Between the Lies (Between the Raindrops #2)

by Susan Schussler

  Sarah’s lips were soft and sweet. He pulled her in closer. All he wanted to do right now was lose himself in the woman he loved and forget about the rest of the world. He knew not all his problems would go away if he ignored them, but at this moment he couldn’t handle anything else.

  Chapter Nine

  Sarah

  ON THURSDAY, WHEN Jon and Sarah arrived at Dr. Kravitz’s office, they were surprised to see a photographer waiting for them in front of the nondescript medical building. There was no one at the house when they left, so they didn’t think they’d been followed. It was as if the press knew about Sarah’s appointment. The photographer snapped pictures of them as they entered the building’s door. As he followed Jon and Sarah to the elevator, he asked, “Getting some plastic surgery before the wedding, huh? Getting rid of those scars from your accident, or are you really getting a boob job?”

  Sarah looked at Jon in horror. How could he know that? There were many different doctors in the building. He couldn’t possibly know where they were going, and how did he know about her scars.

  Jon whispered in her ear, “Don’t react. That’s what he wants.”

  Sarah closed her eyes and tried to calm herself, but she knew it was too late. The paparazzo already got the shot.

  The atmosphere inside the doctor’s office was serene and helped Sarah calm her breathing. The waiting room was decorated like a private library with dark, wooden bookshelves, and dim lighting. The receptionist greeted them from behind a simple wooden table as they entered and led them back immediately to an examination room. Inside the room Sarah pulled the curtain around the small changing area and unbuttoned her blouse. She pulled off her bra and slipped on the white cotton robe like she was instructed to do. She was nervous the doctor might recommend surgery. She didn’t really want to have surgery again. She was also a little apprehensive to have a doctor evaluating her body—a doctor who specialized in beautiful bodies, beautiful Hollywood bodies. It was a bit daunting. She looked nervously at Jon as she opened the curtain, and he smiled back at her.

  A man in his early forties knocked before entering the room, wearing dark purple scrubs with designer running shoes. His dark hair was slicked back and perfectly styled. He got down to business right away. And as he stepped closer to Sarah, she could smell the clean scent of his cologne. Sarah realized she was the only one in the room who could be improved by plastic surgery.

  “So let’s see those scars, Sarah.” He directed her to open her robe.

  His fingers were cold against her skin as he examined her side. Sarah felt very exposed standing in front of a complete stranger in the open robe, and she shivered a little as he touched her.

  “Well…these don’t look bad at all. The surgeon did a decent job. There’s just this one small pucker. It’s mostly flat, so I don’t think it will be too much trouble to get rid of these scars completely. We’ll take some pictures here, and I’ll show you the results you can expect on the computer.” The doctor took out a small camera and snapped several close-up shots of Sarah’s scars. “I think we can take care of this with just one session of dermabrasion and a topical.”

  Sarah wrapped her arms around herself, closing her robe tightly. She felt just a little violated, like she was a piece of meat being evaluated by a butcher. It was just a feeling she’d gotten from the doctor. She looked warily at Jon, and he returned his best reassuring expression.

  The pictures loaded wirelessly onto the computer, and Dr. Kravitz manipulated a flat rubber pad with his finger to produce several before and after picture sets. “As you can see, the scars won’t disappear completely, but they won’t be visible either,” the doctor confidently stated as he turned to Jon. “We can squeeze the treatment in next week, for ample healing time.” Then he turned to Sarah and added, “And if you like, we could help you fill out your wedding dress a little better. You could go up a cup size or even two. Augmentation is outpatient surgery. It’s very fast. We could do them both at the same time.”

  “No!” Jon stated firmly. “No.”

  The doctor nodded and added, “I just wanted her to know that if she has ever thought about it, now would be a good time.”

  Jon shook his head.

  “I don’t even get a say in this?” Sarah joked, shaking her head.

  “No…we’re getting married. The girls are joint property. Changes to them have to be approved by the board,” he added with a chuckle. “You’re naturally beautiful.”

  Even though she loved Jon’s affirmation and she joked about the augmentation, the surgeon’s comment damaged her, just a little. She had always thought she was adequately blessed on top, not as blessed as Jessica but still enough there not to need a boob job. This one conversation changed that.

  After the appointment Jon and Sarah took the elevator back down to the lobby of the building. Jon reminded her that the photographer would probably be waiting for them. In the elevator he asked if he could get something out of Sarah’s purse. He located her phone and plugged in the earbuds. She watched him as he manipulated it to a loud song by his favorite band and handed it to her. “Here, put these on, then you don’t have to hear the idiot on the sidewalk.”

  Of course, the paparazzo was there waiting for them when they exited the building. Jon was right about the EXpireD song blocking the man’s voice completely. When they got to the BMW in the parking ramp, they collapsed into the bucket seats and finally relaxed behind the dark tinted windows. Jon pulled the car out onto the street before he reached over and pulled one earbud from Sarah’s ear. He glanced warily at her as he drove.

  “How did he know we would be there?” questioned Sarah. “Does Dr. Kravitz publish his appointment schedule?”

  “I’m sure he’s very discrete. His business depends on it. It’s more likely someone overheard someone talking about the appointment.”

  “I haven’t told anyone except the girls in Minnesota and my mom. None of them would say anything.”

  Jon pulled the BMW to the curb along the busy street and shifted it into park. He turned to her with cynicism. “Was it published on that website you’re always visiting?”

  “Jon…I…”

  “Don’t try to deny it. I saw it on your computer last week. Our engagement photo was hanging on the wall in your parents’ dining room. Someone sees that, and then you log on—boom…they find a path into your computer. I’m surprised that photo hasn’t been leaked to the press.”

  “It can’t be that easy to hack into someone’s computer.”

  “Last year teenagers hacked into one of the big studio’s computers and stole movie footage before a film was released. The teens did it just for fun. They didn’t even sell it. If teens can do that, hacking into your computer wouldn’t be difficult at all.”

  “No one has access to that site. The only people who know about it are my college roommates and my brother.”

  “Sarah, any obsessed fan would recognize your friends, especially after the media frenzy that followed their visit over the week. All a fan would need to do is find out one of their names. We both know their pictures were all over the Internet this week, and the Connect-Me website is always getting hacked. This is exactly why I asked you to stay off those sites. Why is it so hard to keep that one little promise?”

  Sarah sat sulking, silenced by Jon’s words. She didn’t know how to respond. She knew he was right, but she was homesick. Her friends kept her grounded. She missed her freedom to do what she wanted. She could come up with a million excuses, but she knew none of them mattered. She had promised she would stay off those sites and she hadn’t. “I’m sorry.” She looked apologetically at him.

  They sat in silence for several minutes until Jon announced, “I guess we just have to move forward from here. Talk to your friends. Tell them what’s happening. Ask them to be extra careful not to post any pictures or personal information about us on the Internet—not any.”

  “There was a picture posted this week with me in it. It was at Club Pri
ela in the ladies’ room with William. My ring was in the picture. I’m sorry—I know it makes me more easily recognized.”

  “You and the doll?” Jon fumed. Sarah could see it on his face.

  “Action figure,” she corrected, trying to lighten his mood.

  “Tell Jessica to take it off. Call her right now,” he insisted. He brought his hands up to his temples as if he had a pounding headache.

  Sarah took out her phone and made the call. She explained how the paparazzi seemed to know their every move, how a photographer was waiting for them at Chico’s Grill on Tuesday in Santa Monica, when they met with Jon’s publicist for lunch, and then again today at the plastic surgeon’s office. With the phone in her hand, she met Jon’s gaze and apologized with her eyes before he shifted the car into drive. Sarah continued to explain to Jessica how she and Jon were worried about the posts on the Connect-Me website and how she thought it would be best if any pictures or posts with connections to her were removed. Sarah told her it would probably be best if they didn’t post on it for a while as well. She asked her to explain the situation to the others.

  Jessica admitted she, Alli, and Megan had posted at least five more pictures since the weekend and Sarah was in all of them. She agreed to take them all down right away. Then Jessica caught Sarah up on the drama that is now Alli’s life. Alli’s parents were horrified by the kiss pictures and were waiting at the rental house when Jeff dropped off everyone from the airport on Sunday. They wanted Alli to move home so she could focus on her studies, but Jessica thought that it was just so they could keep Alli from doing anything more to damage her chances of getting into medical school.

  “Apparently, even if you’ve been accepted into the program, they can still kick you out for behavior unbecoming of a med student. Who knew?” Jessica laughed. “Her parents have threatened to make her pay for her own education.”

  “She said that would happen.”

  “There was no harm done. So there are pictures of her kissing a movie star outside an LA club—there are far worse things on the Internet. Seriously, her parents are way overanalyzing our weekend.”

  “That’s her mom’s specialty, right?”

  “Alli agreed to go home on the weekends, but refused to commute to class.”

  “Well, at least she’s standing up for herself a little,” stated Sarah. “Get ready for Crazy Alli, though. She always kind of goes off the deep end when her parents tighten the reigns.”

  “I guess I don’t understand the whole rebelling-against-my-parents thing,” stated Jessica. “I never really had anything to rebel against. I think after my dad moved out, I was too worried about my mom to do anything to hurt her, and she was reasonable.”

  “I think that’s half the problem. Alli has never been allowed to make her own mistakes. Her parents never gave her a chance and now that she’s an adult, they’re still trying to control her. I hope I’m never like that to my kids,” declared Sarah. Jon glanced at Sarah for a second with a raised eyebrow.

  “So have you and Jon talked any more about having kids?”

  “Not yet, but I’m sure we’ll talk soon.” Sarah looked at Jon cautiously, not really knowing what the outcome of that conversation would be.

  “Did you see the picture on the Fizzy Pop website of Jon and Mia from last weekend?” asked Jessica.

  “Are you fifteen? What are you doing on that website?” questioned Sarah.

  “I was just googling pictures from the weekend and there it was…a picture of Jon with his arm around Mia. It was at the table with all of us, but you were totally cropped out. There was a big article about how Jon has been cheating for months and finally broke off the engagement to get back together with his one true love, Mia Thompson.”

  “Can you imagine what they’re going to say when it comes out that she’s pregnant?” This wasn’t the first time she had heard stories about Jon and Mia getting back together. She hoped that by the time the pregnancy news broke she would be better at dealing with the gossip about her fiancé and his ex-girlfriend.

  Jon cleared his throat loudly and turned to Sarah with a glare of disapproval.

  Sarah covered the phone’s mic and declared, “She already knows. I’m not spreading rumors.”

  “Maybe she’ll figure out who the father is before it comes out in the press,” added Jessica.

  “She knows who the father is. He just doesn’t know he’s a father yet,” explained Sarah. “Hey, Jess, can I call you back? Jon is burning me with his eyes and it’s really not safe because he’s supposed to be driving. I’ll talk to you when we get home, OK?” When she got off the phone, she turned to Jon and said, “I’m not spreading gossip. Mia confessed at the club. Jessica was right there and besides, everything I said was true.”

  “You don’t like it when you’re the one being talked about, do you?” he asked.

  “It’s just Mia. She drives me crazy, and I need to talk to someone about it. My friends are my therapists.”

  “She wouldn’t bother you so much if you got to know her. I’m going to set up that lunch with her that we talked about.”

  Sarah grumbled under her breath but nodded. “Did you see the article about you leaving me to get back together with her? There were pictures and everything.” She grabbed the handle above the door as the car sped around the corner a little too fast.

  She could tell Jon was letting his frustration control the accelerator. “Yeah, Remi mentioned it yesterday. That’s why I hate going to public clubs. Everyone has a cell phone camera, and they can make up any lie they want about you,” he admitted.

  “Can’t we sue them?”

  “It’s not worth it, Sarah. It just brings more attention to their site and encourages them to do it again. They always word the articles to limit their culpability. If they say that a source told them, then they’re not responsible for its validity. They’re reporting hearsay. It’s best to just ignore it. Don’t engage the trolls. Trust me.”

  When they returned home, Sarah called Jessica to complete their conversation away from Jon’s prying ears.

  Chapter Ten

  Sarah

  SOMETHING JESSICA SAID bothered Sarah. “Are you sure it’s not Jon’s baby? I mean, they used to go out.” At the time, Jessica sounded like she was just joking, but it still burrowed into Sarah, like a sliver just beneath the surface.

  “No. Jon would have had to cheat on me. We’ve been exclusive since July.” Sarah tried to shrug it off. Though exclusive since July wasn’t exactly true. She trusted Jon. But the idea about the baby being his had been festering since the night at the club.

  There was just something about Jon’s reaction when Mia told him about the baby that bothered her. The way the color drained from his face when Mia uttered the words, “I’m pregnant,” haunted Sarah. What was it that he had asked? Sarah thought back. She remembered it so clearly that night. The wording was awkward, she recalled. “Who’s the father? Anyone I know?” It was as if Jon was probing, unsure. And Mia’s response, which was clear in Sarah’s mind, “He’s with someone else.” Jon was with someone else.

  He wouldn’t cheat, she tried to reassure herself. But what if he didn’t think he was cheating? What if it was when they were on their break? They took a break from each other when they couldn’t physically be together. How long ago was that? Sarah counted back on her fingers—March, February, January, December, November, October, September. Seven months—could Mia be seven months pregnant?

  Sarah had heard of a girl in her high school that kept her entire pregnancy hidden from her parents. They brought her to the hospital complaining of stomach cramps and she had a baby. That may have been an urban legend, though. She didn’t actually know the girl. Mia didn’t look pregnant, but she was wearing baggy clothes, baggy for her anyway. Sarah remembered how her cousin Ronnie complained when she was pregnant with Lilly that pregnancy wasn’t really nine months. It was ten. “Forty weeks with four weeks in a month—you do the math,” Ronnie had said. Maybe
Mia still had three months left.

  As Sarah fretted over Mia’s due date, she thought about the fact that Jon hadn’t come out and said he wasn’t the father. He hadn’t talked about it at all.

  As she pondered, she opened her laptop and booted it up. She should just ask Jon point-blank. “Are you the father of Mia’s baby?” It would hurt him though. She knew it would hurt him. She didn’t want to hurt Jon—if he wasn’t the father. If he was the father, he would be in big trouble. Oh, crap! What if he really had sex with her and she’s carrying his baby. What then? Was that what she had over him?

  She clicked on the icon on her computer and the search engine appeared. Sarah typed in “Mia Thompson.” She wanted to see who the press had caught with her in the last year. And there it was—the picture Jessica mentioned. Jon and Mia were sitting at the “it” table at Club Priela. By the looks of the picture, Jon and Mia were back together. Sarah shook her head in disbelief. She continued down the screen. Mia’s next movie comes out in a month—Illicit Black. It must be about sex.

  She pulled it up on IMDb. Sarah opened her journal. She was going to make a list of possible baby daddies, just to calm her nerves, and she knew looking at Mia’s costars from her last movie was a logical place to start. Sarah scanned down the cast list. Jason Sanchez—he looked too old to be a love interest, in his late fifties at least. She skipped his name. Martin Cross—he was good looking, but was he famous enough? She knew Mia’s appetite for fame. She clicked on his page and noted Mia had done another movie with him three years ago. He was a possibility. Maybe she had a prior relationship with him. She wrote his name down in her journal and then clicked the back button.

  When the movie’s page reappeared, she continued down the cast list. Tom Fallston—wow! He’s definitely famous enough. She added his name to her journal page without any further investigating. Peter Jason—not as famous as Tom, but he definitely had a reputation for clubbing with the ladies. Sarah added his name too. She continued down the list, writing down the names that might be relevant, until she felt this source was exhausted. She gathered six names just from this movie alone, and then she returned to her original search.