The Complete Groupie Trilogy (67 page)

Meanwhile it stoked the anger of the Wilke family. Donny, Baylee’s angry older brother, was seen flipping off the paparazzi as they snapped photos of him going in and out of the hospital with his mother Raelynn. They were quoted quite a bit on how they felt about his high living in a fancy New York City hotel while their belove
d Baylee clung to life support.

With a sinking feeling she realized that there was no way Graham had missed all this coverage, and surely knew now she had been lying through her teeth about her trip to Nashville.

Though she hadn’t told him so she wouldn’t hurt him unnecessarily, her exposed indiscretion might have leveled the worst blow of all.

She grabbed her purse and decided to confront the issue head on. Surely he’d understand… he always understood…

The difference was she had never lied to him before.

Her heart dropped like a led weight into her stomach. No matter how she had justified it before she knew deep down that she took this trip to NYC to be with Vanni. It wasn’t just because he needed her; it was that
she
needed
him
.

She always had.

And now she had to go face another man she had grown to love in a very different way and further break his tattered heart. There was no future for her and Graham, not the way he wanted it.

It was high time they both faced that.

She didn’t even call Vanni. She knew that he would tell her to wait so they could confront him together. She couldn’t add that to Graham’s pain. This was about her and this was about Graham. And it needed to be done without further delay.

She ducked past the people she instantly recognized as PING stooges hanging around in the lobby so that she could make her way to the parking garage. Typically they had scoped out her car, a modest hybrid that she had registered under her name like any other normal person. But she wasn’t normal anymore, and she knew she could never forget that again. People she had never met were suddenly very invested in her comings and her goings, rendering her prisoner to their morbid curiosity. She couldn’t even get into her own car in a public parking garage without causing a scene.

The whole thing was ridiculous. How did they even know she was in New York? She supposed anyone could be paid into tipping them off, it was impossible to know who had been the one to make the call.

As mad as she was at them for being parasitic vultures bound to pick Vanni’s bones clean, the real culprits were the ones who ate up every nugget of juicy gossip. They were able to do what they did because they had customers in line to buy their wares. If they didn’t get paid – well – to do what they do, they wouldn’t do it.

They truly were a force to be reckoned with, and it broke Andy’s heart they were playing with the emotions of good people just to make a name for themselves.

She tightened her jacket around her and made her way back upstairs to the valet, who called for a taxi. She felt like a spy living in her own country as she sped toward Graham’s house in Malibu.

When Maggie opened the door, Andy knew that she knew. Her face was drawn, whether in anger or disappointment Andy couldn’t be sure. But she was not happy to see Andy and it showed.

“Is Graham awake?”

Maggie opened the door a little further. She scoped out the front yard, no doubt for any stray wannabe paparazzi who might sniffing around to get the first shot of the devastated cripple at the heart of this new triangle. “He’s not well,” Maggie finally said as she shut the door behind them.

“I know,” Andy said softly. She couldn’t imagine how he would be.

“No, you don’t know,” Maggie corrected, a bit sharper than Andy was used to. “He’s developed pneumonia.”

Andy’s mouth fell open. “What? But he was healthy the last time I saw him.”

“A lot can happen in a week,” Maggie said. “Especially when someone in Graham’s condition has his whole life implode for the world to see.”

Andy turned to walk to Graham’s bedroom but Maggie grabbed her arm. “He doesn’t want any visitors.”

“I’m not just any visitor,” Andy said.

“He doesn’t want to see you,” Maggie clarified as she crossed her arms across
her chest.

Though it killed Andy to know that all of this was her fault, she held her head high. “I see. Is that why you didn’t call?”

“Maybe we were waiting for you to call,” Maggie suggested. “But I gather you’ve been busy.”

“My personal life is none of your concern,” Andy snapped as she reached for the door
, but Maggie grabbed her wrist.

“It is when it affects my patient. You told me you loved him, Andy. Those aren’t just words you can throw around casually. To a man in Graham’s position love is a promise, something he can depend on when he needs it most. The problem is you said those words for you, not for him. You did it so you could assuage your guilt, not because you were willing to live up to them. And that wasn’t fair. In fact it was the cruelest
thing you could have done.”

Andy cringed with each word that exploded from Maggie’s lips, words that she had held back for far too long. But Maggie was terrified for Graham’s survival now, not to mention a little guilty herself for exposing Graham
to a potentially deadly virus after he’d been isolated for so long. She should have known better but she let herself get caught up in his infectious enthusiasm. After long lonely years it felt nice to be treated like a woman again.

After losing Mitchell she understood there were no risks worth taking when someone’s health was already compromised. Just one wrong choice and it could all be over; no one knew that more than Maggie.

Uncharacteristically she took her fears on Andy because the words were true regardless. And they needed to be said. Maybe if they were issued harshly they’d finally sink in. “Don’t you know how hard he has worked so he can walk to you a renewed man? When things get hard you are this ideal, the one who pulls him through. He needs to know that you will be there, that you will love him through all the tough times ahead. Imagine what it is like to rely on something, on someone, as much as he relies on you and then being betrayed so cruelly. You took the gift of his survival and just threw it away when it was no longer convenient. This is bad enough by itself, but you did it for the whole damn world to see. You leveled him, Andy.”

Andy’s chin trembled. The words hurt because she knew they were completely and totally true. She had promised she would be there for Graham and she had let him down. And for what? A romantic weekend she virtually stole? “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t tell me,” Maggie snapped. “Tell him. Maybe it’ll be the one thing that will bring him back from the brink you drove him towards. And you know what? Even though you don’t deserve it he will forgive you anyway. Because that’s what real love does. But if you ever hurt him again, you’ll have to deal with me. You got that?”

The angry redhead spun on her heel and disappeared do
wn the hall.

Andy inched toward Graham’s room feeling the weight of her betrayal on her shoulders. She didn’t even bother to knock befor
e she slightly opened the door.

There he lay on the bed, pale and wane, hooked up to an IV. God really punished her this time, she thought as she walked silently over to his bedside. She paid in instant karma for her lies and her selfishness. He was healthy a week ago. Now he looked like he didn’t even want to hang onto t
he shell of a body he had left.

She sat on the chair next to him and took his hand in hers. The torrent of tears broke free as she sobbed quietly, holding onto him tightly trying to force life back in through his fingers. His dark eyes opened as he
glanced over to where she sat.

“What are you doing here?” he croaked. Even his voice was weak and ghostly. It was more than she could take.

“I’m back,” she told him. “I’m never going anywhere again,” she promised without even thinking about it. There was no promise greater anymore. If Graham died it wouldn’t be a bullet that did it, it would be her stupid, selfish choices and her damnable lies. She simply couldn’t bear it. “Just don’t leave me, Graham.”

“What about Vanni?” he asked.

Her heart threatened to rip in two. “He’ll have to understand,” she finally said. She slipped off her jacket and slid into bed with Graham and took him into her arms.

As she lay there, listening to the steady, reassuring rhythm of his heart from the monitor, she already knew Vanni would never understand.

Their time together in New York would most likely be their final goodbye and they never even knew it. Had she really boarded that plane this morning feeling like she finally owned the world? What a fool she had been. A stupid, selfish fool.

There were tears in her eyes as she whispered, “I’m sorry,” repeatedly. She apologized to Graham… to Vanni… and most of all herself.

She stayed there with Graham until the sun peeked in the window the next morning. Maggie said nothing to her as she came in to check on him. Her friendly demeanor was reserved for her patient only; Andy she practically ignored.

So Andy took the opportunity to leave the room and take care of some immediate business. She called the hotel so they would package all her things and deliver it to the house. She wasn’t sure what she’d do about the car yet but she had other, m
ore pressing matters to attend.

Her phone had several texts from Vanni, who was still in the protective bubble in New York. He wasn’t flying home until today. A lot of good their covert travel plans had accomplished. They fooled no one, but he had no way of knowing.

Instead his texts were loving, flirty and sexy. He wanted her to come to the beach house and stay for the weekend, to keep their pseudo-honeymoon going. He had no idea how impossible his life would be when he returned to Los Angeles, where the paparazzi waited to splash the intimate details of his life all over the covers of magazines, on TV and on the Internet.

She didn’t want to have this conversation over the phone but she couldn’t see how it was possible to wait until he got back to L.A. So she called him as he was packing and preparing to come back home to her.

“Hey, baby,” he said in that softened bedroom voice of his. She closed her eyes and prayed for strength – a trait that was always sorely lacking when it came to her resolve to stay away from Vanni.

“There are some pro
blems,” she stated cryptically.

Immediately he knew something was seriously wrong. “Such as?”

She sighed. “We’ve been busted,” she said. “PING knows everything. They’ve printed it far and wide. They pounced me as soon as I got off the plane last night. No doubt they’ve surrounded your house and are waiting for you too.”

He was quiet for a moment. Finally he asked, “And who else knows?”

She gulped. “Everyone.”

“I see,” he said. “And how is he taking it?”

Again her heart was torn. She knew after their weekend together Vanni would want her to stand up for their relationship with Graham, but it was impossible to do with the condition he was in. “I’ve moved back to the house, Vanni.”

It took him a minute to respond, and when he did his voice was low and angry. “What?”

“He’s not in good shape,” she went on, and hoped to finally convince him what she was doing was the right thing. “He’s really sick.”

“I’ll just bet,” Vanni sneered but she shook her head even though he couldn’t see her do it.

“No, Vanni. It was bad. You don’t understand.”

“You’re right,” he agreed instantly. “I don’t. How can you go from spending this last incredible week with me to moving into another man’s house?”

She swallowed the rock in her throat. “Because it’s the right thing to do,” she whispered.

“I thought loving me was the right
thing,” he said softly.

“You know I love you, Vanni. I always have. I always will.” ‘
Forever
’ rang in her ears, but she didn’t dare say it.

“But you love him
more,” he filled in the blank.

“No,” she was quick to clarify. “He just… he just needs me more.”

“You can’t possibly know how much I need you,” he said softly. “Goodbye, Andy.”

And with that he was gone without a fight. That scared Andy most of all. She wanted to call him back but she knew it was pointless. They had reached the same old impasse with neither willing to give on their position.

She couldn’t hurt Graham and he couldn’t bear to wait. Inevitably they would be drawn back to each other, and God only knew what kind of consequences they’d face in the future.

For now this was how things had to be. She brushed away her tears and went back to Graham.

Chapter Eighteen

October 24, 2010. New York.

Vanni

Vanni sat staring at the wall for hours after he hung up with Andy. He had such high hopes the day would end another way, with her in his arms in their home at last. But they were back to square one again, with Andy living with and loving another man.