Better for Us by Vanessa Miller Read Free Book Online

dreams come true. Ryla should have been the one standing by his side, helping him get to the finish line, as the first lady did for the president. With a bit of her own anger, she turned to him. “You were the reason I left.”
    He stood there, visibly trying to rein in his fury. “I don’t know how I could have been the reason you left. You never even gave me a chance.”
    “You squandered the chance I gave you—” Ryla pointed out toward the office staff “—with Ms. Phone Girl out there.”
    “Go home, Ryla. Jaylen and I don’t need you here.”
    “Have you lost your mind?” She stepped to him again. “I am not about to leave my daughter here so you can flaunt your women in her face.”
    Noel laughed.
    “I’m not playing with you, Noel Carter.” She was shaking a finger in his face. “You are not going to parade your women around my daughter. I won’t allow that.”
    “Whoa,” he said, lifting his hands. “You’re being a bit overdramatic, don’t you think?”
    As Ryla realized that she was acting like someone off her meds, she dialed it back a bit. “All I’m asking is that you keep Cathy away from Jaylen.”
    “That’s going to be a little difficult, since we have a small office of about fifteen people and everyone is running on top of each other as it is.”
    “Well, aren’t there other campaigns that she can go work for?”
    He stared at her for a moment. “Are you serious?”
    Ryla knew she was being unreasonable, but she just couldn’t back down. She felt violated by Cathy just as she would have felt violated by any thief that kicked in her front door and stole something from her. She put her hands on her hips and declared, “Either she goes or I’m taking Jaylen back home.”
    “Then I call my lawyer,” Noel volleyed back as he walked over to his desk and picked up the telephone.
    “You said you wouldn’t do that,” Ryla protested, wondering if she had overplayed her hand.
    “That was before you came to my campaign office and started making unreasonable demands.” He pushed a few buttons on the telephone.
    Ryla pushed the disconnect button on the phone. “Don’t do this Noel. We don’t need to get lawyers involved.”
    Still holding the receiver, Noel’s voice elevated. “If you think you’re going to come in here and make demands after keeping my child from me for seven years, then I think we need a third party to straighten this out. Because I’m not letting you take another minute of my time with Jaylen away from me.”
    Ryla surrendered. “Okay, okay, you win. Jaylen stays.... Just keep her away from your little girlfriend.”
    “She’s not my girlfriend.”
    “Whatever.” Ryla waved his comment off.
    The door to Noel’s office opened and Ian quickly stepped in and closed it behind him. “You might want to bring it down a few notches. And in case you were wondering, if they didn’t figure it out when Jaylen ran through the office screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,’ you two have now informed the entire staff that Jaylen is your daughter.” Ian was glaring at Noel as he leaned against the wall. “Oh.” He held up a finger as if he needed to add one more thing. “They also know that Ryla kept her away from you for seven years.”
    “I don’t see why this is an issue. I was going to tell them all anyway,” Noel said.
    Rising up from against the door, Ian walked toward Noel. “That is true. However, I just spent the last few minutes introducing Jaylen to everyone and not once did I mention that she was your daughter. Then, as Cathy was showing Jaylen how to work the phone system, everyone heard you yelling about Ryla keeping your daughter away from you for seven years.”
    Noel held up a hand. “Okay, I messed up. But we can trust our staff. They won’t repeat anything I’ve said.”
    “We don’t just have the staff out there this morning, Noel. We had a few vendors bringing in supplies. So, we’ll be lucky if this information isn’t reported by