Page 72 of Everything After (Everything Trilogy)

ALFIE

“For fuck’s sake, why can’t people leave us alone?” I ground out while I lifted my ringing cell phone and slapped it to my ear.

“Did you see Pedro Compton’s posts about you?” Drew hurriedly asked.

“Fuck me, you woke me up for that?”

“You’ve seen it, and it hasn’t pissed you off?”

“Well, we wanted to announce it ourselves, but I think it’s par for the course you lose privacy when you’re famous.”

“You watched all of it?”

“Yeah… oh you mean the veiled threat at the end where he’s threatening a deep dive. You and I know he isn’t going to find anything to gossip about. Although, I’m pissed that he said someone at the party told him something.”

“Wait… that’s the first part. You didn’t see the second one yet?” Drew asked.

The alarmed tone in his voice instantly got my attention. “Second part?”

“Watch it. Call me back after.”

“What now?” Lily asked, shifting up the bed to rest against the headboard.

“Apparently part two about ‘the saga of us’ has been posted.”

Lily groaned, snuggled against my arm and I pulled his TikTok page up on my laptop.

“Good morning, Pedro Compton here with the latest developing blind item on our rock royalty couple the gorgeous Mr. and Mrs. Black.

“So, we’ve deduced from the images we’ve seen…

” The image of Lily with the bump circled is flashed for the viewers again.

Lily groaned and ducked her head under the covers, annoyed I imagined that she didn’t get to tell everyone herself.

“And the source from the party that allegedly told us that Lily Parnell, as most of us know her by, is with child.”

“Get to the fucking point,” I muttered to my screen.

“So far there’s been no denial from her camp…

although it has only been a few hours since this blind item has been circulating.

But… I’ve been working hard since then, doing a deep dive into this.

During that time, I was told by someone I trust that there may be a more salacious twist to this story. ”

Lily scurried out from the comforter, stood up and stared up at me. “Salacious? What’s salacious about keeping a pregnancy to myself until I’m ready to share it?” she asked.

“These guys should be shot for stirring up untruths about people. It’s how wars start,” I suggested after pausing the screen again.

She shrugged, hugged herself and I restarted the video.

“I have three questions for you to ask yourselves when considering this alleged saga. Number one, who saw that wooden performance between Cody Vickers and Lily Parnell last night? Did that look like the same people we’ve all been captivated by over the years? ”

“See, they instantly picked up that we’re different toward each other,” Lily pointed out, frowning and staring at the screen again.

“A source close to the rock royalty couple disclosed that there was a heated bust-up between Cody and Alfie, regarding Cody’s less-than-subtle crush on Lily.

“Now according to the source that I mentioned before, the normally cool Alfie Black allegedly lost his shit with Lily’s XrAid co-singer at their party.

Apparently, Alfie warned Cody that he needed to keep his hands off his wife.

So, my second question is, did that obvious, on-stage chemistry between Cody and Lily, accidentally spill over to their private lives?

And if Alfie has warned Cody off, is that what made the notable difference in their performance last night? ”

“What the fuck?” Lily mumbled, wide-eyed as she began to pace the floor.

Pedro continued. “With the contacts I have, I managed to track down a crew member from one of the couples’ bands who told me that due to scheduling commitments Alfie and Lily’s lives have been growing apart.”

Up until that point, I’d been measured in my comments about Pedro’s video, mostly because Lily was sitting beside me, but suddenly I realized where this new rumor was headed before he’d even formed the words. “This guy’s a cunt,” I hissed.

“So, my third question is this… with Alfie and Lily spending much less time together during the past couple of years, has XrAid’s unattached bandmate, Cody, been keeping Lily amused?”

“Alfie, you know nothing happened between Cody and me, right?” Lily blurted, clearly alarmed by what she’d heard.

I held my hand up to silence her until I heard the finish of the video.

“Let’s watch this space in the coming weeks.

Will these allegations made by a source, close to the couple remember, prove to be true?

I mean are the couple even together? I’m thinking of those photographs recently circulated by the press of Alfie cozying up and having dinner with a beautiful, young girl in Miami. ”

I snapped my laptop shut and hurled it at the wall directly in front of me.

“Alfie, I swear—”

I pointed toward her as I held my cell to my ear, already calling legal by the time I’d climbed out of bed. “Don’t you dare fucking swear to me. You have nothing to prove. I’m going to sue the ass off that guy. How dare he.”

“Take a look at that Pedro Compton on TikTok. Sue the fucker for everything he has. I want that bastard homeless. Who does he think he is messing with people’s lives?

I’m not having anyone question if Lily’s been faithful to me or whose baby my son is,” I ground out without any greeting, the moment my attorney answered his phone.

If our early start that morning had been traumatic for Lily and me, we later learned that there had been more trauma to come.

“You need to eat something,” I coaxed, nudging my wife.

To distract myself, I’d made us some cheese omelets for breakfast and salmon with salad for lunch. Lily barely picked at the omelet and ate a total of one green tomato and a few leaves of lettuce, then poked the salmon around.

“Not hungry,” she mumbled. She dropped her fork onto her plate and burst into tears.

I bounced out of my chair, pulled her from hers, and hugged her tight to my chest. “Fuck. You can’t allow this to define you, Lily. We can do this. Look what we’ve been through already, and we’re still here.”

My heart broke when she stared up at me with her huge sad, watery eyes. “It’s not your reputation that’s at risk here,” she insisted.

“It’s my paternity they’re questioning, so we’re both in this together.”

“You even asked me if the baby…”

I pressed my fingertips to her lips. “Christ, Lily. That was so wrong of me. I was mad. I wasn’t thinking straight…

and I wanted to hurt you because I found out like I had.

There wasn’t a question in my heart that you’d been unfaithful.

I apologized for that and if I could take it back, you know I would. ”

She drew in a deep breath and let out a tired sigh. “Why is life suddenly hard.”

“We’ve had it better than most in our line of business, Lily. It’s our turn is all. Next week it’ll be someone else. I feel like I’ve caused this by calling Cody out.”

“I hate fighting all the time. Ever since we came home, we’ve hardly stopped arguing about my bandmates. I never interfere with yours.”

“That’s because there aren’t a couple of pricks in mine,” I replied, smiling.

She leaned back, smiled and patted my chest. “I like when you use Britishisms.”

“Good, because Cody and Lennie …they’re wankers, tosspots… pricks.” I shrugged.

I led Lily into the sitting room, pulled her onto my knee and placed a protective hand over her growing belly. “This right here is all that matters. You, me and our son,” I told her with conviction.

“You’re right, this will pass,” she said, holding my face in her hands, like she was consoling me when it had been the other way around.

“It will and when that guy retracts his statement. Once he knows it’s false, he’ll eat crow, and your followers will hang him out to dry.”

She chuckled. “I do have some incredible fans,” she agreed, her tone softening.

“And some freaks, that guy had better watch out,” I remarked, sounding lighter.

“I almost feel sorry for him now,” she admitted. “When the truth comes out, that man is going to be roasted.”

“No more than he deserves for waking my beautiful wife in the middle of the night and putting a frown on her face,” I said.

Leaning in, I brushed her lips with mine and she pecked mine back.

I slid a hand to the back of her head, then placed my forehead on hers.

“Baby, I love you with all my heart and I promise you this is going to be okay.”

Lily nodded, slanted her head and kissed me softly. Pulling away, I had her stand up, stood myself and lifted her up in my arms. “What do you say we have ten minutes in the hot tub? No bubbles, just us relaxing, skin-to-skin, do you think that’ll wash some of the hurt from today away?”

“Definitely,” she agreed, smiling as I carried her out to our back yard. We’d had some trouble with drones a few times, but once we’d gotten the helicopter those appeared to have stopped. To be sure, we’d gotten our hot tub concealed by a covered canopy to ensure our privacy.

Lily took her clothes off and wandered over to the tub, ready to climb into the water.

“Wait,” I demanded. “I want to look at you,” I admitted, scanning her body from head to toe. “I’m a lucky man.”

“Come on, take your kit off,” she said, gesturing toward me.

“Can’t a man just stop, and appreciate what’s mine?”

“You can,” she mumbled, but covered her belly with her hand.

I reached over and gently moved it down to her side. “All of you, Lily. I can never get enough of how you look.”

“I’d like to return the favor,” she muttered, chuckling.

“All this you mean?” I said, sweeping my hand down my front.

“All that,” she agreed, nodding slowly. There was a twinkle in her eyes that had been missing all day until that point, and my heart lifted when I recognized it.

“If you insist,” I remarked while I reached a hand over my shoulder and swept my T-shirt up, then off over my head.

“Better?” I asked, bunching up the cotton garment and tossing it down beside her clothes.

“A bit, but I’d like to see more,” she stated, sounding coy.

“More? How much more?”

“Take your pants off,” she ordered, pointing at my jeans.

“Oh, that sounded so dominant.”

“Hm, you want to be dominated?” she asked, stepping forward and grabbing my belt buckle. I immediately grabbed her ass.

“Not a chance, little wife,” I mumbled, bending forward and pressing a kiss to her neck.

Goosebumps instantly covered her satin skin, and she squirmed right where she stood.

“Oh! We’re playing dirty, are we?” she asked playfully before she shoved her hand past my belt and inside my jeans.

She wrapped her soft hand around my swollen cock.

“Oh, my. What do we have here?” she mused, a wicked grin on her face.

“A gift,” I muttered, biting back a grin of my own.

“You’re just the man who keeps on giving, huh?” she asked, sounding amused. Lust swam in her eyes when her gaze held mine. My heart squeezed tight to know she still wanted me every bit as much as I wanted her.

My cell phone suddenly began to ring, and I groaned. “Ignore it,” I ordered, moving my hand over my jeans and pressed her hand harder to my cock, through my jeans.

Sliding my other hand from her ass to the back of her neck, I pushed her head toward me and took her mouth in a small kiss that turned frantic as our tongues dueled for control. Lily was breathless when she ended the kiss, pulled back from me and unbuckled my belt.

The moment she did this, I stripped it from my jeans, caught her hand and strapped it onto one wrist. Seeing her green eyes darken made my cock strain so hard, I had to stop and unzip my pants.

Lily hurriedly shoved one side of my pants then the other over my ass with her free hand, until my cock sprang free. My cell phone rang again, and I cussed. “Fuck. What’s wrong with people,” I muttered. However, thinking it could be my legal team I fished the device out of my back pocket.

“It’s Drew. What the fuck?” I said, stopping to eye the screensaver, ultrasound image of our baby again. My heart squeezed immediately calming me down before I tossed my phone onto our clothes pile.

“Was it him both times?” Lily asked, sounding concerned.

“Yeah,” I said while trying to kiss her again.

“Maybe you should answer it,” she said, stepping back.

“Well, fuck, he’s already ruined the mood huh?” I asked, moving away from her and picking my cell phone up again.

“What?” I snapped once I’d answered.

“Lily needs to get a hold of Cody.”

“Cody, why?” Lily stiffened at the mention of Cody’s name.

“Click the link I sent you on your WhatsApp.”

I found the app, clicked the link and a video clip began of Cody walking through an airport terminal I recognized as JFK in New York. I guessed the video couldn’t be more than a few hours old. The video maker was following him.

“Cody, did you have an affair with Lily Parnell? Are you guys an item? Is the baby she’s having yours?” the guy filming asked.

Cody stopped at the third question, stared down the camera. He looked stunned. “Where did you hear that?”

“Is it true?”

“Excuse me?” he asked, shaking his head.

“Is Lily Parnell having your baby.”

“Look, leave me alone,” he snapped and began walking away.

“Cody?” the film maker questioned, pressing him for an answer.

“Piss off. No comment,” he muttered as he pulled the ball cap he wore down over his eyes and walked faster to get away from the guy.

Lily slapped her hands to her cheeks, horrified. “Huh? No, Cody,” she screamed and promptly burst into tears.

The video then cut to the guy I guessed had asked the questions. “Hm, that didn’t sound like a denial. Plus, that ‘no comment’ sounded evasive to me. Personally, I thought he’d give me a straightforward answer, but instead he looked… shocked.”

“What the actual fuck!” I spat. My chest tightened to the point where I thought I’d pass out, then I remembered to breathe.

“Did you see that?” I asked Lily in disbelief.

The reporter sighed. “Any who, at some point the truth of this saga will come out. Is there a grain of truth in the rumored love triangle between Lily, Cody and Alfie or is this a figment of Pedro Compton’s imagination? No doubt someone has questions to answer, be it the influencer, Cody or Lily.”