The Forgotten Heiress novel Chapter 20

"We will tell them the truth, that you were living with your godmother for a few years. It helps that we're relatively new to the area. And as for Dani; no she doesn't know. And I have to ask you to help us keep it that way."

"She deserves the truth."

James nodded, "she does, but not now. You must admit, one more flick and this house of cards could come tumbling down around us."

"Fine," it went against everything in her to agree. She, better than most, knew how painful hidden truths could be but she had to agree that maybe now was not the time for the family to deal with another lie. "But tell her the truth soon."

"We will."

"Then that leaves one more thing." They looked at her and waited. "I fired the bodyguards."

"You did what?!"

"I fired the bodyguards" She repeated and crossed her arms. "I don't want bodyguards, and I definitely don't want those ones, they proved to be incompetent, I'm sure that if we ever ran into trouble I'd be the one saving them."

"They were highly recommended," James bit out.

"Maybe they were, but I don't need them and I don't want them."

"If you don't want to take the serum then I'm going to insist on the bodyguards. I'll find bodyguards that are up to your standards."

"No serum and no bodyguards."

"If you don't take the serum you're getting the bodyguards."

His words were said with such finality that she started seeing red. "I hope they have good health insurance because they are going to need it."

James looked at her and nodded. "I'll make sure they do.

"Please, lets' not argue. I'm sure we can compromise." Lauren interjected, "No serum and one bodyguard." She offered to Jessica.

"Yeah, I heard something about you hitting your head and left you dealing with short term memory loss."

Axel looked at him for another second and then comprehension dawned on him.

"Yeah, I can't seem to remember anything about today" He shook his head morosely, playing along, as he opened the door.

Nick released a deep sigh of relief. He wasn't ready for rumors about his explosive chemistry with Jessica to be going around. But his relief was very short lived.

"I'm going to have to ask Christian to give me a recap." Axels added as he stepped out of the car.

His words, said with barely concealed amusement, had Nick tensing all over again and he slammed his head back against the head rest. He'd forgotten about Christian. No way was he going to be able to gag him. In fact he was pretty sure it was too late to try.

No doubt that by now, everyone knew about his heated encounter with Jessica outside of her house.