Longing For The Beach Billionaire Daddy
Chapter 30

*Shelby*

A knock sounded on my door, but I didn’t want to get out of bed. The room that was usually cluttered but tidy, was full of moving boxes, in corners pushed as out of the way as possible. It had always been a tight squeeze with all three of us in one room, but now it just felt claustrophobic.

I closed my eyes and wished sleep would come, wished it would give me a break from my thoughts that continued to run back to Michael. I missed him but knew I could never face him after all of the trouble I had caused.

I hadn’t talked to him after he ran off after the photographer, so I had no idea how much he had to pay the man not to publish those photos.

I’d only guessed that he had eventually spent enough money, because I never saw my face plastered all over the front of a gossip tabloid, blog article, or magazine.

I had panicked the entire flight home, but I’d decided not to react to the picture the unknown number had sent me, it wasn’t like I could do anything about it anyway. I had nothing of value to my name, I wouldn’t be nearly as convincing as Michael with his money.

“Shelby? Please come out. You have barely left your room since you got back. We just want to know that you are okay,” Aubrey said from the other side of the door.

I had decided to keep the incident in the cove from my friends. I did not need them to worry, and honestly, I just couldn’t handle having to talk about it. I thought about it enough already. It seemed like it was all I could think about.

“Shelb, come on,” I heard Lin crack the door open and hit one of the moving boxes that were stacked next to the door. We all shared a room, so I didn’t have much privacy, Aubrey was just less pushy than Lin.

“I made pancakes,” Lin cooed through the now halfway open door.

“Uh, fine I will get up,” I said and I rolled to see my two roommates standing in the doorway looking worriedly at me. Lin was holding a plate of pancakes, probably hoping to lure me out of bed with the smell alone.

It wasn’t a bad idea. I could never say no to pancakes, even if I had a broken heart.

Aubrey and Lin smiled as they followed me out of our small shared bedroom and to the even smaller kitchen. I would really miss this place when I moved. I had spent so many years of my life here, I had become an adult here, and I had met two of the best people in my life here.

I sat down at the small table, and Lin gently set the plate of pancakes in front of me, as if any sudden loud noise would be enough to set me off and send me back into hiding.

“What are your plans for the day?” Aubrey asked, always the motherly one of our group. Elementary education really was her true calling in life.

She would be staying in the apartment while she finished up her degree and then searched for a teaching position, where she could mold the next generation’s minds.

“I don’t know,” I offered with a small shrug.

“Shelby, I know you are hurting, but we are moving to our new place in less than a week now,” Lin said, trying her best to be sympathetic.

Lin and I were both accepted into Harvard Law school so we found a lovely two bedroom apartment just off campus. The rent was going to stretch my already thin budget even thinner, but if my interview at West Law Firm went well, the rent wouldn’t be a problem.

I had gotten an email confirming my interview, just a few days after I returned. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Michael when I saw the message. He’d done so much for me in such a short time.

I swallowed and said, “You’re right. I need to go and cancel my gym membership. It would really suck to get all the way to Massachusetts and realize I was still paying for a gym membership in New York.”

“That is a great idea!” Aubrey said with a little too much enthusiasm.

“You are going to shower right? How many days has it been now?” Lin said. I couldn’t help but smile and my friend’s bluntness.

“Three. Thanks for keeping track, Lin.”

“Anytime,” she said with a smile, and I shoveled another bite of pancakes into my mouth.

A few pancakes and a quick shower later, I was walking down the crowded street to my gym. The gym had always been an expense that I had found a way to fit into my budget. I often used it as a place to destress after a long day of school.

In such a small apartment, it was nice to have somewhere to escape to.

I walked in the front door to see the familiar receptionist sitting at check in.

“You’re not really dressed for the gym today,” she said, referring to my jeans.

“I am actually here to cancel my membership,” I said, stopping and leaning my forearms on the check in counter.

“Oh, no! That is so sad, you’ve been a regular ever since I started here,” the receptionist said as she slipped the cancellation form to me.

“I know, I will miss this place. I am moving at the end of the week, and I don’t know how I will ever replace this gym,” I said while I filled in my information.

“Where are you moving to?”

“I start at Harvard in the fall,” I said and slid the form back to her.

“Well, good luck. We will miss you here.”

“Thanks so much,” I said with a small wave as I made my way back onto the busy street.

A man wearing a dark hoodie and a baseball cap was leaning against the building. I didn’t think anything of it until he started walking a short distance behind me. I figured I was being paranoid, so I slipped into a convenience store, to wait for the man to pass, to ease my nerves.

I was filling a cup with a cola flavored slushie, when I noticed the same man browsing the candy bars, his head tilted just enough that I couldn’t get a good look at his face.

My heart started racing; he really was following me. I set down my slushie and walked quickly around the shelves and out the front door.

As soon as my feet hit the sidewalk I started running, weaving my way through the other pedestrians on the sidewalk. By the time I made it back to my apartment, my heart was pounding against my ribcage, but I took the stairs two at a time, not daring to stop.

I threw my key in the lock with a look over my shoulder, but the hallway was empty. I nearly fell into the apartment as the lock clicked, and the door burst open. I slammed it shut behind me, and slumped against the closed door.

Lin and Aubrey’s shocked faces met mine, but before they could start asking questions, I threw my finger up to my lips, shushing them. Loud thumping footsteps thudded down the hallway, and I forgot to breathe.

Silence followed, but a knock sounded on our door and sent vibrations of fear through my entire body. I nearly screamed, but clapped a hand over my own mouth before the sound could escape.

We sat in silence as the minutes ticked by, staring at the door. Occasionally, we’d sneak glances at each other, but we were all so scared we didn’t want to take our eyes off the door for long. My breathing started to slow, and I inched toward the door and looked out the spy hole.

The hallway was empty.

Lin couldn’t contain herself anymore. “Shelby, what the hell was that all about? What is going on?”

“I went to cancel my membership like I told you, but as I left I noticed a man following me. I went into a convenience store, and he turned up there too. So, I put the slushie down and left, running as fast as I could home,” I said breathlessly

“Was that who just knocked?” Aubrey asked, her face visibly paling.

“I don’t know,” I said, slowly standing up.

I turned and looked through the peephole. The hallway was empty as far as I could tell. I gripped the doorknob with shaking hands, still terrified to open the door. I took one last look through the peephole and noticed a small brown box on the edge of our welcome mat.

I know that the box hadn’t been there earlier, otherwise I would have smashed it on my way in.

“There is a box at the door,” I said.

“Maybe it was just the postal delivery, and it was just really bad timing,” Aubrey offered hopefully.

I slowly opened the door and checked up and down the hallway before picking up the box. There was almost no weight to it, so I grabbed it with one hand, still holding on to the door with the other, and pulled it inside.

There was no return address or stamps on the package. Just my name in simple writing in the center of the box.

“What is it?” Lin asked, seeing the worried look on my face and coming to stand next to me.

I opened the box and nestled inside was a printed picture of Michael and I naked in the ocean.

“Holy s**t! Is that you?” Lin asked.

“Yes…” I said with a small nod.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Aubrey said, who had snuck up to my side while I was distracted by the picture.

“I thought this would all just go away. At least, I hoped it would. An unknown number sent this picture to my phone, right before I flew home. I figured it would be all over every headline before I even landed. When it wasn’t I figured Michael had bought off the photographer and taken the pictures.”

“Have you talked to him since?” Lin asked.

“No.”

I picked up the picture and flipped it over in my hand.

-Tell Michael he is running out of time-

“You have to take this to him, Shelby. You have to look for his number or something. He has to know about this.”

I stood holding the picture in my shaking hands. Lin was right, I needed to look for Michael. This clearly wasn’t going away.