Fame & Consequences

by Reese A. Stephens

  “Hi.”

  Dr. Boswell smiles kindly as he points to the seat beside me. “Mind if I join you?”

  “Not at all, go ahead.” I scoot over to make room.

  He sits down and is quiet for a little while before he speaks “I’m guessing that you’ve learned about all the media attention?” I nod. “I may understand a little better than you may think.”

  I turn to him curiously. “You do?”

  “I do. I’m married to an actress. Ainsley Porterfield.”

  “Really?” She was one of my favorite actresses.

  “I am. For about ten years now.”

  “Wow. How do you do it?”

  He rubs his hands on his thighs as he gives a sardonic laugh. “It wasn’t always easy, it’s still not really. We had moments when I assumed things would be better if I stepped away, but at the end of the day, I loved her too much. We had to find what worked for us.”

  “Do you mind telling me what that was?”

  “I don’t attend any Hollywood functions with her and she doesn’t attend any work functions with me. We keep our work and personal lives totally separate. That’s not to say that’s the only way. You and Mr. Stone are both famous in your own rights. You’ll have to be out and about at some point. The important thing to remember is that your personal relationship is yours and no one else’s. Let them assume what they will, but at the end of the day, it’s only the two of you who know what really matters.”

  “Thank you,” I tell him, and I really mean that, because it really would make Elijah’s life easier without me, but that’s not what either of us wants.

  “Not a problem. So, how would you like to get out of here?” he asks.

  “I’d love to.”

  “Perfect. I’m also here to set you free.”

  He stands and holds his hand out to me. I take it and he helps me up. He places my hand in the crook of his arm and walks me back to my room. In my room, Elijah has packed up all my things and is setting them on my bed. Jared is at the door looking as if he’s about to leave.

  “There you are.” Jared’s relief is palpable.

  “I have returned her in excellent condition and you are free to go as soon as you sign some documents.” Dr. Boswell says. He hands me a clipboard and points to a line for me to sign.

  “Thank you,” Elijah says, shaking his hand, before reaching for me.

  “I do urge you to follow up with your neurologist, but as far as we can see from your scans, everything looks good.” Dr. Boswell has really gone above and beyond for me. I really appreciate him.

  “I’ll do that. Thank you again.” I shake his hand and we are on our way.

  Elijah turns to me once we are in the elevator. “So, Hutch and Brody are meeting us downstairs, Reynolds has the car in the parking garage by the service elevator exit. You can eat your food in the car.” He shoots me a wink.

  I’d forgotten all about my burger. It sounds really good too, even if it’s cold. I’m starving. “Are there a lot of people around?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “Not really. The police won’t let them loiter around the hospital, but I’m sure they’ve been watching. They are around my house. I’ve run them off my land, but the field across from me is public property so I can’t do anything about that.”

  “It’s fine. I want to get home.” I mean that too. I want to be home and home is wherever he is.

  “You called my house, home.” Elijah smiles softly, he seems nervous.

  I lean up on my tiptoes and give him a quick kiss. “Home is wherever you are.”

  He looks radiant at hearing my words, pressing a soft lingering kiss on my lips. He takes my hand as the elevator opens, and we walk out into the parking area and straight to car. He helps me inside.

  “That was anticlimactic,” I tell Elijah as he takes his place beside me and handing me my bag of In-N-Out.

  He chuckles. “Great, right?”

  “Yep. Hope getting into the house is just as easy.”

  He kisses my nose. “It will be.”

  “Oh my gosh, this is so good.” I moan as I eat my burger, causing all the guys to laugh, and Elijah to shift in his seat. I wink at him and he blushes ever so slightly, making me giggle. He shakes his head, but can’t hide the smile on his gorgeous face.

  We pull up to the gate of his house about thirty minutes later to find Krystal sitting on the stone wall. Elijah growls and the muscles in his jaw clinch.

  “What is she doing here? You said she was in jail?” He glares at Hutch.

  “I have no clue, boss.” Hutch puts the car in park and steps out. I’m out of the door before anyone can stop me.

  “Did you drug me?” I yell.

  Krystal smiles at me. “I’m glad you’re okay, chica”

  “You’re glad I’m okay? You tried to ruin my life! You said you were my friend!”

  “I am your friend. I’m more of a friend than Elijah is. At least I wouldn’t subject you to the Hollywood piranhas like he has.” She looks completely unfazed by her previous actions, like it meant nothing at all.

  “You betrayed me, Krystal. You sold compromising pictures of me and my boyfriend to those so called piranhas. He protects me. You … you are the one who threw me to the sharks. Not once, but twice!”

  She cocks her head to the side. “I didn’t betray you. This is what we agreed on.”

  I stare at her completely confused. “What in the world are you talking about, Krystal?”

  She pulls her cell phone out of her pocket, hits a few buttons before holding it up. My voice fills the air. “Of course I’m in. I want to take him down as much as you do.”

  “Sophie?” Elijah questions.

  “I have no idea what that was. I didn’t say that,” I tell him honestly.

  Krystal smirks. “Oh, but you did.” She hits play again. “Elijah will never know what hit him.”

  “I swear to you, Eli. That isn’t me, and if it is, it’s some kind of spliced together reel. I would never do anything to hurt you!”

  “Get the phone,” he says to Danny and Hutch. They nod and head after Krystal, but she’s fast and takes off down the road before they can catch her. Jared takes off in the same direction with the car.

  I peek at Elijah with tears in my eyes. “I would never hurt you. Please tell me you know that.” He shoves his hands in his pockets and stares at his feet. “Elijah?”

  He looks up at me with tears of his own. He grabs my arm gently and pulls me up the driveway and into the house. I realize that the whole display was caught by photographers. The door clicks closed with a resounding, ‘Thwack!’ We both stand there in silence for several long moments. My tears drip from my face and fall to the floor, leaving little spots on the stone.

  “I’m sorry,” I mutter and move past him to the stairs to go to my bedroom. I let the door close behind me, sinking to the floor as I dissolve into a sobbing mess.

  “Peaches?” Carter is sitting on my bed, looking as if he just woke up. I jump up and run into his arms, knocking him back onto the bed. “Hey, what’s wrong?” He wraps his arms around me, rubbing my back. It takes me several minutes, but I finally calm down enough to tell him what happened outside.

  He’s up off the bed and out the door before I can stop him. “Elijah!” he yells as he makes his way through the house. Finally finding him in the den with a glass of alcohol in his hand, he says, “Do you honestly think she’d do something like that to you?” Elijah stares at him, not answering.

  I start to panic. “I wouldn’t. I didn’t. I swear I didn’t.”

  “You don’t have to say anything, Sophie.” Carter turns back to Elijah. “Whatever was on that recording was a lie and you know it?”

  Elijah takes a long drink and sets his glass down. He ignores Carter and walks over to me, taking my face in his hands. I’m honestly a little afraid, but I know he won’t hurt me. “You broke up with me at the bar.”

  I shake my head. “I … no. I don’t remember that.” />
  “You did. Could you have said that when she had you drugged?”

  Tears fill my eyes again. “No. I’d never want to hurt you. If I was drugged, it wasn’t me. It wasn’t what I wanted. I don’t remember breaking up with you. I don’t remember saying anything like that to her.”

  He closes his eyes and leans his head against mine. “You could have told her anything.”

  “No. No, I couldn’t. I didn’t have my memories back.”

  He pulls back. “That’s right. She doesn’t know that you remember. No one does.”

  I put my hand on his. “I’m on your side, Eli. I love you. It had to be a trick. I swear to you, I don’t remember saying any of that.”

  He nods against me, wrapping his arms around me. “If you leave me, it’ll kill me.” His voice is broken. Why does this have to happen to us?

  “I’m not leaving you!” I tell him with as much conviction as I can muster.

  “What are you going to do to put an end to this?” Carter’s voice breaks through our bubble. We turn to him. Thankfully, Elijah doesn’t let me go.

  “I need to call my PI. It is highly possibly that she spliced something together, but it’s also possible that she drugged Sophie. We need to get to the bottom of this.”

  Two hours later, the PI, a man by the name of Craig Jones, is in the living room of Elijah’s house. He’s tall, fit, young and dressed casually, much like Elijah, in jeans and a rocker tee-shirt. He looks nothing like I expected. I guess I’ve seen way too many movies, because I pictured a man in his fifties, balding, and wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

  “The same chick you’ve had me investigating?” Craig asks after we fill him in.

  “Yep,” Elijah tells him.

  Craig nods and leans back on the sofa, crossing his left ankle over his right knee. “It’s completely plausible for her to have drugged Sophia, and to have made up this recording using sound bites. The girl is sneaky. She’s taken two men for their fortunes in the past six years and worked with countless shady characters. I don’t think there’s a link between this Darren psycho, but the death threats could be from her as well. There’re two different ones I’m concerned with. We know the one was from Darren, right?”

  I look up at Elijah. He hasn’t told me anything about the threats yet. “Yeah, when the police searched his hotel room they found other notes, the ink and handwriting were a match. But you’re right, there is another set of notes that do not match.”

  “I’ll check with Detective Morse to see what kind of leads they have on this. She’s always good to give me what I need.” He emphasizes the word need as he winks at Elijah who chuckles. I make a disgusted face which makes all three men burst out laughing.

  “Will Hutch, Danny, and Jared be back soon?” I ask after Craig leaves.

  “Yeah, Hutch sent me a text. They lost her, but they got her bag. The phone wasn’t in it, but there was some interesting things in there,” Elijah tells me.

  “Like what?” Carter asks. I’d forgotten he was here. I’d expected him to be holed up in the pool house, stinking to high heaven in his grief, but he looks normal.

  Elijah shakes his head. “I’m not sure. Let’s wait until the guys are back.” He turns to me. “It’s been a long day, baby. Why don’t we get you to bed?”

  “You think I can sleep?” There’s no way.

  He smirks at me. “I didn’t say sleep, now did I?”

  I blush bright red. He smiles cheekily at me as he swoops me up in his arms bridal style, being careful of my bruise, and carrying me off toward the stairs.

  I give Carter a small wave and he laughs. “Hey, I’m glad you’re remembering,” He calls after us.

  “Me too, Car. Love you!”

  “You too, Peaches. See you in the morning. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” I hear him call as we reach the landing.

  I bark out a laugh. “I guess that gives us a plethora of things to do.”

  Elijah flops me down on the bed, making me bounce a little. He smiles. “Plethora, huh?”

  “Yep! A plethora.”

  He climbs up the bed, hovering over me. “I like the sound of that.”

  He leans forward, pressing his lips and his body against mine. I’ve missed him so much, even if I didn’t really remember enough to miss him before, but I feel like so much time has been wasted. I don’t want to waste any more.

  “Eli.” I gasp when his lips descend my neck and across my collarbone.

  He looks up. “You okay?”

  I nod, but my heart starts going into overdrive as I see his hooded eyes. I don’t want to hurt him. “I …”

  The left corner of his mouth lifts as he leans in to kiss me. “You don’t have to say anything. I know the boundaries. I got carried away.” He rolls off me onto his back. He pulls me into his side with one arm as the other slides under his head. “I’m not upset, so stop those wheels from turning.”

  I sigh as I roll closer, putting my left hand on his chest. I stare at my empty ring finger. “My wheels are turning, but not about that.”

  He moves back a little so he can see my face. “Then what about?”

  I sit up and turn completely to him. “I want to marry you. This stuff with Krystal has no impact on that decision. I’m afraid, though.”

  “Of?” He moves to lean against the headboard. He sticks his hand in his pocket, pulling out a small velvet box.

  “What if you believe her? Or I did say those things in my anger? It’s not like me. I would never do anything on purpose to hurt you.”

  “Honestly, Sophie. If I thought you’d done anything of the sort, I wouldn’t have you in my bed right now. I trust you. If you did say that while drugged or drunk, it’s forgivable.”

  “I don’t deserve you.” I crawl up the bed, sitting astride him, I take the ring box out of his hand. I stare at my ring for a long moment while he watches me. I meet his eyes. “Will you marry me?”

  He smiles. “Are you proposing?”

  I blush. “I know it’s not romantic and well thought out. It’s not beautiful like at the water hole, but I mean it all the same. I love you with every fiber of my being; even when my mind couldn’t remember what my body did. I know I gave you a hard time, but I was constantly at war with myself over it. I love …”

  He wraps his hand into my hair, pulling me to him and kissing me deeply. He pulls back after several long moments. “This is the perfect setting, anywhere would be.” He pulls my ring from the box. “May I put this back where it belongs?” I nod furiously. He slips it on my finger, kissing it before kissing me.

  24 Past Revisted

  T he next day, I wake up feeling mostly normal. I’m still hurting a bit, but having some of my memories seems to make up for the pain. I hurry through my shower. As wrong as it might sound, I’m missing Elijah in here with me. I shake that thought and do what I need to do. When I finally step out of the bathroom, I’m fully dressed with my hair and makeup finished. Elijah is sitting on the side of the bed with his bare feet crossed at the ankles, legs stretched out long as he texts on his phone. He glances up and smiles at me.

  “Hey,” I say as I walk over to him. He moves, parting his legs and sitting up farther on the bed, pulling me to stand between his parted limbs.

  “Hey, beautiful.” He wraps his arms around my middle, stuffing his hands in my back pockets. I run my hands through his hair as I lean down and kiss him good morning. He smiles warmly. “I’ve missed that.”

  “Me too. So, what’s on our agenda today?”

  He pulls me to sit on the bed, with my legs draped over his. “You need to call Amelia first, but later we have a meeting. Do you remember me talking about the meeting with the studio for our movie?”

  “Yeah.” I stop. “Well, I remember you telling me we’d have a meeting.”

  “Right.” He nods and gives me a warm smile. “It’s scheduled for this afternoon. I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to make it, but since you’re out of the hospital, I’d like for you to c
ome, if you are up to it.”

  “I can do that. Have I met these people before?”

  He nods again. “Yeah, you met Estelle a few times, and Tony once. They run the studio.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t remember. I guess I really haven’t gotten all my memories back.”

  I naively thought I had remembered most of everything, at least everything important. This bothers me, a lot. Am I missing something big? I mean, I’m missing some things with Krystal, but that’s possibly from drugs versus the head trauma.

  “Hey, it’s okay. You remember me, so you’ll remember the rest in time.” He brushes the hair out of my face. “Don’t be upset. You’re doing amazing.”

  “I guess so. I’m worried though. I hate knowing that I’ve met or know someone who I can’t remember. It makes me seem so stupid.”

  He scoffs. “Sophie, you could never be stupid. Period!”

  I roll my eyes slightly and look down. “That whole time with you, trying to get to learn you again. It was so awkward. I never knew what to say or do. But when you’d touch me …” I take a deep breath, looking up at him. This is so hard to explain how it made me feel. “It was so odd to me.”

  He smirks. “What was odd?” I rub my face in embarrassment. He pulls my hands away. “No, tell me. What was odd?”

  “How my body would react to you. I’d get these weird flutters in my chest, or my stomach would flip and sometimes...” I groan, my head falling to his shoulder. He takes the opportunity to kiss my neck.

  “Tell me.”

  I peek at him, my face flaming. “Sometimes … I’d feel this flinching in my lady parts. I’d never felt that before or if I did, I didn’t remember.”

  He stifles a smile. “Flinching? You mean I’d turn you on?”

  I huff. “Not like that. Haven’t you ever heard women say it made their ovaries explode?” He nods. “Yeah, that.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s turning you on, but either way, that’s a good thing, right?”

  I roll my eyes at him and try to push him away, but he pulls me to him, throwing me down on the bed. He hovers over me. He seems to like me in this position.