I Heard A Rumor (18 page)

“Have you made it back yet?” Zach held his hand up as he saw his driver pull up.

“Not yet. I'm just leaving my parents' house. I finally told my mother I've had enough of her judgment.”

“You go, Chante.”

“I hope you can still say that when the fallout from that video hits,” she said with a sigh.

“Don't even worry about that. You're smart enough to overcome all of that.”

“From your mouth to God's ear,” she said.

“Baby, I have all the faith in the world in you.”

“Thank you.”

“My driver is here, so I'm going to call you this evening and check on you.”

“Sounds good. I hope everything goes well for you.”

“So do I. We'll talk soon.” When Chante said good-bye, Zach missed her like crazy. As he climbed into the black Lincoln that had stopped in front of him, he knew he had to focus on the task at hand, clearing his family's name once and for all.

“How are you, Mr. Harrington?” his driver asked.

“I've been better. Let's get to my office and get this day over with.”

“Yes, sir.”

 

 

It was midafternoon when Chante drove past the Charlotte city limits sign. She sighed with relief as she turned onto her street and saw there were no media trucks parked on her block. Sitting in the driveway, she dialed Liza's number to find out if her friend had arrived in Charlotte yet.

“Hello?”

“Liza,” Chante said, “have you made it to Charlotte yet?”

“Have I? Honey, I'm already at Amelie's sitting in a corner waiting for you,” she replied.

“Let me unload my car, and I'll be right there.”

“Good, because we have a lot of work to do. Although I have to say that on a personal level, I love the video.”

Chante groaned. “And,” Liza continued, “that's what Robert gets for having that stupid blogger Persone Wallace follow him around. All he wants are page views, and I know he got a lot from people watching Robert's meltdown. Still, since you're my client, and he and I have a legal agreement about him covering my clients, I'm going to get the video taken down.”

“The damage is already done. You and I know what goes up on the Internet is there forever.”

“Just get here. We're going to game-plan this.”

“All right.” Chante hung up and got out of the car. She was happy that the video had exposed Robert's madness, but she was smart enough to know there would be plenty of people who'd blame her for reacting to him.

“Forget them,” she muttered as she unlocked her front door. Maybe it was time to rebrand herself, and that was what she and Liza were going to work on.

Chante walked into Amelie's and quickly spotted Liza sitting at their usual table. Waving at her friend, she walked over and smiled when she saw two caramel salted brownies on the table.

“You are so awesome,” she said as Liza rose to her feet and gave her a hug.

“Tell me something I don't know,” Liza replied with a wink. “So before we get started, what's the real deal with you and Zachary Harrington?”

Chante felt a blush burn her cheeks. “Zach is a really nice guy. He made Charleston a lot of fun because Miss Elsie Mae is going around the world with her boo.”

“Wait, your grandmother is on a trip with a man?”

“Guess who she's with,” Chante said.

“Mr. Tanner?”

“How did you know?” Chante asked incredulously.

“I remember when we went to visit your grandmother that summer and he was there. You had to be blind not to see the sizzle between them.”

Chante sucked her teeth. “Then call me Ray Charles. I figured they were just friends.”

“Friends with benefits.”

“Eww, Liza, come on! It's bad enough that she gave me a few too many details in the note she left for me.”

“I hope when I'm older, I'm as fabulous as Miss Elsie Mae, and that Jackson and I are making our children and grandchild uncomfortable.”

“I feel sorry for your unborn children already,” Chante quipped.

“Whatever, Chante. So how did you and Zach meet?”

Chante told Liza how she went to her grandmother's house and it was gutted.

“She left a note with instructions for me to stay at the Charleston Harbor Bed and Breakfast. It's a wonderful place. Zach was staying there, and we ended up at the bar together.”

“Pause,” Liza said. “You picked up a guy at the bar? You?”

Chante rolled her eyes. “No, I didn't. As a matter of fact, I threw a drink in his face.”

Liza broke out into laughter. “Of course you did. Why did you throw a drink at the man?”

Chante shrugged. “Because he kissed me.”

Tilting her head to the side, Liza shook her head. “Okay. You meet a stranger, he kisses you, you throw a drink in his face, and y'all still end up kicking it together?”

“I blame the seafood quiche. It had oysters in it.” Chante laughed as she thought about the meal she and Zach shared before they left Charleston. “As it turned out, his kisses were amazing. We even told my mother that we were engaged when she caught us kissing at Grammy's shop.”

Liza shook her head. “I think I like this Zach person. I just hope all of this stuff going on with him isn't true.”

“It's not,” Chante said.

Liza raised her right eyebrow. “You're defending him, huh? How serious are you about him?”

“I-I wouldn't go that far. I mean, I barely know the man. After what happened with Robert, I'm not jumping into anything.”

“Now, you have to stop that. What happened with Robert was the anomaly. And I feel responsible. I should've never introduced you two.”

“Just because you introduced us doesn't mean you have responsibility for anything that happened.”

“Still, I don't like to be fooled, and I should have known that he would do anything to win that seat, including using both of us.”

Chante shook her head. “We were both fooled. But I have an idea.”

“Shoot.”

“I don't want to be the Chante Britt that everyone knows anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think you'd call it rebranding. There are so many women in this city who suffer because of things the men in their lives do. I want to be the attorney who helps those women reclaim their lives.”

“That is an awesome idea,” Liza replied with excitement. “And you can make it more than just a Charlotte thing. Think of all of the women who are married to powerful men who mess up and she gets dragged through the mud? You'll be busy and rich.”

“This isn't about money,” Chante said. “What I went through with Robert taught me a lot, and I didn't like the lesson.”

“It's not fair. I mean, you lost your position at your law firm, and he went on TV to bring you back into his mess.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Here's what we're going to do: we're going to do a video where you tell the world what you just said to me, and we make it go viral. All we have to do is juxtapose it against what happened in Charleston.”

Chante closed her eyes. “Do we have to focus on the negativity?”

“We can't ignore it. It's out there.”

Sighing, Chante knew her friend was right, but she didn't want that video of her and Robert to become a part of who she was turning herself into. But there was no denying that it would be one of the first things people saw about her.

“I guess you're right,” she said.

Liza bit into her brownie. “I'm always right in this sort of situation.”

Chante rolled her eyes. “Don't hold this over my head because I said you were right.”

“Now, would I do something like that?” Liza laughed.

“Let me point to the fact that I got drunk sophomore year and threw up in your precious Mustang. You referred to that for years.”

“I loved that car!” Liza exclaimed. “And it was only two months old.”

“You talked about it for ten years.”

“Again, I loved that car.”

Chante smiled, thinking about the Mustang she'd been zipping around Charleston in and her handsome road dog.

“What's that look?” Liza asked.

“Zach rented a Mustang, and we drove it around the city and . . .”

“You really like him, Chante.”

She wasn't going to admit anything. “We need to talk business,” Chante said.

Liza nodded. “I know you aren't big on falling in love, but don't let one bad experience sour you. Look at me and Jackson.”

“Everyone doesn't get a fairy-tale ending, Liza, and I'm all right with that.”

“You don't have to be,” Liza said, then threw her hands up. “I'm done. Let's talk business. I'm going to get with Duane Carter and Teresa so that we can get the video done professionally.”

“I need office space,” Chante said. “I don't want to do the whole start-up thing from my kitchen table, you know.”

Liza patted the table excitedly. “I know a great space.”

“Where?”

“My old office. It's in a terrific location, and I'm moving my stuff to Raleigh anyway.”

“Really?” Chante asked.

Liza nodded. “And since you're just getting started, I'm going to rent that space to you for a dollar a month.”

“I can't let you do that,” she said as tears of gratitude sprang into her eyes.

“You have no choice in the matter. Chante, I'm so proud of you, and this is just my small way of showing support. You're my sister, girl.”

Chante leaned over and hugged Liza tightly. “This means a lot to me, Liza. Thank you for forgiving me and . . .”

“Don't even go there. We're going to blaze a path in Charlotte that will make anything that happened in the past a distant memory. And we're going to need a really great name for your firm,” Liza said.

“What's wrong with Chante Britt, Attorney-at-Law?”

Liza yawned. “That's boring! How many Blah-Blahs at law are there in Charlotte? You need something with as much oomph as you walked in here with. You have a fire now. Let it burn.”

“You sound like a bad motivational speaker.”

“Whatever,” Liza said as she took a small bite of her brownie. “We have to be different.”

“We?”

“Well, you. No,
we
is right. We are in this together because this is step one toward Liza and Chante taking over the world.”

Chante laughed, remembering their plan following graduation from UNC. Of course they had different goals then. Chante had wanted to be a criminal defense attorney and free the wrongfully convicted across the country. She had planned to take the bar in all fifty states, and Liza planned to write for
Essence.
There she'd chronicle Chante's cases. She figured that she'd write a book and make the
New York Times
best-seller list and become Oprah's new best friend.

“What happened to those young girls who wanted to take over the world?” Chante asked.

Liza shook her head. “We got tricked. Thought we had to follow the crowd and work for someone else.”

“True. And we put what we wanted to really do on hold.”

“We're on the right track now,” Liza said.

“Yes, we are.”

“Now, we just need a name for this firm . . .” Liza stopped speaking when her cell phone rang. “This is Teresa. Give me a second to take this.” As Liza stepped outside, Chante picked up her phone to check and see if Zach had sent her a text. Not seeing one, she felt a little disappointed, even though she knew he had a lot going on. Chante couldn't deny it: she missed him.

 

 

Zach sat in his office listening to Zoe rail about the press. “They are distorting everything!” She tossed a copy of the
New York Post
on his desk. “And look at my picture.”

“Oh, so that's what this is about? Your picture? It's a mug shot, not a glamour shot.” Zach chuckled, but his twin was not amused.

“Don't be a jackass. This company was built on our family reputation. That bitch and the press are ruining it. And let's not forget the fact that my business is all about people trusting me!” Zoe narrowed her eyes at Zach. “Did you leave your balls in Charleston? I figured you'd be ready to throw down. This, after all, is your company now. How many . . . What's her name?”

“What?”

“Don't play with me, Zach. Tell me who she is so I can verify that she isn't a crazy pimp!”

Zach rolled his eyes. “Here's the thing: I've called a press conference for eleven. We're also bringing one of the FBI agents on the case to the podium with us. He's going to lay out Natalie's case and how neither you, nor I, nor this company is involved.”

“And you're going to tell the world you married her because you were blinded by her body?”

Zach shrugged. “Whatever. If it will make you feel better for me to tell the world that you were right, then I will.”

“Thank you. So the new broad who has your nose wide open is Chante Britt, right?”

“If you know her name, why are you harassing me?” Zach snapped. Zoe ignored his attitude and showed him a video of him and Chante dashing into the hotel in Charleston.

“What is it with you and scandalous women? This is the type you love.”

Love? He knew he wasn't there yet. But Chante was a woman he could love. Everything about her was exciting, beautiful, and amazing. “She's not scandalous.”

“Oh no?” Zoe asked, then showed him another video of Chante and a man arguing in the lobby of the hotel. As he watched, he saw the man was Robert Montgomery, the ex Chante had told him about. He was definitely not the man he'd expected. Robert seemed unhinged, nothing like someone he'd expect Chante to be involved with. When he saw him get in Chante's face, he was angry.

Zoe noticed it and smiled. “Chill, brother. I have to say this one is smart and feisty if this video is any indication. And she doesn't have a sketchy background.”

“If you knew all this, why did you pressure me about her name and all of that drama?”

“Because I can,” she said with a wink.

“You know, if you moved back to New York, you could take a more active role in my love life. And I need a good—no, great—chief of security,” he said.

Zoe smiled grimly. “I'm not going to even tell you why that will never happen. You need to understand that I'm not going to take a cushy job with this company to make you feel better. I have a business that can't run without me. So no thanks, brother.”

“I hate it when you call me brother like that. And I also hate it when you think I'm only offering you a job because I don't like what you do. This is a family business, and I want you to be a part of that business, Zo.”

“I hate it when you call me Zo. It's not endearing,” she replied. “You should know, I'm going to be in New York for a few months once this thing blows over. I'll be working on a case, and I plan to pretend that I work here.”

“What kind of case?”

“Nope, I'm not telling you anything.”

“But you're going to use my company as a front? I need details,” Zach said.

“Just stay out of my way,” she said. “Don't play the big-brother role, I have a gun, and I'm very good with it. I can handle myself. It's you, on the other hand, I have to be concerned about.”

“Excuse me?”

Zoe widened her eyes incredulously. “Who got us into this mess?”

“Whatever.”

“Don't
whatever
me. I told you that Natalie chick was nothing but trouble.”

“I know,” he said. “I fucked up, but that has nothing to do with you using my company as a front for whatever case you're working on.”

“Let's talk about this press conference and the FBI agent you're bringing.”

“Smooth, real smooth. Agent Banks has been on my ass since Natalie's arrest. On the way to the office, I presented your evidence to him, and now he actually believes I wasn't involved in her call-girl ring.”

Zoe shook her head. “He sounds like a real winner. I hate G-men. They think nothing is more important than the job.”