CEO's Runaway Mate and Her Cubs

Scarlet ran into the living room at full speed, almost tripping over the carpet. Still, she regained her balance at the last moment and threw herself on Lara.

«Mommy, mommy! I have something to show you!»

«Yes?» Lara chuckled, hugging the girl.

«But first, I missed you so much.»

Only after a long hug and a peck on the head, did Scarlet let go of her mother and sat next to her. She opened her backpack and showed the pack of magazines she had in it.

«What is this, Scarlet? Where did you find...»

«It was on the tables,» she explained. «The tables in the hallways.»

«You sneaked out from school!»

«No. I waited for Nate to come to pick us up. Then, I saw it while he was talking with Secretary Jack, and I decided to collect them all.»

«You shouldn't do this, Scarlet. I will buy you as many magazines as you want, but these are supposed to stay in the waiting room. They're for the clients to read while waiting.»

Even though fashion magazines and tabloids? Most likely, it was just a way to cover the tables with something coloured.

«I also kept this,» Scarlet added, showing a regular business newspaper.

«Why?»

«Because daddy is on the cover.»

«Oh, indeed.»

Nate was standing next to a shorter man, shaking hands after signing the deal of the century. Or, at least, that was the caption under the image.

«So, you collected this because your father is on it,» Lara said, smiling proudly.

Her daughter was starting to accept Nate, even collecting his pictures when she saw them. It was more than Lara had, to be precise.

How bad would it have been if she stole it from her own daughter? Was there any chance there was a second copy in the backpack? After all, Scarlet had collected a ton of paper.

«But what about the tabloids? Do you like the colours? Or is it because it's full of pretty people?»

«Yes,» Scarlet laughed. «Because my mommy is the prettiest of them all!»

She opened one of the magazines and showed a picture with Lara and Nate. They were standing one next to the other, Nate's arm comfortably wrapped around her shoulders. She was smiling at the photographer without any worry.

Oh, if only she could be as confident as in that picture at all times...

«I collected all of those where my mommy is,» Scarlet continued.

«I want one too!» Jaden shouted from behind the back of the sofa. He had walked around and was peeking at them, standing on his tiptoe, only his forehead visible.

«You should have collected your copies,» Scarlet pointed out.

«But I also want a picture of mommy!»

«I told you, you should have got some. These are all mine.»

«Mo-o-ommyyy!»

Lara sighed, patting her daughter's head.

«Scarlet, don't be selfish.»

«But mommy, I worked hard to make them all fit into the backpack. I even left the spare t-shirt on the table to make space.»

«You.. what? Oh, forget it. I'll collect the t-shirt tomorrow.»

«There might be some more. Jaden can look for his copies.»

«There are so many, Scarlet. You can give him at least one, can't you? He's your brother.»

Under Lara's expecting gaze, Scarlet rummaged in the bag until finding the copy she didn't like.

«You can keep this,» she said.

Jaden grabbed the magazine and opened it in search of pictures of his beautiful mommy.

When he finally found the photo, he yelled at Scarlet and started crying. To Lara's surprise, he dropped the tabloid and ran away.

«Jaden?» Lara murmured, surprised.

All of a sudden, such a crisis?

«Jaden!» she repeated, this time yelling. «Jaden, come back here!»

She got up to follow him, but then she wondered about the causes of the tantrum. She circled around the sofa while Scarlet opened her favourite picture and observed it with a smile.

Lara's fingers soon found the article about her, and she saw Nate's face with the corner of her eye. She would have stopped to admire if she wasn't still angry with him. Where was he, by the way? He dropped the kids and disappeared! He could greet her before running back to work from the study.

It was as if he was abandoning her after a night of passion, if not for the fact that she hadn't been seduced. They did sleep together, but nothing else had happened to explain his sudden distance.

She rolled her eyes, returning her attention to the magazine. The main article on the page was about her.

Not about Nate's girlfriend, but about Lara Clayton specifically. Her hands trembled, and the paper fell on the floor for the second time.

Next to Nate, there was a third figure. Black like the night, like her fears.

«Lara Clayton's beauty charms the two most eligible bachelors. Who will win her heart: Nathaniel Woods or Luciano Polenta?» she read.

Scarlet was looking at the other pictures without worries while Jaden was who knows where, crying alone. Yet, Lara couldn't move and search for him. She was standing in place, in panic.

She couldn't move a single muscle while her mind fell towards the darkest pit ever.

What has she done to deserve that treatment? She was just a regular woman who attracted Nate's attention by chance. Why were they associating her with that other man?

She looked like... A wench? A gold-digger? And she didn't feel any better.

It was just what they wrote about her. It was not reality, and it was not something she needed to worry about. Still, her eyes filled with tears.

What if Nate left after reading that?

A sob was stopped right in time, and she took a deep breath while a pair of hot hands collected the magazine from the floor and then surrounded her in a warm hug.

«It's just a stupid article,» Nate whispered. «Forget it, Lara. They don't know a thing, so they write what they think will sell.»

He rubbed her back, consoling her a little.

«You're not like what they wrote. Everyone will understand, sooner or later,» he continued. The world should have known that she was his. There was no point in writing her name next to another man's.. He wouldn't have let her go just like that.