His Absolute Insistence: A Scandalous Billionaire Love Story (Jessika, #2) by Cerys du Lys Read Free Book Online

both of those stashed away and hidden in his guest home, where almost no one went.  And no one should have gone there except for a select few people, too.  He didn't want to place blame this early when he didn't have the facts to follow through with it, but if the situation was as bad as it looked, he might have at least one untrustworthy person working in his home under the guise of personal staff.
    He didn't want to believe it, but he didn't know what to believe anymore.
    The reporters kept harassing him with questions.  He really ought to answer them sometime soon, he supposed.
    Holding up his hand to call their attention to him, he shouted out, "Quiet, please.  I'll do my best to answer some of your questions, though I doubt the truth will be as interesting as what you all may wish to believe.  Regardless of your dire need to interview me in this extremely unsuitable location, I'm going to have to ask everyone to move aside so the hospital staff can do their jobs.  This is a place of healing, where time can be of the utmost importance, and we would do well to remember and value that."
    Many of them muttered, but following Asher's lead a majority of the media crews moved aside.  Asher walked towards a grassy clearing near the front of the hospital with a small stone bench in the middle of it.  Stepping up on the bench, he presented himself to the crowd.
    "I know you all have a lot of questions, but can we do this with civility?" he asked.  "If I had to guess, a lot of your questions are similar, so how about we do this: raise your hand and I'll point to call on you.  That way we won't have people shouting out the same questions over and over.  Sound good?"
    No one said anything to indicate they thought otherwise.
    "Alright.  I'll take questions for approximately ten minutes.  Let's begin," he said.
    More hands than he wanted to count rose into the air.
    He pointed to someone on the left.  "Yes, you?"
    The man cleared his throat before speaking into a microphone in front of him.  God forbid any of these people take notes and do a report or write up an article afterwards.
    "Can you confirm the reports of a sex tape made between you and your wife?" the man asked.
    "This morning is the first I've heard about them," Asher said.  "Unfortunately I can't comment on any of the reports because I haven't had a chance to look at them."
    A woman near the first man raised her hand.
    "Yes?" Asher asked, pointing to her.
    "Is it fair to say that if you had made a sex tape with your current wife, you'd know about it?" she asked.
    Asher rolled his eyes and laughed, unamused.  "I have nothing to say to that," he said.
    Another person raised their hand and Asher called on them.
    "Concerning the videos and photographs involved," the man said, for context.  "The pictures are of a high quality and the woman is clearly Jessika Landseer, but the man is unknown.  None of the images show his face, so—"
    "I'm going to stop you right there," Asher said, holding his hand up like some sort of media traffic director.  "I haven't seen the pictures and I don't know the circumstances revolving around them, so I'm ill-prepared to talk about them.  I will say this, though: there are many ways to manipulate images, which I would hope everyone would be aware of by now.  Mistaken identity is also a possibility."
    He hated saying that one.  He hated answering any of these questions.  He wanted to try and be as vague and unhelpful as possible, but some things just needed to be said.  And, really, of course this round of interview questions wasn't going to be easy.  They wanted to try and catch him up so they could use his answers against him, even if he didn't necessarily say anything incriminating.  This was what they lived for; these people thrived off of uncertain turmoil and unproven gossip.
    He waved for someone else to ask their question.
    "Are you denying the pictures are of you and your wife, then?"
    "As I said before, this