The Silver Cord: The Lily Lockwood Series: Book Two

by Alison Caiola

  Lily walked over to the closet and retrieved a black shopping bag with bebe written in large pink letters on the front. “Great audience tonight, huh?”

  After opening night, Lily had quickly learned that each audience has its own unique personality. Tuesday night audiences always tended to be their worst crowds. Laughter didn’t come as easily to them as it did to audiences on other nights. The parts that usually make the audience gasp don’t even seem to register on a Tuesday-evening crowd.

  As a matter of fact, last Tuesday, as they took their bows, Jodee whispered to Lily, “If you stuck a broomstick up your butt and swept the stage floor, you wouldn’t get one damn reaction from this crowd.” Lily burst out laughing.

  But this Tuesday was different. The crowd was on the edge of their seats and Lily felt that it almost had the electricity of an opening night.

  She took the garment out of the bebe bag and smiled at the pink tissue paper that neatly wrapped the dress.

  Jodee said, “Yeah, all you have to do is win the Tony every Monday night and we’ll have a Tuesday night audience that isn’t completely comatose.” She watched Lily unwrap the paper, pull out a beautiful black-jersey, sleeveless, high-neck dress with a key hole that promised to reveal just the right amount of cleavage. Lily slipped into the dress and felt it hug her curves perfectly.

  “Pretty sexy for a week night; what do we have planned?”

  “We don’t have anything planned. I told you, I have a date with Jamie.” Lily put on her black platform, open-toed Christian Louboutins, and looked at herself in the mirror. “Do you think I need to run a flat iron through my hair?”

  “No, you look great—too good for that little shit.”

  Lily took back the perfume bottle and held it up to remind Jodee of their deal.

  “Okay, give it back. I’ll be cool, no worries.”

  A few minutes later, Jodee and Lily emerged from the dressing room and walked down the stairs to the waiting area by the stage door. Jamie was standing there, hands in his pockets, talking and laughing with a couple of girls from the wardrobe department.

  Lily smiled when she saw Jodee’s eyes widen. Jamie was hot: He was 6’2”, had blonde hair and high cheekbones—a young Kevin Bacon or River Phoenix with a smidgen of Brad Pitt thrown in. He was athletic without being too muscular, and had a killer six-pack.

  When Lily saw the girls talking to Jamie, she felt a surge of jealousy. She wondered how long it would take for her not to remember Natalie every time she saw Jamie speaking to another girl. Could she ever fully trust him again?

  As Jamie looked up, he saw Lily coming down the stairs and let out a long whistle. He walked over to her, extended his hand so she would get to the bottom step safely, and gave her a quick kiss.

  “You look gorgeous, babe. I would have dressed up if I’d known. . .”

  Lily took his hand. “You look fine.”

  “You got that right.” Jodee said under her breath.

  Lily smiled and introduced the two. To Jodee’s credit, she was a perfect lady with him.

  Jamie and Lily went out the stage door onto West 53rd Street, where throngs of fans were waiting patiently to get their Playbills autographed. As soon as they saw Lily and Jamie, the crowd called their names and pulled out their phones and cameras. Lily had to close her eyes because the flashes, against the dark night, temporarily blinded her.

  Chapter 4

  Still blindfolded, the prisoner lay unconscious on the dirt floor. His leg, which two days earlier had been brutally crushed, was now twisted in a grotesque position. A horde of rats swarmed over their lifeless host, gnawing at his face, arms, and legs until their own faces were drenched in his blood. Still, he did not move.

  Two of the guards threw a bucket of ice water on him. The rats scurried to their hiding places and the prisoner was jarred back to reality. For a split second, before his nerves delivered the pain message to his brain, he couldn’t remember where he was. Once his brain received the communication, it felt as if his leg was being sawed off. The prisoner remembered everything. He cried out, begging for the reprieve of darkness, where he did not have to feel, think, or remember.

  He heard footsteps and the two guards returned. The prisoner braced himself for the torture that would surely follow. They each grabbed an arm and pulled him to his feet. His weakness and injuries would not allow him to remain upright and he fell hard to his knees. The guards dragged the prisoner across the room and out the door. He screamed with pain and protest, not knowing what fate awaited him outside that room.

  The prisoner would never forget how he, Ivan, Frosty, and Simon were forced to their knees, guns to their heads, as they shivered in fear while their captors furiously circled them, their dark faces distorted with hate and anger. The thugs screamed at them in a language that none of them understood and pointed at the four accusingly.

  In the middle of this chaos, one of the men walked slowly over to Frosty, calmly put a gun to his head, and shot once. The prisoner could still hear Ivan’s and Simon’s screams as Frosty’s brains and blood splattered onto their clothes and over their faces. Next, they put the gun to Ivan’s head laughing at him, tormenting him. Ivan closed his eyes and screamed. One pop to the head silenced his screams for eternity. Next was Simon. He looked the gunman straight in the eye and spit in his face. Simon was dead before the spit hit its target.

  Then only the prisoner remained. His body convulsed with fear. He held his breath and closed his eyes, waiting for the one shot that would keep them closed forever. Nothing. They dragged the prisoner away from his friends’ bodies, into the room where he was viciously beaten. Since then, that room had become, in some perverse way, his safe haven—a place where he may be brutalized but would not be killed.

  He couldn’t breathe. They dropped his arms. The prisoner could tell he was outside. Then one of the guards ripped off his blindfold and the prisoner knew instantly that he could barely open his eyes because they were so swollen. He looked around and saw that he was in a makeshift outdoor shower, with a hose that hung over the large muddy hole that his knees had sunk into.

  One of the guards lifted the prisoner up, but again the prisoner could not stand on his own. The guard shouted to the other one and he came running over.

  While the first guard held him upright, the second took off the remainder of the prisoner’s tattered clothes and turned on the hose. The ice-cold water shocked his body, but then thankfully acted like an anesthetic and numbed some of the pain.

  The guards put what looked like hospital scrubs on the prisoner and between the two of them carried him out of the area.

  The prisoner passed a group of men seated around an outdoor stove. A kettle aroused his hunger. His stomach suddenly felt as if it were being sucked so far inward that it was fused against his spine. He couldn’t remember the last time he had had even a morsel of food. He prayed that he would eat soon.

  Chapter 5

  “I may never eat again. I’m stuffed.” Jamie pushed his plate away.

  Lily laughed. “I highly doubt that, knowing the love affair you have with food.”

  “You know me so well.”

  Lily’s phone rang and she took it out of her purse. A picture of her manager popped up on the screen.

  “Hey, Franny, you’re working late.”

  “No rest for the wicked. How are you doing, doll?” Franny’s raspy smoker’s voice seemed to be getting deeper and deeper each time Lily spoke with her.

  “Good, everything’s great.”

  “Well, exciting news here, I just got a call from Arthur Thomas.” Lily’s ears perked up and she put her wine glass back down on the table. Arthur Thomas was the hottest new director to come out of the hip-hop world. He had called himself Arty T when he’d been a hardcore rapper and a young protégé of Tupac Shakur during the east coast-west coast hip-hop rivalry era. After the deaths of Tupac and Biggie Smalls, Art was the one left standing and soon thereafter was propelled into stardom. Then, a couple of ye
ars later, he wrote and directed an extremely commercial, big-budget feature film called After The Sun, a post-apocalyptic story that showed genuine depth and talent. He and the film were both nominated for an Academy Award.

  “So, he’s written a screenplay and it looks like Paramount is the highest bidder. It’s big, big, big budget—

  “— I like the sound of that.” Lily interjected

  “You got that right, little sister,” Franny laughed. But her laughter soon devolved into a ten-second coughing spell.

  “Are you okay?”

  “These damn cancer sticks are gonna be the death of me yet. So where was I? Oh yeah, so he contacted me, looking for you, for the starring role.”

  “No way.” Lily mouthed ‘Oh My God’ to Jamie and pointed to the phone.

  “Oh yes, way! Anyway, they’ve already messengered over the script to you; it should be in your doorman Mario’s hot little hands as we speak. I’ve got mine right here and I’ll read it tonight.

  “Excellent! When and where does it shoot?”

  “In LA, starting in six weeks. He wants to get the leads together a week before for bonding and rehearsal.”

  “Wait, what about St Joes, aren’t we supposed to be considering my return to the show?” Lily finished her last drop of Cabernet and pointed to her glass. Jamie called the waitress over and ordered another.

  “An Arthur Thomas film trumps a TV series any day. You know that. Let’s wait and see what happens. So get reading and call me tomorrow.”

  Lily hung up and relayed the conversation to Jamie. He had looked a bit bored and even annoyed while she was on the phone, but as he got up to speed, his excitement level seemed to rise.

  “So that’s all I know. Sounds cool, huh?”

  Jamie smiled. “Yeah it sounds awesome. First of all, it’s going to breathe life back into your film career.” Lily winced.

  Jamie continued, “You’ll be out in LA, which is where I need to be in the next couple of months. So we can be out there together and I can be with my two favorite girls. Now, here’s the best part: I’ve been asked to audition for a part in Arty T’s movie too.”

  Lily didn’t know how to react, so she said nothing. Jamie didn’t notice because he was doing enough talking for both of them.

  “We can either move back into your Malibu house and make a nursery for the baby, or we could stay in an awesome house I just leased in the Hollywood Hills. It has four bedrooms, so there can be one for the nursery and the nanny. Or we can spend the week at my place in town and then head to Malibu on the weekends and during our time off. How does that sound?”

  “You know, Jamie, it’s a lot to think about. Let me see what’s going on with both these projects and then we can talk about the logistics.”

  Jamie took Lily’s hand and held it across the candlelit table. “You got it. I want you to know how lucky I feel to be sitting here with you and looking at your beautiful face. All I wanted, Lily, is to get back together with you and have the opportunity to be a real father to Daisy Rose.

  Lily gently pulled her hand away from his. “I told you that we need to take things super slow. I can’t be rushed, not after all that’s happened. And whether we’re together or not, you are a real father to Daisy Rose.”

  “I know, I know. I just mean that I want us to be together like a real family, living under the same roof.”

  Lily looked down. She folded and unfolded her napkin several times. Jamie put his hand under her chin and tilted it up so that she was forced to look into his eyes. “Babe, what’s all this about?”

  “Just don’t push too fast. That’s all I’m asking, okay?” she replied.

  He looked hurt and she took his hand this time. “Let’s just go with the flow, see how things progress, and try to be in the moment.”

  “Okay, you got it. I’ll try to be in the moment—as long as you’re in the moment with me.”

  The waitress walked over to the table and asked if they wanted any dessert.

  Jamie winked at Lily. “Well, that all depends, if I’m getting dessert at home later, I’ll pass. If not, bring on the damn menu.”

  Lily laughed. “Check please!” Jamie kissed her hand.

  Later that evening, after the “dessert” was finished, Lily lay in Jamie’s arms, drifting into a much-needed sleep. Suddenly, Daisy Rose let out a shriek and started to cry.

  “Our daughter is very considerate. She was nice enough to wait until her Mommy and Daddy were all finished fucking before she made any noise.” Jamie got out of bed and put on his shorts. “Unless all that noise her Mommy made earlier woke the poor child up.”

  Lily threw a pillow at him and said, “You stay. I’ll go to her and we’ll both meet you back in bed.”

  “Wow, years ago—before I met you, of course—when I waited for two beautiful girls to get into bed with me, it was a little different.”

  Lily shook her head. “You’re an asshole.”

  Jamie laughed. “Babe, I’m joking, c’mon don’t be that way.”

  Lily stood and went to get her nightie out of the closet. Jamie sat up in bed and watched her walk naked across the room. He jumped up, walked over to her, and put his arms around her. “I love you, babe, I really do.”

  Lily didn’t say anything, she couldn’t. Tears welled up in her eyes. Jamie saw them, smiled, and kissed her. “Don’t worry, it’s all gonna work out, I promise.” The baby gave another insistent cry.

  “I better go get her.” Lily put on her nightgown and walked down the hall to the nursery. Once inside, she closed the door behind her.

  “Ma, Ma, Ma,” the toddler cried out and reached her hands up to her mother.

  “Mama is here Daisy Rose. Lily picked her daughter up, held her close and rocked her. A wave of loneliness overcame Lily—she missed and needed her own mother. As she held her daughter tightly, Lily began to cry. She did so because, unlike the impression Jamie must have gotten, she wasn’t moved to tears when he had told her he loved her. She cried then and she was crying now, because the man she truly loved and wanted to be with, was not in her bedroom and had not been anywhere near her bedroom for a very long time.

  Chapter 6

  Donna lifted the plastic top off the to-go tin that housed her Caesar salad, pushed aside the dreaded anchovy, and took a bite. It had started out as a beautiful June day when she and her goddaughter had made plans to meet for a lakeside picnic at Ladies Pavilion in Central Park. Only a half hour earlier, pitch-black clouds devoured the blue sky and within minutes erupted into an angry downpour. The charming blue and gray cast-iron structure— erected in 1871 and originally situated on the park’s W. 59th Street and Eight Avenue entrance—provided shelter for passengers waiting for the trolley car. In the early years of the 20th century, the open-air structure with its many decorative columns and ornate details was moved inside the park, beside the scenic Hernshead Lake. Its slate roof protected Donna, Lily, and Daisy Rose from the rain, while the two benches inside provided them comfort as they watched soaking-wet row boaters furiously paddle back to the Boat House.

  “Birdy. Birdy.” Daisy Rose pointed to a baby sparrow happily splashing in the rain water that had gathered inside one of the many cup-shaped flowers sculptured on the posts. Lily picked up her daughter and brought her closer to the bird. “That’s right, sweetie, it’s a little birdy.”

  Daisy Rose squealed, clapped her chubby little hands, and the bird flew away. She waved and shouted. “Bye-bye birdy. All gone, Ma Ma.” Lily gave her daughter a kiss and a cracker before putting her back on the bench.

  Donna nodded to the empty spot where the sparrow had been. “Sometimes you have to let the one you love go and simply keep your fingers crossed they’ll return.”

  “Seriously, the advice you’re going to give me is ‘if you love something set it free’ bullshit?” Lily stuck her plastic fork into Donna’s salad, and helped herself to it, then continued eating her Turkey Panini from Zabars.

  “It’s not bullshit, Pali, and I�
�m not minimizing your feelings. I know Robbie loved you. We were there. We all saw it. If it’s meant to be, he’ll find his way back to you. Meanwhile, what’s going on with Jamie?”

  “What do you mean?” Lily averted Auntie D.’s eyes and suddenly got very busy trying to locate a napkin in her Gucci black-and-white diaper bag.

  “Don’t hand me that Miss Innocent routine. A little birdie told me that he’s been spotted very early in the morning, in his boxers, eating Captain Crunch at your breakfast table.”

  “Gladys has a big mouth. One day I’m gonna have to fire her disloyal ass.” Lily chuckled.

  “Don’t bother. I think your mother once tried to do just that. She still showed up for work the next day and had the gall to ask for a raise.” Donna smiled encouragingly. “Spill it. You know it’s going to make you feel better.”

  Daisy Rose whimpered and raised her hands up to Donna, who proceeded to pick her up. The toddler yawned, rubbed her eyes, and dropped her sleepy head onto Donna’s shoulder.

  “Okay, so Jamie and I have been spending time together, no biggie. Because of the baby, I started feeling guilty that I was not seeing him, so I’m giving it another try.”

  “Is it going well?” Donna asked.

  “Not so much. But I’m working on it. I just have to figure out a way to get Robbie out of my head.”

  “And your heart?”

  Lily sighed, “Yeah, that’s true. But I have to say, Jamie is being really great and trying so hard. We’ve been discussing going back to LA together.”

  “Oh?” Donna raised her perfectly shaped right eyebrow.

  “Uh oh. You have that tone in your voice like Mom used to—you don’t approve but you don’t want to interfere.”

  “Listen, it’s up to you. I certainly don’t disapprove. But it would be hard for Robbie to come back to you if you’re living with Jamie.”

  Lily stood up and started gathering the empty containers and paper bags left over from their picnic. “We’re not going to be living together. Not at first.”