Fifteen Weekends (29 page)

  “Liam we need to go. Emily isn’t here. She is never late, and I’ve not heard from her all evening. Something feels off.”

    They both pushed to their feet and headed towards the doors of the ballroom. “Try to ring her again. Where is your car?” Liam asked.

  As they had reached the lobby there was still no answer on Emily’s cell. When they reached the valet stand Ashleigh tried Ethan’s cell again. The humidity hung thick in the night air, steam billowed off the hot pavement, and the smell of wet mulch and fish enveloped their senses.

  Dodging the puddles trying not to fall on the wet blacktop, Ashleigh instructed, “My car is the black BMW right there under the street light close to the door. Liam, have you ever driven a car in the United States before?”

  “No, but I cannot think of a more perfect time to learn.”

  “Nope. Absolutely not. No way,” she said shaking her head with a smile. “Not at night and especially not after it’s been raining. Nice try, Liam.”

  Unlocking the doors to her car Liam slid into the passenger seat as Ashleigh pushed the ignition and sped out of the parking lot. Ashleigh knew Emily was getting ready at Ethan’s house, so she had Liam pull up his address on the GPS. With all the calmness she could muster Ashleigh dialed Emily’s number again.

  “Ashleigh. Hi this is Ethan. Something,” His voice broke. “Something has happened to Emily.”

  “Ethan.” Her voice was shaky. “What…what are you saying? Is Emily alright?” Ashleigh’s heart was pounding. “Ethan does this have something to do with the stalker?” There was silence on the other end of the phone. “Ethan!” Ashleigh shouted. “Answer me. Is Emily okay?” Tears were streaming down Ashleigh’s face. Liam felt helpless. He could hear the fear and pain in Ashleigh’s voice.

   “Ethan, hello this is Liam Frost, Ashleigh’s fiancé. She’s terribly worried about Emily. What can you tell us?”

  “Yes. Hello Liam. Sorry, I’m a bit panicked. I’m at Memorial Hospital. Emily was attacked and drugged. I’m not sure if she is going make it. Please hurry.”

  “Not sure if she’s going to make it? Oh my God, Liam!”

  Liam placed his hand on Ashleigh’s, “Darling, I know you are scared, but let’s think positively. That is the best thing to do for Emily right now. When we get to hospital you go find Ethan, and I will park the car.”

  His calm tone washed over her, mildly comforting her aching mind. She knew Liam was right. Ashleigh was scared, that much was true. The drive to the hospital seemed like an eternity. Ashleigh managed to hit every red light, which only made her feel more anxious. Finally she arrived at the hospital and hoped she wasn’t too late.

  Amanda walked slowly to the bank of elevators. She took another sip of her drink. She was breathing heavily, and the tears started to roll down her face. She never realized seeing Brandon again would conjure so many emotions. The last time she saw him, she was sitting across a cold glass conference table while their lawyers worked out the settlement of their divorce. Amanda and Brandon fought the entire time, he was relentless with his objections. Amanda begged for him to reconsider stripping everything from her.

  The last thing Brandon managed to give her was a heated final screw on top of their divorce papers. Brandon asked for a moment alone with Amanda, and the lawyers left the room. Hiking up her skirt, he bent Amanda over the table and fucked her senseless.

  When it was over, he said nothing except, “I love you, Mandy, but this is goodbye.”

  With that he zipped up his pants, fixed his tie, smoothed her skirt and ordered her to fix her ponytail.

  After a few minutes, he opened the door and said, “I think we’re done here, gentlemen.”

  Brandon walked away, and Amanda was left standing there shaken, with only her memories and a Gucci handbag. She thought because Brandon said he loved her, she might be able to win him back, but Brandon never took Amanda’s calls or accepted any of her dinner invitations.

  “Amanda!” Alex shouted as he came through the glass doors of the lobby.

  A smile crossed her lips at the sight of him, “Alex, what are you doing here?”

  Amanda wiped away the few tears that had fallen on her cheeks and Alex noticed she seemed upset.

  “Are you okay, Amanda?”

  “I’m fine. It’s just very emotional hearing people share their stories of triumph and tragedy,” she lied.

  He took out the papers and said, “I went to Chicago, and I had a chat with Andrew Langston.”

  A look of disbelief came over Amanda’s face.

  “Can we go somewhere and talk?”

  Amanda nodded and said, “My suite upstairs. We will have plenty of privacy there.”

  “Hi. My name is Ashleigh Preston. My friend Emily Greene was brought in tonight. Can you tell me anything about her condition?” The nurses at the reception desk shuffled through paperwork. Ashleigh looked to her left and found Ethan leaning against the wall. “Nevermind. Ethan…Ethan, how is she?”

  Ethan looked up at Ashleigh through red puffy eyes. He muttered, “It was something with her heart. They…they took her back to trauma. I don’t know what’s happening. I gave her CPR when I pulled her from the bath, and she did open her eyes. I called 911, and then she was in the ambulance, and her heart started to beat uncontrollably. The doctor said something about a possible heart arrhythmia due to a lowered body temperature. The doctors think the combination of drugs in her system and the time she spent underwater may have caused this to happen.”

  Ashleigh reached out for Ethan, and he hugged her back. Liam rushed into the hospital and saw Ashleigh standing with Ethan.

  “Oh Liam, I’m terrified,” Ashleigh whispered to him choking back soft tears as she flung her arms around his neck. “Something’s going on with Emily’s heart. The doctors are with her now.”

  “Code Blue, Trauma Four. Code Blue, Trauma Four.”
Ashleigh, Ethan and Liam stood together staring at the swinging doors as nurses and doctors rushed past them. Everything was happening so fast, Ashleigh’s heart sank.
Please don’t let anyone die here tonight, especially not Emily.

  “I am afraid your sister, Julie, was behind your scandal. Amanda, she set the whole thing up. Andrew said that she approached him in the summer when she saw you were unhappy in your marriage. Julie instructed him to flirt with you and pay attention to you, especially when Brandon wasn’t around. She paid him a considerable amount of money to do it.”

  All the color drained from Amanda’s face. She walked to the bar and poured another drink. “Why? Did he say why she did it, Alex?”

  Alex nodded, swallowing hard before answering, he walked over to Amanda. He placed his hands on her shoulders and said, “Julie was insanely jealous of you, from the love your parents showered you with, to your job, to landing Brandon Ford as a husband.”

  Amanda started laughing and looked at Alex as if he was crazy. “That is most ridiculous thing I have ever fucking heard— jealousy? Julie got my husband to divorce me, my parents to disown me and my trust fund revoked all because of
jealousy
?” she scoffed.

  “There’s more, Amanda,”

  “Oh fucking wonderful. Lay it on me, Alex.”

  Alex went on to tell Amanda how Julie hired Jessica Clayton to take the picture of Andrew and Amanda and then post it on the Bloomfield Buzz. In exchange for her cooperation, Julie persuaded the station manager at WWSK to give Jessica, Amanda’s job. Julie and the station manager were apparently old friends. More like he was in love with her and would do anything for her that she asked.

  “After my visit with Andrew, I called Jessica Clayton, and she met with me in Detroit confirming everything Andrew had said. Jessica was quite cooperative. Apparently she was let go from the station a few weeks ago. She said she tried to call your sister for some help, to see if Julie could get her a job with another station or even at your family’s company. Julie has not called her back. Needless to say Jessica was ready to rat your sister out to me with no regrets.”

  Amanda couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her own sister had fucked her over.

  “There’s more and this is the hard part Amanda.” She looked up from her glass and Alex saw Amanda was sobbing. “Hey, it will be okay,” he said placing his arm around her shoulders.

  “Just, give it to me straight, Alex. Tell me the rest so I can figure out what I am going to do,” she said wiping her eyes.

  “Your sister is crafty. I will give her that.” Amanda shot Alex a look of disapproval as she poured another drink. “I talked to your parents. They said they never wanted to disown you. They said they absolutely did not disown you.” Amanda just stared at Alex. She was silent and motionless.

  “You…you saw my… parents?” she inquired through a set of hiccupped sobs.

  “Amanda, look at me,” he said softly. “Hey, what happened after the scandal broke? The day the pictures came out, what do
you
remember?”

  “I remember that Julie had emailed the post to me and called to give me a heads up. She told me that she was going to talk to our parents. It was Julie that suggested I tell Brandon the picture was taken out of context and see if he would seek legal action against the blog. I called Brandon right away and asked him if he could come home, and that I had something terrible to tell him and didn’t want to do it over the phone. He, however, already knew what I was going to tell him and was on his way home when I called.”

  “But, did
you
ever talk to your parents, Amanda? Did you ever find out who leaked the information to Brandon?” Alex inquired.

  Amanda never questioned how he found out, she figured one of the gossipy secretaries or his mother, who didn’t care too much for Amanda, broke the news to him. Come to think of it, she never heard from her parents in their own words, either. It was Julie who informed Amanda about her trust fund, and that they never wanted to see her again.

  “Your parents told me it was Julie who told them you were leaving for a month until everything blew over. She told them you stepped down from your job, and that it was your idea to have Jessica replace you.”

  “That bitch!” Amanda shouted. Her sobs had subsided, and she was now seething with anger.

  “Your trust fund was never depleted. Your father said he never cut you off. Julie told them you were leaving Bloomfield Hills for good, and that you did not want them to contact you so you couldn’t cause any further embarrassment or bring shame to the Parson’s family name.”

   “Murder would be too good for my dear sister. Fuck!” Amanda shouted. “So where is
my
money, Alex?” she inquired, her voice brittle.

  “Your sister has been taking it. Since Julie has been helping with the financials at Parsons Enterprises, she’s been able to access your account. Looks like your sister reported your bank card missing last November and had a new card sent to her home address. Julie updated all your records with the bank and closed your account shortly thereafter. Your father never knew.”

  Amanda looked away from Alex. Hot tears ran down her cheeks. She was furious. She wanted hit something, more like someone, and that someone was her sister.