Betrayed by Love

by Hogan, Hailey

  While doing her hair, Mo asked, “What’s with the sour face if things are so great with you then?”

  “Whoever this fan is has gotten on my nerves. I’m used to the hate mail but Mo the stuff they’ve said in those letters. I don’t have a good feeling about any of it.”

  “I’m sure Garth won’t let anything happen to you,” he assured her.

  “He can’t be around twenty-four seven,” Eva said, although she wished he could be. Eva had her eyes closed as she waited for Mo to finish.

  “Speak of the devil,” Mo whispered in her ear.

  “No need to mess with perfection,” Garth said, as he stood near the doorway watching Mo put the finishing touches on Eva’s hair.

  “Flattery will keep you in my good graces,” Eva flirted.

  “I just wanted to let you know I was back on site. I’ll be backstage scanning the audience while you tape.”

  “What did you find out about the stationery?” Mo asked.

  Garth hesitated responding, so Eva said, “Mo’s cool. You can talk in front of him.”

  “I’ll prefer to wait until we can go somewhere and talk privately.” Garth placed his hands in his pockets as he waited on Mo to finish with Eva.

  Mo said, “Don’t mind me. I’m almost through with her and you can have her all to yourself.”

  Eva laughed because as strong of a man as Garth was he seemed to be uncomfortable with some of the comments Mo made. She was confident that once Garth got to know Mo, he would love him just like she did. He could be a little over dramatic, but underneath the drama, he was a good friend.

  After Mo finished, she and Garth walked down the hallway to the stage entrance. Garth said, “You’re well loved. You should be proud of yourself.”

  Eva scanned the audience and said, “I’m blessed. I thank God for this every day. Sometimes it’s hard to believe a little old girl from Shreveport, Louisiana could have all of this.”

  “You deserve this and so much more,” Garth responded.

  She was so caught up in talking to Garth, she didn’t pay attention to her intro music. John yelled into her earpiece, “You’re due on stage.”

  Eva kissed Garth and rushed out on the walkway. She waved at her audience as they cheered her name, “Eva, Eva.”

  “Good day America. Today it’s my pleasure to bring you one of my favorite comedians Ms. Sherri Shepherd.”

  The crowd cheered as Sherri walked out on the stage. Eva enjoyed interviewing Sherri as they talked about her sitcom and her day gig as also a talk show host. By the time her interview with Sherri was over, Eva felt as if they were old friends. “Sherri, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. I hope this won’t be your last time.”

  Sherri assured her she would be back on. Eva addressed the audience, “Our time together has come to an end. Until next time, do something nice for yourself.”

  Eva and Sherri both signed some of the audience autographs. Eva made sure her assistant Jackie presented Sherri and the rest of her guests with a gift bag before going to her office. Garth was right behind her. “You move a mile a minute,” he said.

  Now that the show was over, Eva could now concentrate on her problems. Once she was seated, she said, “Okay, give it to me straight. What did you find out about the pad?”

  “You don’t waste time do you?” Garth sat on top of her desk near her.

  She was extremely hot and it wasn’t because of the temperature in the room. In fact, the air conditioner was on full blast. Having Garth in such close proximity reminded her how he felt inside of her when they made love over the weekend. She picked up a tissue out of the box on her desk and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Was it your trifling friend Trevor playing a practical joke?”

  “I wish it was that simple. Promise me you won’t go off.” Garth stared her straight in the eyes.

  Eva didn’t flinch. “I don’t make promises I might not be able to keep.”

  Garth reached for her hand and caressed it. “I found some incriminating evidence at Cheryl’s. I think she’s the one behind the hate mail.”

  Eva was livid. She jerked her hand away. “That skank. Oh she wants to play dirty. I can play dirty. Wait until I get my hands on her.”

  “Hold on. If she is the one behind it.”

  “If, you just said, you found some evidence proving she is.”

  “I have to make sure before I go accusing her. Otherwise, she’ll bulk and we’ll never find out if it was her.” Garth didn’t sound too convincing.

  “What did you do with the stuff you found?” Eva asked.

  “It’s in a safe place for now.”

  Eva’s desk phone rang. She saw Jackie’s number displayed across the screen so she answered. “I thought I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed,” Eva snapped.

  Jackie responded, “Trevor is on the line. He says it’s urgent.”

  “Okay, put him through.” She looked at Garth. “That’s your partner.” She hit the speaker button. “What’s up Tre?”

  “Eva I’m sorry.”

  Eva looked at Garth and then back at the phone. “Okay. I knew that, but why are you calling?”

  “I just called to apologize on how I treated you. I should have let you go years ago. Don’t tell Garth I admitted this but he was right. You and I were never meant to be. You deserve better than me.”

  “The first thing you’ve said that I can agree with.” By now Eva was leaning back in her chair.

  “When you see Garth tell him I want to talk with him.”

  “You can tell him yourself.”

  Garth spoke up for the first time. “What do you want Tre?”

  “I don’t think Cheryl is behind it. As much as I can’t stand her guts right now, I did some cross checking and some of the times that Eva was threatened, I know for a fact Cheryl was out of town.”

  Garth forehead tensed. “That can’t be. All evidence points to her.”

  “Well, I’ll be seeing her tonight so I’ll let you know what happens.”

  “Are you going to confront her?” Garth asked.

  Trevor responded, “Yes, about everything.”

  “Maybe you should do it over the phone. You don’t need an assault charge.”

  “Oh, I’m calm. She’s not worth me going to jail for. Believe that.”

  “I’ll meet you there.” Garth stood up.

  “No man, I got this.”

  “Call me if things get out of hand.”

  Eva watched in amazement. Only two men could get along after finding out that the other had been messing around with their mate. Let that be one of her female friends and World War III would have broken out. There would be no making up. The friendship would be over.

  ~ 32 ~

  As Eva’s new body guard, Garth insisted that he be the one to take her home. After protesting for the sake of protesting, Eva got in his car. She said, “I knew there was something not right about Cheryl. What did y’all ever see in her?”

  Garth refused to get into that with her. He attempted to change the subject, but Eva wasn’t having it. She went on and on about paying Cheryl back for the heartache she had caused her. Eva seemed to have finally calmed down when they reached her house. Garth wished he had kept the information about Cheryl to himself but he didn’t want Eva to think he was hiding anything. He wanted to keep her informed because if Cheryl was guilty, this knowledge could possibly save Eva’s life if she got cornered by Cheryl.

  “What do you want to eat?” Eva asked after getting situated at home.

  “Anything you fix. All I need is your desk and DSL connection,” Garth said, as he removed his laptop from the black case and followed Eva to her home office.

  She moved items from her desk to make room for his laptop. After getting set up, Garth logged on. “If you need anything else, just let me know,” Eva said.

  “Will do,” Garth responded, as he concentrated on the information on his screen. Garth had assigned one of his employees the task of monitoring
Cheryl’s comings and goings. He took on the job of checking Cheryl’s phone and email records himself. Now he wished he would have stayed at his house tonight instead of agreeing to stay at Eva’s. Eva’s DSL connection was not as fast as his for some reason.

  Eva tried to distract him a few times by prancing around in front of him but he would not be dissuaded from his task. So far, all the numbers Cheryl had called could be accounted for and none were Eva’s. He did notice a few back to back calls to Trevor’s number; times where he probably was creeping with Eva or some other woman.

  “Someone’s at the gate,” Eva yelled.

  “Were you expecting anyone?” he asked.

  “No and I don’t recognize the car.”

  Garth went up to the monitor. “That’s Cheryl’s car.” He pressed the button to open the gate.

  Eva yelled, “Are you crazy? Why did you let her in here?”

  “That’s Tre driving.”

  Eva followed behind him as he went to the front door to let Trevor inside. “You almost didn’t get in,” Eva said, as he walked past them into the entranceway.

  Garth noticed Trevor’s disheveled appearance. “What happened to you?”

  “I confronted Cheryl. Let’s just say it didn’t go well.”

  “How did you end up in her car?”

  “After we wrestled, she ended up throwing my keys in the garbage disposal. So I wouldn’t choke her, I grabbed her keys and sped away.”

  Garth couldn’t believe Trevor had let stuff get out of hand. “You know she probably called the police.”

  “I doubt it. I let it slip we think she’s behind Eva’s fan mail.”

  “Tre, I told you to let me go with you.” Garth was pissed.

  “Man, she was lying to my face. When she realized I knew about you two. She spouted off at the mouth about how the other men were better than me, I just lost it. I didn’t hit her but I pushed her.”

  “Pushing is the same as hitting in my book.” Eva popped him upside the head.

  “Ouch,” Trevor said, as he rubbed the back of his head.

  “This makes our job harder. I’m sure she’s going to do everything to cover her tracks now.”

  “I come baring gifts. Before I let on that I knew about her affairs, I downloaded her hard drive.” Trevor pulled out a small device.

  “Follow me,” Garth said, as Eva and Trevor followed him into Eva’s home office.

  Eva fixed them a plate of chicken breasts and penne pasta and brought them drinks. Garth and Trevor continued to pour over the information on the screen. Trevor was getting hotter and hotter as he saw traces of emails that Cheryl had been sending to other men. After hours of looking, there was no other evidence showing she was the mystery fan.

  Garth rubbed his temple. “Something is just not adding up. This is still not enough evidence to convince the authorities to arrest her.”

  “But it is enough for them to bring her in for questioning,” Trevor said.

  Garth picked up the cordless phone and handed it to Trevor. “I think you deserve the honor.”

  Trevor took the phone and called the police. While Trevor was on the line, Eva asked Garth, “So what’s going to happen now?”

  “Usually you would have to be the one to make the report, but because you hired us, we can act on your behalf.”

  Eva said, “Good because I really don’t need for this to get out to the media.”

  “I’ll do my best but as you know there’s no guarantee. Reporters have ears all over the place.”

  “Let’s hope they don’t.”

  Garth pulled out his cell phone. “I need to let Caroline know what’s going on because I have a feeling neither I nor Trevor will be available tomorrow.”

  “Okay, well I’ll go make us some more snacks while we wait.”

  Garth admired how calm Eva was. Before she was ready to scratch Cheryl’s eyes out, but now she was cool as a cucumber. In fact, she was too cool. It was taking her a long time to make the snacks. He went to the kitchen in search of Eva. He got there just in time to see the headlights to Eva’s car. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Eva’s number.

  “Eva, answer your phone,” he yelled. His calls kept going to voice mail. He went back into the room where he left Trevor. “Come on. I have a feeling Eva’s on her way to Cheryl’s.”

  “I’ll drive,” Trevor said.

  “Give me the keys,” Garth said. “I’ll drive.”

  Garth had to drive way above the speed limit, but still couldn’t catch up to Eva. He wondered how Eva knew where Cheryl stayed, but shrugged that thought out of his mind. He knew from experience that women made the best investigators because of their natural skills. He lost Eva, but sped up and dodged in and out of traffic.

  Cheryl’s door was opening before Garth could pull up into the driveway. He saw Eva push Cheryl. He ran up to the house with Trevor on his heels. Eva had Cheryl by the hair. “I’m going to teach you who to mess with. You want to hide behind some letters and emails. Take this.” Eva had a hand full of Cheryl’s hair and looked like she was trying to break her neck. Cheryl tried to hit Eva but Eva blocked her shots.

  As much as Garth enjoyed a good fight, he didn’t want Eva to do more harm than she may have already done. “I’m going to sue you,” Cheryl yelled.

  “It’ll be a cold day in hell before you see one red cent of my money,” Eva spouted back at her.

  “Well bring your coat.” Cheryl started swinging.

  It was hard getting the two apart, but Garth and Trevor finally did. Garth said, “Ladies, enough!”

  Trevor said, “Looks like we have company.”

  Garth saw a police car pull up and two uniformed officers exited the vehicle. The front door was still open so when they made themselves known they all turned in their direction. “Is this the residence of Cheryl Johnson?”

  Eva pointed in Cheryl’s direction. “There she is officer.”

  Garth could feel the tension in the room between Eva and Cheryl. Garth went and stood near Eva. “Officer, our company, GT Securities reported the issue.”

  The officer took off his handcuffs. He walked over to Cheryl. Cheryl’s hair was a wild mess all over her head. “We need for you to come with us.”

  Cheryl yelled, “I didn’t do anything.”

  “We’ll decide that at the station, but for now,” the taller officer said, “Please come with us. I’m sure one of your friends will lock up for you.”

  “I don’t have any friends here. I want my lawyer.”

  “You can call one when we get you down to the station.”

  “You’ll pay for this,” Cheryl yelled, looking in Eva’s direction.

  “Officer, I hope you write that down. That’s another threat,” Eva said.

  “Sheeee attacked me,” Cheryl stuttered.

  “Is that true?” the officer asked all in attendance.

  Neither Trevor nor Garth would confirm Cheryl’s allegations.

  “Ma’am, since no one witnessed it happen, it’s her words against yours. Since we have an arrest warrant for you, we’re subject to believe her.”

  “But look at me. My hair didn’t get like this. My clothes. See my blouse is torn here.” Cheryl pulled on her sleeve to show him.

  “You could have did that yourself. Now we’re trying to be patient with you.”

  The officers handcuffed Cheryl. “All of y’all can go to hell,” she yelled as the officers led her out.

  “Trevor we’ll wait here until you’re sure everything’s secure here.” He led Eva by the arm. “Come on, we’ll wait in your car. Keys please.”

  Eva hesitated, but handed him her keys. “You didn’t have to follow me. I had everything under control.”

  “If I wouldn’t have come, Cheryl wouldn’t be the only one hauled off to jail.”

  ~ 33 ~

  Eva had a hard time sleeping. Every time she dozed off, she could see Cheryl’s face. Her irritating voice sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard as she taunte
d Eva. “Garth was mine first. Welcome to my left overs,” Cheryl kept saying over and over with a sinister look on her face as Cheryl chanted Garth’s name.

  Eva woke up in a cold sweat. She was disappointed to find herself alone in the bed. Garth went to the police station so he could be there when they questioned Cheryl. Eva called John. “I know I said I didn’t want to do this, but in light of what’s happened, let’s reschedule the shows for a later date.”

  After Eva assured John, she was okay, he said, “Be careful. Call me if you need me.”

  “I will. Please apologize to everyone for me,” she said. Eva called Jackie and repeated the same to her as she told John.

  “Do you need me to come over?” Jackie asked.

  “Just keep your cell phone near you,” Eva responded. She knew she could be a little hard on Jackie, but Jackie always stood up to her.

  After ending the phone call with Jackie, Eva opted to take a long hot bath to sooth her nerves. She kept her phone near the bathtub. As the bubbles soaked into her skin, she opened her eyes when she heard the Los Angeles news reporter say her name. She fumbled for the remote and turned up the volume.

  “Our sources say that Cheryl Johnson has been accused of sending Eva Ward life threatening messages because of one man. The man’s name is unknown at this time. As soon as we find out more, we’ll disclose that information.”

  Eva didn’t bother to dry off. She jumped out the tub, grabbed her phone off the floor and threw on her robe. She had her agent Carmen on the phone before she could get the robe on good. “Please find out who is behind leaking this to the press.”

  Carmen said, “Why am I just now hearing about this? I should have been the first person you called.”

  Eva apologized but continued to rant about the leak to the media. Carmen’s attempt to calm her down, didn’t work. She was still fired up when Garth showed up. Garth reached to hug her when she opened the door, but she wasn’t feeling it. Garth said, “If you don’t calm down you’re going to work your way into an early grave.”

  “Have you seen the news? Every station is talking about it.” Eva’s hands were moving all over the place.