by Lisa Rinna
When she came out with a glass of water, he was already gone. He’d left a note that read, Sorry, babe. Forgive me.
So that was his apology.
Rattled, she walked to her car and drove home. On the way, she decided not to say anything to Mac about the incident. He’d be upset, and the last thing she needed was for him to worry about her right before the wedding.
She’d prefer that he save his worry for afterward—when he found out she was carrying their child.
“It’s very kind of you to meet with me, Mr. Carlton—Mac. You don’t mind if I call you by your first name, do you?” Susie looked innocently across the table at her dinner guest.
Although it was just two nights before their wedding, Mac had gone ahead and agreed to take a meeting with the actress Susie Sheppard. Since Burt Tillman, that cheap son of a bitch, wouldn’t let Tally off for even a day or two before her own wedding and the episode she was shooting wouldn’t wrap until probably midnight, he figured he might as well work, too. Besides, the project Susie had pitched him over the phone sounded intriguing, something about a three-way love triangle and a double-cross.
He’d never met Susie, but he had heard a lot about her. Not all of it good, granted. But you could never believe what you read in the newspapers. He and Tally were proof of that. And while he knew Tally didn’t care much for her, Susie was too well connected to write off totally.
She had insisted that they meet at the Hotel Bel Air, where she had taken a villa suite. “My home is being renovated, so these are temporary digs,” she explained. They ate in the suite’s living room, and between bites of their main course and sips of wine, she chattered away. As she went on about work, Susie told him that she felt as if she already knew him, since Tally talked about him all the time on the set of Dana Point.
When she mentioned Tally, her bright smile turned into a frown. “Unfortunately, I wish I could tell you what she says is flattering, but I don’t want to start our friendship with a lie, Mac. You see, it’s so shameful, the way she’s using you. I can’t in good conscience attend the wedding, knowing what she’s divulged to me.”
She went on to say that Tally was telling everyone she’d pulled the wool over his eyes and that because he was so smitten with her, her career would always be taken care of. “You know, Mac, it wouldn’t be so sad if—well, if she wasn’t two-timing you.”
Mac couldn’t believe his ears. “You’re lying,” he growled, then stood up. “Check please,” he said to the waiter.
“Hey, if you don’t believe me, you can see with your own two eyes.” Susie pulled out her iPhone. There, in a video clip dated just the night before, Gabriel stood outside Tally’s dressing room. Tally was dressed in a bathrobe, and she and Gabriel hugged and kissed before she pulled him inside her dressing room with him.
Susie paused the video. “Gabriel McNamara is her old boyfriend, isn’t he?”
He nodded, stunned.
“A security camera picked this up. I caught a couple of the security guys laughing about it, and I couldn’t have them doing that to poor Tally or to poor you!” She batted her eyes at him sympathetically. “So I paid them to give me this clip from the computer, and I made sure they erased the rest. Unfortunately, it gets worse.”
Susie started the video again. In what looked like the inside of Tally’s dressing room, a naked Tally could be seen on top of Gabriel, her back to the camera as they made love.
Mac was dumbfounded. So, I guess my father was right about Tally after all.
As he stared off into space, Susie poured him a stiff drink. Before he knew it, she was also rubbing his shoulders. He put the glass to his lips and downed it in one gulp. She refilled it quickly.
“Look, Mac, I’m sorry you had to find out this way. It really breaks my heart.” Her chest heaved as a crocodile tear rolled down her cheek.
He was touched that this stranger had taken the time to set him straight. And he could tell she was pained to have been the one to break the news to him. Without thinking, he reached over and wiped the tear from her face, and the next thing he knew, she was in his arms, and he was kissing her.
She began undressing him. At first, he was put off by it; he didn’t need sympathy sex. But revenge sex … well now, that was different.
He didn’t make a move as she unzipped his pants. Or when she fondled his cock, expertly, before she leaned him back on the bed and climbed on top of him.
He didn’t go home that night. Or the next one, either.
Chapter 27
THE INVITATIONS TO Tally and Mac’s wedding had gone out weeks ago. Each came in a large box holding fake stemmed gardenias, and inside was another box holding the invitation, which was embossed with Swarovski crystals and engraved with silver calligraphy.
The wedding was being held at the Beverly Wilshire, where big white vases overflowed with gardenias and orchids that had been picked just the day before. The event had drawn a packed house: three hundred fifty guests, to be exact. RSVPs had come in from all the usual suspects: those who had worked with both Tally and Mac, those who hoped to work with them in the future, friends, and family. Tally’s mother and father were there. They’d flown in just that morning, and the pride in their eyes had made her eyes well up with tears. She couldn’t wait for them to meet Mac.
If only he’d show up.
Tally’s dress—a fifty-thousand-dollar ivory strapless gown, embroidered with Chantilly lace, with a drop-waist bodice and silk organza ruffle on an A-line skirt—had been a gift from Monique Lhuillier, and Tally looked like a princess. But where was her prince?
The morning after her late night of shooting, Tally had called Sadie, frantic. “Mac never came home last night. Did he go out with Josh? Did they do the bachelor-party thing after all?”
Tally’s question had thrown Sadie for a loop. Although Josh had offered to host one, Mac passed on the suggestion. “Heck, no. Josh got home late, but that’s nothing new. And he certainly didn’t act as if he’d been out having a good time.”
“OK.” Tally tried to keep the worry out of her voice. “I’m sure he slept at the studio. They’ve been working pretty late nights, trying to get the film completed. And with us leaving for a weeklong honeymoon, I’m sure he wanted to finish up a lot of things.”
But it turned out he wasn’t at the studio. His assistant, Carole, said he’d mentioned a dinner meeting for a possible new project the night before and had called in earlier and said he wasn’t going to be in all day.
Well, OK, Tally thought, he deserves to take a day for himself. Especially the day before his wedding. But why wouldn’t he call and let me know, too?
To keep her mind off Mac, she had met Sadie and Preston at the Wilshire to take in the drama of the setup. Even through the hustle and bustle, though, she couldn’t help but think something was wrong, or he would have called.
By eight o’clock that night, he still hadn’t shown up or even checked in. At least, he hadn’t checked in with her. Carole had gotten a text message that read, Since I’ll be on my honeymoon next week, feel free to check messages from your place. Have a nice week!—Mac.
Hearing that left Tally a bit relieved, until midnight rolled around and Mac still hadn’t shown up, let alone returned her increasingly frantic voice messages.
And now here she was, waiting in the hotel’s penthouse suite for word of him on the day of their wedding, while many floors below her, a ballroom filled with people wondered when Mac would appear and turn toward the center aisle in anticipation of his captivatingly beautiful bride.
The look on Sadie’s face as she entered the penthouse suite was a mix of shock, concern, and pity. She didn’t have to say a word. Tally already knew Mac wasn’t coming. He had stood her up, and he hadn’t even had the guts to call and tell her why.
As she blacked out, she heard Sadie yell to Mandy to call for a doctor.
Later that evening, when she’d finally made it home, there was a small, unmarked package waiting for her on th
e doorstep. It has to be from him, she thought.
Her hands shook as she opened it. There was no note, just a DVD: Anxiously, she put it in her DVD player and let it roll. The video was grainy but clear enough for her to make out the two people in it: Susie and Mac.
She couldn’t believe her eyes, but no there was no mistaking the two of them. Tally winced as she saw the way Susie led Mac into one passionate act after another. Their foreplay was vicious, and when Susie took him in her mouth, he grimaced. There was no pleasure in his groan.
Not that it mattered. He’s there with Susie, not here with me.
As Mac finally mounted Susie, Tally heard her cry out, “But what about Tally?”
Mac paused for just a moment before growling, “Fuck Tally.”
As he drove deep inside her, Susie gasped. “Whatever you say.”
Tally stared at the video in freeze-frame for what felt like hours. Then she went upstairs to her bedroom to cry.
“Has she heard?” Mandy stared across the kitchen island at Sadie. In her hand were all of the weekly celebrity magazines.
“Of course she’s heard. It’s all over the television and the Web.” Angrily, Sadie tossed the magazines toward the trash can but missed. The headline on People stared up at her: “Altared States: Susie’s In, Tally’s Out!” The photo showed a supremely happy Susie Sheppard, wearing the exact gown that had been designed for Tally, on the arm of her groom, Mac Carlton.
On the floor, OK! Magazine was opened to the spread of the story, informing readers about “the posh affair at the renowed Beverly Wilshire Hotel—which happened only a day after Carlton was supposed to have married Tally Jones in the same place. Afterward, the groom, along with his surprise bride, retired to the hotel’s penthouse suite.”
“That bitch! She not only stole the love of Tally’s life, she stole her wedding, too!” Mandy gave the magazine a kick with the pointy toe of her Jimmy Choo and sent it fluttering into the air.
“I guess Mac got exactly what he wanted.” Both girls turned to see Tally standing in the doorway. Her eyes were sunken into her puffy red lids.
Mandy ran to Tally and threw her arms around her. “He’s a complete idiot.”
Tally smiled sadly as she shook her head. “No. It’s Susie, up to her old tricks. She made up some lie about me and got to Mac. I’m sure of it.”
Mandy grimaced. “Well, whatever it was, it must have been a beauty. But what I don’t get is why he didn’t at least talk to you about it. He could have called any of us. We would have set him straight.”
Tally shook her head again. “No, he would have presumed you were covering for me. That’s why he’s avoiding you, too.”
Suddenly, guilt clouded Sadie’s face. “Well, he has called Josh. Mac is contracting Susie for his next movie.”
Tally sat down hard on one of the kitchen stools. “She’s going to be starring in his next film?”
“I’m sorry you had to hear it from me, Tally.” Sadie looked tortured. “But I might as well tell you the clincher. Josh is insisting we have the two of them over for dinner. He says they’re Hollywood’s new ‘power couple.’ Can you believe that? Of course, I told him where he could shove that idea, but he didn’t like it. Apparently, Susie wants to smooth things over between us—”
“You should do it.” Tally had never sounded more resolute.
Sadie’s eyes were dead. Make that deadly. “Hell, no! Not in a million years.”
“I mean it, Sadie. Play nice. Kiss ass. What happened between Mac and me is old news.” She reached down, grabbed the magazines, and crammed them into the trash can. “I don’t want ‘jilted celebrity’ to be my identity, and I’m going to make sure that label doesn’t stick.” She ran her hand through her hair, which hadn’t been combed in days. “In fact, I’ve got to get back to work. Today.”
“But …” Mandy bit back the words as she and Sadie exchanged concerned glances.
Tally turned to her friend. “But what?”
“Just … Susie will be there.”
Tally held her head high and straightened her shoulders. This was the worst night. When am I going to wake up? she thought. “That’s OK. I’m sure she’d like me off the set as badly as I want to leave. If she doesn’t have Josh working on that already, then I will soon enough.”
Sadie and Mandy didn’t know Tally was pregnant, but they knew their friend well enough to know she still loved Mac. What she didn’t tell them and what she was almost too afraid to admit to herself was that in her heart, she held out hope that he’d come back to her.
Unlike Tally, Susie relished the opportunity to act with her nemesis. In fact, she lived for their scenes together. She loved being in her face.
To fuel the already white-hot fire, she’d ordered a production assistant to hold her cell phone just off camera and to call out to her between takes that Mac was dying to talk to her, right then and there. To drive the point home, when she grabbed the phone, she’d pretend they were talking dirty.
Tally pretended to ignore her, but Susie knew she heard every word.
Susie had also worked over Burt to put them in as many scenes together as possible. Of course, he had agreed. He was no fool; he knew what a ratings bonanza he had on his hands.
It was obvious that Tally was miserable, but she was stuck. She had another four years to go on her contract. The only thing she could do in her situation to make it more bearable was to act rings around Susie, which she did. This only made Susie angrier, especially since Susie was now being written as the long-suffering heroine, and Tally was being written up as the bad girl, yet the viewers still sided with Tally. If they didn’t outright say it in their fan mail, they made it known that they loved to hate her.
“I can’t believe it! I’m the one they should love,” she told Burt, pouting.
He just laughed in her face—and all the way to the bank.
Tally felt the queasiness first, then the cramping, but she ignored both.
Then came the blood. Lots of it. Her costar, Spencer Cowle, actually caught her when she passed out for a moment.
Larry, the director, insisted she go lie down in her trailer. Instead, she drove herself to her doctor’s office. The doctor put her on the stirrups and searched for a fetal heartbeat, but there was none. “You’re miscarrying,” she said gravely. “We have to perform a D and C. We can do it here. For your privacy.” Tally cried as they put her under.
When she woke up, she cried even harder. She’d lost the one thing that would have made her happy, that could have allowed her to hold on to a piece of Mac forever. She’d lost their child.
It’s for the best, she told herself. But she knew better.
Three Years Later
Chapter 28
BREATHE IN, Tally commanded herself. Breathe out. Now smile.
She was at the Oscars and once again a nominee. This time, she was up for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her performance in a Paul Haggis ensemble piece, Shattered, that had gotten great buzz throughout the awards season.
Her first nomination had been for Best Actress for Cloistered. She’d won, and the movie won, too, for Best Picture. For Tally, it had been a hollow victory. In his acceptance speech, Mac had singled out various members of the cast and crew, including the film’s angel producer, Elena Hahn, but he’d never uttered Tally’s name. Was it an oversight, she had wondered, or in deference to his new bride, Susie Sheppard Carlton? Tally still winced every time she heard that name spoken out loud.
In Tally’s speech, given just a few minutes before, she had thanked Mac for the honor of working with him and for recognizing a newcomer’s talent. When the cameras cut to him in the audience, he was caught in a stone-faced stare. Despite his cold response, she felt any debt she might have owed him was now paid in full.
Since Cloistered, Tally had chosen her film projects carefully, seeking out roles that challenged her. This had paid off wonderfully, with two Golden Globe nods and two more Oscar nominations for her f
ilm work. Perhaps tonight she would add another win to her résumé.
As for her work on Dana Point, Golden Globe, WGA, and Emmy awards kept coming as well. Year after year, she’d become the one to beat in the category of Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.
As her limousine slowed down in front of the Kodak Theater’s red carpet, Tally tapped the window that separated her from John, her driver, initiating their long-held prearranged cue that the limo’s slow crawl could now come to a complete stop.
Two hulking security goons approached the limo and opened her door. Their presence was supposed to provide additional reassurance that the cheering mob was safely contained on the other side of the clear plastic-fronted bleachers. It never ceased to amaze her that a piece of plastic, let alone a flimsy piece of red velvet rope, could so successfully serve as a psychological barrier to those who aspired to rub elbows with the A-list. And Tally had never forgotten what it was like to be on the other side of those partitions.
By the time she emerged from her limo chrysalis, she had shaken off her innate shyness and morphed into a full-fledged diva, pausing for a few moments in order to wave graciously to the crowd that shouted out her name.
With her patented Tally Jones smile plastered on her lips, she gave the paparazzi her practiced pose (half-turned torso, head tilted down and to the left, chest thrust up and out, and dead-on gaze—all part of the drill), never once letting on that she’d been temporarily blinded by the halo of light emanating from the cameras that snapped around her.
Finally, a headset-wearing flack in black took her gently by the elbow and escorted her through a sea of overly coiffed (albeit studiously disheveled), signature-scented, air-kissing humanity, all primed to the nines in their gowns and tuxes, so that she could share a few moments of radiance with the various red-carpet reporters from E!, Entertainment Tonight, Extra, and Access Hollywood, just to name a few. Without fail, all of the talking heads asked her how she felt about her nomination (very excited; it never gets old; it’s always an honor) and whom she was wearing (her pale blue body-hugging gown was Atelier Versace; the three-inch Swarovski diamond-encrusted stilettos were YSL, the diamonds dripping from her ears, neck, and wrists were all Neil Lane), in between paying her effusive compliments on both her performance and her dress.