Page 127 of Everything After

“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 righthere 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.