Chapter 26 The Gold Digger
Emily’s life developed a pleasant rhythm over the next few days. She often had dinner with Byron at his place. She even felt comfortable enough to sleep over at the penthouse in one of the guest bedrooms. The bed was so soft and comfy, Emily couldn’t resist coming back night after night. She even had her own bathroom there so no awkwardness could occur. She felt completely spoiled.
In the mornings and afternoons she saw her family and showed them around the city, and in the evenings she taught painting.
It all came literally crashing down one day when Emily was getting ready for work after spending the night in Byron’s suite. She was brushing her hair in her private bathroom when a loud crashing noise startled her. Then she heard Byron yelling out a curse, his voice filled with frustration. Rupert barked from somewhere in the living room, just as alarmed as she was.
Emily rushed over to the room that served as Byron’s home office. When she opened the door and found shards of plaster all over the floor, she realized the crash was probably intentional. Byron’s eyes blazed with fury. He must have thrown his statue of Beethoven in a fit of anger.
Rupert tried to squeeze through the door, but Emily grabbed his collar, not wanting him to injure his paws on the broken pieces. But the dog was stronger, and anxious to comfort his human. Although she tried to hold on to the collar, Rupert dragged her into the room after him.
“Not now, Rupert,” Byron grumbled, ignoring the huge dog as it tried to lick his face. He walked out into the living room.
“What just happened?” Emily asked, following him.
“You don’t want to know,” Byron muttered. He still looked tense, as if he was looking for something else to break.
“You shouldn’t throw stuff,” she admonished, “What if Rupert got hurt?”
“He’s fine,” Byron said flatly. “But you should probably sit down.”
“What? What is it? Just tell me.” Emily didn’t feel much like sitting since he was making her nervous. She suspected something might happen to upset Byron’s emotional balance, but still it was a shock to see him like this.
“All right, I might as well show you,” he said, “This is what our friends at the Chronicle came up with.”
He pulled up the newspaper’s site on his phone, and Emily saw an article titled “Today’s Top 10 Gold Diggers: women who know how to lure in the incredible wealthy.” She had a bad feeling about where this was going... And then she saw a photo of herself as number 3 in the list!
Emily Danzi briefly dated Josh Trevils, son of golf pro Stanley Trevils, but she had her sights set on an even richer prize: Vancouver’s very own Byron Pomeroy, well-known financier and businessman. The two have been spotted together at some of the city’s finest restaurants.
The author of the article was none other than Christine Tourneau, the woman who had tried to make fun of Emily’s outfit at the charity event. A tiny photo of her smiled smugly beneath her byline.
“I don’t believe it!” Emily said.
Christine was clever, disguising the personal attack by putting Emily on the list as one of many other gold diggers, not at the top of the list, but definitely prominent.
“I’m going to call the editor right now,” Byron declared, taking the phone from her.
Of course, he had a direct line, and the editor picked up right away.
“Hi Sue,” Byron said, “I know you guys report on the lighter side of news, but an article on gold diggers? Isn’t that hitting below the belt?”
The woman said something, her voice sounding firm and uncompromising.
“I understand that, Sue, but I don’t like having my name in it, or of the woman I’m dating.”
Emily couldn’t make out the words on the other end again, but she didn’t like the tone.
“Is that how it’s going to be?” Byron seemed enraged, “Then you can forget about any of my advertising.”
He hung up abruptly and scoffed at the phone. “That’s the last time I support that sorry excuse for toilet paper. She had the nerve to tell me they were printing the facts!”
“Are you really going to pull all your advertising out?” Emily said.
“Of course,” he replied.
“I don’t want this to hurt your business,” she said carefully.
“It’ll be fine. My ads are spread throughout other publications.”
Emily tried to think about it calmly. There had to be some way to handle this disaster. “Let’s regroup later today,” she said, “I’m sure we can find a peaceful solution. Don’t do anything drastic, okay?”
Byron shook his head stubbornly. “I can’t make any promises. I’m not going to let them treat you like this.”
Emily went to visit her parents at their hotel, hoping they hadn’t yet seen the newspaper and that she could at least forewarn them. When she arrived, her parents’ concerned faces told her the secret was out.
“I guess you saw the article,” she said.
The newspaper was lying on open the table, and Emily flipped it over to avoid seeing the noxious gossip.
“Em, I didn’t know you were a famous gold digger,” her brother said, looking up from his laptop.
“Can you get us a new house in the Bahamas?” her dad joked.
“It’s not funny!” Emily cried. But at least they weren’t angry at her or freaking out as much as she was.
“I know, dear,” her mom soothed, “but the important thing is, it’s not true. And it’s going to be forgotten in a few days anyway. Don’t get upset about it.”
Emily hoped her mom was right, but she had the nagging feeling that this was far from over.
