by Jenny Hale
Going into her tiny bathroom, Lila brushed her teeth, washed her face, and combed her hair, pulling it into a ponytail. Then she slid on a pair of her jeans and a sweater, grabbed her coat and keys, and headed downstairs. When she got to the bottom, she pushed open the apartment complex door, the crisp morning air waking her up like a splash of ice water to the face.
As she walked along the busy city street, she thought about how different her life had ended up. Lila had never imagined when she’d gotten in that van with Razz, headed to Nashville, that she’d end up alone, left in a city she didn’t really call home, wondering where to go and not having a clue. The one saving grace—and it was a big one—was that she was excited about moving on with Theo by her side. She definitely needed a fresh start. With her apartment all packed up, she was going to make that happen—she just wasn’t so sure where they would go or what they would do. And there was a tiny piece of her that wanted to be sure she didn’t just run after a guy to the next city like she had with Razz… She felt like things were different with Theo, but how could she know if they actually were? She couldn’t bear the thought of making the same mistake again.
Another flash hit her right in the eyes and suddenly a man appeared beside her. “Lila Evans?” the man asked. She didn’t recognize him at all, but it was hard to tell with the spots floating in her eyes from the light.
She stopped walking. “Yes?”
“Is it true that you are Theo Perry’s mistress?”
“What?” She stared at the man like a deer in headlights, unsure of how to answer further. How did this man know her full name and where she lived? But more importantly, how had he found out she knew Theo? She could barely focus on the man in front of her, all the questions swirling around in her mind. Lila knew she had to stay quiet. She needed to talk to Theo before she said a thing.
“It’s been reported that he’s been hiding out with you well before the allegations surrounding his embezzlement.”
Lila’s mouth hung open. “It wasn’t that long…” The words slipped out of her before she had a chance to stop them.
“So you have been with Theo?”
Shoot.
She shouldn’t have said anything at all.
“Where is Theo, Lila? Is he here with you?”
“I need to go,” she said, pushing past him.
The man started to follow her, and another flash from across the street blinded her for a second. She was being photographed. Lila weaved in front of a group of tourists and ducked into the alley between the shops, running with all her might to the other side where she quickly turned a corner and headed up a side street. When she got far enough away that she didn’t think the man could find her or catch up, she texted Theo and told him what had happened.
He texted back: Get whatever you need and come back here as soon as you can.
What if he’s at my apartment? she texted.
Just try your best not to be seen. We’ll figure it out.
Her heart hammering, Lila ran down backroads all the way to her apartment building and then let herself in through the rear door. She took the elevator up to her room, catching her breath as it climbed the floors. When the doors opened, she moved quickly to her apartment and stopped, her blood running cold.
A note was taped to her front door that read,
Theo is an embarrassment to my family and me. He completely betrayed me and ruined my reputation. The media is having a field day with this. So I won’t make this easy on him. You can count on that.
A.
Shocked, Lila ripped the note off the door and shoved it into her pocket. Then she grabbed two boxes of her things and went back down to Eleanor’s car. Throwing the boxes into the trunk, she slammed it shut and hurried to the driver’s side, her head on a swivel, and locked the doors. Then she put the car in gear and got out of there as fast as she could, the engine revving loudly as she pounded the gas.
As Lila drove, she kept checking her mirrors to be sure no one was following her. Her hands were shaking, her heart beating like a snare drum. She wondered if this would be too difficult for their young relationship, but she couldn’t think about that now. She just needed to make sure that she didn’t put Theo in any danger with the press or Alexa.
Once Lila was over an hour into the trip, she pulled over at a rest stop to catch her breath. She’d left so quickly that she hadn’t even had a chance to see Piper or Edie to catch up. Now she wasn’t certain how or when she could get back to Nashville, to get the rest of her things packed up and moved. She’d make Theo go with her next time, that was for sure.
She called him to tell him about the note.
“Alexa was at your apartment?” he snapped. “You don’t have anything to do with this!” The anger in his voice was clear. “She’s crazy.”
“She said you have to fix it,” Lila told him.
“How? What does she want me to fix? It’s over and done. There’s nothing we can do now but move on.”
“I have no idea what to do, Theo.”
“It’s okay,” he said, calmer now. “We’ll figure it out. Be careful and get here as soon as you can.”
Lila ended the call, tears suddenly filling her eyes. This Christmas hadn’t turned out at all the way she’d hoped it would. She wiped a runaway tear off her cheek and sucked her emotion back in. There was no time to feel sorry for herself.
Pulling Alexa’s note from her pocket, she spread it out flat on the seat beside her, and took a photo of it. She sent it to Piper with the message: Can you believe this? I’ll catch you up later. With the note still on her seat, she put Eleanor’s car in gear, and headed to Pinewood Hills.
When she pulled into the drive, Theo ran out to greet her. He opened her car door, hauled her out, and kissed her lips tenderly, the feel of them erasing any doubt she’d ever had about her feelings for him. It felt so right to be back in his arms.
Theo pulled back and looked down at her. “Hi,” he said with a wide grin. “I missed you.”
It was the first time she’d ever been told that by someone she was dating, and while it was such a normal thing for people to say, it meant the world to her. She smiled up at him. “I missed you too.”
Then a white pop of light blinded her. She heard the purr of a car engine but couldn’t see who it was driving up the track and coming to a stop in front of them. Her heart racing, Lila blinked enough to make out a sleek, dark Tesla, the driver’s side door opening and long, thin legs emerging from within.
“We’re still married, Theo,” the owner of the legs said, as the high heels attached to them ground their way toward them.
Lila squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again to find the woman from the photos she’d seen online—Alexa Fontaine—in the flesh. Her dark hair fell in loose shiny waves down the back of her belted coat, and her powder-perfect face was set in a scowl behind her enormous black Prada glasses. Alexa tilted the shades enough for her eyes to clamp down on Lila, appraising her. Then she pushed them back into place with a dismissive and disgusted shake of the head.
“Give me a break, Alexa,” Theo said, striding up to her.
She pursed her lips and pushed her glasses onto her head, just to show off an eye roll. “You look like a train wreck. You could do with a shave,” she spat. Another white pop went off, and Lila realized it was coming from somewhere amongst the trees behind the cabin. “I’m going to ruin you until the press leaves me alone. It’s my goal in life to make sure there is enough evidence out there to prove that you and you alone ruined our marriage.”
“Fine,” Theo said. “They can write whatever they want about me—I don’t care anymore.”
“The press will have a field day with the angle, ‘Theo Perry has gone off the rails and is now shacked up in the sticks, cheating on his wife with a local hillbilly.’”
“Hey, you stop right there,” Theo said, sticking up for Lila. The camera went off again from the tree line.
Alexa ignored him and turned to Lila. “If
you think you can squeeze any money out of him to get yourself out of your…” She waved her manicured hands around in the air. “Circumstances, you’re wrong. He’s dead broke.”
“Alexa, what’s going on here?” Smash asked from the porch before Lila could say anything.
Alexa cackled. “Oh, there you go,” she said to Lila. “A sound investor. If money’s what you want, Smash will give it to you—even if he doesn’t have it.”
“You just sound bitter,” Theo said. “This isn’t the person I met when we first started dating.”
Alexa didn’t even flinch. “Likewise,” she snapped. “And no, I’m not. You’ve made me the laughing stock of our social circles. Did you know there was an article in Music Mag about my lack of judgment, and how I’m singlehandedly ruining our family empire by the men I choose? They said I was involved and went so far as to say they suspected I’d steal from my own family next!” Her puffy lips began to wobble. “I started seeing someone and on our third date, he cancelled. He said he’d heard about my background. And he couldn’t risk anyone interfering in his family’s fortune.”
“Then divorce me,” Theo said. “From what you’re saying, making me look bad is only going to reflect worse on you. Be the hero and divorce me, and then tell everyone your side.”
“Not until you go to the press and explain to them that you stole money from your own company without my knowing, and I had nothing to do with any of this. Until then, I will make your life as miserable as you’ve made mine.”
“He didn’t steal anything, Alexa,” Smash said, coming down the front steps. “It was—”
“All a misunderstanding,” Theo cut in, before Smash could incriminate himself. “Dad took funds from the company as a year-end dividend and forgot to enter it into the books. It was a simple oversight that the accountant found, and tax adjustments were made to correct it. That’s all it was.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “That’s not what the press says, and you certainly didn’t tell me…”
“You didn’t let me. And come on, Alexa. You and I both know what the press can be like. Do you really believe them?”
“I don’t believe you. Why did you run if you’re not guilty?”
“Because I’ve had it with all this.” He waggled his finger between them. “Do you realize this conversation has been nothing but an effort by you to fix your broken reputation? Not even once has it been about you and me. You’re angry and hostile because I made you look bad… It’s always been about appearances.”
“Liar. I married you in some hole of a shack in the sand.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “That was not about appearances.”
“I wouldn’t call a beachside ceremony under a thatched-roof cabana in Fiji ‘a shack in the sand,’” he said, shaking his head, disbelief on his face. “But it further proves my point. Let’s end this right now.”
She shook her head, slipping her glasses back on. “No. I won’t end this until either I prove to the press what a terrible person you are, or you tell them yourself. You won’t get a single signature from me on any divorce papers until you say that I wasn’t involved, admit your cover-up, and face criminal charges for embezzlement. And in the meantime, if I can make them see how you completely deceived me, maybe they’ll listen to me when I say I had nothing to do with any of this.”
The camera in the woods went off yet again.
“At least I’ve got photos to prove my story now,” she said, nodding to the invisible paparazzo before opening her car door and getting in. The engine of her Tesla revved and she pulled away down the drive.
Lila sat in her cabin, physically shaken by the altercation with Alexa.
“This isn’t how I’d planned today to go,” Theo admitted. “I told you she wouldn’t play nice.”
Smash had gone to his cabin, probably to give them time to talk, and the two of them were sitting in the silent cabin, the fire barely flickering, an icy chill snaking around Lila’s ankles, giving her a shiver.
“It’s really okay, though. She can’t hurt me any more than she already has.”
“Can I ask you something out of curiosity?” Lila said, still trying to make sense of what had happened.
“Anything.”
“Who are Brian Brown and P. Perry? I saw the names on an envelope in your office.”
“Brian Brown is just a name I made up to try to hide away from everything. But now I realize that I can’t escape it. I need to face it. And P. Perry is me—Paul Theodore Perry.”
She offered a weak smile, glad to know his whole name and also that there were no more questions, but the whole ordeal had her head pounding.
“I think I need some time to process this,” she said. She needed to clear her mind and get some rest so she could think straight.
Theo gave her hand a supportive squeeze. “Okay,” he said. “Dad and I will go to his cabin to give you space.” He looked uncertain, and she wondered if he’d been just as shaken by Alexa’s visit.
“Thank you,” was all she could muster, completely exhausted by the day.
“I’ll text you from Dad’s phone so you have a way to get ahold of me if you need me.”
Lila nodded.
“I’m so sorry, Lila,” he said, but she stopped him.
“I just need some time.” She tried to focus on Theo but the pain in her head was now piercing.
Theo stood and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. Then he let himself out, leaving her alone in the cabin.
Getting up, she let herself into the bedroom. As she sank down onto the soft mattress, her thoughts were still going a mile a minute. Her face was probably going to be plastered across magazines and online. Who knew what they’d say about her? Despite the fact he didn’t want to be, Theo was a public figure, and people were interested in his life. Even if he could get Alexa to agree to a divorce quietly, it would most likely be a messy one. She worried Alexa would draw it out just for spite, and spread rumors about them because Theo would never admit to the press what she wanted him to admit—he wasn’t a liar. While Theo had tried to warn Lila, the enormity of the situation really hit her now. Was she really ready for all this?
Thirty
Lila had slept from the time Theo left all the way through the night, and she’d spent the whole day walking around the cabin on autopilot. She’d gotten ready, made coffee, turned on the Christmas lights, thrown a log into the fire, and settled on the sofa, her mind completely empty of solutions. She hadn’t moved from that spot except to nibble on some leftovers, but her appetite was nearly nonexistent.
As she watched the sun set out her window, her eyes on the pink haze peeking through the grey clouds rolling in, she knew she had no way to fix this. She and Theo would just have to endure his divorce together and face whatever came their way. Would their new relationship be able to withstand this level of anxiety? She had no answers. No answers, no place to live, and no job—her life in boxes sitting in an apartment she still hadn’t totally moved out of.
Breaking the silence, Theo burst through the door. “I know you want to be alone,” he said. “But I need you to get into my truck and come with me.”
“Why?” she asked.
Theo took her hands and pulled her to a standing position. “Trust me.” He walked her to the door and handed over her coat.
“Where’s Smash?” she asked, slipping on her boots, confused by his behavior.
“You’ll see.” He opened the door and they headed to his truck, where he motioned for her to hop in. “I’ve been busy…”
She’d never seen him this happy and animated. His fondness for her radiated from his face as he looked at her, her worries disappearing in that moment. She realized that in their short time together they’d shared more of their thoughts and feelings than she and Razz ever had. Despite what lay ahead of them, he’d broken his walls down and let her in. That meant everything. “Aren’t you worried at all about Alexa?” she asked.
“Nope. I don’t care what she says about
me or us. I’ve got my attorney working up the divorce papers.” He put the truck in gear and pulled out of the drive. “I’ve also got him filing restraining orders against her for both you and me, along with the divorce paperwork.”
Theo drove the short distance into Pinewood Hills with an enormous smile on his face.
“What is up with you?” Lila said with a laugh.
He glanced over at her happily. “Well, I had something I wanted to show you when you got here yesterday, but Alexa put a slight kink in my plans.” He pulled to a stop in the parking lot of the coffee shop.
“What are we doing here?” Lila asked. The lot was full of cars, the windows twinkling with Christmas lights from inside. The for-sale sign was gone and the coffee shop had a new sign on its roof. Painted on a long plank of white painted wood in black letters, it said, Fireside Coffee. She’d been so consumed with her thoughts that she’d totally missed it when she’d driven by yesterday. “Fireside Coffee—like the cabins?” She twisted toward him, excitement bubbling up.
“Eleanor suggested it,” he said with a smirk. He put the truck in park and ran around to her side, opening her door.
Lila got out and gasped when she realized what was positioned to the side of the building. “Is that a sleigh?” she asked, pointing to it. “A sleigh pulled by reindeer?”
“It’s what you wanted, right?” He took her hand and led her to the front door, opening it for her.
Christmas music poured through the doorway as she entered, and she found out why the parking lot was full. Every table was filled with people, drinking coffee, eating cakes and pastries, while Smash strummed a guitar as he sang the lyrics of the festive tune on a makeshift stage in the corner. He paused to wave to her from beside the biggest Christmas tree she’d ever seen. It was brimming with white lights and sparkling ornaments.