He caught up with her by the pool. He knocked her down, and then he leaped on top of her, and put his hands on her throat. While he squeezed tighter and tighter, his face got redder and redder.
“Now you listen to me. You take care of it. You’re going to go to the clinic, and you’re not going to breathe one word about me. My name will not be in your mouth. Not even once. If I find out that it is, I WILL take care of you.”
Addison literally couldn’t speak. His hands were still gripped tightly around her throat, and she felt herself passing out. She instinctively put her hands on her stomach. She was afraid that all of his weight on top of her was going to make her lose the baby. She had spent several days getting used to the fact that she was going to be a mother, and she didn’t want to lose this baby. This was her baby, as far as she was concerned. It was a miracle baby. It was her final chance to be a mother, and she wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize that.
When she made up her mind up about it, she realized that this was what she really wanted. She naïvely thought that he would want it as well, but obviously, that was not the case.
“Do you hear me, you goddamned bitch? Do you hear me? You’re going to take care of it. You’re going to take care of it, and you’re not going to say one word about me. You say one word about me, I swear to God, I WILL come after you. And that’s only if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky, I’ll send someone after you, and they won’t treat you as nicely as I was going to. Trust me on this, you don’t want to fuck with me.”
At that, he took his hands off of her throat, and he got off of her. To her surprise, he held out his hand. “Come on. Now that I think that you got the message, it doesn’t have to come between us.”
Addison took his hand without a word, but she was thinking that the message hadn’t gotten through to her. Not at all. In fact, the way that he was acting at the moment made her more determined than ever that she was going to have this baby.
She suddenly realized that she couldn’t depend upon him as a partner. She suddenly realized that all of the fantasies she had about being his wife, and about being the first lady of United States, were just that – fantasies. There was no way in hell that they were ever going to come true.
She knew that it was going to be her and this baby against the world, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. There was no way that she could possibly tell him what she was thinking in her mind. He was a dangerous man – she knew that now. She never knew this before, but she knew it now.
He calmly sat down on a pool chair, and motioned to the chair next to him. “Now, what would you like to do today? I’m all yours for the rest of the day. I have to be at a fundraiser tonight, in the Valley, but for right now, it’s just you and me.”
He smiled at her, the same smile that she had always seen before that always melted her into him. But, by then, the smile didn’t look to her to be the same smile as before - it was that of a sociopath. She didn’t know why she had never seen that before. Perhaps she had never wanted to see it before. Perhaps it was always there. Perhaps he was always a sociopath, and she had just been too blind to see it.
She took a deep breath. She still couldn’t speak. He had strangled her so that her vocal cords had been almost crushed. She felt that if she tried to speak, it would be extremely painful. Her throat felt dry and raw.
But it wasn’t just a physical pain that kept her from speaking. It was the fact that she was terrified of this man. She never thought that the day would come that she would be afraid of Michael, but that day had come.
“Honey,” Michael said to her. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. All you have to do is make an appointment with your doctor, assuming your doctor does that kind of thing, and nothing has to come between us. We can just go on like normal. Don’t make a big deal out of it.” He patted his lap, apparently expecting her just to sit on it. “Now, come on honey, you have me for the rest of the day, but that’s it. After tonight, you’re not going to be seeing me for a little while. Don’t ruin it. Don’t ruin the day that we have together. Time between us is precious. I wish that you would realize that.”
She still didn’t say a word. In her mind, she was screaming at him. She was yelling at him to get out of her house and never come back. She was screaming at him that she was going to keep the baby, whether he wanted her to or not. She was shrieking that there was no way in hell that he was going to ever be in this child’s life. Yet, she realized that the screaming was all in her head, because she still sat in front of him like a mute person. She couldn’t find her words.
Finally, Michael rolled his eyes. “I see that you’re going to be a bitch about it, so I’ll show myself out. The next time I see you, I’ll expect you to have taken care of it. As I said before, I have big plans. If the media ever got ahold of the fact that you’re pregnant with my child, those plans will go up in smoke. You have to understand, I plan on saving this country. Me. Single-handedly. But there’s no way I’m going to get my chance to save this country if you breathe a word about your pregnancy to the media or to anybody else. And that’s why, honey, I’m going to have to take care of you if you ever breathe a word about it to anybody. There’s just too much at stake right now.”
Addison still said nothing. All she wanted was for him to leave her house, and never come back. She swallowed hard, her hands going to her stomach. She wanted to make sure that she could still feel the baby inside of her. Not that she could actually feel the baby inside of her at that moment, because it was still too early for that. Yet, she still had an unspoken bond with this little tiny creature that was growing in her uterus.
The little tiny creature would soon be her baby.
And there was nothing that Michael was going to do about that.
Chapter 8
Emerson - August 25. Four days after Addison goes missing.
I left the jail cell feeling that I really wanted to make sure that this kid got some justice. I really did believe his story. I believed that he was innocent. Of course, the evidence was pointing towards him as being the one who killed Addison Wentworth. That was inescapable. Nonetheless, I could usually get a feel for whether or not my clients were lying to me or telling me the truth, and I just felt in my bones that this boy was telling me the truth.
I got out to the street, got in my car, and reluctantly returned the frantic phone messages that Grey was leaving for me. I knew what they were about. It was obvious. The texts simply said “call me ASAP.” The phone messages that he had left said the same thing – “call me ASAP.”
With great apprehension, I called Grey’s number.
“Emerson,” Grey said when he picked up the phone. “It’s about damn time. I wanted to catch you before you went to the jail to meet Carter. I’m sorry, Emerson, but I can’t keep you on anymore. I’ve already decided that I’m going to go ahead and send Schwartz over there tomorrow to interview the kid, and she’s going to take the lead on the case. You’re going to have to come here tomorrow and clean out your office, and I’m sorry to have to do this to you, but I’m going to have to make sure that the security guard shows you out tomorrow. I’m very sorry about this. I’m sure you’re not surprised, however, considering what happened today with you and Michael Buchanan.”
I let out the breath that I was holding in the entire time that Grey was talking to me. He was right, of course – I wasn’t surprised about this phone call, or about being fired. I knew that it was coming, and I knew why. It wasn’t that Grey was being disloyal to me, but he had no choice. The prospect of Michael Buchanan taking all those millions away from the firm, along with his rich buddies, was obviously too much for him.
“Emerson? You still there?”
“Yes. I’m still here.”
“Good. Listen, I am really sorry about this. I know that Michael is a bastard. I can’t stand that jerk anymore than you can. But money talks. I certainly can’t afford to lose his business, and I really can’t afford to lose the business of his rich friend
s. Believe me, if I thought that I had a choice in the matter, I would fight for you. I would go to the mattresses for you. I consider you to be our top attorney.”
Although I was prepared for this, it still came as a bit of a shock to me that he would give up so easily. “With all due respect, I think that the reason why you’re firing me has more to do with your own greed than anything else. Your law firm is making plenty of money without Michael Buchanan’s business. Do you really think that he has so much sway with his rich friends that they would just withdraw their cases from your law firm, which you know would be a big hassle for them? How many clients do you know who would be so loyal to one person that they would jeopardize their own case just because a friend of theirs told him to? Our firm is one of the best white-shoe firms in town and you know it. Michael Buchanan is nothing but a crook, a delusional crook at that, yet you’re letting him push you around. Quite frankly, I think I lost respect for you.”
He was quiet on the other end of the line as I ranted at him. That was the thing about Grey – he didn’t always like confrontation. He was like most people in that regard. He knew that what he was doing was wrong. He knew that I was in the right. Granted, I could have chosen my words better when I went off on Michael. I meant everything I said, and if I had the chance, I would have done it again. I might’ve chosen my words more carefully, but I definitely would have put him in his place. That was a problem with people like Michael Buchanan – there weren’t enough people around to put them in their place. I did, and I wasn’t sorry for it.
“I was going to give you a good recommendation, but you just called me greedy, so I think I’m not going to do that.”
I closed my eyes, somewhat regretful that I said those things to Grey. Again, I meant every word, but he probably didn’t deserve my rant. Grey had always been good to me. I silently cursed my habit of saying exactly what was on my mind. I realized I had no filter, and that hurt me sometimes. As in this case.
“I understand.” That was all that I said to him. There wasn’t really much more to say. I wasn’t going to try to take back the words that I said – he had to also know that I was correct. He had to also have known that it was wrong to fire me because of what a two-bit criminal like Michael Buchanan threatened.
I doubted that Michael Buchanan would actually have gone through with this threat, even if I wasn’t fired. We had been knee-deep in his various cases for years. He had come to trust our firm. And, knowing how paranoid the guy was, I would’ve been completely surprised if he would’ve been willing to trust another law firm to take a look at all of his financials over the years. I knew that Grey had turned a blind eye to a lot of Michael’s shenanigans, just because the money was so good. I knew that other law firms would be hesitant to do the same. I had to wonder if Michael would’ve found a new law firm just like that, considering how shady he’d always been over his life.
I hung up the phone. I didn’t want to hear Grey anymore. As far as I was concerned, he wasn’t going to tell me anything that I really wanted to hear, so it was best just to leave it at that.
I sighed. I was going to have to go back to Carter, and tell him what happened. I was going to go ahead and give him the choice to retain me as his lawyer, but I was going to be honest with him as well. I was going to tell him that I didn’t have the resources that Grey’s firm had to try his case properly. I knew that my firm was taking his case on pro bono, simply because they wanted the publicity that surrounded such a high-profile murder trial. They wanted to get me, or the lawyer who would be working his case, on every news channel at every available moment so that the firm would be raking in the dollars because of all the business that was going to come into it.
On the other hand, I was probably going to have to be hanging out a shingle. Between my insulting Matthew Buchanan, and Grey, I imagined that I would probably be blackballed by almost every big firm in the city. I had money in the bank, but I also had a ton of expenses, and apparently I was going to have two young girls to worry about as well. Not to mention the fact that my mother worked only sporadically. I definitely wasn’t going to be able to put the same kind resources into this case that Grey’s firm would be able to. I imagined that when I gave the kid a choice between my taking his case individually and Grey’s firm, with its deep pockets, he was going to choose the latter.
As much as I wanted to take this kid’s case, I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to be able to.
Little did I know that a big surprise was in store for me on that front.
Chapter 9
Jackson - August 19. Two days before Addison goes missing.
Jackson Anderson smoked his fifth cigar of the hour, as he sat in his enormous home that was situated high on the cliffs of Malibu. He stubbed it out, and lit another one. He knew that he was under a lot of stress. That was one of the things he did when he was under stress – smoke a lot of cigars. He guessed that he was lucky in that regard, because other people that he knew would be eating a lot when they’re under this much stress. Others would be drinking a lot, even drugging a lot. No doubt about it, being the head of a major movie studio was something that was not for the faint of heart.
And being the head of a major movie studio in the era of #Metoo was an even more harrowing proposition. He knew that he had enormous power in this town. He had the power to make or break actors. Just one word from him, and a career could be destroyed. He was able to make other studio heads bow to his demands, because he had a track record of success. His movies not just made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, but they also won the prestigious awards, year after year. More than one Oscar upset was due to Jackson’s incessant lobbying and arm-twisting behind the scenes. He had a streak going where his movie studio won the Oscar for best picture for three years running.
For years, he had used his enormous power to make sure that women, especially, bowed to his every whim and demand. He had made it clear to any woman who wanted to star in one of his pictures that she first had to do a favor for him. That favor might be having sex with him, or participating in a threesome with him and his girlfriend, or it could be something as simple as giving him a blow job right there during their initial meeting. Hungry Hollywood starlets knew the score. They knew that if they really wanted to get a foothold in one of Jackson’s movies, all they had to do was please him sexually. And they did it, willingly. All of them willingly. He wasn’t like that other studio head who was currently in court facing charges of raping women. He would never do something like that. He would never have to do something like that.
He knew that he was nothing to look at – he was 6’ and 150 pounds, a skinny boy with no muscle tone. His nose was too big, his eyes too close together, and he had no chin to speak of. In fact, growing up in high school, he was never the popular kid. Couldn’t get a date to save his life. He was a bit nerdy, and in those days he was a bit shy, so he sat home on Saturday nights, wondering why it was that nobody would date him.
That would change, of course. He was one of those nerds in high school who was super smart, and he had always been a movie buff. That was one of the silver linings of his lack of popularity in high school – while other guys were dating girls, Jackson spent his time watching movies. Watching them, calmly analyzing them, carefully writing notes about each popular movie and why he thought that they had mass appeal. What made a classic movie a classic movie? What made a blockbuster movie a blockbuster movie? Sometimes the classic movies were blockbuster movies, but often they were two different species. Especially these days, the blockbuster movies that his studio put out were not classics and never would be. In fact, most of them would be forgotten within a year or two. But that didn’t matter – Jackson had the magic touch in making movies. It came from watching literally thousands of them in his youth, and obsessively analyzing every single one. That was how he spent his time in high school, and he taught himself to make films in his senior year. That led him to film school at UCLA, which led to him making indepen
dent films for a small studio. One of those independent films early in his career won a prestigious award at Sundance, which led to wide distribution, which led to a sleeper hit.
From that point on, he was on his way. He worked himself up to being a producer of independent films, and worked his way up to where he was at the moment, the head of Centurion Pictures, a major movie studio.
All of this before the age of 40.
However, all that he had worked so hard for was soon going to be taken from him. At least, if Addison Wentworth had her way. He had heard the rumors going around that she was soon going to go to the authorities about what he had done to her. He had no idea why she had waited all these years to do this, or even to make threats about it, because the incident happened five years ago.
It was one of those things, something that he didn’t even think twice about. Addison was somebody who he really wanted to sleep with. She was beautiful, but it was more than that. She was also somebody who he was wildly attracted to. She looked just like one of the cheerleaders that he had fantasized about, but could never have, when he was in high school. So he found himself fantasizing about Addison the same way he had fantasized about that cheerleader, Charlotte White. He thought that if he could lure Addison over to his house, and have her dress up in the same cheerleading uniform that Charlotte White always wore to school, and have wild monkey sex with her, it would be the same thing as him fulfilling his ultimate fantasy as a frustrated 16-year-old boy who lost himself in movies because he couldn’t get a date.
There was only one problem with all of that. Addison wasn’t playing along. She had been a superstar for many years. While Jackson was coming up in the ranks, making his small independent films, Addison had already made a huge name for herself in a romantic comedy that had surprised everybody and made hundreds of millions of dollars of the box office. When he was trying to sleep with her, he had a lot of power, but so did she. He couldn’t threaten her the way he was able to threaten young up-and-coming actresses who were new to town and would do literally anything to get a leg up on the competition. She wanted nothing to do with him.
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