To Hate Adam Connor

“We have to make a statement,” Adeline started as she lighted up a cigarette. “Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped before I could make any kind of comment. “It’s just stress. I’m not starting up again.”

I stayed silent. She could smoke herself to death for all I cared.

“We have to make statement,” she repeated. “Together. I don’t know what we’ll say exactly, at least not yet, but you have to be in front of the cameras with me, holding my hand. Neil and your mom agree with me.”

“My mom? You’re still talking to her?”

She puffed out some smoke, and I found myself trying to pinpoint exactly when everything had started to go so wrong for us. Had it ever been right? “She said you’re not answering her calls. This…this thing affects them too. They don’t want the family name to be mentioned along with something like this.”

“Did they forget that you’re not family anymore?”

She pressed the cigarette into an ashtray with jerky movements and picked up another one as she tilted her head at me.

“Am I not Aiden’s mom, Adam? Does that not make me your family forever? And you might prefer not to talk to them, but I still consider them my family.”

Of course she did. She fit right in with them.

I clenched my fists and faced the windows that looked out at a small guesthouse and the backyard.

“I thought so too. Neil thinks the only reason they haven’t mentioned who I’m with in the video is because his face was cut off. From the stills they’re leaking it doesn’t look like they have a better angle and we can use that. We can release a statement or have Neil interview us about it, or someone else if you want to. He thinks the best way to go about this is to say it was shot without our knowledge and we knew nothing about it.”

Somewhere in the middle she lost me. “Excuse me? What do you mean without our knowledge?”

“We have to say it’s a video of us. The date matches. The only reason everyone is so obsessed with it is because they think I was cheating on you and that I’m the reason our marriage ended. If we tell them that it’s you, everyone will lose interest. You coming here tonight…” She gestured outside with the cigarette between her fingers. “Them getting a picture as you pulled in, that will help. After all, if I had cheated on you, you wouldn’t have come.”

“But that’s not the reason I’m here, is it?”

She took a deep drag of her cigarette and blew it toward the ceiling. “No, it isn’t. And like I told you on the phone, I don’t want to make a statement about Aiden, but if you force my hand, to save myself, my career, I will do exactly that. After the divorce, this is all I got, Adam. If you hadn’t filed for custody maybe this would’ve just blown over, but everything came back to back. I can’t let a sex tape ruin everything.”

We stared at each other in the silence that followed her words.

I forced a smile on my lips and clapped at her performance. “And when you throw us under the bus, will you add that it was your idea from the beginning?”

She smiled, the tension melting away from her features and making her look soft and sweet. “Of course I will. You didn’t want him after all. I was the one who had to talk you into it. You can’t argue with that, can you?”

“What happened, Adeline? What happened to you?” I asked, already past the shock and disgust.

Putting out her cigarette, she walked up to me. “I love him. I love him, Adam. Please don’t make me hurt him. Nothing ended up being what I wished for, but I did my best. I did my best as your wife, and I don’t deserve this. All I’m asking for is your help. Nothing more. We can act like we’re thinking of getting back together. We’ll pretend as if this brought us back together, and when the waters settle down again and I start filming regularly, I’ll let you have sole custody—”

The door to her living room slammed open, jolting both of us.

“Dan, what’s go—”

“We need to leave. We need to leave right now.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Lucy

Lying next to Aiden as he slept, my own eyes started to close as I waited for Adam. I wasn’t exactly sure if we’d end up talking about us when he got back, and quite frankly I was probably the last thing on his mind, but still, talk or no talk, I knew I’d feel much better when he was back with us.

Aiden had fallen asleep ten minutes into the movie after we built our impromptu fort that was only really big enough for the two of us. He snuggled closer to me in his sleep, and I smiled down at him. He was the perfect kid.

“Can you keep a secret, Lucy?” he had asked me just moments before his eyes had lost the fight and he had fallen asleep.

“Of course. I love secrets. Tell me.”

He looked away from the TV and played with his pajama bottoms. “I cried today.”

“What happened?” I whispered back just as quietly as he had.

He lifted his eyes up to meet mine, his fingers still twisting and pulling at the fabric. “You can’t tell my dad, though. Okay?”

Nodding, I waited for him to continue. “My mom was on the phone today and she was crying, so I thought I could give her a hug and make it okay, like I did with you when you cried over Lion King, but when I tried to get her attention, she yelled at me and told me to get back to my room. My nanny rushed after me and said my mom was just sad and didn’t mean to yell at me, but I still cried a little because I don’t want her to be sad. I just wanted to give her a hug.”

The bitch!

“I’m sure she didn’t mean to yell at you, Aiden. I think she was having a bad day today, which is why your dad left so he could help her. She’ll be okay.”

“I know,” he murmured. “But it made me cry anyway. I always miss my dad when she yells at me because she never yells when daddy is there.” I tried to find something to say but came up empty.

Shit.

“Love you, Lucy,” Aiden murmured, his eyes already closed.

My heart melted in my chest, and I secretly plotted ways to kill the oh-so-put-together bitch. Maybe a heavy camera could fall on her face? That would be fun. Who’d yell at a kid when they offered to give you a hug just to make you feel better? Like who in the fucking world?

“I love you, too, little human,” I murmured back and brushed a light kiss on his cheek.

I felt my eyes slowly start to close, so I scooted down and got a little more comfortable without waking Aiden up.

I wasn’t sure if it was seconds or minutes later, but something woke me up. Groggy and not exactly sure what was going on, I looked around and listened to see if what I’d heard was Adam.

The door didn’t open. There was no sound of a car. There was no Adam.

I’d muted the TV before I’d closed my eyes, but the light from the movie was enough that I could see around clearly.

When that weird feeling didn’t go away, I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up.

It was then I heard the sharp sound of a twig breaking. My heart beating heavily in my chest, I pulled back the sheets and peered out from our little hiding place, toward the backyard. It was dark outside, and more than that, the couch in front of the windows was making it impossible to see outside from my point of view.

On my hands and knees, I crawled out of the fort and waited.

Listened.

Nothing.