One of the security guards spoke up, “Miss, you need to come through or get out of line.”
This moment would decide my fate forever. Walk through the security gate, into the life I knew in Boston, or step out on a limb into the unknown with Andrew.
Finally, I found the strength to tear myself away. I raised my hand and gave a little wave before walking through to join Jocelyn.
She grabbed my hand and held on tight. There were no words spoken between us; none were needed. I gave her strength in her time of need, and now she was holding me together. Her life was coming together as mine was falling apart. My eyes stayed focused on her fingers entwined in mine as she led me to the plane. I couldn’t look around. I didn’t want any memory of what I was leaving behind.
We sat in silence on the flight back to Boston. Jocelyn was kind enough to give up her window seat.
I stared out at the passing clouds below us, wondering what exactly it would have been like to throw caution to the wind and jump the security rope. What would have become of us if I stayed?
I couldn’t dwell on the ‘what if’s’ though, I had to move on in the present.
Jocelyn was safe; her husband was rotting in hell. The morning news brought allegations that not only Jr. but Sr. was involved in some criminal activity. Mr. Stallings was directing all questions through his attorneys. The entire family would be too busy cleaning up this mess to bother with Jocelyn. The police were too busy uncovering the scandal to consider Andrew and I had a hand in his death.
Everything could be normal in my world again. Except that little voice in the back of my head screaming over and over what about me?
A single tear escaped my eye and rolled down my cheek. I quickly brushed it away before putting on my earphones and turning up the music to drown out Andrew’s voice forever.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The moment I stepped inside my home, the smell of mildew and decay assaulted my senses. Dread washed over me. My feet made crunching noise against the sand-covered hard wood floor. I surveyed the damage. The foyer, living room, and part of the dining room were covered with remnants of my one hundred and eighty gallon fish tank. Inside the shattered tank sat a large red handled hammer.
“How could he?” My legs began to tremble, so I plopped down on the mucky floor. Never in my life had I imagined he would be this cruel and destructive. The baseboards in the foyer had started to warp indicating to me that Dan probably smashed my tank weeks ago, well before our phone call.
“Holy shit. What happened?” Jocelyn gasped when she entered behind me.
“Dan’s wrath.” I pointed to the hammer as fresh tears stung my eyes. Suddenly it dawned on me that things were way too quiet. “Rusty. Where’s my dog?”
Fear pushed me off the floor, and I dashed to the stairs. In haste to find my dog, my feet slid out from under me on the sand. I landed with a thud atop a shard of glass. I ignored the pain in my hand. “Where is he, Jocelyn? What has he done to my dog?”
“Mari, calm down.” She stood at my side.
Fear gripped my stomach and twisted it into a blinding rage. I retched on the floor. “It doesn’t matter. Dan’s done something to my dog, just like he did to my fish. He’ll destroy everything I love,” I coughed and sputtered.
“Mari!” She screamed at me and grabbed onto my shoulders and shook me, hard. “Mari, there is a note.”
I tried to blink back the tears. “A n-note?”
“Yes, Dan left a note on the…he left a note. It says Rusty is being boarded at the pound. You have until tomorrow to pick him up before he goes up for adoption. Stop crying, we’ll work this out.”
Confused, I looking around the room, to get a bearing, but the tears made my vision blurry.
“Get off the floor, silly.” Jocelyn pulled me to my feet and sat me on the couch. “It stinks in here.” Her nose wrinkled in disgust.
“Yeah, welcome home.” I attempted to laugh but the sound came out choked. “I vaguely remember bringing you out here to protect you, not to force you to deal with my issues.”
“You’ve done everything humanly possible to protect me, Mari.” She went around the room opening windows. “Stop thinking about me, he’s—” The sentence faltered as she wandered into the dining room to open those windows.
“Dead,” I finished for her, too quiet for her ears to hear.
My fish tank was dead, my marriage was dead, and my relationship with Andrew was dead. Everything I touched seemed to die. But Rusty was okay. I needed to calm down and focus on moving forward with my life. If I lived in fear, I wouldn’t be living at all. When one life ends, another begins. My life with Dan and Andrew had ended; it was time to start a new Boston life, single.
“Mari, where is your refrigerator?” She reemerged from the other room with a scowl on her round face.
“What do you mean?” The sinking feeling returned, I lowered my head into my hands for support. When I tried to take a deep, steadying breath, the stench of decay caused me to cough.
“There is no fridge.” She raised an eyebrow at me and I got up to follow her to the kitchen. My feet slipped and slid on the fine layer of dried saltwater and sand. Sure enough, there was a vacant spot where the refrigerator used to reside.
On the counter were fresh divorce papers with a yellow sticky note attached that read, “Have it your way.”
“Does he know about Andrew?” The look of concern on her face was almost comical. Her eyebrows were furrowed down so far they almost touched.
“I doubt it. There’d be paparazzi around if anyone knew.”
As I scanned the new divorce papers, Jocelyn pulled a broom out of the pantry and tackled the mess.
“What’s the scumbag saying now?” Her voice rang out from the other room.
“He’s giving me the house and everything inside, as long as I don’t attempt to collect alimony. I guess I better go find what else he’s removed.” I ached for Andrew’s comfort. “And clean this up so I can get my dog.”
We arrived in Boston late, and now I had this surprise mess to deal with, when all I wanted to do was sleep off my depression. Instead Jocelyn and I spent the evening cleaning and taking inventory of my belongings.
Along with the refrigerator, Dan removed our bedroom furniture, some jewelry he’d bought, the entertainment system, and my washer and dryer.
****
My first task of the day was to get Rusty out of dog jail, and even that proved to be difficult.
“A dog is a lifetime commitment, you can’t just dump him when you don’t want him any more,” the animal control employee reprimanded me.
It made my blood boil, I wanted my dog back, and she was stalling my reunion.
“I did not dump my dog, my ex did while I was out of town on business.” I worked to steady my breathing since yelling or crying wouldn’t help my situation right now. “Please, I just want my dog. The asshole said he was here.”
After providing my proof of ownership in the form of a vet microchip bill, and paying a hefty fine for him being boarded there for two weeks, I had one overly excited little black dog back in my arms. The tiny licks and whimpers of joy helped patch my broken heart some. “Oh Rusty, I missed you.” Tears of joy ran down my face, and he lapped them up. This was my happiest moment in over a week. He remembered Jocelyn, too.
“He’s so adorable,” she cooed when he jumped from my arms to hers and lavished her with kisses. Neither of them seemed affected by her cumbersome cast.
“Come on you two, I’ve got to get home and deal with Dan now.”
There was no point in delaying the inevitable any longer. I’d pushed this aside for weeks while in Los Angeles.
Dan picked up the phone on the third ring. “Well, hello little miss movie star, I take it you’re back home now?”
“Bring back my appliances, Dan.” The calmness in my voice was belied by my rage. “You can keep the rest. I don’t want something your whore has probably laid on anyway.”
“Then you won’t want the washer and dryer either,” he replied in a smarmy voice.
“You’re disgusting. How can you possibly go from loving me, to doing this to me?” Once again, my voice cracked. At one point I loved Dan more than anything. Now I couldn’t even remember the good times we’d shared.
Echoes from my shoes bounced around the empty master bedroom as I paced the floor.
“You’re the one who wouldn’t let a little mistake go. Are you crying?”
“You call having an affair with your partner a little mistake? That’s why I couldn’t let it go. You think you’re entitled to forgiveness.”
“Stop crying and speak rationally.”
“Oh, I’m not crying, the days of me shedding tears over you are long gone,” I lied.
“Look, what I’m willing to offer is in those divorce papers, sign it or deal with my lawyer. It’s up to you.”
“Fine, I guess I’ll see you in court and once a month after, when you drop off an alimony check.” At this point, I should have signed the papers and gotten him out of my life, but he had put me in a fighting mood.
“Fine, you’ve gotten all you’re going to get from me.” This time he hung up on me. Fighting with Dan had been easier when I had Andrew to run to. Now I was completely alone. Maybe I was being a bit too co-dependent. At least I’d be forced to work though those issues now.
The next day, I received a call from Dan’s lawyer asking if I could come in and have an informal meeting with them to work out acceptable details of the divorce. We agreed upon a date the following week, and then I began the job of reconditioning myself to life in Boston, alone.
I called my old job to let them know I was back in town and to see if my position was still available. Shocked, I learned through the CFO, my former boss had been fired for incompetence. Funny, I could have told them that, years ago. They’d filled my position, but due to the termination, they had a management position they were looking to fill. I eagerly accepted the position and began work that week.
At least something was looking up.
“See, I told you, bad luck comes in threes. Your bad luck streak is over, and now it’s time for you to be rewarded.” Jocelyn sang, when I told her of my promotion. It only took a six-week vacation for the company to realize how much I was needed. “You’re getting a divorce, you had to give up Andrew, and everything I’ve put you through…” She counted off my trials on her slender fingers. Funny she didn’t know the half of that last one.
Sometimes I had nightmares of Raymond’s face staring back at me, cloudy eyes open and accusing me of murder. But when Jocelyn grabbed my keys to go on an interview, or out anywhere for that matter, I knew she was safe, and that brought a smile to my face.
Trying to readjust and pull my regular civilian life back together helped keep my mind off Andrew. For the majority of the time anyway. I still missed his embrace at night and wondered what he might be doing.
“Just check the gossip websites,” Jocelyn suggested.
“No way, I can’t do that.” It seemed wrong to spy on him like that. Besides, in my fragile state, I don’t think I could stand seeing him at a club with another woman.
On the day of our informal divorce meeting, I woke up sick to my stomach after having one too many glasses of wine the night before. Hugging a toilet wasn’t the way I wanted to start my day. My mind needed to be focused and sharp, not thinking about suppressing my gag reflex.
The ding-dong of the doorbell pulled me off the bathroom floor. I expected Jocelyn locked herself out when she took Rusty for a walk. The two men staring back at me through the window were anything but what I expected when I came down the stairs. Both older men, dressed in a suit and tie.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“Mrs. Pearson? My name is Detective Rivera, this is Detective Saunders.” The Hispanic man introduced them both. I blinked and tried to remain calm. They could be here for any reason and there was no point in getting nervous. “We are here because of a Raymond Stallings. Do you know this man or his wife, Jocelyn Stallings?”
No, not here for any reason, only here for the reason I had nightmares. In my heart I knew they would come, but I still wasn’t prepared. When I tried to swallow, it felt like the weight of my tongue would choke me. I’d lost it all now. Ray had succeeded in taking away everything from me, including my freedom. Could I get by in prison, or would I be one of the weak people who cried and was taken advantage of? My mouth opened and closed several times, like a fish out of water.
“I’m Mrs. Stallings.” Jocelyn walked up the porch steps behind them. “What’s going on?”
They faced her. I watched my life end from my doorway.
“Mrs. Stallings, the man arrested for your husband’s murder is throwing around some wild accusations. We just need to ask you a few questions. Do you have a minute?
“Accusations? Do I need a lawyer for something?”
“I don’t think so, ma’am. We just need to cover our bases. Mr. Cusson said your husband was deceased when he arrived at the hotel. That he’d been paid by your husband to track down the one who got away and teach her a lesson.”
“Teach me a lesson. What does that mean?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out? Why were you in California?” Detective Rivera asked.
“My husband and I were fighting, so I went out there to visit Marissa and give us some time.”
So they’d given some credence to the thugs’ allegations that he didn’t kill Ray. They were looking in the wrong direction though. His wife wasn’t the one who got away. It was time for me to confess. Rusty began to bark at the men standing in the doorway, I picked him up to quiet him and to help ease the welled-up panic.
“Why didn’t you go home when your husband was murdered? Instead you came to Boston.” Detective Saunders finally spoke.
“She’s here to help me out. I’m going through a rough divorce, and I’m afraid her husband wasn’t too happy about her coming out here for me,” I said.
“They used to date. I feel like you’re accusing me of something.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you come out and say it.”
“Not at all Mrs. Stallings, we just have to make sure the guy responsible for your husband’s murder goes to jail for it. My partner is a little gruff, don’t mind him. We just need to know if you had any contact with your husband or Mr. Cusson while you were in California.”
“As I told the detective over the phone, I’ve never heard of Mr. Cusson, and no I didn’t see my husband in California. I had no idea he was there.”
“You’ve never heard your husband speak of Mr. Cusson before?”
“No, never,” she said.
“That’s all we need, then. Thank you for your time. If you happen to remember anything, please give me a call.” He handed her a business card.
“I will, and you’ll keep me informed as well, correct?” She sounded worried, but I heard the relief in her voice, it was subtle, something only a childhood friend could pick up on.
They both reassured her she had nothing to worry about; they’d put Ray’s killers away before they left.
From inside, we watched them walk to their car. The moment they were inside Jocelyn turned to me. “Mari, what happened to Ray?”
“I don’t know, but it sounds like he got what he deserved.”
The last thing she needed now was to hear how her husband stalked me out and abducted me, not his run away wife, but me. Her confidence couldn’t take that hit. Recalling the torture he’d put her through, I knew this was a lie I’d have to keep up. “I’ve got to go to that divorce hearing. Are you going to be okay?”
Much to my relief, she let the subject drop, and I left for my meeting.
“My client and I have reviewed your situation and we feel the divorce settlement is fair. What seems to be the problem?” the attorney said when I walked into the small office.
“Your client stole the appliances out of my house, my jew
elry, TV, and my bedroom furniture. I want my stuff back.”
His attorney’s head snapped around to him. “You didn’t, did you?”
“Yeah,” Dan said. “So? I want my wedding ring back.”
“Not a chance. Do I have to remind you that you cheated on me and requested this divorce? I’m entitled to keep the ring.”
“Who purchased the items in question?” his attorney asked.
I was representing myself in this informal hearing. There were very few details left to work out, so I was confident we could finish this today. If not, I’d then hire some help for an official hearing.
“He bought the TV and jewelry. The furniture and appliances we purchased together, they belong in the house that I’m getting in this settlement. I want them back.”
“Well, you can’t have them. I sold them!” Dan’s hand slapped the table to drive his point home.
“Replace them then.”
“Do you have proof these items were purchased jointly?” the attorney asked, much more calm than Dan, or my twisted stomach.
“As a matter of fact, I do.” I opened the binder I’d brought from home. I pulled out the bills for the appliance store account. As I already knew, it had both our names listed at the top. I handed it over the table. My entire weekend had been devoted to compiling every shred of documentation I could find in case—when—he tried anything else underhanded.
“Since you purchased these as a couple, you are only entitled to half. If my client writes you a check for half the value, will you sign the papers?”
“Half?” Dan shrieked. “I only got a grand when I sold them.”
“Fine, give me two thousand dollars, and let’s be done with this.” My stomach was doing summersaults again. I didn’t want to deal with Dan in my current condition. At this point I’d almost be willing to forgo the stolen items just to run to the bathroom.
“Is there something wrong with your hearing? I said I only got a grand in the sale.”
“That’s not my problem, I didn’t sell them so cheap,” I reminded him. “Look at the sale slip. They’re brand new.”
Forever in Hollywood Page 22
