SANTI'S POV
At this moment, we're waiting for Carla to get home and make sure they didn't know where we are. Jessica is looking at a bunch of papers, I think to distract herself a little from everything that had happened today with the journalists, and I'm going to let her continue doing it, the last thing I want is for her to get upset.
An hour later, Carla enters the house with Pérez and Hamilton behind her, and Jessica completely ignores them, so I guess she must be deep in her thoughts to not notice, or the other option is she still is deaf and therefore, didn't heard a thing.
"Finally, home." Carla said with a big smile on her face and throwing herself on the couch next to me "You were taking too long I must say, I was starting to worry." I admitted, "Oh, Santiago De Luca worrying about me, this is new." She responded, laughing, "Don't be stupid, you know I care about you." I said, rolling my eyes. "I know, but why doesn't she pay attention?" She asked, pointing her chin in my girlfriend's direction. "Looking at some papers, she hasn't taken her eyes off them since we arrived."
"It has to be interesting, so she doesn't take your eyes off them." Carla said, "I'm hearing you." Jess responded without looking away from the papers. "I'm glad you heard me; I hope you have a plan in mind to solve this problem." Carla replied playfully, "I'm thinking."
"I see you looking at those papers." our best friend pointed out, "That doesn't mean I'm not thinking." Jess assured, "It's impossible to do two things at once, dear." Carla laughed. "Try." My girlfriend challenged, "Okay, what are you planning to do and what are you looking at?" she asked, playing along with Jess. I'm pretty sure she thinks it's impossible, but I knew Jessica can do it.
"I'm thinking of a way to convince Jackson to do an interview to tell everything that happened, then, these papers are the budgets to set up the centre and, finally, in no time both Miky and Madison will appear on the stairs hungry, Wisky will come after them." Jessica said "What?" She asked confused, and in less than a minute, the kids and the dog appear in our view as Jessica had said was going to happen, which makes me doubt she's half deaf, because if she heard about that when she's half deaf, I don't know what she would hear if she had full hearing.
"Jess, we're hungry." Miky said, putting his hand on his belly to emphasize the words. "Weren't you deaf?" Carla asked surprised, to which I ended up laughing "I am." Jess nodded. "So how did you know the kids were coming?" she asked, still not understanding how Jessica had done it. "Jackson looked at the stairs and considering it's nine thirty, I knew they would be coming down for dinner at any moment."
"Shit, you're scary, Jess." Carla protested. "You get used to it, believe me. Sometimes mom was impressed, I would say she even got a little scared." Jess said, laughing. "Now are you going to tell me I scared your mother?" She asked, looking away from the papers and raising an eyebrow. "It's true, you didn't scare her, but it's weird being half-deaf the way you are, you heard everything happening around you."
"Now I'm weird, thanks Miky, I feel much better." Jessica joked. "I don't mean that." The boy tried to defend himself. "I know what you mean." My girlfriend responded with a smile on her face "Can someone make us something for dinner, I'm starving." Madi asked and to which Miky nodded "I'll do it."
"It's not necessary Santi, I'll go" Jessica said, turning in my direction and I shook my head with a smile on my face. "Don't worry, I'll be happy to do it, darling." I assured "Well, then I'll take Wisky for a walk." She said, "You shouldn't leave the house."
"Wisky can't stay inside the house all the time, and you can be sure I can't stay inside for long either, so yes, I have to leave the house so as not to go crazy." Jess assured, "Santi is right, Jess, with journalists walking around it's not the best." Carla supported. "I'll do whatever it takes to keep them from knowing who I am, and I'll take Jackson with me if that's what's worrying you."
"You will take Jackson and Hamilton." Carla negotiated, crossing her arms. "No way, Hamilton is your bodyguard." Jess protested. "But I'm not leaving the house." she insisted, "But you're the important one, besides, I prefer to leave the two best men at home with the kids, it's enough I take the best one out of the house."
"Miss Leone is right, Miss Bastianini. I'll manage, plus we'll take the dog, I doubt he'll let anything happen to Miss Leone." Jackson supported my girlfriend. "That's true, I trained him to take care of Jessica." Miky pointed out "Do you see? I'll be fine."
"Okay, but don't take too long because I'll send the entire squad of bodyguards, we have to go look for you, understand?" Carla said, "I won't be too long." My girlfriend assured, "You better."
"See you soon, my love." Jess said, approaching where I am "See you in a bit" We kissed, and she went upstairs to get the dog's leash. It didn't take her long to get down, and as soon as she did, Wisky starts jumping for her to put the leash and take him out, and in a few seconds, the three of them leave through the back door and I head to the kitchen to make some dinner Carla left the kids watching TV and then followed me to the kitchen.
"We have to think about what to do so we don't have more problems, because when everyone finds out, this is going to get ugly, Santi." Carla pointed out and I nodded, because I knew it's true. "I know, but she said she'll fix it." I responded, shrugging my shoulders "It's not I doubt her abilities Santi, but considering she doesn't remember anything and in these four years she wasn't surrounded by the press, do you think she'll know how to handle it? Especially, considering the tumour."
"I know, but I know she can handle it, and if not, we will be there to support her and not allow journalists to invent stories that are not." I said, because I knew it would be something we would do. "That's going to be really complicated, because there are already stories out there circulating, and I'm sure they won't go away for the world." She noted, "We'll come up with something to get us out of this." I said, "I hope so, because if not we're going to have a big problem."
JESSICA'S POV
We had left the house a couple of minutes ago and we're walking in silence. It wasn't an uncomfortable one, but I could see Jackson tense and looking around. "You shouldn't worry so much. If you don't see anything, Wisky will hear it and let us know." I assured "I make sure too."
"We're going to be fine; you better relax for a while." I asked and he denied "That's not possible in my job, Miss Leone." He insisted, "Well, I'll make sure it's part of your job myself." I said with a big smile on my face "You're too good." he responded, a smile starting to form on his face "You are too. How are your husband and daughter doing?" I asked curiously. "I divorced him a couple of years ago."
"Sorry, I had no idea." I said, "Nobody has" he reported "What happened?" I asked curiously "He got tired, I focused on my job of protecting Miss Bastianini after what happened to you and couldn't take it anymore." He said as if it were no big deal. "Did you break up because of me?" I questioned, not liking at all what that meant. "It wasn't your fault, it was because of my subsequent obsession with work, that's why we divorced."
"You shouldn't work so much and spend more time with your family." I responded, "I know, and that's what I'm doing now." He quickly assured, "I hope you can get your husband back." I said sincerely, "I doubt it, he started dating another man, and I see how much he loves him."
"I'm sorry to hear that." I lamented, "I'm fine with that, everyone is doing their own lives separately. Besides, we still get along, and that man is good." He admitted "Like I told you, you are too, but I'm glad to hear things are going well." I said and he nodded. "And your daughter?"
"Great. She He doesn't stop running around the house and always wants to play. She's the one who's helping me stay on my goal and not get away from it all again." He admitted again "Well, focus on that, and know you can count on me for whatever you need, especially now you seem to be working for me again." I responded, laughing, "That's right, and you should know I'm not going to let what happened last time. This time you won't convince me."
"About what?" I asked, a little confused. "To let you go anywhere alone, from now on, I'll take care of your safety." Jackson said, "You always were." I said, because as far as I could remember, he always was. "I know, but this time I'm not going to let you do my job."
"I can't allow you to stay away from your family, Jackson. Much less I want you to spend the whole day stuck to me." I assured, "Don't worry about it, Miss Leone, I won't always be here, but I'll be on top of everything." He responded with a smile on his face. "You won't convince me with that." I said, "Nor will you convince me to leave you alone without security."
"We'll talk about that later, now I want to ask you some questions." I answered, completely changing the subject. "That's why you took the dog for a walk, and you didn't want anyone to come, right?" I asked and laughed "You know me, I like that." I said sincerely, "Of course I know you; I spent five years working for you."
"I hope there are many more." I admitted, "I'm sure you will, unless you fire me." he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Which I won't do." I assured "You never know." He countered, but I denied, because I knew that wasn't going to happen. "I know." I insisted "I hope so, now tell me what you want to talk about?"
"I've been looking at some papers, and I don't understand why the hell I had an unsigned contract with a record company." I said honestly, "Because they wanted to hire you." He responded quickly, "What for?" I asked "To be a singer." and I frowned, not understanding anything he's saying. "I don't understand."
"To make things simpler for you, at some point they heard you sing and liked it, so they contacted you to offer you a contract with them." my bodyguard informed "And what am I supposed to do with that contract?" I asked, still not understanding anything. "You were thinking about signing it." he revealed "I what?"
"That's what you were thinking, the day before you left for Los Angeles, we went to see the facilities. They really loved you." He assured, "I need to get in touch with them." I murmured, "Are you going to sign?" He asked surprised "Not now, I need to go back there and see everything again. I'm going to need things to distract my mind."
"Okay, I'll tell someone to contact them." He said, following all my thoughts "Monica." I said, remembering what Carla had told me on the plane. "What's wrong with her?" he asked, "I understand she was my manager." I responded and he nodded "That's right."
"Well, call her, and if you can, we'll meet tomorrow." I said, "You can't go out to a public place." He informed me and I rolled my eyes. "Okay, let someone from security take care of bringing her. She will be able to update me on work issues" I said, "As soon as we get home, I'll contact her and see if she can come tomorrow. "Now we must talk about your safety."
"What's wrong with it?" I asked curiously "The press is chasing shadows right now, but it won't take them long to realize it's you and you didn't die four years ago. You need more protection." responded "How much more protection are we talking about?" I questioned, fearing I wouldn't really like the answer "Three or four more persons."
"That is too much." I muttered "It's not. Believe me. Plus, you're Miss Bastianini's best friend, everyone is going to chase you to get gossip about her." He insisted, "I won't tell anything." I assured "I know, but they will chase you to get what they want." reported "Okay, but I need someone with the kids too, right now they are close to her."
"I'm taking care of that. Who do you want as your bodyguards?" he asked, "Someone I can trust." I said quickly. "Dawson and O'Neill can take care of that, and you can trust them completely." He assured "Good" I said "You need more people." He insisted, "I don't know what bodyguard is in the house at this moment."
"We have Halsted, he's good with children." He revealed, "Well, that will be the one who takes care of them, him and someone else." I responded, "Tomorrow I'll start looking for a couple more bodyguards." He revealed and I nodded, "When you find them, I want to meet them." I said, "Whatever you want, now we better go home before Miss Bastianini calls the police."
"Yeah, I don't want her to do anything crazy." I said, laughing, "Then let's go, besides, it's starting to get colder, and we don't want you to get a cold, it's not what's best for you right now." He pointed out and I rolled my eyes "I'm fine, I also need you to investigate something for me." I asked before going home "Whatever you want."
"I need a doctor to control the shit I have in my head." I said, pointing to my head, "I will do it, tomorrow you will have the best doctor on the table." He assured "Thank you, now let's go. Oh, and tomorrow we must talk about the strategy I will do to get rid of all this shit." I noted, "I'll think of one." He nodded and I denied, because it's not necessary for him to think something when I already knew I want to do. "No need, I think something occurred to me."
"It doesn't hurt to have a plan B in case A doesn't work." He countered and I nodded. "I agree." We turned around and walked towards the house and talked about unimportant topics, and when we got home Carla was already about to call us. Honestly, I think it's too exaggerated, especially considering Santi is calm, I don't understand why she exaggerates things, but well, I think she was always like that, and I admit that it makes me laugh. We sat at the table, and I convinced the bodyguards to do so too, at least most of them, and we spent the meal laughing. I liked this environment, only my family is missing here, but everything would be fine.