Cutting the Ties

by Francine Pascal

  Desperate to apologize, Elizabeth dialed Bruce’s number again. This time, after the third ring, a woman answered.

  It wasn’t Lynne, Bruce’s housekeeper. Even in her wine haze, Elizabeth knew that. She had a sudden vision of a beautiful woman—her replacement—in a bikini top and sarong. In a panic, she hung up, her heart thumping hard in her chest.

  Who was that?

  She didn’t have a French accent. It wasn’t the siren Elizabeth had imagined was seducing Bruce at the moment.

  No. She sounded American and vaguely familiar.

  And then it came to her: Annie. Of course. Annie was in France to help Bruce with his case. Elizabeth felt a rush of relief.

  She was quickly glad she hadn’t said anything. She didn’t want Annie to know she’d drunk-dialed Bruce. It was too embarrassing.

  In fact, even trying to call Bruce back would be humiliating now. Annie would be there to hear the whole conversation. Elizabeth didn’t want that. She didn’t want her friend to know she’d gotten drunk at one in the afternoon and called Bruce.

  But she had to do something.

  As she stared at her phone, she realized just how much she wanted Bruce back. She needed him in her life. She was desperate to get him back. She’d do anything.

  Yes, she’d had too much wine, but it was still the truth.

  In vino veritas.

  Elizabeth sat with an empty wine glass in front of her, imagining what it would have been like if she could go back in time and do everything over again.

  She remembered finding out for the first time about Bruce being accused of attempted rape. She was just out of the shower, getting ready for a dreaded night at Missy Le Grange’s house—a dinner they never made—when Bruce got the call.

  At the time, Elizabeth had been stunned. She thought it was surreal; that it couldn’t really be happening. But at the time, she never had a doubt about Bruce’s innocence. She knew Rick Warner had to be behind it, and she’d vowed to prove it.

  It was only later, after she’d found Robin and heard the girl’s heart-wrenching story, that she began to have doubts. When she hadn’t immediately found the link to Rick Warner, she’d started to doubt Bruce. Robin had been so scared and vulnerable. She’d brought out Elizabeth’s maternal instincts. She’d thought hiding her away from the press had been the right thing to do.

  But now, she kicked herself. Why did she give up on the Warner-Robin connection so soon? Rick Warner was a careful man. The connection wouldn’t be obvious. It would be hard to find. You don’t become as powerful and as rich as Rick Warner by having your dirty laundry easy to find.

  What if she’d never let Robin influence her? What if she’d been like Jessica, determined to believe, no matter what, that Bruce was innocent?

  What if she’d kept digging into Robin, no holds barred? If she’d gone after Robin and ripped her life apart until she found just what really motivated her to accuse Bruce of attacking her. What if she’d never really lost sight of the possibility that Robin worked for Warner?

  Maybe I would’ve found something.

  Maybe I still can.

  She’d abandoned Bruce too soon. She’d lost her trust in him, so fast, so completely, that maybe she’d been blind to Robin’s involvement.

  But it wasn’t too late. Bruce hadn’t gone to trial yet. She could still help. If only she could prove his innocence.

  Yet the last promising lead linking Robin Platt to Rick Warner had fallen through. When Steve told her Warner’s employee Rose Pally wasn’t Robin Platt, it had taken her straight back to square one.

  Think, she told herself. There has to be something I overlooked. Go back to the beginning.

  “Wait, that’s it.” Elizabeth sat up straight. “The beginning! Of course.”

  Elizabeth leaned forward and pulled up a map of Kentucky on her phone. Robin Platt grew up there in Richmond, and that’s where Elizabeth needed to go. That’s where Elizabeth could interview her old friends and track down whatever family might still be alive. If there was any hope of finding out once and for all if Robin Platt was telling the truth, she’d have to go deeper. She’d have to go back to the beginning.

  She knew she had to go to Richmond, but first she needed to do as much research as she could in Sweet Valley. She had to question everything and start from scratch. She’d need to re-interview Robin and get all her ducks in a row before she went to Kentucky. She needed to go armed with all the information she could gather.

  Let’s see if you really are who you say you are, Elizabeth thought. Your hometown is small, and nobody forgets or forgives you there. Just like Sweet Valley.

  Chapter Four

  Jessica sat at the elegant table at Nine and glanced over at her boss, Michael Wilson. He gazed at her with unabashed admiration, his blue eyes bright with excitement as he told her a story about an infamous business trip to Miami.

  “It was a disaster from start to finish,” he said, with that smile he always used when he recounted a story. Michael knew how to keep a person interested. It was the same way he managed to captivate a boardroom. “The airline lost my luggage, so I had to go straight into the pitch room wearing a day-old wrinkled suit. But it gets worse…”

  Jessica liked listening to Michael. He didn’t take himself so seriously, unlike Liam. With Liam, it was always about what project he was working on, and what the tabloids were saying about him. Most of the time, Jessica had to fake interest.

  Not with Michael. They were both in the same business; they would never run out of things to talk about. Of course, she never ran out of things to discuss with Todd, either.

  She shook herself. She wasn’t going to think about Todd tonight, she resolved. Todd was off-limits.

  “And then, right in the middle of the presentation, a fire alarm sounded, and the sprinklers completely malfunctioned.”

  “No!”

  “So, not only am I in a wrinkled suit, but now it’s a wrinkled, wet suit.”

  Jessica couldn’t help but laugh a little imagining Michael, who was always immaculately dressed, in such a state trying to impress the board of Cover Girl.

  Michael loved to hear Jessica laugh. He’d been shocked when Jessica had asked him out to dinner. For years, he’d felt like there was an invisible wall that Jessica deliberately put up between them. But now, the wall seemed to be showing cracks. More than that. Jessica had taken a sledgehammer to it.

  Michael had been crazy about Jessica almost since the moment he’d laid eyes on her. And who wouldn’t love her? She was gorgeous and smart. But never before had he thought he was this close to having a chance with her. Something had changed with Jessica, and the air between them held the electric charge of possibility.

  She laughed and touched his sleeve. Michael took note.

  If there was one thing Jessica knew how to do, it was get a man to sit up and take notice. She’d had the instincts since age fifteen. Some people are just born with them. For Jessica, it was as easy as breathing.

  She wanted to draw in Michael at that moment because she knew she could. Todd had left her and taken her heart with him, and Liam was off shooting a movie, and right now, all she wanted was to feel a little bit like her old self again.

  “So, there I am in the middle of the pitch meeting, and the computer just dies,” Michael continued. “Completely. Flooded.”

  “Oh, my God, what did you do?”

  “Only thing I could do: laugh.”

  Jessica took a big drink of wine. She couldn’t help but compare Michael to Liam. Liam had zero sense of humor about himself. If something like this had happened to him or somebody on TMZ said something bad about him, he’d stew about it for days.

  Michael wasn’t like that at all. Self-effacing and funny, he carried his responsibility as vice president of VERTPLUS.NET with ease.

  “By the end, the guy had to laugh, too. But that didn’t stop him from signing on the dotted line.”

  Michael grinned and Jessica smiled back.

&n
bsp; “So…mind if I ask you a personal question?” Michael’s eyes gleamed a little.

  “Okay.” Jessica hoped it wasn’t about Todd. She took another drink of wine to steel herself in case it was.

  “You and Liam, you’ve been in the tabloids a lot. So, there’s really nothing between you?” Michael looked as if he was bracing for an answer, as if he almost hadn’t want to ask the question at all.

  “Liam! Oh, no…They play it up much more than it really is. I mean, we see each other, but it’s no big deal. At least it isn’t on my side.” And, technically, of course, we’ve slept together. But Jessica wasn’t about to tell Michael that. Or the fact that just a few days ago, before Liam had left to shoot more scenes for his movie in Vancouver, he’d pressed her to be exclusive.

  He had asked Jessica to promise him she wouldn’t date anyone else. No way was she going to make that commitment to Liam. Not when they hadn’t even slept together again since that first time. Since that one night, she’d found a million reasons to avoid going back there. She’d been as delicate as she could to explain how she wasn’t ready for such an important relationship now. Liam left frustrated, but promised to give her more time.

  Now, Jessica saw Michael’s shoulders literally sag with relief. He beamed at her.

  “I’m glad to hear that,” he said, the corners of his mouth pulling upward in a contagious smile.

  The check came and Michael paid with his credit card. Soon, they were walking together in the parking lot toward his new black BMW. Michael walked to her side to open the door, but then he hesitated, raising his eyes to meet hers.

  “Jessica…” His voice came out low and a little husky. “You know…You really are so beautiful.”

  She turned, feigning surprise. But she wasn’t. She knew what Michael planned, and she had already decided she would let him do it.

  She shifted a little, putting her back against the car door, effectively blocking it. Standing close to him now, she put her hand on his chest and looked up at his face. Michael wore the expression of a man who couldn’t believe his luck. She parted her lips just a little, and that’s all the encouragement Michael needed. He was drawn in, like a marlin on a line. His mouth covered hers, a gentle, hesitant kiss at first, as if he were asking her lips for permission.

  He pulled away, briefly, and their eyes locked. Michael was giving her the opportunity to stop and turn back, but Jessica had no intention of doing either. Her expression gave him all the information he needed. The kiss grew deeper, and Michael’s hands more urgent, as they settled on her small waist. Jessica wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kiss, fully pushing herself against him. Her hands roamed through his hair as his moved down to her hips and explored the delicious curve of her lower back.

  Just as things were really beginning to heat up, Jessica pulled away.

  “No, stop. We can’t!”

  “Why?”

  “Office romance.”

  “I don’t care. Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do that?” Michael was out of breath and dazed and by the grateful look on his face, Jessica knew she might have made his whole year with a single kiss. “I just didn’t think you liked me like that…What changed?”

  “Everything,” Jessica breathed, and it wasn’t a lie. Everything in her life had changed.

  Jessica remembered the day Sarah Miller—nearly naked—opened Todd’s door. She thought about Todd filing for divorce and moving on, and about how she needed to do the same thing. No matter how hard it was, or how much heartbreak she was suffering, she had to find a way to move on. If that meant using Liam and Michael like crutches until she could walk on her own two feet, that’s exactly what she planned to do.

  Given how excited Michael looked under the fluorescent lights of the parking lot, he wouldn’t mind being used.

  Michael moved to kiss her again and she let him. As he trailed kisses down her neck, she thought, This is exactly what I need.

  “I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now,” he whispered in her ear. And he brought his mouth up to hers again, pressing her against the hard door of his BMW, and Jessica let him.

  Chapter Five

  With Liam away, Jessica went out with Michael for the next two weekends. Despite the heat between them, she was taking it slowly. Meaning she wasn’t sleeping with him yet and they were keeping it a secret at work. It was an office romance, always dangerous.

  Liam continued to check in on a daily basis by phone or text, but Jessica conveniently omitted mention of all of her plans with Michael. She knew they’d just drive Liam mad with jealousy, and there was no need to do that. Besides, she and Liam weren’t exclusive. She could see whom she pleased.

  And Michael was fun. He didn’t ask too much or press too hard and he wasn’t controlling like Liam, who had annoying habits like ordering her dinner and telling her whether or not she should have another drink.

  And, Michael didn’t come laden with a crew of paparazzi following his every move. Going out with Michael felt reassuringly normal. But she still wasn’t ready to move it up a notch and into bed. Michael didn’t seem to mind too much. Besides, it was still early in their relationship.

  But then, without warning, Michael abruptly stopped returning her texts.

  Maybe he’s sick, Jessica thought. Or maybe he lost his phone. And then, an uncharacteristically insecure thought popped up: Did I say or do something wrong?

  Her instincts told her he should be hers for the taking. Those instincts had never failed her before, and yet…something was wrong.

  There had to be some explanation. She called, but only got his voice mail.

  At work the following Monday, Jessica planned to get to the bottom of the Michael mystery, but she was sidetracked by the shit storm that engulfed her the moment she walked in the door.

  “You picked a lousy day to be late,” charged Emily, Jessica’s redheaded assistant, who always wore a bit too much makeup.

  “I’m not late.” And even if she was, this was not a fact an assistant should dare point out to her boss. Emily needed to learn a little respect. “What’s going on?”

  “There’s a big dust-up because we may be losing Maybelline.”

  “What do you mean we’re losing Maybelline? It’s not possible.” That was Jessica’s account. She’d been working with them for weeks about planning a launch of a new green, all-organic cosmetic line. “Let me call the VP there I’ve been working with.”

  “No good. Tracy already has the president on the phone.” Emily nodded toward Tracy Courtright’s office—the office that once belonged to Jessica. Tracy looked serious, her face lined with concentration as she spoke into the phone.

  “But that’s my client! I’ve been working with them for weeks.”

  Jessica didn’t like this. Why is Tracy going around me? What is she telling them?

  Jessica didn’t trust for a minute that Tracy had her back. If anything, she’d look for any opportunity to sell Jessica out. Tracy couldn’t stand her and made that clear at every turn. By the end of a phone call with Tracy, the entire Maybelline board would believe Jessica was an incompetent dilettante.

  Jessica glanced over across the room and saw Michael with his laptop bag heading into his office.

  “You’d better just let Tracy handle this,” Emily offered.

  “Emily, when I need your advice, I’ll ask for it.” Jessica glared at her assistant with a cold stare frigid enough to make the twenty-something freeze in her tracks.

  Jessica stood and strode over to Michael’s office. Michael had always been her advocate, even before they started to date. She had no doubt she’d find a friendly ear with him.

  But he didn’t answer your texts, a nagging little voice said. Must be some explanation, she thought, brushing aside the doubt as she knocked on his office door.

  Michael glanced up at met her eyes. Usually when Michael saw her, he lit up like a light parade at Disney World. But, today, oddly, a shadow of annoyance passed across his
face. Jessica didn’t know what to make of it.

  “What is it?” Michael’s voice was brisk and distant.

  In an instant, Jessica realized that Michael’s radio silence over the weekend was no mistake. He was out of sorts about something. But what? Jessica didn’t understand. They’d gone out last weekend and everything had been fine. More than fine: electric.

  “Uh…” Jessica felt unsure all of a sudden. And since when did Jessica feel tentative in the presence of any man? “I’m sorry to bother you, Michael. I just wanted to talk to you about Tracy. I think she’s trying to hijack my account…”

  “Stop right there.” Michael put up a hand like a conversation crossing guard. “If you’re talking about Maybelline, we’re going to have a meeting in two minutes.”

  “Meeting? What meeting?”

  “Emily didn’t tell you?”

  “No.” Emily doesn’t tell me anything, Jessica thought. “Is this all Tracy’s doing? Because whatever she told you…”

  Michael cut her off. “She’s just doing her job. I suggest you do yours and we’ll all get along just fine.”

  “Excuse me?” Where did that come from? “Since when do I not do my job?”

  “We’ll talk about it at the meeting.” Michael met her eyes. She saw clearly he was angry, but she had no idea what.

  “Michael…come on…”

  “I’m sorry, Jessica, but we’re late already. It’s time to go the conference room.” He stood and walked past her out of his office. Jessica trailed after.

  “Michael…I don’t understand. What’s wrong?”

  “You know what’s wrong.”

  “I don’t. Enlighten me.”

  Michael sighed and shook his head. “You’re a real piece of work, Jessica.”

  By now, they’d made it to the conference room. The entire staff and Tracy were waiting inside. Michael stalked past her, ending their conversation, and took the seat at the head of the conference room. Jessica was left with the only empty seat, the one opposite Emily.