I gave him a hug, and he kissed me on my cheek. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend. Even though I knew what he wanted me to do, he was still going to be supportive. He was still going to comfort me without judgment.
For the rest of the night he didn’t mention another word about King. We lay on the couch and watched movies, and then, when it was time for us to sleep, he gave up his bed for me.
“Are you sure?” I asked him. “I don’t mind sleeping on the couch.”
Donovan simply shook his head, then closed the door to his bedroom, giving me privacy.
I lay under the covers, wondering what I was going to do. Did I have a plan in case it didn’t work out with King? No, I couldn’t think like that. I wanted to be happy, and I wanted to be happy with King. I closed my eyes, determined to figure out a way to make that happen.
The next morning I awakened to the wonderful smell of breakfast. I stepped into the dining room, wearing my bathrobe, and Donovan pulled out a chair for me.
“Madam,” he joked, “your breakfast is ready.”
Donovan had made me an omelet and some potatoes, and he had squeezed oranges for juice.
As we sat and ate, we didn’t engage in much conversation. For some reason, the awkward silence had returned, and I didn’t know if it was because he disagreed with my wanting to work it out with King.
“Thank you for letting me stay last night,” I finally said, needing to break the silence.
“No need to thank me. You know I’m here for you. Whenever. Whatever.”
When we finished eating, I lifted my plate, then reached for his. The least I could do was clean up as a way to show my appreciation. He quickly motioned me to stay in my seat and took my plate from my hands.
“I got this!”
There was nothing I could do but sit back and watch him. When he finished, I asked, “What time are you going to the store?”
He shook his head. “I decided to stay home today.”
“Not because of me, I hope.”
“Well, a little. I just really want to spend the day with you. We need to have some fun.”
“But I don’t want you to change your plans because of me.” I already felt bad enough. I’d imposed, put him out of his bed, and now this.
“Heiress, I’m the owner. I can do what I want to when I want to do it.”
I had to chuckle at that. What an awesome friend.
“So,” he said, “are we gonna do this thing?”
I jumped up from the table. “Yes! I’ll go get dressed.” I rushed off to his bedroom and hit the shower to get ready for what the day would bring.
Within the hour we were in Donovan’s car. “Where are we going?” I asked.
He turned and winked at me. “Just leave the driving and the fun to me.”
And fun it was. When I realized that we were heading to Universal CityWalk, I clapped. “This is one of my favorite places,” I told Donovan when we arrived.
“Really?”
I nodded. “But the last time I was here, I was a junior in college. This is where I celebrated my twenty-first birthday.”
“Well, then, I guess I done good.” He laughed.
“Yes, you did.”
Just like when we’d gone to Magic Mountain, Donovan and I were like a couple of kids. We went in and out of the different shops and even visited a couple of the shows. We played games, bought souvenirs, and hung out like we were tourists. By the time the day was over, we were exhausted, and we ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.
After we’d given our orders to the waitress, I said, “I had a really good time today, Donny. Thank you.”
He reached across the table and grabbed my hand. “Both of us really needed this.” When he squeezed my hand, I knew that was his signal to let me know that he was always going to support me. “So,” Donovan added, “I was thinking about doing this again tomorrow. What do you think about a spa day?”
Oh, my goodness. Donovan thought that I’d changed my mind. That I was going to stay with him.
I let a second pass and then said, “Donny, I have to go back home.”
He looked up at me, at first with surprise, then with confusion, and finally hurt settled into his eyes.
“Don’t get me wrong,” I told him. “You have been wonderful, and you were here when I needed you. But the thing is, I still have to deal with my relationship. Running isn’t going to solve anything.”
Donovan shook his head, as if he didn’t understand my words or didn’t want to hear them. He lowered his eyes, and I imagined that he was gathering his thoughts and emotions before he spoke.
“I’m worried for you, Heiress,” he said softly. “These kinds of situations only get worse, and I don’t want you to get hurt any more than you already have been.”
He didn’t know this, but I had the same concerns. Still, I had to face this situation and deal with it. I couldn’t hide out at Donovan’s house forever.
“I think I’ll be fine, but you know I’ll call you if I need you, right?”
He nodded. “Please.”
“Of course I will. I know you’re here for me.”
“Always!”
The atmosphere had changed, and now we ate mostly in silence. When we finished our dinner, we got in his car, and that was when I told Donovan that I was going home tonight.
“Are you sure?”
All I did was nod.
At his house it took me only a few minutes to stuff the clothes I’d had on yesterday into my suitcase, and then Donovan rolled that small suitcase to my car.
When I was behind the wheel, Donavan leaned into the car and stared at me once again. I looked back at him, waiting for him to speak first. It was as if neither one of us wanted to make the first move to say good-bye.
“Are you sure you don’t at least want me to go with you, in case there’s a problem?” he asked as he brushed my hair out of my face.
“I got this. Don’t worry about me.” Reaching up, I grabbed him and hugged him tightly, wondering for a moment if I really wanted to leave.
He kissed my forehead, in exactly the same place King had kissed me when he came home from his promotional tour. But there was more love in Donovan’s kiss, and I felt the difference. I took one final glance at him, and then I rolled off.
On the drive back to Malibu, all I could think about was what had happened yesterday. And what had happened when I left. What did King do with those women once I left? Did he even realize that I was gone? I glanced down at my cell phone, which was on the passenger seat. My phone had never once rung while I was with Donovan. Maybe King didn’t even care that I’d left.
With each mile that I drove closer to home, I got angrier, and by the time I pulled into my driveway and parked next to King’s car, I was ready for the fight. King was going to talk to me, and we were going to make some decisions tonight. But by the time I walked up to the door, my stomach was queasy, as the memories came back hard. I stood at the door for a moment, praying that the feeling would pass. I had to do this.
So I took a deep breath and walked through the door.
Chapter 24
I wasn’t sure what I had expected when I walked back into the house, but I had no clue I was going to encounter a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie.
As soon as I opened the door, King immediately rushed me, as if he’d been standing behind the door. His eyes looked crazed, and for a split second, I thought about turning around, running to my car, and heading back to Donovan’s. But I stood my ground. This had to be done, whichever way it was going to go down.
King got right in my face. His pupils were dilated, he was sweating, and he smelled horrible—a mixture of funk and liquor.
“Where have you been?”
I was surprised. He didn’t sound angry as much as frantic.
At this point, my anger outweighed my fear of losing him. I folded my arms and glared at him as if I wasn’t afraid of anything. “I’m surprised you even noticed I was g
one, since you were occupied with the double mint twins when I left.”
I tried to move around him, but he put his arms up to block my path.
“Move out of my way, King,” I said, trying to push him, but he was way stronger than me.
“Not until you tell me where you were.”
The more I looked at him, the more I could tell he was high. Not like he had smoked some weed and had got a cool, calm, and funny high. It was on another level, like a hard-core high. I had never seen him like this, and I wondered what he had gotten into while I was gone. Since he wasn’t going to let me move, I decided to just handle our business right there.
“Let’s talk about you for a moment, King. What the hell was last night about?” I stared him down.
“What? What was wrong with last night? I just had some friends over.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. His words were so ridiculous. “Friends? Is that really the answer you have for me?” Maybe I didn’t want to talk to him right now. I tried once again to maneuver around him, but he continued to block me.
“Move, King.” I yelled so loud that he jumped back, as if I’d startled him. Good! I stomped past him and up the stairs.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” he yelled behind me. “Where the hell were you last night?”
I didn’t say a word, and I heard him running up behind me.
“Did you hear me ask you a question?” he shouted as he followed me into the bedroom.
“Well, technically, you didn’t answer my question.” I whipped around and faced him. Looking him dead in his eyes, I asked, “Did you have sex with those girls?”
He kept his lips pressed together.
I glanced down at our bed and shook my head. Reaching for the duvet, I tossed it onto the floor. “Ugh! I don’t even want to think about what happened in my bed.” Next, I tore the sheets back. “I’m so tired of this.”
“You know what I’m tired of? I’m tired of all of this questioning about my business.”
I froze, turning only my head to look at him. I had to see if those words had really just come out of his mouth. He was questioning me and didn’t expect the same treatment? Especially after he had given me something to question him about?
He said, “This is the lifestyle, Heiress. I’m famous, and my fame allows me to pay for everything around here. My fame allows me to pay for you.”
Oh, no, he didn’t. I wondered if he could feel the heat of my anger bursting from my body.
“Wrong, King. That may be the lifestyle for a famous person who’s single, but you have a family.” I placed my hands on my stomach to remind him that I was still pregnant with his child. “And furthermore, don’t think that you’ve bought me.”
It was as if he ignored my words. “Where were you?” he asked again.
I shook my head, ignored his question, and went right back to pulling the sheets off the bed. He hadn’t answered me, so I wasn’t about to answer him.
But then he stood there for so long, I finally said, “You know what I find amazing, King? How you could be gone for weeks, come home, and say almost nothing to me, leave, come back with women, and then have the audacity to ask me where I was. Are you serious?”
I took his silence as a sign that he was beginning to understand where I was coming from and I was waiting for him to apologize. Then the ringer on my phone broke the silence.
King rushed to my phone before I could get to it. I watched him read the text; then I watched his eyes grow wide with rage.
“Who the hell is Donovan?”
“A friend,” I said in the same nonchalant tone that he’d given me when he told me those women were just friends. I tried to grab my phone from his grasp, but he pushed me back.
“Why does he want to know if you made it home safe and if you need him? Is this who you were with?”
I reached for my phone once again, but he grabbed my wrist and squeezed.
“So what? You having sex with this clown?” he yelled, his voice rising, and I finally broke free from his grip.
Stomping away from him, I marched toward the door.
“Answer me, Heiress,” he shouted.
All I wanted to do was get away from him. I rushed to the stairs, but he was right behind me. And then my phone rang again.
“Argh!” he screamed as he threw the phone against the wall, and I watched it crumble into a million little pieces.
“Are you crazy?” I screamed.
“Yeah, I’m crazy!” He snatched my arms and shook me like I was a rag doll. “You want to see me get crazy, Heiress? Huh? That’s what you want?”
Up to this point, I’d been more angry than scared, but now that switched around. Now I screamed out of fear. And the louder I screamed, the more he shook me.
I squirmed, trying to escape from his grasp, but he held me tight. Finally, I got one arm free and raised my hand, hitting him in his face.
My hope was that shock would make him let me go, but that blow only set him off. He shoved me down the stairs.
I felt as if I was moving in slow motion, hitting every step, feeling every bump. I was screaming, but it didn’t sound as if anything was coming out of my mouth.
My whole body hit the marble floor in the foyer, and pain shot from my soles to the top of my head. My eyes were open, but I could hardly see. I definitely couldn’t move. My ears were ringing, but still, I heard King’s footsteps.
For a moment, I wondered if he was coming to finish the job.
I closed my eyes. Maybe this was the end of my life. Maybe I was supposed to live only until I was twenty-five.
“Heiress!” he yelled. “Are you okay?”
Now he was asking me that? He was the reason I was laid out like this.
“Oh my God! You’re bleeding.”
I screamed when he lifted me from the floor, and I screamed louder when he held me in his arms and dashed to his car. I didn’t feel any relief until he laid me on the backseat, and as he climbed into the front of the car, I whimpered. It hurt too much to cry full out.
But then, as King sped down the street and hit a bump, a pain so sharp cut through me. I screamed, and then everything around me just faded to black.
I heard the sound of machines even before I heard the voices. Slowly, my eyes fluttered open, and it took only a moment for me to take in the situation and figure out where I was.
The hospital.
At the edge of my bed, King was speaking to a man in a white lab coat, a doctor, I supposed.
I moaned, and King rushed to my side.
“Heiress,” he whispered as he reached for my hand. He kissed my cheek.
“I’m . . . thirsty. . . .”
“Can I give her some water, Doctor?” King asked.
The man in the lab coat nodded, and King held a cup of water to my lips.
When I finished drinking, I asked, “How . . . long . . .?” It was hard for me to speak. “How long have I been here?” I finally got the words out.
The doctor and King looked at each other and then back at me, like they were harboring some big secret.
“You’ve been here three days, Heiress,” the doctor revealed.
Three days!
The doctor continued, “You suffered a minor concussion and . . . ” The doctor stopped and glanced at King. But King put his head down, as if he didn’t plan on saying a word.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, Ms. Montgomery, but you suffered a miscarriage.”
It took a moment for the words to register. A miscarriage. The baby! My baby! Oh, no!
There was no way I’d heard him right. With every bit of energy in me, I tossed off the light blanket that covered me and tried to see my stomach. But just as I did that, King tried to pull the blanket back on me. I slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch me!” I screamed.
Everyone in the room and right outside stopped at my scream. This was a bad dream. It just had to be.
King glanced at me for a long moment
, then stepped out of the room. My heart was broken. My baby. I had never known true pain until this moment.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Montgomery,” said the doctor.
I tried to nod. “Am I . . . am I going to be all right?”
He frowned. “Yes. You’re going to have to rest for a few days, and we’re going to want to do more tests, but you’ll be fine.”
I shook my head. “No. No, I mean, with my baby.”
“You lost the baby,” he repeated.
I knew that. I got that. But what I wanted to know was if King had ruined my life totally. Had he ruined my chances of ever having another child?
“I mean . . .” I looked up at the doctor and tried to convey my thoughts through my eyes.
The doctor nodded slowly. “We don’t have to talk about this right now.”
“No, I want to.”
“I think you need to rest.”
“Doctor!”
Maybe it was the way I screamed, or the fact that I wasn’t going to stop, but the doctor pulled up a chair, and when he sat down, we were almost eye to eye. He said, “You had quite a bit of scarring on your uterus.”
I felt tears behind my eyes.
“So the probability of having another child . . .” He paused. “It’ll be slim.”
My tears fell. There was no other emotion I had but pure sadness. I couldn’t stop myself from crying. It was only at that moment that I realized how much I’d wanted my baby.
The doctor pushed back the chair and then put his hand over mine for a moment. “I’m sorry.” Then he left me alone with my emotions.
I couldn’t believe the turn my life had taken, and I was quickly realizing I wanted out. Finally, I was getting it. It was time for me to move on from this madness.
Chapter 25
I spent a week in the hospital before they finally discharged me. That was the longest week of my life. It felt like it moved in slow motion.
I was bombarded all week by people: nurses, who constantly picked and probed and took my vitals; the doctor, who checked on me every day; and even the police, who wanted details about my fall.
“Was it a domestic dispute?” the officer asked me.
Strange Addiction Page 15
