Sheet Music - A Rock 'n' Roll Love Story (59 page)

Michael grabbed her arm.  “I already told you, I didn’t sleep with her or anyone else.”

“Oh, really?  Do you have another lie you’d like to tell me that will explain the panties on the floor over by your coat?”

His head snapped behind him.  When he saw the white fabric, his shoulders slouched.  “Ah, shit, Annie.  It’s not what you’re thinking.  Can we sit down and talk about this?”

“I’m done talking to you.”  She clicked the latch on the suitcase and headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?”

She stopped in the doorway and faced him.  “I’m going back to New York.  And if you’re smart, you’ll let me walk away this time with the little bit of dignity I have left.”

“Annie, please…”

“After I get settled, I’ll be filing for divorce.”

“I won’t agree to that!”

“You don't have a choice!  I've wasted enough of my life trying to make this relationship work.  It's useless because it
can't
work!  It was destined for failure from the start.”

He reached out and took her hand and she quickly jerked it free.  “If you let me explain…”

“I should have ended this back in March.  It would have been a cleaner break then.  I never should have let it go on this long.  We’ve both suffered needlessly.”

“That’s not true.”

Annie shook her head.  “It’s obvious you’re not happy and I’m certainly not.  So why should we stay together?  For the baby?  I don’t think so.  She deserves better and I intend to provide it for her.”

“I’ll admit, my head hasn’t been in the right place lately but that is due to losing Brian, not because I’m having an affair.  You’ve got to believe that!”

“Then answer one question for me.  Did you get those scratches from sleeping on the beach or from Barbara’s fingernails?”

He nervously averted his eyes.

Annie quickly turned and started down the hall.  “Good-bye Michael.”

Desperate, he grabbed her by the shoulders.  “Listen!  Yes, I did get them from her but not from sex.  We were fighting.”

Annie clenched her eyes tight.  “Stop the God-damned lying!”

“It’s the truth!  We were fighting.  She wouldn’t leave me alone.  She was relentless.  When I tried to shove her away, she scratched me.”

“She came on to you and you turned her down?”

“Yes.”

Annie shoved him aside.  “Go to hell.”

“Jesus, Annie, that’s the fucking truth!”

“Stop it!  Just let me go,” she screamed.

Annie’s voice echoed in the foyer of the house and Bonita came running into view.  “What’s going on?” Bonita asked.

“Bonita, please pack a suitcase for Sammi.  I’m going to put these in the car and I’ll be back for her.”

A few minutes later, Annie returned to Sammi’s room.

Michael blocked the doorway.  “You're taking Sammi?”

“Yes.  When and
if
you get yourself sober again, we can discuss visitation through our lawyers.  Until then, don't even think of following me to New York.”

Tears formed in his eyes.  “I don’t want you to leave.”

“This needs to be done and you’re in no condition to implement it so I will.  Let it go, Michael.  It’s done.  We tried, and it didn’t work.”

“But, I love you.”

“Sometimes that isn’t enough,” she replied and moved past him with Sammi in her arms.

Annie left the driveway and didn’t dare look back at the house.  At the first traffic light, she removed her wedding rings and dropped them into the ashtray of the car.  She didn’t cry until Taylor met her at the door of her apartment with a hug.  Then she crumbled.  For hours, she poured out her hurt and anger until she passed out from exhaustion.

The next day, she took back control of her life and called the female lawyer Taylor recommended and asked her to begin the paperwork for divorce.

“Michael’s worth millions, Annie.  And, without a prenuptial agreement, you will walk away from this a very wealthy woman,” the lawyer stated smugly.

“I don’t want his money,” Annie answered quickly.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard what I said.  All I want is the beach house on the Vineyard and the Land Rover for transportation.  That’s it.  The rest of it he can shove up his ass or give away to his next wife.  I don’t care.”

“But…”

“Look, do you want to represent my wishes in this divorce or not?” Annie asked.

“Yes, of course.”

“Then draw the papers up as I’ve requested.  And make it happen as fast as possible.”

“If he contests the divorce…”

“He won’t contest a thing,” Annie interrupted.  “He’s already been warned and knows what will happen if he so much as raises an eyebrow to slow this down.”

“Okay.  I’ll get the paperwork ready for your approval.”

“Thank you.”

The timing was perfect.  The day the divorce petition was delivered to Michael’s lawyer, Annie hit the road with Lace.  The tour did its opening show in Philadelphia then proceeded south, hitting every major city along the way.  The venues were small with five to ten thousand seat capacities but every show was sold out.

One month into the tour, Annie began to feel the effects of living out of a suitcase again.  Even with the help of the nanny she hired to care for Sammi, fatigue was a constant companion for her.

By the beginning of November, she knew without a doubt what was causing her exhaustion.  Without witness, she crept into the bathroom early one morning and took a pregnancy test.  The results were positive.  Once again, she was carrying Michael’s child but this time, she would give it life - alone.

She told no one of her condition, not even Taylor or Lacey.  It was a secret she would keep concealed until it was no longer possible and by then she hoped the divorce would be final.  If Michael knew of her pregnancy before the divorce was official, she knew he would fight her for everything.

With the end of the tour now in sight, Annie fumbled her way through the mornings, suffering in silence with her nausea and vomiting.  That night, they would play to another sold-out crowd in Tallahassee then finish the tour in Miami the following week.

The venues had begun to blur together for her.  The only details that seemed to change were the local union roadies at each theater.  Annie knew most of their own road crew but the union guys always made her nervous.  The further south they went, the edgier she became.  By the time they reached South Carolina, she had hired a second body guard to follow Sammi and her nanny.  The other body guard was for her own personal protection.

Within hours of arriving at the Tallahassee theater where they would perform at the following night, Annie felt uneasy with the local road crew.

“Who’s that?” she asked her bodyguard.  “He isn’t one of ours, is he?”

“No, he must be a local.”

“Have him checked out for me, please,” she stated and drifted toward the dressing rooms.  She tried on a few new stage outfits and went through several exercises to warm up her vocal cords.  Before she knew it, an hour had passed and the nanny arrived with Sammi.

Together, they wandered down the hall to find Annie’s guard.  Then from out of nowhere, he approached them.  Annie was busy cuddling Sammi and didn’t notice the man until she walked directly into him.

He was a local roadie, native to the area and rail thin.  He had long greasy blond hair and a lazy eye.  With a dirt-covered index finger, he reached out to stroke the baby’s cheek.

“Is this your little one?” he asked Annie in a southern drawl.

Annie tightened her grip around Sammi and stepped away from the man.  “I’d rather you didn’t touch my child,” she stated coldly.

The man's eyes narrowed.  “I'm sorry, Ms. Logan.  I suppose my hands are a bit too dirty to be touching something as precious as her – or
you
for that matter,” he chuckled awkwardly.

It wasn’t what he said, but how he said it that unraveled Annie.  Inside she began to shake.  She gave the nanny a stern nod in the direction of security and sent her off to find them.  By the time they returned, the man was gone and Annie was cowering in the dressing room.

“Where the hell have you been?” she screamed.

“We were going over security procedures for the show,” the bodyguard replied.

“Well, one of you should have stayed here with me!”

“Why?”

“Because, that man I pointed out to you approached me in the hall and scared the hell out of me,” she answered with a quiver in her voice.  Then turned away to hide her emotion.  “I’m telling you, call it a gut instinct, but something isn’t right with that guy.”

“Did he threaten you in any way?”

“No, and that isn’t the point.  I don’t like the way he looks at me or Sammi.  He creeps me out.”

Annie paused and spun around to face her guard.  “I don't want him here for tomorrow night's show.  I'll even pay him
not
to show up.  How's that?”

“I think that’s a bit harsh.”

“Harsh?  Okay, fine.  If he’s here tomorrow night, then I’m leaving. How’s that for harsh!?”

The concert went off without a hitch and everywhere Annie went, her security followed.  She doubled-checked every darkened corner and hallway but the roadie was no where to be seen.  Just after midnight, her band began filing out toward the buses taking them back to their hotels.  Last minute, Annie decided to use the bathroom before she joined them.

Her bodyguard went in first and checked each stall.  Then came out, satisfied it was empty.  “It’s okay.  Go on inside, I’ll be over here,” he said, seeing another security guard he recognized about a hundred feet away.

When Annie came out of the stall to wash her hands, the roadie grabbed her, quickly covering her mouth with his filthy hand.  She struggled fiercely in his arms, desperate to free herself from his grip.

“You ain’t nothing but a stuck-up bitch,” he hissed.

Annie recognized his voice instantly and willed herself not to cry.  Instead she continued to fight him; which angered him even more.  Her strength was no match for his, as he tightened his grip around her wrist, jerking her arm behind her back and up between her shoulder blades.

Annie stifled a sob.  The pain was searing.  She could not believe this was happening.  He pressed his face into her neck.  His breathing was jagged and smelt like onions.  She could feel his erection pressing into her hip as he inched her toward the tiled wall beside the sinks.  With one hand fumbling beneath her skirt, the hand over her mouth slipped.  She managed to get out one short scream before he covered her mouth again.

“Stupid whore,” he spat, ripping off her panties, bruising her in the process.

She felt him wrestling with his pants and panicked.  She would die first before she let this man force himself on her, she thought, driving the spike heel of her leather boot deep into the top of his sneakered foot.  He screamed in pain, grabbed a clump of her hair at the back of her head, and slammed the side of her face into the tiled wall.  Annie fell limp in his arms.  Seconds later, several security guards filled the bathroom, guns drawn and ready.  The man raised his arms in defeat and let Annie fall to the floor in a lifeless heap at his shoes.

“Step away from her,” one demanded.

“Can I pull up my pants first?” the roadie sneered at them.

Annie’s security guard took two cautious steps closer.  “You pull anything from those pockets and I’ll blow your brains all over the wall!”

Annie woke in the ambulance.  The first thing she did was touch her cheek bone, then whimpered in pain.  By the time they reached the hospital, her eye was swollen shut and the skin on her cheek had turned a deep shade of purple.  Taylor arrived as the EMT’s pushed Annie into the emergency room.  Annie took Taylor’s hand and squeezed it.

“Stay with me,” Annie pleaded.

Taylor nodded.  “Of course I will.”

“Let’s get an x-ray on that cheek,” the emergency room doctor ordered.

Annie reached out and latched onto his wrist.  “No x-rays!”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m pregnant.”

An hour later, they moved Annie into a private room.  Against her wishes, she was admitted for the night, due to her past head trauma and new pregnancy.

“How long have you known?” Taylor asked, still holding Annie’s hand.

Annie turned her head toward her friend and saw the concern in Taylor’s eyes.  “About a week.”

“Michael doesn’t know, does he?” Taylor asked.

“No, and he won’t until after our divorce is finalized!  After that, I don’t care what he knows.  It won’t change anything.  I’m already raising Sammi by myself.  What difference will one more make?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Annie’s eyes lifted to the ceiling.  “Because I didn’t want to burden you with any more of my problems.”

“That’s what friends are for,” Taylor smiled.

“Well, with me as a friend, you got a lot more than I’m sure you bargained for.”

“Stop it!  We’ll get through this, as we did the rest of it, and move on stronger than we were before.  Right?”

Annie forced a smile then let it fade.  Her eyes quickly filled with tears.  “He didn’t rape me did he?”

“No, he didn’t.  They caught him before he had the chance to,” Taylor reassured.  “And the freak will have plenty of time to think about that in jail, too.”

Annie’s head snapped toward Taylor.  “I’m not pressing charges!”

“Why the hell not?  The man deserves to be punished.”

“This can’t get in the papers, and if I press charges, it will.  And I don’t want Michael finding out either!”

“We’ll find a way to keep it private.”

“Taylor, I just want to go home and forget about this.”

“I know.”

A pause fell between them.

“You do realize I can’t finish the tour, right?”

“Yes, and it’s okay.”  Taylor placed her hand on Annie’s stomach.  “Go home and concentrate on growing Sammi a healthy sister.”

“Or brother,” Annie added.

“I think it’s another girl.”  Taylor bent and kissed Annie’s forehead.  “Get some rest and I’ll see you later.”

As soon as Taylor returned from the tour she dragged Annie back into the studio to put the finishing touches on her first solo album.  After much deliberation, they decided to call it ‘On My Own’.  The cover art was a black and white photograph taken the summer before.  It had Annie sitting on a simple wooden stool, bent forward with her thighs spread and her guitar resting between them.  Her hair hung long and tangled covering her chest and her hands rested on the neck of the guitar.  The lighting was dramatic and made her appear to be naked, the guitar and her hair hiding the essential parts of her body.  It was extremely provocative and suggestive without being trashy.  When Annie saw the album in its completed form she gasped, wondering what Michael would have thought, but it didn’t matter now.  This was her project, not his.