Chapter 32 #2
Brody lifts me off my feet then, while Bigelow continues to shout.
“You’re not married. You never were. You two are nothing but a pair of con artists perpetrating a hoax on the public and your sponsors.”
Others around him start shouting, and security guards rally to action.
Brody carries me back down the runway at a near run, past the stage curtains to the dressing area.
He’s behaving as if Bigelow were wielding a gun.
But come to think of it, he was wielding a phone.
With a video. He was shouting something about people needing to see the video as the security guards reached him.
The rush of the crowd’s confusion fills the air, reaching us backstage, and I can feel and hear the pandemonium even as I stand in the circle of Brody’s arms as he lowers me to a stand.
“What’s going on?” I ask him the stupidest question I’ve ever uttered.
“It’s blackmail by Bigelow gone wrong.”
“The video?”
He shakes his head and pulls me against him. “No. It’s not the one Tammi took. She tried calling me to warn me about Bigelow. I finally spoke to her after Bigelow called to shake me down for ten large.”
“What?” I push back from him to look at his face, to see if he really is as impossibly calm as he sounds and feels. The beating of his heart against his chest feels normal while mine is beating up my ribs like a wild banshee wrongly imprisoned.
His mouth quirks into a sad half-smile, no dimple, no spark of mischief. “Never mind. The worst has happened and it’s not so bad. The truth about our non-marriage is out. We’re free from our lie.” I hear the words he doesn’t say. From each other.
Tears immediately well in my eyes, and I can’t hold them back as I turn away, trying to swipe at them, which is useless.
“Don’t be sad, Bianca. I still…” He trails off, and I get it.
He has no idea how he feels. Still.
As soon as I hear my mother’s voice approaching, I stiffen. “My mother.”
He lets me go. “I’ll call you later. We need to talk.” Then he disappears down the hall and through a door. I’m sure he knows his way out of this building, a way where he won’t be seen.
Marie, Cherry, Delaney, and Emery all surround me, bringing my mother with them. She immediately embraces me.
“Are you alright? Who was that awful man? Why was he spouting all those awful lies?”
I loosen from her arms and face her, face all the women around me who all seem to know better and have nothing but concerned empathy in their expressions.
“He wasn’t lying. I’ve been lying. Brody and I were never married.” I heave a breath while I take in my mother’s confused reaction.
“Not married? Why would you—”
“It’s a long story, Mom. But it started out innocent enough with a wedding ring stuck on Brody’s finger, and well, I guess things got out of hand.”
“I don’t understand, but I’m sure you meant well. You’re the most honest, decent young lady I know—and I’m not saying that just because you’re my daughter.”
Tears run down my face as I give her a fierce hug. “Where’s Billy and Bob?”
“They went to bring the car around for a quick escape.”
That causes the women surrounding us to snicker and try to hide their amusement.
Cherry puts a hand on my arm. “Will you be okay?”
I should be worried that I’ll be fired for fraud in negotiating sponsorships, but I’ll keep that issue to myself. Because I don’t feel worried deep down. I can’t seem to feel anything past the deep, painful emptiness left by the end of my relationship with Brody.
“There’s a reporter out there who says you might want to talk to him,” Marie says. “I recognize him as one of the good ones.”
“Gary Edwin?”
She nods.
“I’ll see him, but only to make a quick statement. Can you bring him back here where it’s private?”
Marie slips out of their dressing area, and her mother renews her hug. “I don’t know how to feel about all this, Bianca. But I’m worried about you most of all. How are you feeling?”
“Right now I’m kind of numb.” I realize it’s true. I’m in crisis mode, and as long as I have things to do to manage the crisis, I’m fine. It’s when we leave here that my taking-care-of-business facade will slip, and the implications of our blown secret will sink in.
Marie returns with Gary, and he nods at me, looking wary. “You sure you want to talk now?”
I chuckle, realizing I must look a mess, my hair tussled from being carried from the runway and my eye make-up ruined by my tears.
“I’m fine. I’ll make it quick. It’s true that Brody and I were never married. Circumstances arose that made it appear that we were, and we chose at that time not to correct the false assumption. That decision was not well thought out and was the wrong thing to do.
“We never intended to hurt anyone or purposely influence any sponsorship or other contracts. Those deals were based on the volume of public attention and not necessarily the cause of that attention.
“That said, I will no longer be representing Mr. Holden and would like to make it perfectly clear that he in no way behaved in any way that was illegal or contrary to any rules or guidelines of the NHL or the Portsmouth Whalers.”
I nod, and Gary turns off his phone recorder. “I’d like to follow up in the future.”
“I have no idea what I’ll be doing in the future, Gary.”
I take my mother’s hand and nod at Marie. She leads me and my mother toward the back exit, the same way Brody went, followed by the rest of the women.
When we reach the door, I pause only for a moment, tears threatening to burst through the dam of numbness, and we leave my new WAG friends and Whalers Arena behind.
My brother Bob drives us to Brody’s condo, and I pack my things.
He and Billy take the bags and boxes out to load them in the car.
I watch them get on the elevator while I remain standing in the condo’s entryway with Mom.
Glancing around at the place I mistakenly called home for a few short and very memorable weeks, I struggle to embrace the regret.
“I have too many special memories here,” I say out loud.
Mom nods, and she takes my arm and walks me out the door. The snick of the lock reverberates loudly in my chest, but I manage to make it downstairs and into the waiting car without crying. My family is too worried as it is. I don’t want them to worry anymore.
Sitting in the back seat with Mom, she leans over and tries to whisper, “Do you want to come home? Your bedroom is waiting exactly as you left it, and you’ll always have a job at our diner,” Mom says.
I smile. It would be the easiest thing to do, to retreat to my warm, loving childhood home. But I’m not a child anymore.
“Thanks, Mom. But I’ll call Kat and move back into the apartment with her in Portsmouth.
It’s where I meant to go after… the marriage—charade ended.
” The stab of pain through my chest may as well be a knife.
Somehow it feels sharper than Cupid’s arrow.
Maybe because my whole life’s falling apart.
And there goes that control over my tears as a few leak out.
“Whatever you think is best.”
Bill speaks up, “You should come home and get away from the media. They’re like jackals.”
Bob says, “Plus you don’t even know if you still have a job or reason to stay in Portsmouth.”
“Thanks.” I give a watery chuckle. But they’re both right. “You’re right, but I’m too stubborn not to stand up and fight for what I want. I can still have a career as an agent if I work for it.”
Mom puts an arm around me, and my brothers nod in approval in the rear-view mirror.
On the short drive to my old apartment, I text Kat, Cherry, and Delaney to let them know. I don’t text Jett. I need a plan, a polished business proposal for him and for Kat, to represent her in the music industry.
I’m going to need to talk to him—tomorrow.
“What about Brody?” Mom says as if she’s been reading the texts over my shoulder.
“I don’t know. Maybe we’ve already said everything we need to say. We planned to end things, and now it’s over.” I shrug, but the movement causes a ripple of pain because I’m lying to myself. I have a million things I want to say to him still.
Unfortunately, if I’m honest—and I vow to myself that I’m through with lying even to myself—I’m still a little too chicken to say some of those things. Okay—most of those things. Especially the thing that starts with the L-word.