asked questions about if she knew of Peter's "lovechild" and if the little girl was the reason she and Peter split, or what could she could have possibly done to make him "go out and cheat."

Trystan would be seen as even worse. In the stinging words of his ex-fiancée, she would be regarded as the "home-wrecking whore" who destroyed their relationship and had the audacity to have a child on top of it all. And it would not take long for those who were intuitive to figure out Peter had not known about her and Trystan had kept her a secret.

"Oh, uh. . . wow," Anya stuttered. Tucking a tendril of straight, dark hair behind her ear, she wondered, "That is definitely . . . shocking news. When you say 'child', how old do you mean? Is it an infant?"

"Her name is Raina, and she'll be four in March."

"Shit," Aaron murmured and rubbed at his forehead. "So she was conceived when . . ."

"Yes, when I was still engaged to Kimioko Phan."

The three all eyed him wearily. It was as if he waited to be the most problematic he had ever been in his life for that precise moment. For a person who had never caused any trouble for the company, he sure was doing a good job to show just how troublesome he could be.