Chapter 6 Chapter Six

Caleb

The non stop vibration of my phone woke me up. I frowned and reached to the nightstand for it, squinting at the bright screen.

There were countless missed calls, text messages, emails, and notifications stacked on top of each other like a disaster waiting to happen, and that was not a good sign. 

My assistant, Mia, had already called four times, which meant something was definitely wrong, so I called back immediately.  

“What is it?” I asked. Her voice came through quickly. 

“Sir, we have a problem.” I sat up straight on the bed. 

“What happened?”  

There was a short pause before she answered.  

“There are photos of you with a woman.”  

For a second, I said nothing.  

“What photos?”  

“The ones from outside the White House, sir. The ones with a Miss Vance.” My mood changed immediately.  

“How bad is it?”  

“It’s everywhere.”  

I ended the call before she could continue, then opened my browser and I didn’t need to search my name. It did not take long before the articles started appearing.  

Photos of me holding Elena’s arm outside the White House. Photos of us getting into the car. Photos of her entering my estate. The headlines were even worse.  

Mystery Woman Linked to Sterling Heir. President’s Son Caught in Secret Romance Scandal. Who Is the Woman Seen With Caleb Sterling?  

I stared at the screen for a few seconds, scrolling through article after article. This was not random. The timing was too perfect, and even the angle of the photos looked too clean to be accidental. Someone had clearly been waiting. This was planned. 

I got out of bed and pulled on a shirt. Before I could finish buttoning it, my phone rang again. I looked at the name and it was my father. I answered immediately.  

“Yes?”  

“Come downstairs. Now.”  

He ended the call. No greeting. No explanation. Just like always.  

By the time I walked downstairs, the atmosphere in the house already felt different. The staff were moving faster than usual, security guards stood at every entrance, and phones rang somewhere in the background. The entire house had already entered crisis mode.  

I walked into my father’s office without knocking. He stood by the window while, his advisor, Marcus stood beside him with a tablet in his hand. For some reason, I never liked Marcus. He gave this off vibe that I couldn’t put my hand on. His calm act seemed fake to me but I was not his employer so I could not complain. 

The moment my father saw me, he threw a tablet onto the desk.  

“What exactly is this?” he asked.  

I looked at the screen. Another article. This one was worse.  

IS THE STERLING FAMILY HIDING A SECRET PREGNANCY?  

“Impressive” I murmured. Marcus looked annoyed. 

“This is not funny.”  

“Good thing I’m not trying to be funny.”  

My father ignored both of us.

“Who is she?”  

“Elena Vance.” Marcus folded his arms. 

“And who exactly is Elena Vance?” I looked at him briefly. 

“I wasn’t talking to you.”  

His face changed, but before he could respond, my father cut in.  

“Caleb.”  

I shifted my attention back to him.

“She’s the woman from I met at the gala two months ago.”  

Silence filled the room. Marcus was the first to react.  

“You’ve been involved with this woman for two months?”  

“Not involved” I corrected. “That would suggest effort.”  

“Then why was she at the White House?”  

“She came to see me.”  

“Why?”  

I put both hands into my pockets. There was no point dragging this conversation longer than necessary.  

“She’s pregnant.”  

Another silence followed and this one lasted longer.  

 Marcus looked shocked, but my father did not. He simply stared at me for a moment before sitting down.  

“How sure is she?”  

“She claims she’s eight weeks old.”

“That is not what I asked.”  

“We’re verifying it.”  Marcus let out a long breath.

“This cannot be happening now.” I looked at him. 

“Life usually does not wait for permission.”  

“Where is she now?”My father asked.

“At the estate.” Marcus looked surprised again.

“You brought her here?” he asked.

“Yes.”  

“That was careless.”

“No,” I replied calmly. “Sending her away would have been careless.”  

“And why is that?”  

Because right now Elena was already becoming a public target. Sending her away while the media was hunting for her would only make things worse.  

“She stays where I can keep an eye on her.”  

My father studied me carefully. Then he asked the only question that actually mattered.

“Is the child yours?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“You should.” I gave a small shrug.

“That is not how biology works.”  

Marcus muttered something under his breath. Ignoring him, I checked my phone again and there were more notifications and more articles. This story was spreading too fast. Someone was helping it spread, that much was obvious.

“We need to release a statement immediately, Marcus said.  

“No. We won’t release a statement yet” I replied.

“If we don’t release a statement now, things would get out of hand”  

He was right but rushing into panic had never solved anything.  

“No statements for now.” My father said.

 Marcus looked surprised. 

“Sir?”  

“Not until we understand exactly what we are dealing with.”  

“You will keep this under control.” he said to me.

“I already plan to.”  

“No mistakes, Caleb.”  

That almost made me laugh. Mistakes? This was inconvenient, yes. Messy, definitely. But not impossible because nothing about this was beyond repair.  

“I’ll handle it,” I said. Then I turned and walked out.  

The moment I stepped into the hallway, Mia rushed toward me with her tablet.

“Your schedule has been cleared for today.”  

“Good.” She hesitated.  

“There is another issue.”  

“There is always another issue.”

“Miss Vance’s boss has been calling repeatedly.”  

That got my attention.  

“Who?” I asked.

“Mr. Vitros.”  

A scandal involving the President’s son would naturally concern him.

“Has she answered?”  

“No, sir.”  

Of course not. She was probably still trying to process the fact that she had somehow become national gossip overnight.  

“Where is she?”  

“East guest wing.” I nodded once and headed there. 

As I walked through the hallway, I already knew what was waiting for me I knocked once, but there was no answer, so I opened the door anyway.  

Elena stood near the window, holding her phone tightly. She turned the moment I entered. Her face looked pale and her eyes looked tired, but at least she was holding herself together. That was something.  

“You knew” she said immediately, straight to the point. I respected that.  

“Knew what?”  

“That this would happen.” I shut the door behind me.  

“No.” She looked unconvinced.

“Really? Because this seems very convenient.” I looked at her. 

“You think I leaked my own scandal?”  

“I don’t know what to think anymore. My boss has called me eleven times.Tessa keeps texting me. There are photographers outside my apartment.”  

Someone was definitely pushing this harder than necessary, and that would need to be handled.  

“This situation is bigger now” I said.  

Elena laughed softly, but there was no humor in it.  

“You think?”  

“Listen carefully”

“No.”  

“Elena.”  

“No, Caleb. I came here to tell you the truth. That was all, I didn’t ask for any of this.”  

“I know.”  

“Do you?”  

“Yes.”  

She seemed slightly surprised by my answer. At least she knew I was not completely unreasonable.  

“This changes things” I continued. Her face changed again.  

“You do not get to decide that. I don’t want my life to become social media gossip”

Actually, I did, but saying that out loud would not help.  

“There are reporters looking for you already” I said instead. She looked away because she knew I was right.  

“If you leave now, this only gets worse.”  

A moment of silence passed between us. Then she looked back at me.  

“So what happens now?” she asked .

That was the question I had been waiting for. I studied her quietly, this was where everything changed.  

“We control the story.” She frowned. 

“How?”  

“By giving people something better to focus on.”  

“What does that mean?” she asked. I looked directly at her.  

“It means we stop letting them turn this into a scandal.”  

“You have two choices, Elena,” I said calmly.  

“I already hate this conversation.”  

“You can either let the media destroy your privacy while they invent their own version of this story…”  

I paused. “…or you can let me control it.”  She narrowed her eyes.  

“And how exactly do you plan to do that?”  

“We get engaged.” I said sharply.

Elena stared at me like I had completely lost my mind. For the first time since waking up, I finally felt slightly entertained.