The Triplet Scandal - A Billionaire's Babies Romance (Scandalous Book 3) Read online

  The Triplet Scandal

  Layla Valentine

  Contents

  The Triplet Scandal

  1. Grace

  2. Leon

  3. Grace

  4. Leon

  5. Grace

  6. Grace

  7. Grace

  8. Leon

  9. Grace

  10. Grace

  11. Grace

  12. Grace

  13. Grace

  14. Leon

  15. Grace

  16. Leon

  17. Grace

  18. Leon

  19. Grace

  20. Grace

  21. Grace

  22. Leon

  Epilogue

  Prince Baby Daddy

  1. Christian

  Want More?

  Also by Layla Valentine

  The Triplet Scandal

  Copyright 2019 by Layla Valentine

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.

  All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  Grace

  June

  Marriage has always felt unachievable for me. How could I attach myself to another person and vow to love and cherish them when I couldn’t even keep a cactus alive? The idea of being with the same person forever, while nice, seems improbable.

  Honestly, I blame my parents. High school sweethearts, they got married just after graduation and have spent the last three decades building a life together. They own a farm in Maryland and have matching rocking chairs, built by my dad from salvaged wood, sitting on the front porch. Their love story is beautiful and, I’ve come to realize, completely unrealistic.

  Normal people can’t count on that kind of happy ending. My mom and dad met when they were fifteen and claim to this day that they saw one another and “just knew.” The only thing I “just knew” at fifteen was that my mom was completely unfair about not letting me get a belly button piercing. I wasn’t in the headspace to find love.

  I’m still not in that headspace. Which is why I’m engaged to my boss.

  “Hey, Sebastian. It’s Grace.” I wince.

  We’ve been engaged and living together for a month, and yet, I still don’t know how to talk to him on the phone. My name pops up on his screen when I call. I don’t need to announce myself, but no matter how hard I try to act natural, I can’t ever seem to forget that I’m talking to my boss.

  “Give me a call when you’re on your way,” I say to the messaging service. “The reception is at seven, right? I’m sure you’ll be here soon. Otherwise, we’ll be late. Anyway, give me a call. Bye.”

  I hang up and throw the phone on the blue velvet sectional, covering my face with my hands, too embarrassed to even look at my own blurry reflection in the ten-by-ten-foot windows that line the walls.

  I shouldn’t have even called. He won’t call me back. I learned that within the first week of our arrangement. Sebastian goes where he wants and does what—and who—he wants, and he doesn’t require nor want my approval. And why should he? I’m not his real fiancée. I’m a business partner at best; an accomplice at worst.

  The day it happened, when Sebastian called me into his office and asked me to go to lunch with him, I thought I was getting a raise. Though, what I really wanted was a promotion.

  The only reason I took the position as Sebastian’s assistant was to get my foot in the door of the finance industry. I had my master’s; all I needed was my big break. And what better opportunity could I hope for than being the assistant to the CEO of Wayde Bank? If I could impress him, the world of finance would lie at my feet. Sebastian Wayde could be my mythical guide through the ranks.

  I thought he would be my fast track to success. Instead, I’d been running copies, scheduling his grooming appointments, and fetching coffees for six months without even a nod of approval from him. At first, I thought he was just trying to intimidate me, to show me how serious he takes his job. After a month, however, I realized he truly didn’t notice how much I did for him every day. And even if he did, he didn’t care.

  The restaurant he took me to was a total boys’ club. Waitresses in skintight pencil skirts handed out scotch like it was water and red meat ruled the menu. I ordered the steak salad, and I had to lift a slab of bleeding meat to see the romaine lettuce buried underneath.

  “This is my favorite lunch spot,” Sebastian said, cutting into his braised veal with zeal, both elbows spread like wings.

  Sebastian Wayde, for all his wealth and pomp, is the image of a Scandinavian man. He has white blond hair and a frame that stretches well beyond six feet tall. He towers over every man he meets, but more than that, he is broad. He has wide shoulders and muscular arms and legs.

  I always picture him hiking up mountains with a pack on his back and chopping wood to prepare for a harsh winter. Of course, he would never wander into the wilderness alone. In the six months I’ve worked for him, he has taken three vacations, all of which were to luxury resorts where he spent tens of thousands of dollars to get drunk by a tiled pool that had a view of the ocean. He works out with a private trainer in his building’s private gym, and he only jogs on treadmills. He’s what you could call “indoorsy.”

  “Yeah, it’s great,” I agreed nervously.

  I wanted to ask him why he’d brought me out to lunch. Never once in the past five months had he asked me to go anywhere with him that wasn’t a meeting. And even then, he’d asked me to wait in the hallway a number of times, which was both embarrassing and infuriating.

  He nodded to the shallow glass in front of me. “You can drink if you want.”

  I couldn’t decide if it was worse to drink with my lunch and look like a lush or refuse him and look like a prude. Or, was the drink some kind of test? Was he trying to see if I was the kind of employee who would drink on the company dime? Would my response to this question determine whether I got the raise and/or promotion?

  “It isn’t a test,” he said, leaning forward and smiling like he wanted to take a bite out of my neck.

  Sebastian charmed people like a lion. He intimidated them into smiling back. When all of his attention was focused on you, you couldn’t help but smile. The only other option was to cower, and that was far less socially appropriate. Even if I’d wanted to resist, I wouldn’t have been able to. It was the first time since my first day on the job that his full attention had been on me, and I was ill-equipped to handle it.

  I smiled and took a sip, flinching against the burn of the alcohol down my throat.

  “Good, right?” he said, taking a drink of his own glass and then leaning back in his seat. “It is the best money can buy. At this restaurant, at least. The bottle costs three thousand dollars.”

  I didn’t know whether he wanted me to be surprised or awed by this. I settled on a casual nod. “It’s delicious.”

  “It is,” he agreed. “Would you like a bottle?”

  The question caught me by surprise, and I opened and closed my mouth several times, searching for the right words as though talking to him was a test I could pass.

  “I bet you would. Who wouldn’t?” he asked without w
aiting for my response. “The real question is—can you afford to buy a bottle?”

  He was right. That was the real question, and an easy one to answer.

  My cheeks flamed. “No.”

  “Student loans?” he asked, face twisted into mock concern. “And Manhattan living isn’t cheap. I pay my assistants well, but it can’t be easy.”

  I nodded. “I’m doing fine, though.”

  I wasn’t. Not really. Every month was a struggle, trying to find new and inventive ways to cut back. I’d started intermittent fasting for the simple reason that it meant eating slightly less food. My parents offered me money every time we talked on the phone, and I refused. So, Mom settled for sending care packages of homemade jam and fresh farm eggs—the essentials, she called them.

  “But you could be doing better,” he said, his voice slick as oil.

  “Everyone could be doing better,” I said. “If I thought like that, I’d never be happy.”

  His brow creased for a moment, considering what I said, before he shook it away and continued on. “I have a proposition for you.”

  I sat up straighter. My heart pounded in my chest and my leg shook under the table, anticipating climbing the next rung on the proverbial ladder of success.

  “Okay?” I said, encouraging him to continue.

  “Marry me.”

  Sebastian was staring at me, his face calm and relaxed while my brain short-circuited. He couldn’t have said what I thought he’d said. He was too calm to have just uttered two of the most insane words I’d ever heard.

  So, I blinked and smiled. “Sorry. I didn’t catch that.”

  “Marry me,” he repeated, enunciating each word. “You will receive adequate compensation, of course. I was thinking five hundred thousand, but I am open to negotiating that number.”

  Compensation? Half a million dollars?

  I placed my sweaty palms flat on the table and took deep yoga breaths, exhaling like a dragon. “I don’t understand.”

  “Yes, you do,” he said. “I know you overheard my conversation with my mother last month.”

  I glanced up at him and then away as soon as I realized his all-knowing, steely eyes were on me. I’d gone to deliver his lunch and caught him talking with his mother. I should have walked away, but the conversation was tense, and curiosity got the better of me. The fact that Sebastian knew I’d eavesdropped on him was mortifying. Though, flooded as I was with confusion, I hardly had the energy to devote to being embarrassed.

  He angled himself in his chair, crossed one long leg over the other, and rested an elbow on the table. I’d seen him take up the position many times during meetings. It was a power pose, lending him an air of casual confidence and control. Meanwhile, I was searching for a pillow or jacket or thick cloth napkin to cling to like a blankie.

  “My mother is tired of my bachelor lifestyle,” he said, rolling his eyes. “She thinks it’s bad for business, and will not hand over ownership of Wayde Bank to me until I am married. So, I thought we could form a mutually beneficial relationship. You can become my wife until the reins to the bank are in my grip, and I will pay you handsomely.”

  “But she isn’t planning to retire for two years,” I said.

  I had a million questions, but it seemed like shooting down the idea before it could really get any wings was the best option. If I showed Sebastian this idea was insane, we could go back to our normal work relationship. At the start of lunch, I’d been hoping for a shift in our relationship, but now I just wanted to fetch Sebastian’s coffee and be invisible to him.

  He nodded. “And if I wait two years before I settle down with someone, she will smell a scheme. But if I am married for two years before becoming owner, it will look more believable. Besides, the fact that you are my assistant is reason enough why I would keep the relationship a secret from her and everyone. I can tell her we’ve been dating since shortly after you started working for me and just recently made it official. Once we are married, no one will even blink when I transfer the money into your account. Then, we will pretend for a few years. You’ll pay off your debts, and I’ll get my company. Then we’ll file for an amicable divorce. It’s quite simple.”

  “Five hundred thousand?” I asked.

  “Five zeroes,” he said without blinking. “We’ll sign a prenuptial agreement, obviously, and our relationship in all regards will remain professional. I do not want this situation to be construed by anyone as me paying for sex.”

  “You’d marry an assistant?” I asked.

  After first meeting Sebastian, it was hard not to imagine what it would be like to be with him. He was an attractive, powerful man. A woman would have to be dead to not even consider the possibility. And then I experienced the trail of devastation he left in his wake. Women calling the office in the middle of the day trying to get in touch with him, wondering if he’d changed his phone number or if he was out of town. They weren’t the kind of women a man would usually blow off, either. These were beautiful women with illustrious careers and enough money that they certainly didn’t need Sebastian’s.

  He leaned across the table, his eyes roving over my face, and shrugged. “I’d do anything for my company. Besides, you’re attractive enough. It won’t raise too many eyebrows.”

  Attractive enough. I guess that was a compliment.

  The more he spoke, the more normal the idea became. He’d seemingly thought of everything, and as I listened to him lay out the timeline of our engagement and wedding, I couldn’t stop thinking about how good it would be to be free of my debts. To have the money to put a down payment on a place in the city. Perhaps, it was shock or desperation, but by the end of the lunch, I found myself shaking his hand.

  Now here I sit, in his penthouse, waiting for him yet again.

  When my phone buzzes, I jump up and grab it off the sofa, thinking it must be him, but it’s only an email from a luxury handbag designer asking if I’ll carry one of her bags on my next night out. I delete it without reading it all the way through and turn to look out at Central Park and the skyline beyond.

  In the month since the moment when I said yes to his proposition, I’ve had my regrets. Sitting at the lunch table listening to Sebastian talk through the engagement, marriage, and divorce, it seemed like everything would happen in a flash. What was two years compared to an entire lifetime? But then we lived together for a month, and I realized that one awkward dinner could feel like an entire year.

  Living day in and day out with someone you do not love and who clearly does not love you in return makes the days drag on and on. Especially when you have to pretend to be in love. When every outing together is filled with planned pecks on the cheek, hand holding, and loving gazes, followed by barely speaking once alone at home.

  For a while, I thought the luxuries of the penthouse—a private gym and pool, heated bathroom floors, a separate dressing room, and a library with a wood-burning fireplace and an incredible view—would be distraction enough, but after only one month in the place, they failed to excite me. I’d grown accustomed to Sebastian’s lavish lifestyle. To the emails from famous designers in my inbox. To seeing my face on tabloid covers that were discussing our “illicit affair.”

  I tuck my phone in my clutch and exchange it for my red lipstick. Sebastian hates it. He’s never said so to my face, but every time he sees me pull the tube from my purse or reach for it while getting ready in the bathroom, he grimaces. So now, I wear it like an armor. Plus, the merlot shade perfectly matches my gown for the evening, which was designed and tailored specifically for me. It cost more than three months of rent on my old apartment, and yet, I long for my worn pair of jeans and leather sandals.

  My clutch buzzes. I drop the lipstick tube back inside for touch-ups throughout the night, grab my phone, and read the text.

  “Downstairs.”

  When I was a teenager, my dad refused to let me leave the house on a date unless the boy came to the door to pick me up, and that was in high school. Now, as a gr
own woman, I’m responding to single word text messages while he waits in the car.

  I can almost see my dad standing next to the elevator doors, arms crossed over his chest, shaking his head as I step inside and push the button for the basement level where Sebastian and his driver will be waiting in the off-street entryway.

  My heels click across the cement as I make my way towards the car. The windows are tinted, so I can’t see Sebastian inside, but I can picture him—head down, scrolling through his phone looking at emails or text messages or stock prices. He probably doesn’t even realize I’m headed his way. And even if he did, he wouldn’t get out and open the door for me. “That’s the driver’s job,” he said when I mentioned it on our “first date.” I’d thought it would be a good shot for the press waiting outside the restaurant opening we were attending, but apparently, Sebastian Wayde serves no one. Not even the woman he supposedly loves.

  I smile at the driver, a uniformed, gray-haired man in his sixties, and gather the bottom of my dress to one side as I slip into the back seat. Sebastian doesn’t look up from his phone as I sit down.

  We are two city blocks away from the building before I say something. “Did you solve the problem at work?”

  He looks up like he’s startled to see me, his dark brown eyes hazed over, lost in whatever was on his phone screen. “What?”

  “The emergency at work,” I remind him.

  Part of me wonders whether Sebastian’s “emergencies” aren’t less of the work variety and more of the sexual variety. He told me up front that he had no plans to stop sleeping around with as many women as he wanted, but one month in, I haven’t seen a single woman coming or going from his room. But he does slip away to “work” regularly. As I agreed to the arrangement, him being with another woman wouldn’t be a betrayal, but the thought of him being caught with someone else when he’s supposed to be engaged to me is embarrassing. Could we truly make this arrangement work for two years?