Page 132 of Everything After

We lay there for a minute or two before I spoke again. “It’s okay, I’m just trying to wrack my brain who was around when I’d called Cody out at the party.”

She stiffened and pulled back to look up at me. “Do you think it’s one of my bandmates?”

“No… no, I don’t. I’m thinking who was around me. I can’t remember seeing anyone while I spoke to him, but someone may well have overheard us.”

“One of the Screaming Shadows guys… or their wives?” Lily suggested, but I could hear in her tone that she couldn’t contemplate that any of them would do that.

“No, definitely not. They’re all solid and they’ve had more than their fair share of drama from false newspaper articles themselves.”

The more I thought about our situation, the angrier and more confused I became. Inside I was fuming, but in front of Lily, I had tried to balance my rage about Cody with a need to keep Lily from becoming overwhelmed by the situation. That balance came with a pain that seared inside my chest from the physical restraint I had to try to maintain.

If it hadn’t been for Lily, I’d have gone all out to find where that fucker Cody was, who had no doubt gone into hiding after his performance with the press.

In the distance I heard a boat arrive at the dock. “That’ll be Joanne from PR and John from legal,” I said.

Oscar knocked on the door. “Are you expecting visitors?”

“Shit, sorry, man, I forgot to text to let you know,” I said. “Yeah, can you show them in here, please?” I asked.

“I’ll go make some fresh coffee,” Lily said, clambering onto her knees on the sofa, then onto her feet. As I was behind her, I couldn’t offer my help.

“Right… and Baby?” she turned to look at me. “Everything will be fine. We can get through this.”

She bit her lip and nodded. “I know. It’s just…”

“It’s just us, Lily. We’re all that matters. Remember that. Everything else is white noise.”

She flashed me a smile. “Right, I’ll get that coffee then.”

“I’d advise you to get a doctor’s note, Lily. That’ll cover you for any contracted obligations that your band could hold you to. It wouldn’t be unreasonable for a doctor to sign you off work due to stress.”

“Yeah, stress that’s been exacerbated by your bandmate’s lack of denial,” I added.

“No. I’m not pretending to be sick. I want to make a statement,” she argued.

Joanne, the PR representative, shook her head. “I’d advise against that.”

“And I hear your advice, but I’d still like to make a statement please.”

“It could get costly, Lily,” John warned.

“I don’t care about money. We have more than we could ever spend in a lifetime.”

“True,” I agreed. “I just feel that protesting so strongly makes it look like there’s something to hide,” I said, repeating my earlier warning about that.

“There is that danger,” Joanne concurred.

“And it’s not dangerous to let people wonder if there was something going on between Cody and me, and now there’s not, since my husband’s bust-up with my bandmate in our home?” Lily insisted.

“Before we go any further, I must clarify… was there a confrontation between you and Cody?” John asked me.

“Yeah, that I can’t deny. I told him to stop pestering Lily and pawing her all the time. The guy’s been taking advantage of his position for years. I about lost my shit when I saw his hands all over her in the recording studio. It’s bad enough that I’ve had to tolerate seeing that as part of their act in concerts, but I won’t stand for him touching her otherwise.”

“You didn’t hit him or anything?” John probed as the intensity in his eyes grew.

“No. That’s not to say I didn’t think about it. Perhaps, if we hadn’t had guests, I may well have decked him, but no physical contact took place.”

Lily stood up, hugged herself and began pacing the floor. “Look. This is not good for the baby. I’d like to make a statement denying this rumor before it overwhelms me,” she snapped, sounding tired but determined.