Wounded But Not Scarred (New Adult Rockers 2) (21 page)

I feel more comfortable, and she
leads me to the hair and makeup room.

“Hi,” a pretty girl says as I sit
down in the chair. Her hair is short and spiky, and she looks like a fairy. Her
delicate facial features are in sharp contrast with her wild hair, yet it works
for her. “I’m Jade. I’m going to be doing your hair and makeup today.”

“Hi. I’m Paige. It’s nice to meet
you.”

“Have a seat,” she says, motioning
to a chair. I sit down and she unties my ponytail and starts sifting through my
hair.

“Wow! Your hair is gorgeous. I’m so
jealous! And it’s in just the right shape for me to curl. Do curls work for
you?”

“Yes, that would be great, thanks.”

“Alright. Let’s get that hoodie off
you so we don’t mess your hair up when it’s finished.”

I pull the hoodie off, and sit in
just my tank top and pants as she brings a large barrel curling iron to my
hair. Jade works at lightning speed as she clips up sections of my hair and
curls the other pieces. Liam takes a seat in the back of the room and starts
working on his phone.

There are other people in the makeup
room, and while one woman looks vaguely familiar, I can’t place the rest of
them. Just as Jade is curling the last sections of my hair, Matt Lauer comes in
and walks towards me.

He’s not as tall as I had imagined
him, and he gives me a warm smile as he sits next to me.

“Hi Paige, I’m Matt Lauer.”

“Yes,” I squeak, “I know.”

He chuckles. “I wanted to come by
and introduce myself before your segment. I think it’s really brave that you’re
coming on and I wanted you to know that.”

“Thank you.” What else can I say?

“So, just so you’re comfortable, I
want to go through what we’re going to talk about it. It’s a five-minute
segment, which might seem like forever to you, but I promise it will go by
quickly once we start. I’m going to go briefly through what has been in the
news and the reports that have come out.” He pauses. “Is that okay?”

I nod.

“Great. Then I’m going to ask you
to briefly recount how old you were at the time and what happened. You can
share as little or as many details as you like. I’m not expecting anything
graphic. That’s not necessary.”

I nod again.

“Then I’ll ask you what happened
next, meaning the trial and you leaving Nashville. But after that, I want to
focus on how you turned it positive. You’ve recently returned to Nashville, and
you just got engaged to your high school sweetheart, right?” He’s looking over
his notes, and he looks back up at me expectantly. His eyes are warm and kind.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Great. Tell us about that and tell
me how well you are doing – which you clearly are. Your career is taking off
and you seem to have a great thing going right now. Put your positive spin on
things.”

I take a deep breath and nod.
“Sure. I can do that.”

“Perfect,” he says smiling. He
reaches out and puts his hand on my shoulder. “You’ll do fine. And this will be
a great way to promote your album and tour too.” He gives me a friendly smile
and stands up. “See you out there soon.”

I smile back as he leaves the room.

“Isn’t he nice?” Jade whispers once
he’s left.

“Yes!”

“I really like him,” she says,
spinning me around to do my makeup.

Fifteen minutes later, I’m back in
my dressing room, pulling on a red dress with black panel sides. I finish with
black tights and black boots.

Liam gives me an approving nod, and
then there’s a knock at the door.

“All ready?” Ellie asks, giving me
a once over and a thumbs up.

“Yes, I think so.”

“Super! Follow me. You’re on in
three.”

I’m assuming she means three
minutes and I follow her through the hallways. Ellie leads me to a comfortable
set with a sofa, and I’m glad we have this set and not one of those high chairs
that I would have to climb into.

I get situated and Matt Lauer comes
out. Before I know it, the cameras are rolling and Matt is recapping what
happened to me.

“So, tell me,” he says, “This is
what the news articles at the time reported, but what actually happened?”

I take a deep breath. “Well, the
news articles are pretty accurate. My daddy and his friends had been drinking.
I was fifteen. My daddy passed out on the porch, and his two friends took
advantage of me.”

“Took advantage?”

“Raped me.” I look Matt directly in
the eyes. “It was brutal.” I don’t elaborate anymore.

Matt nods. “What happened following
the incident?”

“I left Nashville and stopped
speaking to my father. I had to come back for the trial, and the men were
sentenced to a lot of jail time. I then spent all my time in Bristol with my
mother, trying to heal.”

“But you’re back in Nashville now,
right? Your music is doing great and your album sales are growing.”

“Yes, I’ve returned to my hometown after
being away for thirteen years. My daddy and I fixed our relationship, and it
really helped me to put the past behind me. I also returned to Nashville to
focus on my music career, which became a big part of my life after the attack.”
I go on to explain how I reconnected with Blake through our music and how we
had just gotten engaged. “Repairing my relationships and focusing on my music
really helped me heal. I wasn’t going to let those men take any more from me
than they already had.”

“Well, your story is truly
inspiring, Paige. I think a lot of women are going to look up to you as a role
model for moving past these kinds of things.”

“Thank you. I hope so.”

“Thank you for being here and
sharing your story.”

“I’m glad that I could. I’ve
realized that I have no reason to be ashamed about what happened, that there
was nothing I could do to prevent it. And I made the choice to move forward and
heal.”

We wrap up and the cameras stop
rolling for the commercial break, Matt gives me a hug.

“Thank you so much for sharing. I
hope we have you back on again sometime, and maybe you can play some music next
time.”

“I’d love to! It was a pleasure
meeting you.”

Liam and I bustle through the
studio and get into a taxi to take us to an uptown restaurant for my
Seventeen
interview.

“That was really fantastic,” Liam
raves. “You’re already getting great praise on the internet, twitter is blowing
up.”

I smile. "I’m just relieved
it’s over."

We step into the restaurant just
after ten, and I’m seated with a petite editor named Gloria, who turns on a
tape recorder as we speak. My order of eggs and toast arrive, and we continue
to talk through the breakfast. The interview takes only a half hour and it was
painless. I found it much easier to just talk to someone over a low-key
breakfast than on national television.

“Thanks for being so honest and
open, Paige,” she says, shaking my hand. “This will come out in our February
issue, which hits newsstands in three weeks. We’re going to squeeze this in
just before our deadline.”

Liam and I head out onto the street
to catch a taxi to the airport. As Liam hails a taxi, I look around at the
fancy boutiques that surround us. I do a double take and then feel my stomach
drop. Crossing the street, and headed directly for us is Savannah and her
mother, their arms laden with shopping bags.

Savannah doesn’t notice me, but
Scarlet does and she tugs on Savannah’s arm and says something as they are
crossing the street. Savannah’s entire face changes and she fixes her stare on
me, narrowing her eyes.

“Get us a taxi, Liam,” I say
tightly.

He looks at me, surprised at the
sudden change of tone in my voice.

“Well, well, well,” Savannah says
as she approaches us.

Scarlet tugs on Savannah’s
expensive looking coat and says something quietly. She actually looks
uncomfortable.

“Of all the coincidences in the
world, we run into you in New York City.”

I’m shaking with anger, but I
regain control of myself and try to steady my voice. “Yes, well we just came
from our interviews with Matt Lauer and
Seventeen
magazine.”

Savannah’s look becomes even
nastier. “Yes, I caught the Today Show,” she says through clenched teeth.

Liam is at my side, and while he
doesn’t know who Savannah and Scarlet are, he can clearly see that there is a
problem. He reassuringly puts his arm around my shoulder.

“Paige has been doing a great job
shedding light on tough topics.”

“Yes, I’ve noticed.” Savannah says.

I see her eyes slide down to my
ring and her gaze becomes even colder.

Mercifully, a taxi approaches, and
Liam quickly sticks his hand out and the taxi pulls over. He opens the door for
me and waits for me to enter.

“Thanks for all the press,” I snap and
then slide into the taxi.

“What was that about?” Liam asks,
concerned and confused.

“That,” I explain, “was Blake’s
ex-fiancé, who still hasn’t gotten over the fact that Blake ended things with
her and then began dating me.” I sigh. “She apparently leaked the old news
articles from my attack.”

Liam whistles. “I’ve heard she’s
hell on wheels. I had no idea she was still causing problems. What the hell is
she doing in New York?”

“I have no idea. Her family is
loaded so maybe they’re here doing holiday shopping.” I think of all the bags
they had.

Liam nods thoughtfully. “Right.
She’s a Devlin, isn’t she?”

“Yes. And her mother is a
Prescott.”

Liam whistles again. “The mother
lode.”

“Precisely. An extremely rich and
extremely pissed off family.”

Liam frowns. “I can’t quite picture
Blake with her, or him fitting in with that family.”

“I know. That was always an issue
for them. He doesn’t understand why the family got so bent out of shape since
he wasn’t quite ‘Devlin-Prescott’ material anyway.”

“I’ll do some digging,” Liam says,
and then we drop the subject. I don’t want to talk about Savannah anymore and
I’m glad that I didn’t lose my cool. It made me perversely happy to see
Savannah bothered by all the press and attention I was receiving.

I sink back into the leather seat
of the taxi and watch as the New York skyline passes by. It’s been a whirlwind
trip and I didn’t even get to enjoy the city.

Back on tour, I throw myself into
our final five shows. I love performing, and this tour has been more rewarding
than I could have ever imagined, but I’m burnt out and I’m ready for some
quality time at home. The five days off at Thanksgiving was a tease. It wasn’t
quite enough to fully refresh, especially with everything going on with
Grandma, and it only made me miss my home and family more.

Our last two shows are actually in
Nashville, which is great planning on the label’s part. Not only will we be home
with our families, but also it makes for two easy days and the crowds in
Nashville are so unbelievable. After I finish my set on our final show before
our holiday break, I wait breathlessly for Blake to join me onstage.

I’ve really gone all out tonight in
the wardrobe department, dressed in a bright red dress with sexy black heels.
Christmas is only four days away, and I’m ready to celebrate.

Blake comes running out onstage,
wearing a fresh shirt and looking handsome as ever.

“Y’all know my fiancé, Blake
Evans?” I yell into the mic.

The crowd whoops and hollers. Blake
says hello and we get right into our songs. After we sing our three numbers
together, we take a few more bows and thank our hometown for all their support.

“Oh my gosh! I’m so glad that we
have a break now!” I exclaim, as we step into the stage wings.

“Me too! I’m beat!” Blake agrees.

We part ways for a few minutes to
pack our belongings, and then we begin loading everything into our cars.

“I wish we could go home together,”
I whisper, as Blake pulls me in for a hug outside my running car.

“Soon, baby, soon.”

We still hadn’t heard back about
our bid on the house. I was prepared to offer more if they didn’t take our
first offer, but I knew Blake was hoping we wouldn’t have to.

I give Blake a final kiss, and we
agree to talk tomorrow. I get into my car and pull away, turning in the direction
of my father’s house, and watching Blake’s truck disappear in the opposite
direction towards his parents’ house.

When I’m about a mile from the
arena, a car tears out behind me, wheels squealing, and starts tailgating me.

“What the hell?” I mutter, switching
lanes.

The car switches lanes too and then
throws it’s high beams on. Cursing, I tilt my rear view mirror up, and switch
lanes again, but the car swerves out behind me again, coming nearly right up to
the bumper of my car.

That’s when I see a flash of red in
my mirror.