Page 2 of Once Upon a Beast

“Okay, I won’t push but you need to come out again and spend the weekend with me. Maybe we can finally convince Ella to join us,” Ara said.

“I would love to come out and see you. Who knows if Ella would be able to come.”

“It’s so unfair that her stepmother doesn’t let her come and visit.”

Ara, Layla, and Ella had all met at Winslow Creek Camp. While Ara and Layla had been able to get together, anytime they tried to get Ella to come and visit them, she hadn’t been able to.

“It probably won’t ever happen, as much as that sucks. We just need to hold out hope that when she can, she will move to New York, and we can all live together.” Layla said.

“That’s the plan. I can’t wait until we’re older and we don’t have to worry about what our parents or anyone else wants us to do. It will be the three of us and no one else,” Ara said.

“The fearsome threesome!” Layla said, mentioning the name the girls had given themselves when they were at camp. “Who needs boys anyways? As long as I have good friends, I don’t need anything else.”

“Exactly!” Ara said but Layla didn’t completely believe her.

Layla might not be into boys but Ara definitely was. Still, it was nice for her to say it and it made Layla feel good. It didn’t matter if she had a crush on Nic, nothing was ever going to happen. She had a plan of living in New York City with her friends. She wasn’t going to worry about a guy or let it distract her from her goal. Ara was right, with friends like her and Ella she didn’t need anyone else.

Still, as she thought about Ara, her dress, and the fun she was going to have, Layla couldn’t help being a little jealous and wishing that she was going to prom with Nic.

Chapter 1

Nicodemus

Present day

“Give it to me straight. How bad is this?” I asked Steve, my assistant.

“It’s bad, like really bad. Okay, so maybe not really bad, but it has the potential to be bad.”

“How did we not hear about this? How did this get out?” I asked.

I walked over to my kitchen in my penthouse and poured myself a glass of orange juice. I was just finishing my run when I got the call from Steve. I had planned on going to the corner bodega and getting us some breakfast wraps but the situation was too urgent and I hadn’t wanted to stop.

“It isn’t out yet. I got a heads-up from the editor. They wanted to confirm it and get a quote before they ran the story.”

“Smart of them, but if they really were smart, they would know that it’s complete and total bullshit.”

“You might know it. I certainly believe you, but not too many other people will,” Steve stated.

I slammed the door to the refrigerator and glared at him. He held my gaze. One of the many things I admired and appreciated about Steve was that he had never been intimidated by me or my outbursts.

“This is not the time for you to remind me that I needed to work on my public image.”

“Then I won’t. It’s your life, it’s your career, you were the one who dictated how it went.”

“And now it’s blown up in my face,”

“You knew your connection to your father was bound to come out at some point. Running from him served you well for the last ten years. It was understandable that you thought it would stay buried.”

“Nothing stays buried. We know that.”

“Now,” Steve said.

“Dwelling on my past and my lack of wanting to confront it isn’t going to help me. What I want to know is what we need to do to make this go away.”

“I’m not sure it will. Even if we make a statement that the allegations are baseless, it still makes a connection between you and your father. If you don’t make any statement, you might as well be admitting your guilt and the connection will still come out.”

“What you are saying is I’m screwed no matter what I do?” I asked.