Chapter 46
Chapter
Forty-Six
“Hope.”
“Mary.” Hope dragged in a deep breath as she sat in her office on the couch, the phone pressed to her ear as she listened to her agent’s quick speech.
It was such a contrast to the slowness she felt, to being curled up with a mug of coffee in her fingers.
She sighed. She couldn’t be anywhere else in her house. It was too quiet.
“There’s been an adjustment in the press tour.”
Hope wasn’t surprised. While the morning show had been more her style than Angelica’s, putting them together in one space outside the confines of filming had been a risk.
Social media had blown up over it, the way Hope had held Angelica’s hand when she’d whisked, the looks they’d shared during the question and answer time.
But what it really was, what no one else knew, was the argument at the end.
Angelica hadn’t talked to her since. Not that Hope had expected her to. And true to Angelica, she was retreating from everything that she didn’t want to feel. Hope sipped her coffee, still not sure what to say or even what she needed to do.
“Did she take me off all of it?” Hope asked. That’d be the best outcome. Then she could focus on this divorce and maybe finding Rex. Whom she still hadn’t heard from. No texts, no phone calls, nothing. And she’d tried. She’d tried desperately to get ahold of him, but he wouldn’t answer her.
“No. You’ll be doing press separately again like last season.” Mary hummed, and Hope could hear her clicking on her computer. “And the email said something about a YouTube show? That’s been cancelled as well.”
“Oh.” Hope had barely even remembered that. Not with everything that was going on right now. “Okay.”
“You don’t seem upset about this.” Mary’s voice was calm, but then she normally was.
“I’m not surprised by it.” She sighed heavily. “I have bigger issues going on right now.”
“What issues? Do you need to renegotiate the contract again?”
“No, these are personal issues.” Hope stared down at the rug in her office, making a mental note of the patterns in the colors. She couldn’t bring herself to leave the room and go out into the rest of the house. “Rex served me with divorce papers.”
“Oh, Hope.” Mary’s voice, the pity, it was almost too much for her.
Hope could feel the sting, the overwhelming pain that seemed to rush to her chest every time she actually thought about it.
But naming those words out loud felt relieving at the same time too.
She was so broken. She wanted to be mad and raging and screaming, but she was only shattered, barely holding the pieces of herself together.
“Did he move out?” Mary asked.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“You guess?”
Hope clenched her jaw and rolled her eyes, trying to keep the tears at bay. “I came home from the wrap party, and all his things were packed up and he was gone. He took Eva.”
“He took Eva,” Mary repeated, as if she couldn’t believe the words coming out of Hope’s mouth.
“Yeah. And I don’t know where they went.”
“You don’t know where they went? As in, he hasn’t communicated with you at all where your daughter is?” The shock was clear.
Hope winced. “He won’t answer my calls.”
“Hope Lawrence.” Mary was firm now, that motherly voice, the one that told Hope she’d done something wrong. “What the hell have you been doing for the last week?”
Moping.
Crying.
Barely functioning.
All those answers and more were correct. But she didn’t have the heart to say them. Instead, she closed her eyes and prepared for the yelling that she no doubt deserved.
“You need to call the police!”
“Wh-what?” Hope stuttered.
“It’s custodial kidnapping for him to just take Eva without telling you where he went and not communicate with you, and you can use that in the divorce if you want, but you have a right to know where Eva is.
” There was an edge in Mary’s voice now, one that lingered on panic briefly enough for Hope to hear it.
“He’s Rex. He’s not hurting her.”
“He’s hurting her by keeping her from you. Hope…” Mary sighed. “You need to act. Now. And you need to get this under control. I’ll do what I can to keep the press out of it and make sure you have the time to deal with this, but you need to get off your ass and get mad. This isn’t you.”
Hope paused, her fingers tightening around the coffee mug still in her hand. Mary was right. This wasn’t her. She wasn’t someone who just sat down and took hits like this without fighting back, so why was she doing it now?
“You’re right,” Hope agreed. “This isn’t me.” She straightened her shoulders and sat up a little higher. “I just… I never expected this.”
“Sometimes you don’t. But that doesn’t mean you can sit back and let him take you for everything. And Hope… it’s Eva. Get your head out of your ass and fight for what’s right for your daughter.”
Hope found herself nodding and then frowning. “Do you um… do you know any lawyers? I don’t… the one he’s using is the one my sister used, so I can’t go there. I…” Hope stopped, her heart pounding hard.
Her sister.
Fuck him.
“I need the name of a lawyer if you know one.”
“I do. His name is Kevin Brock. He used to be based in Seattle but was able to practice in Washington and California. He’s moved down here recently with his partner, so he’s taking more clients in California. He’s really good. I’ll email you his information.”
“Thanks.”
“But he’s going to tell you exactly what I just did, Hope. You need to call the police. Now.”
“Yeah.” She wasn’t going to say that she didn’t want to do that. The last thing she needed was to issue an alert for Eva and Rex and have police crawling all over the city to find them. But she could use that to her advantage. “Thanks, Mary.”
“Good luck, Hope. This isn’t going to be easy, but I’m here for you.”
Standing up, Hope stretched out her legs and walked to the kitchen to dump the rest of the coffee she hadn’t drunk and rinse out her mug. She leaned against the sink and closed her eyes, pulling in every ounce of strength she had to make this call.
She held the phone to her ear and let it ring, waiting for Rex to once again not pick up his damn phone. When it went to voicemail, she hung up.
Immediately, she sent him a text.
Hope: If you don’t answer me in the next five minutes, then I will call the police. I have a right to see my daughter, and you can’t keep her from me.
Her thumb hovered over the send button for one split second before she tapped it. There, now he had a deadline. And that anger Mary had talked about began to bubble up in her belly and move into her chest. She needed to hold that feeling tightly. She needed—
Her phone rang.
Hope glanced down at it, finding Rex’s name staring back at her. Holy fuck that had actually worked. Because she really hadn’t wanted to make good on that threat. She held her breath as she answered the call.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“Rachel’s.”
Hope nearly collapsed right then and there. She should have known. The two of them were so close. She should have figured out that they would have—
“It’s not what you’re thinking, Hope.” Rex’s voice was terse, tight. “So stop thinking it. I didn’t want Eva to be freaking out, so I brought her here to have some familiarity.”
“But you didn’t fucking tell me where you went?
So I could just sit here and suffer for a week while you played uncle to my sister’s kids?
” Hope clenched her fingers around the edge of the counter, squeezing back the tears that were again threatening to fall from her eyes. “Don’t act the saint now, Rex.”
“I’m not.” He sighed. “I should have told you. I figured Rach would have—”
“Rach and I would have to be talking in order for that to happen, and you know very well she’s not talking to me right now. Not after…” she trailed off, not sure she could even say the words. “I did what you wanted. I chose you.”
“I know.”
The silence was loud, but Hope wasn’t sure what the hell to say next.
She wasn’t even sure what she could say to get anything across to him.
Her heart hurt. Her soul was shattering even more than when she’d pretended that he had just gone on a trip with Eva and she hadn’t been able to go with them.
This was the reality that she had wanted to avoid and pretend didn’t exist.
“I don’t want to be your second choice.”
“God.” Hope collapsed onto the floor, her back against the cabinets as she pressed her hand to her face to hold back her sob. He wasn’t her second choice. He’d always been first. He’d always been the one she wanted and needed in her life. Couldn’t he see that?
Or maybe he was seeing what she refused to acknowledge.
That ever since she’d met Angelica, things had been different.
They had changed. It didn’t start with that first awkward kiss in the hallway in New Orleans.
It started on that studio floor with Wade taking photos of them.
It had started the very moment Angelica had walked into that room and captured all of Hope’s attention.
“I’m hiring a lawyer,” Hope said, keeping her voice calm. “I don’t want to make this nasty if we can avoid it, okay?”
“We still have to work together next season.”
“We do,” Hope said, sighing heavily. “But that’s so far away right now I can’t even think about it.
” She breathed slowly, letting the cold air settle into her lungs and calm her down.
“Right now I want to see Eva. Tomorrow. You can bring her by the house, or I can go get her, and then you and I need to sit down and talk to her about what’s going on.
Together preferably, but if you don’t want to see me, then I can do it. But you can’t keep her from me.”
“I’m going to keep her with me until we figure this out.”
“No. That’s not how this is going to work.” Hope’s shoulders tensed, and she pushed her head back into the cabinet. “You’re not going to keep her from me.”
That wouldn’t be in Eva’s best interests, surely Rex could see that. Surely he could understand it. Eva had barely been separated from them during her entire life—to completely cut Hope out now would be detrimental to her.
“We’re going to do this my way or through the courts. I tried it your way, and that was a mistake.”
“My way?” Hope’s voice broke. “You’re talking about Ange?
Because you’re the one who suggested an open relationship.
You’re the one who put the idea in my head and told me that we could make it work.
You’re the one who came up with the rules that we all agreed to and followed, and then you’re the one who decided to throw that all away without even talking to me first! ”
“I thought I was doing what was best for our family—for us.” Rex scoffed.
“And I was so very wrong. I thought I was working on a way to keep you, but the more you were with her, the longer you were with her, the more I realized that you love her. It’s not just feelings, it’s not just sex, it’s not just figuring out your sexuality. You love her.”
Hope’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t deny it.
She wouldn’t tell him that he was wrong.
Because he wasn’t. She did love Angelica.
But she loved Rex as well. She’d never told him how deep her feelings ran for Angelica because she’d been afraid that this might happen, that for him it would become all about a competition that he felt he couldn’t ever win.
“Don’t talk to me about making this work when you’re the one who pulled away.” Rex was insistent.
Hope knew she bore some of the blame for the state of their relationship, but it wasn’t all on her.
He had to recognize that at some point. Neither one of them were talking.
Neither one of them was putting effort into their relationship and making sure that they were taking care of each other.
And that had started well before Angelica came into the picture.
It started when Eva was born.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Hope sighed. “You’ll bring her to the house tomorrow for her to stay the weekend.”
“No, Hope, I’m not going to do that.”
“Then the courts it is.” She hung up on him.
She hated this.
Tears spilled down her cheeks again, warming her skin as they stung. What the hell had crawled up his ass? Why was she the one who was being made out to be the enemy?
She checked her email, and true to her word, Mary had sent over the contact information for the lawyer.
Hope called him immediately and left a message so he could get back to her.
She debated on calling Rachel, but the vast amount of betrayal that had just happened wasn’t anything she wanted to resolve right now.
In fact, she wasn’t sure it could be resolved.
Hope dragged her sorry ass up off the floor, went back to her office, and curled up on the couch. She pressed her cheek against the arm of the couch and stared at her phone. She was all alone in this.
Rachel wouldn’t talk to her.
Rex had left her.
Angelica was…
Hope breathed when she thought of Angelica. She’d been kinder than Hope had imagined she would be, especially after their argument in San Diego. She’d expected Angelica to shut down and push her out instantly. But that hadn’t been the case. Not that she’d been warm and hopeful either.
Biting her lip, Hope stared at her phone. She could call Angelica, but what then? And why? Why would she call? For her own wellbeing? For her own mental stability? Because she needed something?
All of those things were true.
Which was exactly what Angelica had accused her of.
Not thinking about what everyone else was feeling. Hope clenched her eyes shut tight. Angelica had to be hurting, just like Hope and Rex were. They were all tangled up in this love triangle that had broken apart as soon as a small amount of pressure was put on them.
And no one was left standing.
No one had been left unwounded.
They were all broken into a million little pieces.
And they had nine months to figure themselves out before they had to see each other again. Nine months to heal and move forward. Nine months.
It wasn’t that much time.