Page 49 of Faking the Pass

A Fresh Start

R osie

The lawyers were unsuccessful in delaying the hearing.

It had already been delayed once, they said, and Presley and I would have to appear today for the first of what could end up being many days of arguments.

He should have been driving to practice this morning, preparing for his comeback game, but instead he drove us to the county courthouse.

The parking lot was huge and looked very full, so he dropped me off at the front door.

“I’m gonna go find a parking spot in the overflow lot—meet you inside, okay?”

I nodded and shut the passenger door, trudging up the front steps of the courthouse.

It felt like the beginning of the end.

Once this trial ended, one way or another, our reason to be married would cease to exist.

The mind-blowing hotel room sex on the night of the gala had seemed like a new beginning, but now I saw it for what it was—a swan song.

A curtain call.

A final bow.

Because as tender as Presley had been last night, and as much as he insisted he’d been happy on our wedding day and that he was glad I’d come back into his life… he was going to change his mind.

If this thing dragged on and prevented him from getting back on the field when he was healthy enough to do so, when it was what he’d been working toward for months—if it prevented him from breaking that record, which was what he’d been working toward his entire life… he was going to blame me.

He wouldn’t be able to help it.

No matter how optimistic he was trying to be (and believe me I appreciated the effort) I knew there was no way the love he claimed to feel for me would survive it.

If we even stayed together, he’d resent me the rest of our lives, and I couldn’t live like that.

Not only that, but we were highly likely to lose the civil case, which meant he’d be out hundreds of thousands of dollars if not a million or more. Knowing Randy, he’d certainly try to make the judgement include paying for his top-notch legal team.

But what could I do about it? I felt like a helpless puppet being jerked around by a sadistic puppeteer.

The only thing I could really do at this point was testify honestly and try to convince the judge that I hadn’t set out to hurt Randy or his reputation, that running away from that wedding had literally felt like saving my own life.

And that Presley had been innocent in all of this, simply trying to help an old friend.

That it was my stupidity that had led to this hearing.

Stepping inside the courthouse, I shivered. The air-conditioning inside was way too much for the temperature outside.

And then I stopped short as I spotted Randy waiting for me.

He was standing alone… smiling.

Well, if he wanted to gloat, he could just tell it to someone else. I turned to walk back outside and wait for Presley there, but Randy called out to me.

“Rosie, wait.”

The sound of his shiny shoes slapping the shiny floors echoed through the courthouse lobby.

“Please wait,” he said, sounding a bit breathless. “There’s something important I want to talk to you about.”

I stopped and turned to face him. He was still smiling, putting on that movie star charm that audiences had been falling in love with for the past twenty-five years.

“What is it?”

“You looked beautiful the other night at the ball. I’m not sure I said that enough.”

I simply raised my brows at him. This was the important thing he’d wanted to say?

“I was a little overwhelmed to see you that night,” he said. “I was also swimming in regret over what I did to you, embarrassing you like that. I should have told you about Gina right from the start of our relationship.”

I gasped. “If I’d known about Gina, you and I would never have had a relationship.”

“That’s why I didn’t tell you,” he said. “I fell head over heels for you, and I didn’t want anything to stop us from being together. You were utterly perfect—are perfect—and I simply had to have you. Gina never meant that much to me.”

“Meant?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes. “She left me. She knew I was too in love with you for it ever to work out between us.”

I blinked several times as the computer chip in my brain malfunctioned. What was he saying?

Up was down, black was white… and he’d actually loved me , not her?

“You told me yourself that our wedding was just a big show to promote the movie,” I said. “You were planning to marry her all along—I heard it from your own mouth that day.”

He gave me a sheepish grin. “I was just saying that to settle her down, to keep her from going into labor on our wedding day. You know what a good actor I am.”

“I heard you say that, too—on our wedding day—to her,” I said. “I don’t believe this for a second. I’m not even sure what you want from me. Go gaslight someone else. I’m done.”

I tried to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist and held me in place.

“Wait, don’t go. Please. That isn’t actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Just give me two minutes. You’re going to want to hear this.”

“No actually, I’ve heard enough of your lies to last me a lifetime,” I said.

I tugged at my wrist but froze at his next words.

“I can make all this go away,” he blurted. “The hearing, the fines. You can walk out of here today, debt free… and so can Presley.”

That last part got my attention.

“How?” I asked, my tone reeking of suspicion.

“I’ll drop the suit,” he said. “I’ll walk in there and tell the judge we’ve worked it out and there’s no need to proceed with a trial.”

“If…” I prompted.

Randy never did anything out of the goodness of his heart. Either he was going to ask me to lie to the judge in a few minutes or he had something else up his sleeve.

“The movie’s done so well already in pre-release ticket sales, the studio wants a sequel.”

And there it was—his real aim here. Business. Money.

“Apparently our whole love triangle story drove interest in the film into a frenzy,” he said. “It’s already a blockbuster hit, and it hasn’t even come out yet in theaters. Obviously, we can’t do a sequel without you.”

“You want me to work with you again,” I said in a deadpan tone that made it obvious I had no interest in his offer.

“I need you Rosie,” he said with a smile. “In every possible way. And you need this . Think about it… you can take this deal, have the career you’ve always dreamed of—not to mention the millions you’ll get paid for the sequel.”

“Or?”

His smile dropped. “Do we really have to go there?”

“Yeah, I think we do,” I said. “All I’ve heard so far is that you think I’m a glutton for punishment and must be the biggest fool on the planet.”

“Not at all,” he said. “You’re a smart girl who knows a good deal when she hears one. Okay, you want me to lay out the alternative? Fine.”

He huffed an irritated breath before going on.

“If you say no to this generous second chance I’m offering, I will get my lawyers to subpoena everyone who’s ever met either one of us and force them to come to Rhode Island and testify. I can make this thing drag out for months, if not years.”

He made a little clicking noise with his tongue.

“And Rosie… who are we kidding? If this goes to trial, you know you’re going to lose. I mean, how many NDA violations do we have on video ? Think about it, babe.”

“I’m not your ‘babe,’” I growled at him.

But he had a point. A very good one.

Presley and I had no chance in a trial, even if we didn’t testify against each other.

“Maybe not, but you could be a huge star who can write her own ticket in the industry.”

He spread his legs and squared his posture, gesturing with his hands.

“Or… we don’t make the sequel, or make it but recast you, and I tell every director and producer I know—which is all of them, babe —that you’re a total nightmare, and you never work again.”

He pointed to the courtroom doors at the end of the hall.

“I have no wish to go in there and humiliate you both and spend the next few months of my life in this puny little state,” he said.

“And believe me Rosie, you don’t want that either,” he warned.

“My legal team costs hundreds of thousands per month. Yours can’t be cheap either.

The price tag of this debacle is going to be in the millions, and that’s before the fines for each individual violation.

I can afford it, but how about you? How about your new ‘husband?’ Do you really want to wipe him out financially? ”

My hands crossed over my stomach to clutch my sides, my shoulders curling forward to make a cave out of my chest.

He was describing my worst nightmare. How much more could I take away from Presley?

Sensing he was making headway, Randy sharpened his tone.

“I hear the quarterback is interested in getting back to playing with his team,” he said. “It would be nice if he got the chance to do that… while he’s still young enough to play.”

Tears pricked my eyes at the mention of Presley and his team. Randy, the predator that he was, noticed and moved in for the kill.

“You can end it right here, right now, and walk out of here today,” he said.

“You’ll have a promising acting career, and he can go back to playing with his team and not be financially ruined,” Randy cajoled. “Haven’t you cost him enough already?”

Damn him. He was using my love for Presley against me.

And it was going to work.

He was going to win. What choice did I have?

Tears slipped down my cheeks, and I wiped them away, staring at my feet.

Randy reached out and cupped my bent elbow.

“Look, I don’t want to fight anymore, Rosie. Whether you believe it or not, I really do love you. And you’ve proved your point.”

He threw both hands out to the side, his expensive cufflinks sparkling under the lights.

“You put me in my place,” he said. “Look at me—you’ve got me begging here.”

I did look at him, and I utterly hated what I saw. The certainty in his eyes, the sheer confidence in his own power and ability to get whatever he wanted.

“Fine. I’ll do it.”

While giving in felt like handing the devil my soul, gift-wrapped with a big red bow on top, another part of me sighed in intense relief.

Presley was free.

He’d be able to go to practice today, play with his team on Sunday, and he would no longer be on the hook financially for my mistakes.

“Excellent.” Randy beamed and pulled a folded sheet of paper from his suit jacket pocket.

“A new NDA,” he answered my question before I could ask it. “Covering the terms of our new deal.”

“You want me to sign it right now?”

“If you would,” he said, offering me a pen.

Letting out a long breath, I propped the paper on the side of my purse and signed it, giving it back to him.

Randy beamed and handed me a large brown envelope.

“What’s this? The contract for the sequel?” He’d certainly come prepared.

“A fresh start,” he said. “I had my lawyer draw up a divorce petition for you and your ‘groom.’ The agreement restores you both to your prior status financially, each of you keeps your own property. You can keep the ring and whatever gifts he may have bought for you, if you want to. No alimony for either party. It’ll be as if that ridiculous ‘marriage’ never happened.

All you have to do is sign and file them, and it’s done. ”

I was almost too shocked to form words.

“Why do you care if I divorce him or not?” I wheezed. “Couldn’t I just do the sequel with you? Why do you care if I’m married?”

“Because the love triangle is resolved by the midpoint of the script, babe,” he said as if it would have been obvious to even the smallest child.

“You know Cinderella has to end up with the Prince in the end.”

It was hard to breathe. “I don’t know about this.”

“If you really love your new husband, which I suspect you do, you won’t ruin him financially and take away all his career dreams,” Randy said.

He looked up at the door behind me then darted his eyes back to me. “Decide quickly. It’s part of the deal.”

Then he turned and rushed away.

The next thing I knew, Presley was standing at my side. His posture was tense, his hands formed into fists as he watched Randy scurry down the hall.

“Stay away from my wife,” he growled after him, and Randy’s pace quickened.

Wrapping an arm around my back, Presley dipped his head to see my downturned face.

“You okay? What did he say to you?”

His protectiveness melted my heart.

But now it was my turn to protect him.