Blurred Lines (Behind Closed Doors Book 2) (19 page)

We watch Wayne and Ashleigh say a few more heated words before Rylan steps in to break it up. Whatever he says pacifies Wayne enough that my husband simply shakes his hand and walks back towards the house. But Ashleigh loses her cool and gets into another heated discussion with Rylan.

“I don’t know what’s going on with her, Sean.” I sigh as the front door thuds. “Should we be worried?”

“I don’t think so,” Wayne says as he enters the room. He wraps his arm around me. I feel the chill of the late November night on him and shudder. “She didn’t want to scare you, or me, after...” When his voice trails off I turn around in his arms. “After the attack and all we’ve been through, but she’s got a stalker.”

“What?” I quickly glance at my brother and wonder if he’s thinking the same thing as me. How much crazy shit is this person putting her through that he’s got Ash scared? “How do you know about this?” Ashleigh would never tell him anything like this. She’d rather get stalked than talk about the threats to her life with my husband.

“Rylan just told me. He apologized for her behavior today and that’s why she’s unloading her temper on him now. He’s here to find the fucker because LAPD are useless.” He rolls his eyes. “There’s more than just Ashleigh living in this city, the world doesn’t revolve around her, and we have our hands full.”

“But he’s scared her.” Sean repeats Wayne’s earlier piece of information. “Aren’t you worried about this? Or about Julia?”

Why me? What have I… oh right. My husband is crazy protective over me and hates the fact that I’m at risk of her non-threatening crazy fans. But now that there is one he should be worried; why isn’t he?

“No.” Wayne shrugs. “There’s one thing Ashleigh’s done right in the last ten years and that’s hiring Rylan.”

I look over my shoulder as she waves her arm in the air and spins away from Rylan. She climbs into her car and he walks to the passenger side. Wherever she was going, Rylan was going with her and if my husband is reassured then, I guess, so am I.

Chapter Twenty

September 2012

“Julia.” Mimi looks at me like I've committed an immortal sin. “That color on you is tragic.”

Really? I'm wearing a charcoal maxi dress. It has little shape but while Wayne and I were shopping he picked it up and said he really liked it. He asked me to try it on and then made me model it for him at home, before he pulled me into his lap, slid his hands all the way up the inside of my thighs and showed me exactly how much he really liked this dress.

If he’s not working, Wayne comes with me wherever I need to go and he pays for everything. He has spoiled me like crazy. He has pretty much bought me a wardrobe full of new clothes. The type of clothes he finds incredibly arousing and now he can't keep his hands off me. He is always holding my hand or has his arms around me. It's sweet. Mildly annoying, but it's sweet all the same. It's just like when we were first together except he's much more possessive and protective now.

“Wayne picked it.”

“He did, really?” She sends me a sympathetic look. “That's so adorable that you'd wear this hideous thing in public for him.” I feel the verbal slap across my face and the heat rushing into my cheeks. “Don't let it happen again, darling. You're the girl who's turned Ashleigh's dark side into a style icon. He could destroy your career with purchases like this.”

I gaped at Ashleigh's almost identical twin for a moment. Despite genetics making them mirror images of one another, they're not so identical anymore. Ashleigh took to hair extensions seven years ago and more recently dramatic colors. Last Christmas her hair was the color of midnight and was absolutely amazing. Mimi has never been quite so adventurous and she's especially adverse to the latest dark red curls that have become Ashleigh's trademark since she returned from New Zealand. Mimi's had the same a simple jaw length blonde bob for years.

“I like this dress,” I tell Mimi and look around the outdoor restaurant for Ashleigh. She's late.

“No one likes that dress, honey.” She laughs. “What you like is the fact Wayne bought it for you. You like that he goes shopping with you and is openly affectionate in public.”

“You've been talking to Ashleigh.” I shrug off the condescending remark. “You should know she's being melodramatic.” I pick up the glass of chardonnay and sip carefully, reminding myself not to drink too much. “You should also know she thinks he's having an affair.”

I don't know how many times I've had this argument since I found the pretty little diamond pendent before Valentine's Day. The one he never gave to me. I think he either forgot or somehow he knew I'd found it and decided to do something else. And I have to say I’ll take the gift he exchanged it to any day over a diamond pendent. He's building a design studio. He gave me the plans and everything. It's going to be gorgeous inside and out. But what he said meant so much more to me.

He said I'd told him I wanted to be a famous designer and as yet I hadn't done anything about it. He said he couldn’t let me ignore my dreams any longer. He's still trying to find the right contractors to get the project under way and we're now in September. But Ashleigh thinks he's given the pendant to someone else and the design studio is a distraction. She needs to stop this nonsense because I’m starting to get rather annoyed by it. My husband is not having an affair.

Mimi avoids my eyes for a moment. I thought I saw guilt in her expression as she grabs her wine and takes a long sip. “Julia, everyone knows about it.” I frown. Everyone knows about what? “I heard he was having an affair with Ashleigh.”

“You heard fucking what?” I glance up and Ash is standing a few feet from our table. The black leather ensemble looks as though it's been painted on. I guess she came on her new motorcycle today. “Which soon-to-be dead bastard told you that?” she demands of Mimi. When Mimi doesn’t reply Ash slams her palms into the table and leans into her twin. “Tell me, who dares to spread that bullshit.”

I don't know what's gotten into Ashleigh lately. I don’t know when her confidence took a nose dive but it has. She used to laugh those kind of rumors off, they used to amuse her. But since she’s lost faith in her abilities she’s started having these stupid accidents on set and she's seriously hurt herself once or twice. One time she lost concentration in the middle of a scene and ended up cracking a rib. Another time, they had to film her guest appearance from waist upwards because two days before she broke her ankle.

“Tell me, goddamnit, Mimi. Considering my friendship with Julia, that kind of shit ain’t funny.”

“Sean,” Mimi replies and I glare at Ashleigh. My heart beat pounds against my ribs. My brother wouldn't lie about something like this. How could Ashleigh do this to me?

But Ashleigh starts to laugh, a proper belly laugh as she sits down and opens the restaurant menu. “Please.” She giggles. “If I was desperate enough to have an affair with Wayne Swift I most certainly would not tell the wannabe king of gossip land about it.” She put her glass down, looks at Mimi and says, “And considering Dex and I are…”

As her voice trails away I look up. There’ve been rumors about Ashleigh and Dex dating again since they began filming a movie together in New Zealand over Christmas. They haven’t confirmed or denied anything to the press but Dex and I had words at the beginning of summer. He thinks he made a huge mistake by cheating seven years ago and he was trying to prove he was worthy of a second chance now he’s a father and had one marriage fail. He said he’d grown up a lot.

I look at the secret smile plays across her lips. I guess maybe he’s succeeded. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”

She leaves me hanging as I wonder what this means for Darryl Hawthorne. She’s yet to mention her secret trysts with him to me and yet I know she’s been to see him on at least five separate occasions this year. And I wonder why Rylan allows her to date his brother and Darryl at the same time, unless she’s found a way to keep him in the dark about the nature of her relationship with Darryl too?

Ashleigh nods. “I did.”

Did what? I quickly slip back to the present and replay the last few moments in my mind. Had she slept with Dex? She did? “And…?”

“And considering I can have the whole damn sundae with the cherry on top whenever I want, I would have to be desperate to have sex with Wayne, and very desperate to do it repeatedly, which is what constitutes an affair.” She looks at me and says, “I'm sorry, honey. I know he's your husband an' all but...”

“But you’ve never had the pleasure of what he's like in bed.”

“Julia!” She cringes and at the same time shudders. “Eww. No!”

I start to laugh. Hard. Yeah, Mimi. That's the reaction of someone who's sleeping with my husband!

I’m about to ask what happened to Darryl Hawthorne, the guy in New York that she was having clandestine meetings with and the only person besides Rylan she seems to trust, when Mimi turns away from Ashleigh. “Is Wayne really as bad as she says?”

“No,” I reply as Ashleigh says, “Yes.”

I gape at her as she begins reeling off a list of my husband’s faults. Why does she do this? Is it necessary for her to make out that my husband is a psycho? This is getting beyond a joke now. He loves me and he wouldn't hurt me. I don't know what gave her the impression that he would but she has to stop. Really. I've had enough.

“It’s ridiculous, the way she thinks this is ‘kind and caring behavior.’ Honestly, Mimi, he cancelled her bank cards like a year ago and keeps
forgetting
to reorder them, or they get lost in the post. I’ve had to fund an account for her so she at least has more than a dollar or two with her in the event of an emergency. Because that’s all he gives her.”

“That account is for your expenses.”

“Yes, I call it that. But it used to work that you bought and I reimbursed you through my accountant, remember? You were never out of pocket. So there was no reason for Wayne to stop it except spite.”

“You think he did this on purpose?” I ask.

Without hesitation she replies, “I do.”

“Then why haven't you just kicked his head in?” Mimi's attention returns to her sister. Ashleigh freezes. For a brief moment her entire demeanor changes. I'm not sure why, but taking on my husband physically doesn't bring Ashleigh as much joy as I expected it to. I think that maybe on the days when she does sleep she would dream of putting him in a box and cremating him. This time I shudder. What a horrible, terrifying thought. “It’s not like you don’t know how.” Mimi reminds us.

“Because, Mimi,” Ashleigh begins, “treating violence with violence is not the right way to deal with this.” Her gaze meets with mine. “You love him and until you see him for what he is, you will always go back. Doesn't matter how many times I kick his head in. I'd have to kill him, which I would—”

I gasp. There's a pit the size of a golf ball expanding in my stomach. She's actually scaring me because this is not hot tempered screaming threats. Her voice is calm. She's actually thought this through.

“—you know I would,” she continues as though I haven't made a sound. “But apart from going to prison, you'd never forgive me.”

“You're over thinking this,” I whisper. “He's not like that.”

Mimi shifts uncomfortably in her seat. I'm aware of the way she's watching my reaction to Ashleigh's comments. “I know you say it’s not him. And I know you go to Soraya instead of a doctor when you need medical attention—”

What? How does she know that? “You spy on me?”

“No.” She laughs. “Don’t be ridiculous, Julia, I’m a busy woman.” But I think she knows I’m not buying that. “Caleb asked me how your burns were after the Fourth of July weekend. I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about and he explained he’d seen you with Soraya at the center.”

I look away, too ashamed to look at either twin when I’d been caught trying to hide another incident. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“You didn’t want me to know.” Was it really that simple? I look up. “You know I don't believe you when you tell me about these so called accidents, but for the sake of our friendship we've agreed to disagree. Caleb warned me if I didn’t back off you’d eventually stop talking to me about stuff like this and I didn’t, so you did.” This is embarrassing. My cheeks burn under the intense stare from both twins. “Wayne's taken over your life, Jules. And you know as well as I do the next thing to go is me. And he’s trying to figure out how. So please. Please listen to me and leave him.”

That's it! I've had enough. I slam my palms against the table and shoot to my feet so hard my chair topples over. I open my mouth to tell her where she can stuff her job along with her opinions of my husband, but I don't get the chance. My cell phone rings. It's the OB/GYN. My heart thumps as I pick up the phone.

Wayne and I have tried to conceive a child naturally for over two years. We've finally given up and have sought out help. We only had our initial consultations this week, and by all accounts they said we’d wasted our time. Why are they calling me? What was so important they couldn't wait until our next appointment?

It’s actually the consultant on the other end of the line. He says it's only happened in the last few weeks and I need to make an appointment to see him immediately to discuss the delicacy of our situation. “Considering your medical history, no one ever expected this to occur naturally,” he says. “Congratulations, Mrs. Swift.”

“You’re serious?” I ask, and the doctor chuckles into my ear as he confirms the results of the tests they took at our first appointment. He repeats his congratulations and then hangs up. I'm too shocked to feel like celebrating. “I'm pregnant.”

Ashleigh curses. I have no idea how much money she throws on the table. We haven't even eaten our first course, but she grabs my hand and pulls me from my chair as she barks at Mimi to get moving.

As soon as we leave the restaurant, I see Rylan waiting beside Ashleigh's car. As she walks passed her bike she grabs the helmet and tosses it at him. “You’re on the bike,” she orders and ushers us into the car.