KKW BRANDS
3:40pm
Demi Lovato glanced down at her phone to see who was calling her, but never stopped taking notes on the legal pad placed next to her work phone. She squinted as the number disappeared from the screen before she could figure out who it was and instead tuned back into the head of social media planning the next Skims launch.
"Why are we changing photographers?" Demi questioned, momentarily abandoning her notes to take a sip of her iced matcha latte. She was a coffee girl but as she got older, she realized that she couldn't drink the beverage after 3pm and still expect to get a full eight hours of sleep every night, which she absolutely needed to function.
"Kourtney didn't like the-"
"That's not going to work and it's really not about Kourtney. We're not changing what we already do for one person, that's absolutely ridiculous. Reschedule it with Jeff, send the schedules out to everyone, and if they disagree then we drop them," Demi said, causing a string of mumbles to circle around the table but at the end of the day, everyone knew she was right. She didn't get the position of CFO by being a people pleaser.
Once again her nonword phone began to vibrate next to her legal pad and Demi dropped her pen so that she could actually see who was calling. The number looked familiar but she couldn't quite place it. She had a really bad habit of only saving numbers on her work phone. When someone called her on her normal number, she always had to play a guessing game to see who it was.
"Excuse me for a moment," Demi mumbled, more to herself than to the people in the conference room before she left. As soon as the door shut behind her she pressed the phone to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Yes, hello, is this Demi Lovato? We've been trying to contact you. This is Ms. Meyer from the front office at Berkeley Hall. Your daughters are still here," Ms. Meyer said, causing Demi to twist her wrist to look at her watch. It was 3:43. School ended for the kids at 3:07.
"I'm so sorry, their father was supposed to pick them up. He hasn't arrived yet?"
"No, I'm so sorry and I have them in one of the after school programs but I know they don't usually stay after..." Ms. Meyer trailed off as Demi released a low huff. It wasn't Ms. Meyer's fault that her children weren't picked up on time so there was no need for Demi to go off on her.
"Thank you so much for letting me know and I'm so sorry for the inconvenience. You can tell them to get their stuff together. I should be there in about twenty minutes."
They exchanged pleasantries before Demi rushed back into the conference room to grab her things.
"I have to run out but I'll be available by phone. In case you guys didn't hear me the first time, we stick with the same photographer. As soon as he's confirmed I need an itinerary for that shoot so that I can confirm it with Kim and then we can send it out to everyone from there. I hope everyone has a great evening and I'll see you all tomorrow." By the time she was finished with her little speech her things were packed and Demi was practically running out of the door. It took her a little while to get to her car but once she was, she immediately ditched her work phone for her regular phone.
There was absolutely no reason why the father of her children hadn't picked them up from school. Judging by the smell of liquor wafting from her cotton sheets this morning, him stumbling into bed around four in the morning hadn't been a figment of her imagination. And she always knew how unbearable he was after a night out so she had left him with two advil, a bottle of water, and instructions to pick the kids up and take them to her parents' house because they wanted to spend the night over there. But of course he couldn't even do that. It was like asking for anything out of him lately was too much and Demi was more than pissed off.
"Hello?" He grumbled as soon as he answered the phone. It sounded like he had been asleep all day and Demi didn't know if it was the caffeine high or the fact that she had to leave her job early to do the one thing that she had asked of him, but she felt like she was going to explode.
"Wilmer, are you fucking kidding me?" Demi hissed, jamming the Bluetooth button on her car so that she wouldn't have to hold her phone.
"What?"
"I ask for one thing. One FUCKING thing and you can't even do that! You left our kids at school after you've had the whole day to recover from whatever the fuck you were doing all night! So I ask for one fucking thing and you can't do it? You can't get out of bed for an hour to go pick up our kids?" Demi ranted, not caring if she was repeating herself or not. She wanted him to feel all of her wrath.
"When did you ask me to go pick up the kids?"
"You know what Wilmer? I shouldn't have even had to ask you! Why do I have to give you an assignment to go pick up our kids from school? It's not like I was asking you to watch them or anything like that. I literally asked you to pick them up, drop them off at my parents' house, then go whatever the fuck it is that you do all day! But you're so fucking worthless, you couldn't even do that!" Demi seethed, cutting someone off in the third lane so that she could get to the school a little bit faster. Her babies were probably so embarrassed and Demi hated that.
"Demi, don't talk to me like that..." Wilmer warned.
"No, Wilmer, fuck you. I'm talking to you the exact way that you deserve to be talked to and if you know what's good for you, you won't be at the house when I get home," Demi warned him as she clutched the steering wheel.
"Excuse me?"
"Do not be at my fucking house when I make it home because if you're there I will literally beat your ass and call the fucking police myself to report it. Good bye," Demi spelled out as she pulled into the school parking lot. She really had made it within 20 minutes so her daughters were standing outside with Ms. Meyer. Demi ended the call and took a deep breath, swallowing down any anger that she had towards Wilmer so that it wouldn't come out to her children. Once she felt calm, she forced the car into park before getting out.
"Hi my babies!" Demi exclaimed, meeting them halfway. Well, meeting her youngest halfway. Her older daughter trailed behind with a pout on her face as Demi welcomed them into her arms.
"Mommy, I painted," Luna, her youngest daughter cooed, practically shoving a butterfly with colored scribbles all over it into Demi's face.
"Wow sweetie, you're the best artist ever, I swear!" Demi gushed, giving her a kiss on the cheek before standing up to greet Ms. Meyer.
"I am so sorry about this. I promise it won't happen again," and Demi was a woman of her word.
"Oh it's no problem, your daughters are angels. Have a good day," Ms. Meyer said before walking back into the school. Although she had a sweet smile on her face Demi could see the searing judgment in her eyes, because although she wasn't mega famous like her boss and her husband did a lot of behind the scenes work, stories about them still occasionally popped up on trashy gossip sites that office receptionists loved. Demi could imagine the older woman typing her name into Google trying to get the latest dirt once she realized that her kids had been left at school.
"Daddy was supposed to pick us up," Iris stated as Demi opened the back door of her Mercedes.
"Do you still want to go to grandma and grandpa's?" Demi asked, ignoring Iris's statement as she helped Luna get buckled in.
"No," Iris turned her little nose up and huffed as Luna shook her head.
"I wanna spend the day with you mommy!"
"Well it looks like we're having a girls' day!" Demi exclaimed before she shut the back door and climbed into the driver's seat. She shifted the car back into drive and peeled away from the curb, trying to decide where she wanted to take the girls.
"Daddy was supposed to pick us up," Iris repeated as Demi let out a small huff. Iris was six years old and was at the age where she noticed everything, and didn't let anything go until she got an answer that she was satisfied with. That's why Demi was so pissed at Wilmer and the fact that he always left her to make excuses to the kids when it came to his inconsistent parenting style.
"You'll have to talk to him about it, Iris. He wasn't feeling well this morning," Demi said, hoping that Iris would leave the subject alone. Just the thought of Wilmer caused the vein above her eyebrow to throb and Demi didn't want to get into a bad mood and take it out on her kids.
COUNTRY RIDGE ESTATES
6:14 pm
"Girls, shoes, take off your shoes!" Demi reminded her daughters as they rushed into the house through the garage door. Oddly enough, it smelled like someone had been cooking but their chef only came for Sunday dinners.
"Daddy!" She heard her daughters squeal, causing Demi to roll her eyes as she took off her heeled boots.
Of course Wilmer was there because when did he ever listen to her? God forbid he actually heeded one of her commands and stayed away from the house. Demi tried to reign her anger in as she set her purse down and made her way into the house. It was really important to her that the girls never saw or heard the squabbles that she had with their father. That's why emotional regulation was so important, especially when dealing with Wilmer.
"Hey hermosa, it's about time you made it home," he greeted her with a grin on his face, like everything was perfectly fine between them. Then he wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. The girls looked so happy that all Demi could do was force a toothless smile onto her face.
"I made dinner. I thought we could sit and eat then maybe get in the pool?" Wilmer suggested, which caused the girls to excitedly squeal and then rush to give their dad another hug.
"And maybe we can get in the hot tub later, babe," Wilmer whispered into her ear, lightly squeezing her waist as Demi balled the hand that was behind her back into a fist.
"Girls, go wash your hands so we can eat," Demi demanded, and the girls immediately went to the bathroom to wash their hands. Demi eyed Wilmer as she shrugged out of her blazer and Wilmer took it for her.
"I'm going to beat your ass," she said through clenched teeth as Wilmer just shrugged.
"Not in front of the girls, though." And the most annoying thing about it was that he was right.
It was a very long dinner. Wilmer was an amazing cook when he needed to be but Demi could barely stomach the food. The girls were happy though, and that's all that mattered. Or at least that's what Demi had to keep telling herself. As long as the girls were okay and unaffected she would keep putting up with Wilmer's bullshit. Was it the healthiest situation for her? No. But Demi's childhood had been plagued by parental separation and she refused to leave the same scars on her children.
After dinner and a quick dip in the pool, the girls were exhausted. It was easy enough to get them ready for bed and then tucked in. Demi let her hair loose after leaving Luna's door cracked open. She made her way down the hall to her room and there Wilmer was, splayed out on the bed like he had any right to be there. Every ounce of anger that she felt earlier bubbled to the surface. She practically snatched him off of the bed and dragged him into their soundproof closet and closed the door behind them.
"Wilmer, I want to fucking kill you!" Demi seethed. "You don't fucking listen at all! I told you to pick the girls up from school, you didn't do that. I told you not to be at my fucking house and you couldn't do that. It's like you were put on this earth to piss me the fuck off."
"Hey, watch the way that you talk to me, Demi," Wilmer spat in her face, causing her to push at his shoulders. But he snatched her wrist and backed them into the wall. "And quit putting your hands on me."
"Fuck off. You literally have no respect for me, Wilmer. I am trying so hard to make us work and you're not even trying! In fact, you're only making shit worse!" Demi ranted, shoving into his shoulder so that he would let her go and she could pace.
"I don't know what you want from me, Demi. I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't with you. You're so fucking high maintenance. You got some fancy job with the trashiest family in Hollywood and now you swear you're better than me. You weren't shit when we got together. I made you," Wilmer hissed as Demi released something between a scoff and a chuckle.
But she didn't even have the energy to address what he said. That was always his default argument. How she was still in college when they first started dating. How he supported her while she got her master's degree. How he's the one who set her up with her first client and helped her establish herself. Whatever.
"I want you to be a father. How about you try doing that for 24 hours straight and then we'll talk about who isn't shit in this relationship," Demi challenged, about to breeze past him to exit the closet but he snatched her back.
"Watch your fucking mouth," he warned her for the last time, and she knew that it was the last time, as he grasped her jaw in between his fingers.
but I still don't know why
why I love you so much