EMBER's POV

"I already have a couple of things going in my head, as to how I want to deal with him. You say you have an inkling as to who did this?"


"An inkling is one way to put it. It's an employee at the restaurant William and I ate at yesterday. He heard me talk about Paris moving on with Kate and insisted I was talking bad about his cousin."

"his cousin?" father asked, and I nodded,

"Kate is his cousin. He wouldn't let it go, even went so far as to kick us out yesterday."


"I don't believe this man." my father thundered, looking quite put out,

"William spoke to the owner, Javier, and he didn't like it for one bit, and fired the guy. The guy is Sebastian. Before he left, he threatened to get back at me." I paused and thought for a moment, "I suppose this is payback,"


"This man is asking for it. And I thought sending these pictures, and asking for me to talk dirty about you was the least of it. The man had actually harassed you."

"I'm pretty sure I gave as good as I got in the end."

"It's not enough. People like this need to be taught that they can't just treat people the way they like and get away with it. Much less my own daughter."

"he won't."

"you're damn straight he won't."

I smiled up at my father, "But you won't either."

"Excuse me?"

"Dad, I can see the wheels turning in your head. You want bloodshed. Understandable, because my wolf wants the same. However, I think dogs like this need to be killed slowly." I said happily and my father raised a brow,

"allow him to believe he has this moment going for himself. He asked to speak to you. You might even indulge you because it seems to me he really doesn't know you're the one he's messing with. And then,” I paused and growled,

"eat him all up." my father chuckled at that and I smiled, glad he was no longer as angry as he was when I walked in.

~~~~

"you still want me to pause in my plan?" my father asked, later that day while he watched television together, and I simply stared in horror and surprise at the headlines of the news,

"CONTROVERSIAL EX OF ALPHA PARIS, CAUGHT HAVING A SCANDALOUS EVENING WITH A MAN OLD ENOUGH TO BE HER FATHER, AFTER HAVING DINNER WITH AN UNKNOWN YOUNGER GUY."

"my God." I said, my eyelids, " This man really didn't come here to play."

"and he's playing with my child." my father said and I could hear the restrained anger,

"there's more." I gasped, as both Kate and Paris appeared, with headlines over them,

"Tell me what you think about this news about Ember. You both should know her more than the rest of everyone else." the hostess said, and Kate turned to Paris, who looked like he wished to be anywhere else, before returning her gaze toward the hostess,

"I thought we were invited to talk about the new business plan we had," Kate said, but the malicious smile she had on her face told me that she longed to make an injury to her persona. She was just looking for the right angle that didn't make her look like the devil. Or perhaps I simply knew her way too much.

"ah, we did, and we will. But this topic around Ember is simply causing a lot of controversy, and I thought you might have something to say about it."

"I have every little to say about it, seeing as it isn't my life. But for as long as I've known her, she's always been within her age range." Kate turned to Paris and smiled shyly, "Paris is proof of that."

Still, Paris said nothing.

"So, are you telling me these photos are being misconstrued?" The photos appeared beside me on the screen and I heard my father curse.

"misconstrued? I wouldn't say they are being misconstrued, as times have changed. Paris and Ember haven't been together for a while now, that's enough time for people to change. Or perhaps, dig deep, and start displaying all other aspects of themselves."

"other aspects as what?" the hostess asked, and it was so obvious she was looking for something, searching for anything that she could hold on to that made me look like the bad guy. That made me look like the devil.

"like being a gold digger," Kate said off-handedly and shrugged, and although the desire to throttle her filled me, she was too far away. Plus, if I got agitated, my father would as well. And I worried that he would do something wild.

"so, are you then saying Ember could actually be a gold digger?"

Kate mulled it over, and shrugged, before adding, "Anything is possible. People aren’t always what they seem on the surface. I’m not saying she is, I’m also not saying that she isn’t.” She said and shrugged again, “That car doesn't look like your average cup of tea. There are women who like older men, but some are usually after only one thing. Money."

The hostess smiled like a content cat and turned to Paris,

"What's your take on all of this, Alpha? Do you think that Ember could be gold fishing after all this time with you?”

“Gold fishing?” Paris asked, his gaze quite intent and detached. I knew that look, but I didn’t expect what came next,

“Yes. Your partner seems to think it’s worth considering…”

"since when did you start inviting me on national TV to partake in gossip?" the hostess looked taken aback by Paris's reply, and so did Kate.

To be honest, I was taken by surprise as well.

"Well, seeing as the both of you were tangled up before, I just thought that you would have something to say,"

"Well, surprise, surprise. I have nothing to say. Or perhaps I do have something. All of this," he said, pointing at the monitor that had my pictures, "it's all a pack of rubbish. Including the whole speculation about Ember being a gold digger."

"That has to be the kindest thing he's done for me since Kate entered our lives," I said, slowly. My father chose that moment to change the TV channel to cartoons and I turned to smile at him weakly,

"you always did enjoy watching Sponge Bob," he said and I heaved out a sigh, before leaning on his shoulder.

"I did. I still do." I said and he wrapped his arm around me, and kissed my temple,

"You know, all this will be immediately swept under the rug if We tell everyone who you really are."

"you mean, like tell everyone that I'm your daughter?"

"Yes, exactly."

"I'm not ready for that degree of recognition yet Daddy. If we do that, we can't ever go back. I can't ever come back to this level of privacy I have now. I know someday I'll have to deal with it. But not yet. Not now."

He sighed and kissed my temple again, "You won't let me go after this guy, you won't let me tell everyone who you are. How do you expect me to make your demons go away?"

I hugged him because I felt an ache in my heart, and when I pulled away, I looked into his eyes,

"Help me. I already know who he is. Now, I need you to help me call him out for slander, or defamation, or whatever term is appropriate for a situation like this."

My father nodded slowly as the wheels in his head turned, "I know a couple of people who'll be helpful. I'll give them a call."

And he did.

It didn't take one particular lawyer too long to understand the situation and draw up a plan to take Sebastian down,

"He's obviously slandering you for personal reasons. At this point, we are going to drag his so-called cousin. Good enough, she's already proven her malice, by calling you a gold-digger. We can work with that."

And we did.

With my father's connection, we were able to publicly sue for slander and defamation. My father said the hostess had to be dragged too. Since she seemed to be having too much fun trying to make me feel bad. I was okay with that.

There was no point announcing that it wasn't me in the photos. It was. But the photos were treated as it was, photos of me leaving with someone who would take me home, with no sexual attachments involved. I didn't say he was my father, but there were many comments that suggested it,

"What if it's just her father, for crying out loud?!" one person typed.

But there were still some, who insisted on thinking backward. I left them to their thoughts. As long as I was able to clear my name and my personality.

But my father wasn't done with Sebastián, and in truth, neither was I.