Between the Lies (Between the Raindrops #2)

by Susan Schussler

  With her hair pulled back in a ponytail and a coffee and flip-flops in her arms, Sarah walked along the beach until the rocky cliff jutted out of the water and ended the sand. Being alone on the beach didn’t bother her. She’d been on the island for two weeks and had gotten really comfortable with the high level of security provided here. She lifted the lid of her coffee and blew on it, wishing the liquid caffeine would cool enough for her to drink it, before turning around and heading back toward civilization. The cool sand squished between her toes as she walked, and it helped distract her from thinking about all that could go wrong if Megan leaked the wedding’s location to the press.

  Sarah noticed a few people trickling out of the resort lobby, making their way to the pier where the snorkeling boat was docked. An ATV passed her pulling a large rake, picking up debris in the sand from last night’s party. She had seen it working earlier, but now it was moving farther down the beach. She reached the bench that marked the path for the shortcut through the thick foliage to the large wooden pavilion where the reception and dance would take place. She dropped her flip-flops to the ground, sliding into them, and followed the path until the structure stood in front of her.

  She peeked inside and stepped onto the wooden floor. At the far end, a raised platform teamed with band equipment waiting to be set up, and she spotted the long table reserved for the wedding party near the dance floor. In front of her, a woman and a man covered folding chairs with sophisticated linens, transforming them into elegant pieces of furniture, while still another worker distributed them to the tables. She glanced up as someone came rushing toward her.

  “Sarah, you’re supposed to be sleeping. We’ve got this.” Her wedding planner’s voice perked through the air.

  “I can’t sleep, Nicole, and I didn’t want to wake Jon, so here I am.”

  Nicole ran her thumb under Sarah’s eyes as if trying to discern whether she hadn’t removed her makeup last night or if there really were dark bags under them. “You’re going to need to take a nap today, and hot coffee is not a good drink in this tropical climate. It will just dehydrate you.”

  Sarah took a gulp of her coffee quickly as Nicole reached for it to pull it out of her hand. She needed the caffeine, not to stay awake, but to prevent the headache she would get without it.

  “What you need is a big bottle of water to help get rid of those bags under your eyes.” Nicole grabbed Sarah’s wrist and led her to the front of the pavilion. She reached into a box on the floor and pulled out a bottle of water, handing it to Sarah. “It’s not cold, but you need it more than I do.”

  Sarah grasped it against her chest. “Are you sure the flowers will be ready?” she asked, unscrewing the bottle cap and taking a sip of water. Nicole had been concerned about the viability of the flowers during shipping.

  “Of course…I talked to the florist an hour ago.” She tapped her index finger against the walkie-talkie clipped to the flap on her electronic tablet. Sarah knew it was inconvenient to use the radios to communicate, but the security specialist thought it was the best option since cell phone use was prohibited for the weekend.

  “Everything is going to be perfect,” she continued. “You just need to sit back and enjoy. Don’t worry about anything. I’ve got it under control.”

  Sarah spun, admiring the way everything seemed to be coming together. The tables looked beautiful, and the lanterns had been hung perfectly. A flash or the sun’s reflection caught Sarah’s eye from across the pavilion. Alli stood on the edge of the reception area near a clump of vegetation. “Nicole, I need to take care of something. Are we good?” she asked.

  “Yes, everything is good.”

  Sarah rushed off to meet up with her friend. She didn’t expect to see her for several more hours, so she was curious why Alli was up so early, and what was that flash? She wove her way through the white linen-covered tables and chairs until she met up with the redheaded woman. “So…what’s going on?” asked Sarah.

  “I was hoping to catch up with you. I thought you might need some help. Your mom said you were freaking out,” she answered, nonchalantly stuffing her phone into her purse.

  “No, Nicole and her staff have it all under control,” she said as she waved her hand in front of her. Sarah needed to talk to Alli somewhere more private. Now. She didn’t want anyone overhearing their conversation. She thought quickly about where they could talk and stated, “There are a couple of last-minute items I could use help with inside, though. Come on.” She led her friend under the tree canopies that trailed to the resort’s hotel, through the large glass and wooden doors and up the stairs.

  When she got to the presidential suite on the second floor, she opened the doors wide, propping the door open with a wrought iron pineapple next to it for just that purpose.

  “It’s been so warm in here that I like to keep it open when I can. I don’t think the air conditioning is working very well,” she lied. Sarah peered into the open bedroom door hoping Jon was inside, but he must have gotten up while she was out. She took a deep breath and asked, “Help me figure this out, would you? I’ve got something new…my ring, my dress…pretty much everything I have is new. I have these gorgeous earrings from Jon’s mother.” She opened a blue velvet box to reveal two stunning white gold and diamond pendulum earrings. “She got them for her tenth wedding anniversary. They’re my old and my borrowed, but I haven’t figured out what to use for my blue yet. Any ideas?”

  “Gosh…I don’t know. What’s blue? I thought everything was supposed to be white.”

  “There has to be something blue, or the whole wedding will be cursed…as if it hasn’t been already,” she stated sarcastically. “My mom had some ideas, but I can’t remember any of them. I should have had this figured out before we left, but that whole ordeal with Megan really threw me off. May I borrow your phone? I saw you still have it, and I really need to get this figured out. Jon’s got mine, and my mom is one of the few people that got to keep hers.”

  “Um…yeah…Let me unlock it for you.” She pushed several buttons on the phone, bringing the phone key pad onto the screen and then handing it to Sarah.

  “You know…I’m so messed up about the leaks to the press. I don’t know which end is up lately,” she said as she maneuvered her way to the photo gallery on the smart phone. She gasped when she found what she was searching for. The bottom of her stomach dropped, and her heartbeat quickened. Sarah knew she had made a terrible mistake. She planted her feet firmly on the floor as she gathered her courage. “Why are there pictures of the wedding pavilion on your phone?”

  Alli looked stunned, her mouth frozen open, but not moving.

  “You don’t have to answer, because I know the reason. Tomorrow the security will be impossible. Security is going to be hunting down any electronics and you wanted to make sure you got the shots, so you came today when security isn’t as strict. How could you do this, Alli?”

  “You’re so paranoid. Do you hear yourself? They were just for me. I want to remember your wedding. It’s going to be so spectacular. I wasn’t doing it to hurt you,” she claimed, almost looking innocent. “Just give me my phone back.” She reached for it, but Sarah pulled away with the phone still in her grasp.

  “You almost had me convinced, but it all makes sense. You were the one to point the finger at Megan. You made sure all the evidence led to her and Chase, but you were the one selling Jon and me out…weren’t you?”

  “It wasn’t me. I was just taking the pictures for myself. I wasn’t going to sell them.”

  Sarah continued to search through the phone’s photo gallery, spinning to escape Alli’s outstretched hand. “I should have known it wasn’t Megan. She never did admit to selling information and if she had done it, she would have. She always owns up to her mistakes. Even when they are awful, she owns them. I suppose she never told you about the nonrescue dog. Of course, she didn’t, that lie never came out in the press.”

  Sarah flashed Alli another photo on the phone they b
oth knew was leaked to the tabloids. “This one made the cover of CM. It made me look like an alcoholic slut. I don’t drink anymore when I’m out because of that picture. You set that picture up. I didn’t even want to take it, but you insisted. You made Megan take the picture, but with your phone. You knew that all I would remember was that Megan snapped it,” she accused. “And look, here’s the picture of me and that guy at the fair. That was like a year and a half ago.” Sarah held up the phone just out of Alli’s reach. “Jon asked me which one of my friends snapped it, but I assured him that none of my friends would ever do that to me.”

  “Just give me my phone back.”

  “How could you do this to me? We’re best friends.”

  Sam popped his head into the room where Sarah and Alli stood. “Sarah, are you all right?” he asked in his deep voice.

  “Yeah…I found the real culprit who was making our life hell. It wasn’t Megan after all. I was wrong.” She handed Sam the phone. “Could you go through this and erase anything that is about Jon and me?”

  “That’s my specialty,” Sam proclaimed as he began searching the phone.

  “I just want to know why? How could you betray us like that?” questioned Sarah.

  “When we were at your house in April, Jake said you have to feed the press just to keep your name out there. If you don’t, people forget about you and you don’t get the top roles. Any press is good press, right? Isn’t that what the saying is? I was just doing Jon a favor. You said yourself that getting married may stifle Jon’s career. So what if I was making some money off it. Everybody wins.”

  “How does everybody win?” Sarah couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You saw how the media ruins people. How your parents, your professors, and everyone around you reacted to those kiss pictures with Jake,” Sarah squealed in frustration.

  Alli was silent for a pregnant moment and then said, “They said they wouldn’t release the article until after the wedding.”

  “So they lied to you. What a surprise.” Sarah was anything but understanding at this point.

  “You know, it was your fault my parents stopped paying for my schooling. They saw what a bad influence you were. They didn’t want their doctor daughter to be best known for partying around Hollywood. They told me if I stayed away from you, if I broke all contact, they would continue to help pay for it. You were right when you told me I was an adult and my parents needed to accept that. As an adult I was looking at two hundred thousand in student loans. Do you know how little a resident makes? It’s barely enough to get by and after my residency, who knows what the health care system will look like. I’d be in debt forever.”

  “If you needed money, all you had to do was ask.”

  “I couldn’t ask you for that kind of money. That’s just not something you do. I knew my parents weren’t going to give in, and I didn’t want to ruin your big day. We’ve been friends forever. I didn’t want to disappoint you. I couldn’t do that to you. So I found another way to pay for it, where nobody got hurt.”

  “It hurt me. Everyone knew my personal business. They knew where I would be. They stalked me. Jon got arrested because of you. It terrified me to leave the house, because I knew someone would be taking pictures of me all day long. I could never relax. I can never relax. I always have to have my A game on. It’s exhausting. It hurt me. You saw the footage at the airport. You don’t think that whole incident didn’t damage me for life? Our wedding…Did you tell them about our wedding?”

  “You knew what you were getting into when you left with Jon. You knew what it was going to be like. I thought you expected this, accepted it. I never meant to hurt you, Sarah.”

  “It’s not the intent. It’s the impact—psychology 101. It doesn’t matter what you meant to do. You knew what you were doing, and you saw what it was doing to me. I told you everything I had to deal with. I trusted you, and now I don’t think I can ever trust you again. You need to go. I don’t want you here.”

  “You don’t mean that. Look what I gave up for you.”

  “It doesn’t seem like you’ve given up anything. You made it look like Megan was the one who was selling us out. You don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

  “Sarah, you left us. You didn’t care about us anymore. All you cared about was Jon and your new celebrity life.”

  “That’s not true and you know it.” Tears were building in Sarah’s eyes as she looked away from Alli. “Good-bye, Alli.” Sarah glanced up to meet Sam’s face. “Can you have one of your team make sure she’s escorted off the property? I don’t want her wandering around taking pictures of the wedding.”

  “Yes…Sarah.” He gently touched her shoulder. “I’ll take care of it myself.”

  “Thanks,” she whispered. She was trying to stay composed. It was stressful enough to get married, but now she had wrongly accused one of her best friends of selling her out to the paparazzi. She lost two lifelong friends in a matter of a couple of weeks. Sarah didn’t know if she would ever forgive Alli, and she didn’t know if Megan would ever forgive her. Tears dripped off Sarah’s chin, staining her cotton dress, as Alli left the room with Sam.

  She could feel thick sobs bubbling out of her throat as she tried to suppress them. Sarah felt awful. Her whole body was numb, like she was compensating for all the emotional pain by getting rid of all physical senses. There was nothing left. She stood in the room crying. The door was open, but no one walked by. She was alone, more alone than she had ever felt in her life. With her wits depleted, she looked around the room at all her belongings staged for tomorrow, dazed. Tears streamed off her face. She should have known. Everything was ruined. She may as well call off the wedding. Her bridesmaids were gone. The press most likely knew the wedding was this weekend, and it wouldn’t be long before helicopters and yachts would be circling the island. Everything they worked so hard to keep private would be exposed. What was she thinking? Was it worth all this to keep their life private?

  Sarah slowly climbed onto the king-sized bed. I just need a nap, she thought. Everything will be better after I get some sleep.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Jonathan

  JON SLIPPED INSIDE the door where Sam asked to meet. It was about as far away from the bridal party’s suites as the resort allowed. Alli sat in the upholstered chair next to a small table. She stared blank-faced like an accused prisoner.

  “So you located our Aunt Mara,” Jon stated as he entered the room. Alli looked up, but didn’t meet his eyes.

  “Yep. She has about four hundred photos on her phone. I gave her the choice though to let me have her phone or I would confiscate it for evidence.” Sam held up the phone, showing a photo of Jon carrying Sarah to the water’s edge with his hand caressing her butt as the group partied around them last night on the beach.

  “No doubt this one would have made it in with the wedding photos. It would have brought enough to buy a new car.”

  “Text me that one, would you?”

  “You got it, boss.” Sam smiled and focused his attention back on the phone.

  “Allison, Allison, Allison…what should we do with you?” Jon ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. She shrugged and looked to the floor. “The problem is all the guests agreed to the security stipulations when they sent in their RSVP. You signed yours. I know because I personally looked at every single one. You wouldn’t have been allowed on the island if you hadn’t signed it. Do you remember the nondisclosure agreement? It was spelled out clearly—the requirement that stated you needed to turn in all electronic devices when you got on the plane.”

  She still stared at the floor in silence, but Jon could see her shoulders rising and falling as if she was crying inside.

  “Normally I wouldn’t even get involved in a situation like this. I would let our security team and the lawyers handle everything. You see, I’ve been through this a hundred times. It doesn’t even upset me anymore. We prosecute the offender, and the lawyers suck up any money that the tabl
oids paid. You remember that line in the contract where you agreed to pay all the lawyer’s fees. The contract is solid, and the person who leaks pictures or information ends up with nothing.”

  Her sobs broke the silence, and he sat down on the chair across from her, pausing for a moment as he decided how to proceed.

  “What does upset me, though, is how this whole ordeal affects Sarah. I’m sure she’s heartbroken over this. You were one of her best friends, and she never believed me when I told her one of you girls would betray her. She was confident it would never happen. Yet, here we sit.” He strummed his fingers on the table in contemplation like he imagined the lawyer that he would be playing this fall might do.

  “Jon, I never meant to hurt anyone. I just needed money for school. My parents cut me off, and I didn’t know what else to do. Please just let me go. You’ve got all my pictures. I won’t do it again.”

  “I know you won’t, Alli. Because in an hour or two a lawyer will come in and talk to you about a new contract that I’m going to have you sign. You’re going to tell him about all the photos and information you’ve already leaked so we can do damage control. If more information comes out that you forgot to disclose to the lawyer, we’ll prosecute you, so you need to be thorough. The new contract will be more stringent and include more restrictions, but the lawyer will explain it. The most important amendment will be that you will never contact Sarah ever again. You will avoid gatherings that she is likely to attend, never call her, never text her, and never say another word about Sarah or me to anyone. You will be dead to her.

  “You might ask, ‘Why would I sign another contract?’ Well, here is where it gets interesting. I’m going to pay you to sign the contract. How much did you say she needed, Sam?”