Jack knew his parents had gotten in trouble again when the reporters started clustering around his house, setting off his proximity alarms.
And the phone. The phone just kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing.
Jack disconnected all the phones after the third reporter called, asking him to make a statement regarding the state of his parents' marriage.
"It's none of your fucking business, that's my statement!" shouted Jack into the phone, before ripping the cord off, and regretted it immediately. Now he would be presented as an angry and unstable teen, victim of his parents' neglect. Which he kind of was, but he didn't want that plastered across the headlines of tabloids all around the world.
He threw the phone across the room, and stalked back down to the basement.
No, he was no stupid victim, he told himself. He was just pissed off. Really pissed off. The personal scandals between his parents had dwindled down in these past few years, to the point where he thought they had finally learned how to be adults. But no, here they were, yelling at each other in front of reporters like they used to do when he was a kid.
And it made him so angry. He slumped down on the chair in front of the central panel monitor. There was a small window displaying a constant live feed of all the mentions of him and his parents in the media.
'Spicer industries stock price drops 2 points after scandal racks the Spicer family'
'Lionel Spicer caught red handed with unknown red haired woman'
That caught Jack's attention, and he clicked on it, so that the monitor displayed the full article. He speed read through the bullshit article that didn't say anything, but stopped at the photos of his father at the restaurant. They showed him being surprised when Wuya sat down next to him.
Jack screamed in horror. It had been Wuya! He let his head fall on his desk. Of course, how could he have thought that Wuya would be fine with leaving his parents alone after getting into a fight with his mom? She wouldn't. She was every bit as petty and resentful as Jack was. He should have known.
His cell phone rang, and Jack growled. If the media had found his new cell phone number, someone at his phone company would pay for it. He pulled out his phone and saw it was a message from his dad.
"We're having dinner in Beijing tonight. The helicopter will be there around 6. Be ready."
Jack sighed. It seemed like his dad was doing damage control as fast as possible. No wonder. He checked his watch and noticed he had half an hour at most. Time to put up a nice image for the photographers.
Another message arrived. This time from his mom.
"Please wear something nice darling."
Jack rolled his eyes. His mom probably felt bad about her latest string of outbursts. Now she was all over the press as Lionel Spicer's crazy violent wife.
And it was all Wuya's fault.