With that in mind, I did a mental check and readjusted my tone and my attitude—again. Maybe Valerie was fighting with her parents again. I had no clue what was wrong with her, but I knew I needed her to get it right. The way she had talked to me and the way she was acting were not good. And this was the only pass she was going to get.
“Seems like you’re mad or something,” I said. “I’m trying to figure out whether we can finish taking care of ideas for the show, or if you want, we can try to do this later.”
When I said it, there was not a hint of attitude in my voice. But her body language made me feel like she still had major beef with me.
“I’m fine,” she said, but she sounded fake. “So are you any closer to figuring out who was stalking you?” That seemed to come out of nowhere.
“No, but I’m sure it’s Sheridan or it may even be Bali.” I hadn’t heard from Bali directly since his father withdrew him from school, but I had been getting these hang-ups from some anonymous number that could have easily been him. “Or, it could even be one of the people I did a story on,” I added, even though I was no longer sure.
The door opened and for a change, I was glad for the distraction, or at least I thought I was until my eyes fixed on Jennifer Graham.
“Umm, what’s going on in here?” she said.
Jennifer, Valerie’s friend, looked back and forth between the two of us after she asked her question. I knew she wasn’t expecting an answer from me. I had barely said two words to her our entire time in high school. And if Valerie was mad at me, I was double sure that she was, too.
“I told you to wait ’til I call,” Valerie said to Jenn before I could respond or react.
“Yeah, but that was like almost two hours ago. How was I supposed to know you still wanted me to wait?”
Valerie rolled her eyes again. I wasn’t used to all of this attitude coming from her. But I fell back and let those two go at it.
The two of them exchanged awkward glances and I suddenly felt like I was out of place.
“I told you I’ll let you know when I’m done,” Valerie insisted.
She spoke to Jenn through gritted teeth. All of a sudden, Jenn’s entire demeanor changed.
“Well, when you didn’t call, I didn’t know what to think,” Jenn tried to explain. “How was I supposed to know you guys weren’t done yet?” She shrugged.
“Go back and I’ll call you, like I said,” Valerie snapped.
My eyes grew wide as I watched the two of them. It was something about the way Jennifer acted that caused an alarm to go off. It wasn’t just that she had an attitude with me, too. It was almost as if she was nervous around me. Like she had something to hide. Then the way she cut her eyes at me, throwing me daggers, raised a red flag. I hadn’t thought about it before. Even though we’d never run in the same circle or anything, she had never been an issue to me.
But now, in my opinion everyone was suspect.
After Jennifer walked out of the room, I realized something. Outside of that one evil look, she’d never once looked me directly in the eyes. She hadn’t even spoken to me. And what was all that talk about waiting on a phone call? Suddenly, my mind raced back to moments when I’d seen Jenn and Sheridan talking over the past few weeks. It was always in hushed tones, like they were conspiring together. I knew that Jenn used to tutor Sheridan, last year. But as far as I knew, she hadn’t started back this year.
A thought suddenly occurred to me. Jenn hated me for getting her mom in trouble behind the Glenda Matthews story. Sheridan hated me for doing the Glenda Matthews story. If anyone had motive and would want to shut me up, it would be those two!
That would also explain why all of a sudden, Valerie was throwing major attitude my way.
It had finally started to make sense to me. What if Valerie had found out what Jenn was doing and she was trying to gauge my temperature to figure out what I knew? I couldn’t imagine that she would be in on it, but I could definitely see her trying to help her girl out.
I thought about trying to feel Valerie out, but she seemed even less interested than before Jenn had walked into the room.
“You know what, we don’t have to do this now,” I said.
Valerie didn’t say anything. That confirmed for me that I must’ve been on to something. The way I saw it, if Valerie had issues with her parents, the moment I called her on it, she would’ve started spilling.
But when Jenn had walked in unexpectedly, Valerie had become even more upset. The change was like day and night. There had to be something there, and I knew I’d have to find a way to get to the bottom of it.
Chapter 45
My gut was telling me I was on to something. My head, on the other hand, was telling me to leave it alone. I was sure Valerie shared my business with Jenn and I know for a fact that Jenn idolized Sheridan. I was willing to bet Jenn was passing info on to Sheridan. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but I was determined to find out. That was why I now sat across from Valerie and Jenn at lunch.
“What?” I asked when I noticed the strange look they were both giving me. “I can’t sit here?”
“No,” Valerie said. “Of course you can. It’s just that you’re always busy during lunch.”
“Yeah,” Jenn said, narrowing her eyes at me. “You’ve never eaten with us your entire time in high school.”
I shrugged. “There’s a first time for everything.” I turned back to Valerie. “I’m hungry. I don’t have coaching today so I just came to hang out with you guys. I also wanted to tell you about the big development.”
Valerie’s eyes grew wide. She looked at Jenn, then back at me.
“It’s cool if she knows,” I said.“Everybody is about to find out anyway.”
“Find out what?” Jenn said.
I took a bite of my chef’s salad, then leaned in to make sure no one else could hear. I didn’t care really about anyone else hearing, but this was all part of my big act.
“I have two huge stories I’m working on,” I said. “We’re really close to finding out who the child was that Sheridan’s mom gave up for adoption.” When Jenn’s eyes grew wide, I knew my suspicions were right on target.
“Don’t worry,” I told Jenn. “This has nothing to do with your mom. We were able to find this out from somewhere else.”
Jenn just glared at me, angrily.
“What? How?” Valerie said. I didn’t pay her much attention. I was too busy studying Jenn’s reaction. That girl was definitely hiding something.
“We have a top-notch research team,” I continued watching Jenn. “They were able to dig up some documents. They’re actually waiting to have them delivered. But it’s just a matter of days,” I said, feigning a smile. I was lying through my teeth, but I didn’t know if I needed to lay a trap.
“So, yeah, we got that and some more information on the Bling Ring. We’re about to do a huge exposé on them all,” I added.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Valerie asked.
“I’ve never been more sure,” I replied. “It’s my job to get to the bottom of things.”
“Do they know who the child is?”Jenn asked.
“Not yet, but they will,” I said, smiling. Yep, I could tell from the look on her face, she’d definitely taken the bait.
Chapter 46
Shut up or be shut up.
I stared at the note tucked underneath my windshield, my hands trembling as they held the piece of paper.
“Hey, Maya.”
I groaned as Bryce approached me. It’s like he wouldn’t give up. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him and was definitely about to tell him so. His eyes went down to the piece of paper in my hand.
“What’s that?”
“None of your business. That’s what it is,” I snapped.
He shrugged, then flashed that crooked smile that made my heart melt. But right about now, I had bigger things to worry about than Bryce’s stupid smile.
“Sorry. I was just wondering,” he sai
d, before taking a deep breath, then rushing his words out. “I’m tired of acting like it’s not killing me to be without you. And I can’t stand watching all these other guys going after you.”
What other guys? Jason? I hadn’t talked to his buster behind since the football party (and for the record, no, I didn’t go to the Nicki Minaj concert with him. If I could’ve taken his tickets back, I would have). I wanted to ask Bryce what in the world he was talking about, but he kept talking.
“When I saw someone putting that note on your window, I got jealous.” He cracked a smile. “Thought maybe it was someone leaving you a love letter.”
Under normal circumstances, I would’ve been flattered by his jealousy, but I couldn’t focus on that right now.
“What do you mean, you saw someone putting this on my car? Who was it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. They had a hoodie on. I was upstairs.” He pointed to the classroom on the second floor. “You know how I’m always daydreaming. I was staring outside the window and I saw a person at your car.”
“Was it a boy or a girl?” My heart started racing, especially because I had been in class with Sheridan, so it couldn’t have been her.
He shrugged again. “I couldn’t tell. They were skinny, but like I said, they had a hoodie on.” He paused and studied me. “Maya, why do you look like that? What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I replied. I didn’t know whether to be more scared or relieved. If it was someone on campus, maybe it was a student after all, just trying to scare me, and not one of Evian’s goons or someone that could cause some serious damage.
Before I could say anything else, Bryce snatched the paper from my hand.
“Stop it!” I yelled. “Gimme that. That’s none of your business,” I said, reaching for the paper.
He stepped out of reach, using one arm to hold me back. “Shut up or be shut up,” he read.
He looked at me. “Maya, what is going on? What is this about?”
“Nothing,” I said, my voice shaking.
“Don’t tell me this is nothing.” He shook the paper at me. “What is this about?”
My shoulders sank as I stopped trying to grab at the paper. “I don’t know. Someone is messing with me. They are trying to scare me.”
“Is this behind your show?”
“I don’t know what it’s behind and I don’t care. I don’t scare easily.”
He glanced down again. “Maya, this is serious. Have you been to the cops?”
“For what? It’s probably just some stupid classmates trying to get me all worked up.” I finally managed to snatch the note back.
“And what if it’s not?” he said, matter- of-factly. “I mean, I know you’ve made some people mad, but is it really to this point?”
“Obviously.” I sighed. I wasn’t about to stand here and unload on Bryce. “Forget about it, Bryce. It’s not your concern.”
“If it concerns you, it concerns me.”
I turned my nose up. He made me so sick. And if he wasn’t so dang cute . . . “Get over yourself, Bryce. We’re no longer together.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop caring for you.” He took a step toward me.
I took a step back. “Well, you need to.” I folded my arms across my chest to let him know his brown eyes, crater dimples, and jacked-up smile were not going to get to me.
“Maya, you can be mad all you want, you can go off later, but right now we need to go to the cops.”
I shook off the trance I felt seeping up on me. “And say, what, Bryce?” I snapped. “Someone is sticking letters to my windshield?”
“I don’t know, but you can’t just let this slide. This isn’t some kind of joke.”
I really didn’t want to talk to him about this, but Bryce was the first one who had even taken my concerns seriously.
“I don’t know what you should say, but you need to say something. We can go right now.”
“I’m on my way to work. I have to tape today.” I was working on another blockbuster story about a Hollywood teen starlet who had been caught shoplifting in Miami. We were interviewing the security guard who had caught her. No way was I going to miss that.
“Okay, fine, then we can go tomorrow?” he said.
I stared at him like he was Boo-Boo the fool. “What part of there is no we are you not getting?”
“I’m not listening to you. You don’t have to like me to let me go to the police station with you. This is major, Maya.”
I was really feeling the fact that he was being so forceful about it. I sighed and was just about to agree when Sheridan came stomping our way.
“Bryce!” she called. “What are you doing?”
He immediately let out a groan and I was back to being mad.
I turned up my lip. “Yeah, Bryce, go see what your girlfriend wants. Don’t worry about me or my problems. Just leave me alone.”
“Stop it, Maya. . . .”
Sheridan stomped in his face, completely ignoring me with her back to me. “Bryce, I’ve been calling you. Why aren’t you answering?” He looked at her and cut his eyes. She looked back at me and scowled.
I reached for my car door. “I’m gonna let you two work this out. I have more important things to do.”
“Maya . . .”
I gave him the hand and he stopped midsentence. I rolled my eyes, got in the car, and drove off.
And to think, he’d almost gotten through to me. Good thing almost doesn’t count.
Chapter 47
I took my time getting home because what Bryce said was weighing heavily on my mind. He was right about one thing. I couldn’t keep at this by myself. I was exhausted and wanted this all to end. Not the show, but the hate, the not knowing if the threats were a harmless prank or something that I actually needed to be concerned about.
I pushed the remote to open our gate and noticed the limo parked out front.
“Oh, crap,” I said. I forgot that my mom was leaving for her annual shopping trip to Italy with her girlfriends. She was going to be so mad about me getting home late.
So, even if I wanted to come clean, I couldn’t because it would ruin her trip. Or, I could wait until she left, then say something to my dad. My dad would be much more level-headed about this whole thing.
I pulled into the garage, parked, and made my way inside where I saw my parents standing in the foyer looking intense. I hadn’t stepped inside when the look on my mother’s face told me that this conversation was not going to be pretty.
“Hey,” I said slowly.
My mother spun toward me. “Do you have any idea what kind of mess you have gotten us in the middle of?”
“What now?” I asked, blowing a frustrated breath.
“Glenda Matthews is suing us for slander,” my mother announced. “How could you do that awful story?”
“I was just doing my job, Mom,” I replied.
“I thought Sheridan was your friend. How in the world could you turn on her like this?” Had she not been listening to anything I said lately?
“Now, Liza, calm down,” my father said.
“Calm down? Not only does she have the woman threatening to sue us for everything we own, but everyone across town is talking about it!”
My father continued talking. “As I was telling you before Maya arrived, Glenda has no grounds for a lawsuit. She’s just doing that for publicity’s sake.”
“Yeah, especially because it’s true. How is she going to sue me for something that’s true?” I asked.
“That’s what I told your mother,” my dad said. “This is all for show. She just wants the newspapers to report that she filed a lawsuit. Then, she’ll drop it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, she can’t sue me anyway. She has to sue the station.”
“All of that is beside the point,” my mom snapped. “Whether it’s thrown out or not, the last thing we need to be doing is getting tied up in court over this foolishness.” She looked at my dad and shook her hea
d. “I told you this job was nothing but trouble.” She turned to me. “Maya, I want you to quit this job.”
“Dadddd!” I cried.
“Liza, don’t be so rash.” My dad turned to face me. “But, sweetie, your mother and I are concerned. The stories that you’re doing seem to be opening a Pandora’s box.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that it’s more trouble than it’s worth,” my mom shouted. I just wanted her to go already. She massaged her temples. “Do you know that Donna is backing out of the trip because she doesn’t want to be associated with the mother of a child who’s causing so much havoc?”
“So is that what your concern is?”
“Of course not,” my dad answered. “Your mother is just blowing off steam.”
My mother took a deep breath to calm herself down. “Sweetie, your father’s right. I mean, it is Donna’s loss if she wants to back out. But my point is, we don’t need our name dragged through the mud. Can’t you find something else to do?”
“But I like my job,” I protested.
My mother shook her head, then glanced at her watch. “I need to get going or I’ll miss my flight.” She looked at me. “Do I need to cancel my trip and stay here and help you deal with this mess?”
I was touched that she would even consider that, although I don’t know if she really meant it or if she was just talking. Regardless, I said, “Of course not, Mom. The station has all of this under control. Go enjoy yourself.”
“Well, I’m telling you now, when I get back, we’re going to sit down and have a family meeting about this because I have a real problem with this job.” She gave me a warning look before heading out the door.
I didn’t say anything, but I knew right then and there, if I told her anything about a stalker, that would be the final straw. But I couldn’t live my life in fear either.
“Good-bye, honey.” My mom kissed me on the forehead.
My father flashed a sympathetic smile as he picked up my mom’s Gucci duffel bag. “I’m going to walk your mom out.”
Rumor Central Page 17