Larger Than Lyfe (27 page)

Portia had no earthly idea what she was hoping to accomplish after weeks of “surveillance” outside Keshari Mitchell’s mansion. The whole problem with Portia’s situation was that Mars was not her man. He never had been. Portia and Mars had dated off and on for some time and exclusivity was not something that existed even once between the two of them. Portia had wanted an exclusive relationship with Mars, but Mars had made it pretty clear that he didn’t want anything resembling a serious relationship, so Portia acted as if she didn’t want anything serious either. Then Mars went and got himself
involved with that Keshari Mitchell bitch and it was serious from day one and, well, GOD-DAMMIT…that’s why Portia was parked outside that bitch’s house right now! The hurt and the anger of Mars unceremoniously dumping her so that he could give that bitch exclusivity was as fresh in her mind and heart as if it had happened only moments before and Portia was now strangely fixated on doing damage to the bitch who had walked up out of nowhere and assumed HER position. Portia just hadn’t firmly decided yet what that “damage” would be.

From a sane person’s point of view, nothing would come from what Portia was doing except a lot of wasted time and trouble, particularly if she got caught, and it kept her from moving on with her life. But Portia was not working from a very sane place these days. She knew that the bitch was out of town again. She was in Miami for another leg of auditions in her nationwide talent search project. Portia caught the details regarding the Miami auditions on the E! channel on the day the bitch left. Portia watched the limousine arrive and load up her luggage to take her to the airport.

The armed guards who were typically present were not patrolling the grounds. Security seemed to be lighter on the property
whenever the bitch was traveling and Portia was going to use that as an opportunity to sneak past those remote control gates and onto the property.

Portia had timed it all perfectly. The timing mechanism on the remote control gates took about fifteen seconds to completely close the gates. As soon as a FedEx delivery truck was pulling out of the gates, Portia literally ran from her parked car and straight inside the closing gates.

The little piece that was left of the rational side of Portia was screaming at the top of its lungs, “Why are you doing this?! What is this going to accomplish?!” The side of Portia that had just gotten onto Keshari Mitchell’s private property and was about to take a close look around at how that bitch lived gave the “rational” side a slug in the face and kept Portia focused on their far better plan. “Hurt the bitch!” it said, a twisted, horned, little devil sitting on her shoulder and angrily serving up horrific advice. “She’s got your man!”

Armed with a black backpack containing a couple of cans of black spray paint, a loaded .22 handgun, a digital camera, her cell phone, and a handheld copying device, and dressed in black sweats and black running shoes as if she was participating in a caper from
Mission Impossible
, Portia hopped behind a hedge and took a deep breath, amazed that she was actually inside. She looked around and thought for a moment and figured that she could scamper across the lawn and make it into the house through the open solarium doors. Little did she know that high-powered, security cameras were capturin
g her every move and, while the bulk of the security team who generally walked the grounds seemed to be off duty, the regular security who manned the guard office and patrolled the property twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week were definitely on duty.

Before Miss “Mission Impossible” could even swing into action, two of the armed security guards exited the guard office and chased her across the grounds to apprehend her. Sometimes a person never really realizes how stupid she’s being until her actions leave her looking like “Public Idiot Number One.” Portia Foster was placed under arrest by the Torrance Police Department and placed in the back of a squad car as she wilded out like Zsa Zsa Gabor, kicking and screaming profanities as the squad car drove away with her inside.

The media made it over to the Torrance Police Department in record time to capture the unfolding story. They even secured Portia Foster’s brazen-looking mug shot photo and plastered it all over the local news.

Keshari was still in Palm Beach, having just wrapped the Miami auditions, when she received the call from her security company in Los Angeles, alerting her of the security breach and arrest. Keshari had no idea who Portia Foster was. Because of the immediate media coverage that made it all the way to Miami, she was promptly provided with a complete background of the woman who’d slipped onto her property with the clear intention of vandalizing it and possibly doing her harm.

“Ex-Girlfriend of ASCAP’s West Coast General Counsel Arrested for Stalking,” a local, Miami news station reported.

K
eshari and Mars flew back to Los Angeles together out of Miami and were hounded by the press as soon as their plane touched the ground. Reporters questioned Keshari about Portia Foster and whether or not she and Portia had ever met. The media wanted to know if Keshari was responsible for Mars and Portia’s breakup. The press posed the same questions to Mars, and then asked if Keshari recently finding out about Portia Foster had hurt his and Keshari’s relationship in any way. The press asked Mars if he was aware of Portia having any history of mental illness. They asked if
Mars and Keshari were afraid that Portia would do something to try to harm the two of them after her release from police custody. Then reporters went way-y-y off into left field by asking if Mars and Keshari were getting married. It was all very intrusive and more than a little ridiculous.

Portia was released from jail on bail, pending her court date, and the media immediately accosted her as well. Keshari’s attorney acquired temporary restraining orders for both Keshari and Mars and they were served to Portia the moment she exited the Torrance Police Department following her release. Portia w
as not allowed to come within 1,000 feet of Keshari or Mars or either of their workplaces and their residences. Portia was both embarrassed and livid.

Portia’s design firm received calls from morning until night. A
couple of big-name clients called urgently with the desire to immediately cancel their projects and terminate their contracts. Reporters pumped Portia’s employees for information regarding their boss. They also called and called in vain, attempting to speak directly to Portia Foster herself. They wanted to know about Portia’s past romantic relationship with Mars Buchanan and they wanted to see if Portia Foster was as crazy as she currently seemed. A couple of extra-resourceful reporters contacted a few well-known models to see if they could obtain a bit of “dish” regarding Portia Fos
ter’s history back in her fashion runway days. Perhaps she’d been something of a nut job back then and there were some peculiar stories to be passed on to the public.

Paparazzi snapped photos of Portia, no matter where she was or what she was doing, and they seemed most inclined to try to take the photos of Portia that were unbecoming and that would lead the public to believe that she was, in fact, unstable. Portia finally decided, at the advice of her attorney, to assign her pending projects to one of her senior interior designers and go into hiding until her court dates and until the nasty publicity surrounding her died down.

While Portia’s twisted, little saga had her own life in temporary unravel, it seemed to render Mars and Keshari’s relationship stronger than ever. Mars told Keshari all about Portia Foster and how he had terminated all dealings with her directly after his and Keshari’s trip to Negril. He told Keshari that Portia was a little melodramatic, but that she had never done anything as long as he’d known her, like what she had done recently to get herself arrested. Mars mentioned nothing at all to Keshari about Portia’s faked pregnancy.

Mars went on to tell Keshari that there had never been an exclusive relationship between Portia and him, even though he knew that that was precisely what she wanted…which was another reason that he’d broken things off with her. He didn’t want to lead her on. Keshari took it all in, with few questions and no arguments, anger or suspicion. If anything, Keshari seemed mildly amused at the crazy woman slipping onto her propert
y for whatever reason that she had. She’d set aside the withdrawn, distracted, and agitated state she’d been in in Miami. She strategized her movements privately and managed to keep it all together so that she didn’t worry Mars. She and Mars never finished the conversation that they’d been engaged in prior to the call from Keshari’s security company in Los Angeles. Mars broached the subject and Keshari quickly brushed it off.

I
t was the day before Keshari would be flying out of Los Angeles for the kick-off of Larger Than Lyfe’s talent search auditions in Detroit, the seventh audition city. It was also the day one of closing arguments in Richard Tresvant’s murder trial. Mars had taken the day off to hang out with Keshari before she left for Detroit and he flew to San Francisco for the rest of the week for a music conference. Keshari had promised Mars before he arrived that morning that she would not do a single, work-related thing or take a single, work-related call. They were going to veg out a
ll day, order take-out, and get some much-needed R & R. Keshari was curled up in a white, Juicy Couture sweatsuit watching television in the solarium, eating a big bag of Doritos, when Mars arrived.

“You’ve gotten yourself addicted to this murder trial like three-quarters of the rest of Los Angeles. I cannot believe you TiVo it.”

Keshari chuckled, but, as the day went on, seemed to be taking in the ongoing trial a lot more seriously than the typical, interested viewer. Mars watched the subtle cues in her body language and she seemed to be watching almost as if she had some vested interest in the trial and its outcome.

“Do you know him?” Mars asked curiously.

“Who?” Keshari said.

“Richard Tresvant…the gangster…”

“Yeah,” Keshari responded. “I know him.”

Mars didn’t say anything.

“I’m gonna tell you something that not a whole lot of people know…and it’s just between the two of us, okay?”

“Okay,” Mars said. He was now apprehensive.

“Richard Tresvant is Misha’s biological brother.”

“SAY WHAT?!” Mars said in complete surprise.

“Yeah,” Keshari said. “She changed her last name because of him. Her last name is not really Tierney. It’s Tresvant. She wants no connection or association to him whatsoever.”

“Damn,” Mars said, eying the television screen and immediately noticing the strong, physical resemblance between Misha and Richard Tresvant. “How well do you know him?”

Keshari was quiet for a few moments. As much as Mars was trying to be cool about it, she could see the anxiety building in his eyes.

“I know him very well, Mars. A long, long time ago, I was romantically involved with him.”

Mars didn’t ask any more questions. A flash of what his best friend, Jason Payne, had said to him when Mars first told him about Keshari went through his mind. He also thought of the wise, old adage, “Don’t ask the question if you are not prepared to handle the answer.”