The Parent Trap

Chapter 40

Amelia West

POV

I shake my head. "No. That’s impossible." I glare at my lawyer.

He didn’t look away. "I’m sorry, Amelia this isn’t the outcome you were expecting, but that is the reality of the situation." he says.

"But they can’t just ignore the emergency petition!" I shout.

"They didn’t Amelia..." he sighs. "They investigated the allegations and found no evidence of abuse physically or verbally." he says.

I shot to my feet glaring at him. "You promised me you’d get people you knew to get her removed immediately!"

He shakes his head. "Mr. Jacobs lawyer intervened and new people were sent yesterday. I was only informed this morning of their findings." he explains.

But it didn’t help me. It didn’t fucking help me at all.

I shook my head again. I couldn’t believe my plan didn’t work. "What about always protecting women? Why didn’t they believe me?" I ask him.

"The courts aren’t as biased toward women anymore..."

I roll my eyes. "Can’t you like file it again, and make something up. I need to have custody Stella..." I ask.

"No, filing another emergency custody will only make you look bad when the custody case commences. And I have a feeling Mr. Jacobs has something up his sleeve." He slides a folder across the table toward me.

I ignore it, not even looking at it. "I don’t believe it. Do something anything, anything that will put Stella in my care."

"Amelia..." He sighs. "The hearing has been scheduled for two weeks from today." he speaks calmly. So fucking calmly it it pisses me off.

"Once you’re before the judge in two you can present the evidence of the abuse before the judge, you’ll get custody of your daughter..." He tells me.

Evidence.

I clench my jaw.

I didn’t have evidence. All I wanted us to get custody of Stella and show him that in order to get her back he’d need to come back to me.

I just needed Chase to panic, to fall into my trap.

That was the point of this damn custody anyway.

I never wanted the damn child. She was supposed to be a pawn in my quest to be Mrs. Jacobs again.

Now instead of begging for his daughter, he’d won without even lifting a damn finger.

My phone vibrated inside my handbag, but I ignored it.

"So that’s it?" I ask. "There’s no way I could get her?" I ask.

"For now yes. We’ll have to wait..."

My phone rings again.

I feel like throwing the entire living room around. I’m so angry.

My phones rings again, bringing me out of my thoughts.

I look at Devin Lancaster. He is from one of the best Law firms in Chicago. He told me I’d get custody of Stella, the courts always lean toward the mother’s in custody cases.

There weren’t many people who knew about Stella’s birth they always assumed I was her biological mother. Not even Devin knows Stella wasn’t born from surrogacy.

My phone rings a forth time.

I grit my teeth and pull my phone out of my bag and check my phone.

My agent.

I answer the call, extremely annoyed. I told her I would be busy today and to clear my schedule. "What?"

"Amelia..." Rachel sounds shaken.

Dread filled my body. "What happened?" I ask.

"I’ve just received a call from Chanel." she says softly.

Shit did they cancel the contract? But why? "Yes what’s wrong?" I tried to calm myself.

"They’ve terminated your contract." she says.

At first I laughed out, in disbelief. "Very funny. There’s no way they’d go against the Jacobs family..."

"I’m serious Amelia, the contract was cancelled they even paid the penalty out right." she says.

My laughter died down. There’s no way. No one knows about the divorce yet, so why? Why did they cancel it? It doesn’t make any sense.

"Why?" I ask.

"Amelia they didn’t give an answer... They hung up as soon as they said the contract is terminated."

My stomach dropped. "No, they can’t. They can’t do that."

"They already have. Amelia you have to figure it out for yourself."

I gripped the edge of my dining table.

"Get someone to find out what’s going on..."

"I tried but no one is breathing a word of this. They’re using Gianna Niles as their spokesperson now." Rachel tells me.

I scoff, of course she used some underhanded tactic to steal my deal. "Do you think she used some underhanded method to steal my contract?" I ask.

"No, I don’t think so. Chanel isn’t that easily moved by sleeping with execs." she says.

I nod, knowing that’s true. Then it doesn’t make any sense...

I sigh. "It’s fine I at least still have my Westwood contract and The Rosewood sisters tv series."

When Rachel didn’t respond worry chewed at my stomach. No...

"Rachel?" I called out cautiously.

"I’m afraid that’s why I called you. The network called they’re replacing their main lead with someone else. And Westwood called they’re going another direction with their spokesperson..."

"What?" I ask in disbelief.

My knees buckle and I fall to the floor.

"No..." That’s not right.

"There’s more..." Rachel hesitated. "I’ve been receiving termination emails all morning..." she says.

"How many?" my words come out as a cry.

"Almost all your contracts have been terminated. All your interviews have been cancelled as well..."

"How many?" I ask.

"Twelve contracts and all your interviews are gone. It seems someone wants you out of the public eye..." she surmises

I couldn’t breathe. "That’s impossible. What about the penalties?" I ask.

"They’re all paying the penalties to end the agreements."

I looked helplessly at my lawyer. "Can they do that?" I ask him.

He has gone pale. He then nods helplessly.

"Rachel..." My voice cracks.

"Who did you offend Amelia?" she asks.

"I don’t know." Tears roll down my face. I didn’t even know I was crying until the tear hit my hand.

"Amelia you need to find out who you offended and apologize to them.." Rachel says.

"But who? How do I find out?" I ask her.

"I’ve been phoning around all morning but, no one will tell me anything." she says.

I wipe my tears. How on earth have I lost twelve contracts all in one day? I lost my female lead role just like that. I’ve worked as an actress since I was a child. I worked hard for all those contracts.

"Have you had any disagreements recently?" Devin asks.

My eyes immediately narrow. I grit my teeth. I didn’t want to believe it but it could only be him.

Chase.

With the help of his brother Cole, he could destroy my career.

Cole Jacobs was the kind of guy who played underhanded tactics from behind the scenes. He was the kind of guy who would smile at you and then stab you in the back with a bright smile on his face.

"Chase! He did this." I spit out.

Rachel sounded uncertain. "We don’t know that for sure..." she says.

"I do." I say before hanging up. I throw my phone across the room.

"Amelia, you need to speak to Mr. Jacobs and find out if he is behind this..." He tells me.

I shake my head. "No, it’s him he warned me. He said if I pissed him off, he’d make sure no one remembered my name by the time he was done with me..." I tell him.

A cold chill crawled down my spine as I recalled what he said.

Had this been what he meant? That he’d make sure no one would ever remember me?

Would he make sure I would never appear in front of an audience again?

No. There’s no way Chase could have moved this quickly. He only found out about my filing yesterday.

Could he?

"What do you want me to do?" Devin asks.

I slowly stood, my hands trembling, my voice shaking. "Is there a way I could fight this?" I ask.

He sighs. "If Mr. Jacobs is truly behind this and he wants the public to forget you. I believe you’ll be losing more jobs..." he tells me.

"I can call the paps and appear before them..." I tell him.

He shakes his head. "Yeah that’s not a good idea. He could buy those pictures or even show the public you paid for their photos..." He tells me.

I glare at the wall like it offended me. "Then what the fuck do you want me to do?" I ask him.

"For now, I think it’s best you lay low and wait until the hearing is over. We don’t want him to tell the world you’re divorced right?" Devin reminds me.

I bite my tongue.

No I didn’t want the world to know I was divorced. I didn’t like to fail and my image is at stake. The thought of the world knowing about my failure only angered me more.

"Could you get a PI for me?" I ask Devin

"For what exactly?" He asks.

"I want them to take compromising pictures of Stella’s nanny and Chase. That will sway the public in my favour and then also hit him where it hurts. Chase declared war and I am not going to sit back and just take it..."

"This is a bad idea Amelia. Your divorce is final and he can prove you’ve been separated for months. Once that comes out you’ll be the bad guy."

I scoff. "Chase likes to keep his private life private. He won’t tell them anything..."

Devin nods. "Okay I’ll do as you say..."