Nothing to Lose (20 page)

“Billie, I'm sorry,” he said with a sigh. “I was just saying—”

“You need to leave.”

Billie darted for the door to her bedroom. She opened it wide, refusing to look at him.

“Billie, please.”

“Leave!” she yelled. “I want you out of my house, now!”

Erica was feeling some panic setting in. At the time, when she'd promised Jonah she could handle Terrell yesterday, she'd felt confident she could do it. But as every hour ticked by, she was less so. She needed to talk to her girls, and she was going to get that chance later tonight when they met.

Still, she was going crazy at work and needed something to help her calm down. All she could think of was Alex. If she hung out with him for a bit, she could unwind like she usually did. He'd been in meetings all morning, but she heard that meeting was over, so she headed over to his office. He wasn't there, so she assumed he was still in the conference room and headed there.

When she reached the main conference room, it was empty. She was about to turn and leave, when the door on the other side of the room opened. In walked Juliet Nolan. She looked like the perfect political wife—this time dressed in a smart blue skirt suit, with flowers at the edges of the jacket. Her hair was down, making her look a little younger than usual. With makeup on, hiding the aging that drinking had done to her, she looked much younger, but still unhappy.

“Well,” Juliet said, with a sly smile on her face, “if it isn't little Erica.”

Erica sighed, deciding to turn and leave instead of putting up with this bitch. She didn't need this.

“What are you afraid of?” Juliet called after her.

Erica had the door halfway open and she wanted to listen to the voice that told her just to keep going. She really wanted to.

“I'm not afraid of you,” she said, turning back to her. “And I'm not ‘little.' ”

Juliet looked her up and down, with a nod, which made Erica want to walk across the room and punch her in the face.

“Are you sober?” Erica asked with as fake a smile as she could imagine.

“For now,” Juliet said, not seeming fazed by the comment. “But I'm looking for my husband, so I probably won't be a couple of hours from now.”

“That's more information than I needed,” Erica said. “I'm gonna leave you to—”

“I don't blame you,” Juliet said.

“That's good,” Erica responded. “Because I didn't do anything.”

“I do blame your mother, though.”

Erica quickly became infuriated at the mention of her mother, a hot button in any situation, but especially as an accusation from this woman.

“My mother didn't do anything to you,” Erica said. “Just don't mention her, Juliet. She's not for you to mention.”

Juliet laughed. “Didn't do anything to me? She slept with my husband. I would suggest that qualifies as ‘doing something' to me and gives me the right to mention her.”

“She didn't sleep with your husband.” Erica walked over to her, close enough to point her finger in her face. “Don't you talk about my mother like that! She would never be someone's mistress. He wasn't your husband.”

“He was!” Juliet screamed.

“You're a fucking liar!” Erica yelled. “He hadn't even met you when they were together.”

“Don't try and bullshit me,” Juliet said. “I don't know what your mom or Jonah told you, and I really don't give a shit. I know he slept with her right after we got married. I almost divorced him over it.”

“No!” Erica was trying desperately to control her outrage, but she was losing that battle. “You're not gonna get away with that. She would have never, ever—”

“Erica!”

She swung around to see Alex, who was standing at the door, rushing toward her. He grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back. She was consumed with rage; her instinct was making her try to break free of his grasp.

“Let me go!”

“No!” Alex tightened his grip. “What are you doing?”

Erica turned to Juliet, who had an evil smile on her face.

“You know it's true.” Juliet turned around and left out the door she had come in.

“That bitch is a liar,” Erica said.

“What is she talking about?” Alex asked, still gripping her tightly. “Why are you so crazed? That's Jonah's wife, for Christ's sake.”

“I don't care,” Erica said. “She's lying!”

“About what?” Alex asked.

Erica was just about to tell him everything, but then she caught herself. What was she doing? She couldn't do this.

“What did you hear?” she asked, trying to calm down.

“I heard yelling,” he said. “When I opened the door, you told her she wasn't going to talk about someone like that. Who are you talking about?”

“I can't tell you.” Erica finally broke free of him, but she was still shaking all over.

“Look at you,” he said. “You're falling apart. You have to tell me what's going on.”

“I can't.” Erica started to cry. “I can't. It's too fucked up. I just gotta get out of here.”

“Stop.”

Alex grabbed her as she tried to pass him. She pushed away, but he pulled her close. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. Although she was feeling like such a fool for crying, she felt better in his arms.

“I can't tell you,” she whispered. “I'm sorry.”

“Then don't tell me.” His voice was tender and compassionate. “Just let me help you.”

“Sherise, you need to listen to your lawyer,” Billie argued.

The women were together, meeting briefly at an outdoor café to discuss their latest emergencies. Billie could tell that Erica was nervous about bringing up the topic of Terrell and wasn't really paying attention to Sherise's complaints about Elena's harassment claim. Sherise was acting reckless, though, having hired a private investigator to look into Elena's background and was now threatening to stalk the girl herself.

“You'll only make things worse for Justin,” Billie added. “This is his career. He's worked forever to get here. Don't ruin it for him by being impatient. Your marriage is already in a tense state.”

“That's just the thing,” Sherise said. “This thing—this horrible thing that this bitch has brought into our lives—is our chance to fix everything. We have trust issues. That's what's holding us back. But by me leading the fight against this woman, I'm proving to Justin that I believe him. I can see he's trusting me again too.”

Billie shrugged her agreement. “They say things like this can either break or seal a marriage.”

“We had sex for the first time since finding out I was pregnant,” Sherise said proudly. “It wasn't just good sex either. It was great, passionate sex. Feeling like it's us against the world has brought us together.”

“That's good,” Billie said, “but trust me as a lawyer, not just your friend. If you get caught stalking this girl, things will get worse for you. It's not the answer.”

Sherise rolled her eyes. “If I could count on a PI to do all the work, I would. But I'm on a deadline here. They've already leaked it to the campaign. It's gonna be public on Capitol Hill any day now. I have to make sure that they don't pay her off. I want Justin one hundred percent exonerated.”

“I hope it works,” Billie said. “We all do, don't we?”

Billie kicked Erica under the table. Since her confrontation with Juliet, she hadn't been able to think of much else, even though she had a lot to do.

Coming out of her trance, Erica jumped a little in her seat.

“What?” she asked. “What did I miss?”

“You've been worthless to me so far,” Sherise reminded her. “You haven't helped me find out where I stand with Jonah. I had to handle Jonathan myself. You're not listening to anything I've had to say about—”

“It's all about you, isn't it?” Erica asked.

“Hell yes, it is,” Sherise answered. “I'm the one whose world is falling apart, so, yes, right now it's about me.”

“It's not, you know,” Erica corrected. “Billie had a fight with Michael, but you don't give a shit. Instead of us helping her out, we have to talk about you, you, and more you.”

“It's okay,” Billie said. “It's not a big deal.”

“But it is,” Erica argued. “We're supposed to talk about everyone's problems, so we can help each other out. All we seem to do now is talk about the shit Sherise has gotten herself caught up in.”

“To be fair,” Billie said, “Sherise didn't start this one. And don't worry about Michael. He's already called me and wants to see me again.”

“Fine,” Sherise fumed. “Just to prove you wrong, let's talk about Billie and Michael, even though a little fight doesn't even remotely compare to what I'm going through.”

“You're going to see him again, aren't you?” Erica asked, ignoring Sherise.

“It depends.” Billie shrugged. “I like him a lot.”

“I think it's more than a lot,” Erica said, “from the way you talk about him.”

“Why haven't we met him yet?” Sherise asked.

“I don't know if you will,” Billie said. “He needs to get with the program. He can't be telling me who I can and can't talk to about Porter.”

“Porter isn't worth losing him over,” Erica said.

“Porter ain't worth shit,” Sherise added.

“That's not true,” Billie said. “He's worth access to my daughter.”

“Billie.” Erica placed her hand on Billie's shoulder. “We've been through this. She's not your daughter.”

Billie shirked away. “She is in every way that matters, and Porter is gonna give me access to her again or he'll be sorry.”

Sherise studied Billie. “I think I'm liking this new Billie. As long as you're giving Porter some of the hell back he gave you, I support it.”

“I think Michael is right,” Erica said. “Don't get me wrong. He had no right to look at your phone and comment on our conversation. It's just that revenge doesn't suit you, Billie.”

Billie shot up from her seat. “If one more person tells me that, I'm gonna crack their—”

“Easy,” Erica said. “Jesus, calm down. I'm just telling you the truth as I see it.”

“At least I'm willing to stand up to my ex,” Billie said. “You're so afraid of confronting Terrell that you can't even talk about him.”

“What about Terrell?” Sherise asked.

Erica eyed Billie with daggers, wanting to choke her for that.

Billie didn't seem to care. She sat back down and grabbed her drink, chugging it down like it was a reward.

“Why are you even talking to that asshole thug again?” Sherise asked. “You know better.”

“I'm not,” Erica said. “I don't want to. And I'm not afraid, Billie. You're such a bitch for bringing it up like that, when you're the one that said not to give Sherise any bad news.”

“It had to get out there,” Billie said. “Sherise needs to know.”

“You just wanted to take the attention off you,” Erica argued.

“You're the one so eager to share everyone's—”

“Wait!” Sherise stopped Billie midsentence. “Why would I want to know? What the fuck is going on?”

Erica sighed before proceeding to tell Sherise about the letter sent to Jonah and his threats about Terrell. Before she could even finish, Sherise commenced to freak out just as she expected.

“Honestly,” Erica said. “I would remind you that losing your shit is not good for the baby, but I think that's been done, and done.”