Authors: Trisha Grace
She grabbed her laptop and went into her study.
Knowing Rebecca’s real name made a world of a difference in her Internet search. Newspaper archives, very interesting newspaper archives lined the first page of her Google search results.
She didn’t know how long she’d been at it until she heard Christopher’s voice.
“Hungry?”
She gasped and spun around. “Chris, what are you doing here?”
“The lights were still on, so I thought you might want supper.”
She turned back to her laptop and closed it before standing. “I’m not hungry.”
She had already read all she needed, but she was tired of backing down simply because people didn’t trust her. She was going to prove to Christopher that she didn’t just allow a silly idea to get into her head.
She wasn’t sure why she was that determined. Maybe it was the conversation she had with Nicole. Maybe Nicole’s strength and maturity left such an impression on her that Chloe had finally made the decision to respect herself enough to stand up for herself.
“Chloe.” He closed the distance between them and took her hand. “I’m sorry. It isn’t that I don’t trust … you—”
“It’s just that you’ve worked with her, and she’s helped you when you were addicted to alcohol. So you’re protective of her.” She sighed softly when she realized she’d interrupted his sentence. She had never done that with him. “I’m sorry,” she said and sat on the desk.
Christopher pulled the chair over and sat in front of her. “It’s okay.” He took a deep breath and continued, “The point I’m trying to make … is that I choose you. I choose to trust your superpower more … than whatever my mind or experience is telling me.”
He gave her hand a squeeze, then took out his phone. “So, I sent a text to the executive in charge of my new single.” He placed his phone into her hand.
She frowned, but read whatever was on the screen. “You told him that you don’t want a personal assistant.”
“And I’ll keep my distance from her.”
She broke into a smile and shook her head. “Chris.” She laughed. “What if I told you that my paranoia kicked into insane gear and I spent the past few hours reading everything about Rebecca and I found nothing.”
“I’ve already sent the text, and … I’ve given you my word. Nothing will change.” He took her hand again. “I do care for Rebecca … because she was there for me when I was … addicted. And whatever … protectiveness you think I have of her is because I … knew what her parents put her through. She told me … her parents used to abuse her.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but when she saw that Christopher had more to say, she stopped.
“But that’s all. Whatever I feel about her, I feel a hundred times—a million times—more for you.”
She smiled, feeling silly for being jealous over nothing.
“I love you, Chloe. I always have.” He tightened his grip of her hand. “I’ll give up anything for you in a heartbeat.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
She narrowed her eyes, trying to think of something precious to him. “Josh?”
“You can have him anytime.”
She laughed. “But I don’t want you to do that.”
“You don’t want Josh either?”
“I don’t want you to give up things for me just because you feel you have to.”
“Chloe.” He paused and looked right into her eyes. “You don’t have to be the adult … in our relationship.”
“We both have to be adults for our relationship to work.”
His brows drew closer. “I’m going to be childish now. I just told you I love you.”
She laughed and cupped her hand against his cheek. “And I love you, too.” She bent forward and gave him a kiss. “And Mr. Christopher Hunter, I’m glad to announce that your faith in my superpower isn’t misplaced.”
He arched a brow.
She sat on his leg and pulled them toward the laptop. “Rebecca’s real name is Jill Adler. This is the report from Nicole’s P.I.” She scrolled through the report and pointed out some things to him. “You were talking about her parents. The P.I. spoke to her neighbors, and several neighbors stated that they often heard explosive quarrels from the house.”
“She didn’t want … to take her medications.”
She nodded. “But if she didn’t, she’d get delusions.”
“So the abuse … it could be delusions?”
She scrolled a few pages down. “The P.I. spoke to her school teachers. Apparently, Rebecca kept telling her teachers that she was abused, but the school nurse didn’t find any wounds. Then she started saying that her parents were poisoning her.”
Christopher’s eyes widened.
“Then, on her eighteenth birthday, her father accidentally left the car running in the garage. The carbon monoxide killed her parents.”
She felt Christopher’s chest rising.
“Do you suspect that … she killed her parents?”
She twisted to the side and looked at Christopher. “The P.I. never got a definite answer. One of the detectives suspected her, but they couldn’t find any proof. But what’s interesting was that her parents each took her anti-psychotic pills that made them drowsy.”
“It looks like they committed suicide.”
“I ran a search and found an interesting news article. A reporter received an anonymous tip and did her own research. Her article stated that the neighbors all insisted that Jill’s father always parked the car outside the house and never in the garage unless it was winter.” She pulled up the article she was talking about. “That was the same thing that got the detective to suspect Jill in the first place.”
She looked over at Christopher, whose brows were etched in a deep frown. “And there’s this statement.” She pointed at another paragraph in the article. “A neighbor saw her laughing and dancing at the back of the house. She thought it was weird because Jill was always brooding. And she was out there for hours, something her neighbors said was strange as well.”
She got up and sat on the desk so she could face Christopher. “I know it’s all circumstantial, which was why the police never arrested her. But when you put everything together, it’s kind of suspicious, isn’t it?”
Christopher scrolled through the article and went back to the report. “When she talked about her … parents, she always choked … up. And the fear in her eyes … seemed so real.”
“Nicole said that maybe I don’t see Rebecca’s color because everything she says is a lie, and I think she may be on to something. When I was in Paris, a doctor studied my condition. She said that the different colors I see may be due to nuances I pick up from people’s tone, which will explain the colors I see from sounds emitted from machines.”
Christopher’s head tipped back. “Ahh … that’s why you seem more observant of what you’re looking at.”
She gave him a small smile. “I think Rebecca doesn’t mean most of her words. Perhaps they’re fragments of her imagination; perhaps they’re straight-out lies or words from her alter-egos. Maybe that’s why my brain can’t decipher the nuances of her tone; maybe that’s why I don’t see her color.”
He remained quiet as his head bobbed up and down, but she could see the realization dawning on him.
“But it’s just a theory.”
“I need you to stay away from her. If she’s …” He stared at the laptop. “I don’t want you to be anywhere near her.”
“So you believe me?”
He grinned. “I don’t know what to make of all this, but I know one thing; if anything ever happens to you, I’ll never recover from that.”
“There’s nothing between Jason and me. I kind of hinted that I know something about Rebecca, then he got all worried and told me to stay away from her. He was concerned,” she said. “Do you know Rebecca made Jason promote your next song?”
“That would explain a lot. During the discussion, someone mentioned that Jason called the record label when he saw the video on Eric’s proposal.”
“Rebecca really does have a massive crush on you.” She yawned and stretched her back.
“You should get some sleep.”
She nodded. “But you made something for me to eat, right?”
“It’s just a sandwich, and it’s already in the fridge.” He stood, gave her a quick peck on her forehead, and turned.
“Chris?” She took his hand and smiled. “Thanks for choosing to believe me.”
Christopher took a step closer toward her and weaved his hand into her hair. “I’ll always choose you, no matter what.”
Christopher turned to his side and grabbed his phone from the nightstand. He pressed the home button and checked the time. It was nearly one in the afternoon.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath while stretching his neck.
He had only gotten back around dawn and was woken by Rebecca’s call in the morning.
He had explained, as nicely as he could, to Rebecca that he didn’t need an assistant right now. He told her that he wanted to take things slowly, which was true.
He didn’t want to re-enter into the music industry only to crash and burn again. He knew the triggers that could threaten his sobriety; he knew alcohol would be all around him.
This time, he would take things slowly. He had promised himself that if he needed, he would walk away from singing whenever he needed time for himself.
That was why he hadn’t signed the contract for the production of a full album. A full album would include tours and bookings that would take him all over the country, rushing from one place to another.
He didn’t want to get swept up in the craziness again.
Rebecca seemed to take the news relatively well. She told him that she understood and wished him all the best, which brought about a wave of guilt.
It was difficult to reconcile what he’d read about Jill Adler with the Rebecca whom he was talking to.
“Chris?”
He looked over at the door and sat up on the bed. “Yeah, I’m awake.”
His mom opened the door with a small frown. “There’s something you should see.”
“What’s wrong?”
His mom stepped into the room with her small red laptop. “Josh just sent me a link to a website. I think you need to read this.”
He ran his hand through his hair and took the laptop from his mom.
“What do you think?” she asked as she sat on the bed. “I think we should tell Chloe about it, shouldn’t we?”
He didn’t answer. He couldn’t give his mom an answer until he actually read the article.
He groaned when he did.
It was another article on Chloe. This time, it wasn’t just about her; it included an exposé on her parents’ relationship.
Christopher Hunter’s New Girlfriend — Cheating Runs In Her Blood
He rolled his eyes and ran his hand through his hair again. “This is ridiculous. Her father is … a cheating bas—”
“Christopher Hunter.”
He closed the laptop. “Point is, Chloe is nothing like him. She’s nothing like her parents.” He got off the bed.
“I hope her mother doesn’t read this. She won’t be happy about it.”
“I seriously doubt Chloe will … rejoice over this.”
“Maybe the two of you should take another trip.”
“Why?” Christopher pulled a shirt on. “Do you think her mother will fly here?”
“She called me ten times when she heard Chloe stayed in her house.”
He sighed heavily. “I’ll have a talk with her.”
Christopher washed up and drove over to Chloe’s house. The remote controlled blackout blinds were still covered throughout the house.
He’d installed the blinds such that one button on the remote would black out the house completely.
He used his key and entered the house as quietly as he could. If Chloe were still sleeping, he’d wait for her instead of waking her up. It wouldn’t hurt if the news were delivered a few hours late.
He used the light from his phone to find the button that would raise the blinds on the first floor, then headed upstairs. Again, he relied on his phone to navigate himself. As expected, she was sleeping soundly in her room.
Standing in the doorway, he sighed softly.
He hated all that Chloe’s parents had put her through and continued to put her through. On top of having to solve all of her own problems, she was always put in the middle of all of her parents’ issues.
Despite being in different countries, her parents still managed to hound her with their issues.
Maybe the exposé was a good thing. Maybe having their dirty laundry splashed out on magazines would finally force her mother to acknowledge that their marital problems were theirs and nothing to do with Chloe.
Before he could laugh at his own thoughts, he heard a loud thud that sounded as if something knocked against the window in Chloe’s bedroom, the one he was staring at.
Chloe’s immediate gasp turned his attention to her.
She sat upright, and her head snapped toward him. “Chris?” She sighed. “I thought—”
Another thud on the window interrupted her.
“What’s going on?” She grabbed the remote and clicked on a button. The blinds rolled up to reveal cracks from seemingly two impact points. “What the—Chris, no!”
He continued staring at the window as he made his way toward it. “Don’t worry. The windows are reinforced and thick.” He’d made sure they were that way so there would be minimal distractions for Chloe within the house.
She pushed the covers aside and joined him by his side just as the alarm in the house sounded. She jumped, then covered her ears and shut her eyes.
He reached across and held her shoulders. “It’s the alarm.”
“What’s it alarming us to?”
He pulled her closer against himself and leaned forward, then tipped his head back and groaned.
“What?” She took a small step forward and looked down, right as something came flying in her direction. She flinched and took a large step back.
“I’m going to kill Frank.”
“Frank’s throwing things at the house?”
He shook his head. “It’s your mom. I think Frank brought her here.”
“The windows will break eventually, I suppose.”
He weaved his fingers into her hair and pulled her in for a quick peck. “I’ll deal with her. Stay here.”
She nodded.
He took a step and hesitated, then turned back to her. “This wasn’t how I wanted to break the news to you.” He went to his Internet browser and searched for the article his mother had shown him. “But you need to read this now.”