Chapter 57

I was so sick of the exploitation. All that these media vultures wanted to do was to start rumors and feed off my misery. The idea made me queasy all over again, despite the anti-nausea medication.

I looked to Barnett.

“What should we do?” I whispered.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” he whispered back. “We’ll have to do it.”

“Why? Your reputation will survive this.”

“But yours might not.”

Barnett turned to Thaddeus.

“We’ll do it,” he said. “We’ll appear on your little show tomorrow.”

Thaddeus’s eyes fixed on me, as if to say, “Oh, will you?”

I nodded.

“Yes, we will.”

“Very well,” Thaddeus replied. “I will keep a hold of this picture until after the show, for insurance. You understand, right?”

Barnett breathed deeply through his nostrils, the muscles in his neck tight.

“Yes,” he said through clenched teeth, “but after the show, I will be there to personally ensure that you delete it. You understand, right?”

I watched Thaddeus’s Adam’s apple move up and down as he swallowed.

“Yes, of course,” he said.

“Very good,” Barnett replied. “Now, do we need to find some of Anna’s non-corrupt security guards to escort you out of here, or can you find the way out on your own?”

“I’ll be just fine, thank you.”

With that, Thaddeus briskly walked down the pathway towards the front gates, looking over his shoulder every few paces to make certain that Barnett wasn’t following him.

Once Thaddeus was out of earshot, I sighed and collapsed on the first step up to the house. Barnett sat down beside me and gently held my hand. If my stress levels had not been so high, my skin would have been tingling from the contact with his.

“Oh, Barnett,” I lamented, “what have we gotten ourselves into?”

•* *

The talk show set was rather typical in its setup. Along with the normal cameras, lighting, and sound equipment, there was a large oak desk with a lush leather chair behind it, two armchairs angled towards the desk but still facing the audience, and a long couch sat next to the armchairs. To top it all off was a giant oval sign that read, “The Chuck Thaddeus Show,” encircled in brilliant lights.

When Barnett and I were brought onto the set, we were greeted by the applause of fifty audience members. I tried to smile and wave politely at them as I sat in the armchair closest to Thaddeus’s desk, but it was hard to remain composed with the thought of that picture looming over my head. Barnett, on the other hand, was the picture of composure, waving and grinning as though he didn’t have a care in the world; he was a phenomenal actor.

As soon as Barnett and I took our seats, the applause died down and Thaddeus turned to us.

“Anna, Barnett, thank you for joining us today,” he said, as if we were old friends.

“Thank you for having us,” Barnett replied without missing a beat.

“Yes, the pleasure is all ours,” I added.

I almost threw up in my mouth at my own fake cheeriness.

“I’m so glad to hear that,” Thaddeus said. “We have a lot of questions that my audience is dying to hear the answers to, so would you mind if we just get right to the point?”

“By all means,” Barnett said.

“Of course,” I replied.

“Anna, let’s start with you. There have been a lot of rumors surrounding your love life kicked up over the past several months, with Barnett, your boss, and your ex-husband Would you mind talking about that a little bit?”

I shifted in my seat, trying not to appear as uncomfortable as I felt.

“Well, what about that do you want me to start with?”

“How about we start with your ex-husband? Word on the street is that you’ve been seeing him again off and on, and there was even a picture of you two kissing. Care to explain that?”

I cringed as I recalled that kiss and the circumstances that led to it.

“That picture was taken completely out of context,” I replied. “Bob and I are not getting back together, by any means.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“What? Of course I’m sure of that! Why wouldn’t I be sure?”

Thaddeus’s lips curled into that creepy smirk that I was truly beginning to despise on him.

“I just happen to have a source who would claim otherwise,” he said. He then called towards backstage, “Come on out, Bob Hayes!”

The audience clapped. I gaped in horror and outrage as Bob sauntered out onto the stage. If looks could kill, the glare Barnett gave Bob would’ve downed my ex-husband then and there, but Bob didn’t seem to notice.

Instead, Bob shot me a look like the cat who had the canary before sitting down on the couch.

“Thank you for joining us, Bob,” Thaddeus said as the applause died down.

“Thank you for having me, Chuck,” Bob said.

“So, Bob, Anna here says that you two are not getting back together ‘by any means.’ What do you have to say to that?”

Bob snorted.

“You saw the picture, Chuck. What do you think is happening?”

“You know that’s not what happened!” I snapped.

“Then what did happen?” Thaddeus asked.

I blushed and looked down at my hands. I couldn’t tell them that Bob had forced himself on me. Who were they going to believe?

I could feel Barnett’s eyes on me before he spoke.

“Come on, Chuck, let’s talk about something else,” he said.

“All right, all right, I’m nothing if not fair,” Thaddeus replied. “Let’s talk about your side of the love triangle, Barnett.”

Barnett sighed.

“As Anna tried to say, there is no love triangle—”

“You’re right, you’re right. There are far too many players in this game to call it a love triangle now, isn’t that right?”

I glared at Thaddeus as the audience broke out in jeers and whistles.

He better not bring Arthur into this, I thought.

“Let’s bring out the fourth side of this messy love…whatever, Julia Cogsworth!”

Julia strutted out onto the stage, looking as beautiful as ever, if a bit rounder in the stomach and struggling a bit in her lower heels. Barnetts looked as gob smacked as I imagined I did when Bob came out moments before. This time, the death glare came from Julia toward me, and chills ran down my spine at the sight.

Bob, pretending to be the perfect gentleman, assisted Julia in sitting down on the couch.

Is she actually pregnant? I asked myself.

It had never occurred to me that Julia might actually be pregnant. I thought for certain that she had made the whole story up to get Barnett back. Many questions raced through my mind, and none of them could be asked while we were still in the middle of this charade.

Looking over at Barnett, he seemed just as surprised as I was by Julia’s state. This only raised more questions.

“Julia, thank you for joining us today,” Thaddeus gave his customary greeting.

“The pleasure is all mine,” Julia replied.

“So, I heard that Barnett and Anna started seeing each other right when you and Barnett were about to reconcile. Is that true, Julia?”

“Yes, it is true. It was around the time—”

“It is most certainly not true!” Barnett asserted. “Anna and I have not been ‘seeing’ each other, and Julia and I have not, at any point, been close to reconciling.”

“That is suspiciously like the story that Anna gave about her and Bob,” Thaddeus said, leaning forward on his desk. “Doesn’t that seem a bit too coincidental?”

“No, it’s the truth,” I said. “If you so-called ‘reporters’ would listen to the facts instead of injecting your opinions wherever you like—”

“Facts like what? Like the fact that your boss, Arthur Stardust, with whom you have also been accused of being romantically involved, happens to look like your deceased brothers? Or the fact that you may have had something to do with your brothers’ deaths?”

My hands curled into fists. I sat on the edge of my seat.

“I did not have anything to do with my brothers’ deaths! One died in childbirth when I was very young, and the other died in a motorcycle accident when I was in high school.”

“If that’s the case, it should be no problem for you to take us through the night he died. Won’t you, please?”

But it was a problem. It was a big problem for me, and based on that ever-present smirk on Thaddeus’s face, he knew it. I slammed a fist on my chair.

“No, I will not. And I thank you not to bring either of my brothers up again!”

I couldn’t take this inquisition anymore. I leapt out of my chair and fled backstage. As soon as I was out of sight of the cameras, I collapsed against a wall and started to cry.