Chapter 24 – Bad News

Los Angeles – Another Week Later

Stephanie grabbed the suitcase out of her backseat, setting it on the ground before shutting the door. Looking up at the beautiful two-story house situated on a small, private lake in front of her, she sighed. It had been a long time since she had been to Adeline's house to visit, much less stay. In fact, it was normally something she avoided at all costs – but thankfully, for this visit, the person she most hated to see was gone and he shouldn't be coming back.

Adeline had thought it was a bit funny when she had called her a few days ago and told her she was coming to visit for two weeks. She must have known that something was up, since Stephanie rarely took two weeks off from her job willingly. She wasn't always capable of taking that much time off – sometimes, two weeks to a busy celebrity was more like a month. But the news she was bringing required her to stay and be there for her friend.

As she walked up the path to the door, gravel crunching under her feet, she contemplated how she would break the news to a woman who was already destroyed and couldn't handle much more.

She hesitantly rang the doorbell, taking a deep breath and plastering her best smile on her face, even though she wasn't feeling it at the moment. It was only a few seconds before the door opened.

“Hey!” she greeted Adeline happily when she saw her face at the door.

“Hey,” Adeline responded. Stephanie noticed she was almost despondent; her normal, put-together wardrobe had gone out the window in favor of leggings and a pink t-shirt. “You made it into LA okay?”

“Yeah,” Stephanie responded, her fake smile falling. “A little traffic – put me behind about half an hour – but nothing huge.”

“You can go ahead and put your bags over there,” Adeline said, pointing to the staircase. “I got the guest bedroom mostly set up for you. The rest of the house is...well...”

Stephanie looked around; normally Adeline kept her house obsessively spotless, and while it was still clean, it was clear that she had other things on her mind besides obsessing over tidiness. Her laptop and books were set up on the coffee table, while a basket full of laundry sat next to a recliner, still unfolded. Dishes sat around her work area, and some of her suitcases remained packed and opened only to remove a few things she had needed.

“You should see my tiny apartment, love,” Stephanie responded, walking her suitcase to the staircase. “I don't have a guest bedroom; I barely have room for a guest. It'll be nice to have some room to breathe for two weeks.”

“You didn't have to come out here,” Adeline said. “I know how to move on with my life, Steph. I can handle it.”

“I didn't have to, but I wanted to,” Stephanie said. “I don't want you sitting around all day, eating ice cream, forgetting to shower, and watching the damn telly all day.”

Adeline smiled; sometimes it was hard to remember that Stephanie was Australian at heart, until she let her native slang slip out of her mouth.

“All the Ben and Jerry's in the world can't cure a broken heart, my dear,” Stephanie continued. She sat down her suitcase and swaggered over to the couch, where she picked up the television remote and quickly switched the TV off the afternoon talk show it was stationed on. “Nor can Oprah or Dr. Phil – as much as they want you to believe they can.”

Adeline watched as Stephanie flitted around the room, from one corner to the other, picking up and reorganizing things. She hadn't even been here five minutes. Adeline knew this was her nervous habit. When Stephanie quickly walked into the kitchen, she followed her.

“You don't have to clean my house,” she said with a smile. “I can handle it, Steph.”

“Then what am I here for?”

“You don't clean.”

“I don't think I like what you're implying,” Stephanie said with a smile. She gathered up some dishes off the counter, stacking them up next to the sink to rinse and then put them in the dishwasher. “Just because I'm on the opposite side of the clean freak line as you are, doesn't mean I'm useless. I'll have you know that I cleaned up for an entire year for L--”

Stephanie stopped mid-sentence, realizing her mistake immediately. She looked over at her friend, who was gathering up more dishes, and noticed that the slip hadn't gotten by her.

“For my shit head of a former employer,” Stephanie finished. “I cleaned up for an entire year for him.”

“You can say his name,” Adeline said. Her head hung as she placed the dishes next to the rest.

“I'm sorry, Addy. I didn't think.”

“It's okay,” Adeline responded. “I left him; it wasn't the other way around. I'm the one who won't answer his phone calls or text messages.”

“He won't give up, you know,” Stephanie said. “That persistent little fucker will keep trying and trying and trying...”

“He stopped calling last week.”

Adeline looked up at Stephanie from wiping the counter down with a towel. There was a smile, but she couldn't be sure that it wasn't accompanied by a threat of tears.

Of course he did, Stephanie thought. The one time he doesn't keep trying...

“Speaking of fuckers,” Stephanie said, “I'm curious to know how you managed to snag the house. Marc isn't that nice.”

She thought she heard a chuckle escape from Adeline's mouth as she scrubbed the counter. Stephanie watched her as she scrubbed, pursing her lips, until she stopped and threw the rag down on top of the dishes she had stacked.

“You wanna help clean something?” Adeline asked as she looked up. “I've got a job for you.”

Adeline walked out of the room, and completely bewildered, Stephanie followed after her. She followed past her suitcase and up the stairs, past both bedrooms, to the very end of the hall where Adeline stopped at the door to Marc's office.

“Christ, there isn't a body behind that door, is there?” she asked.

Instead of answering, Adeline put her hand on the knob and turned it, opening the door slowly. When the door had opened enough to see in, Stephanie's jaw dropped.

“Oh my God,” she whispered in shock.

The room was destroyed. Paper and shards of glass laid everywhere on the floor and across the rug. His desk had been cleared except for a few lingering sheets of paper and a cardboard box. Drawers and cabinet doors hung open, their contents missing.

“Please tell me there was an earthquake,” Stephanie said, still shocked at the sight.

“I did it,” Adeline responded.

Stephanie's hands went to her mouth as she stepped in and looked around the room.

“You did all this?” she asked. Adeline only nodded silently. “Addy, I don't know what to say.”

It was the truth. Stephanie would have been less surprised if it had been anybody else, but this kind of behavior was uncharacteristic of Adeline.

“I guess you never underestimate the wrath of a woman scorned,” Stephanie finally said. “Did you guys get into an argument?”

“No,” Adeline responded. “Well, yeah – but not in this room.”

“Has he seen any of this?”

“He knows I did some...damage,” Adeline said. “But he doesn't know the extent. He hasn't come to get his stuff; I had his secretary come pick up a few of his things. I told him that if he even grazed the doorstep, I'd have the cops ready and waiting for him.”

“The cops?” Stephanie said.

“I didn't bring you up here to show you the mess I made,” Adeline said.

She carefully stepped over pieces of glass to walk over to the desk. Stephanie followed, even more carefully in her high heels. Adeline stood behind the desk where the box was and lifted off the top.

“He's been even busier than we thought,” she said as she pulled a manila envelope out of the top and handed it off to Stephanie. “Turns out, cheating isn't his only hobby.”

Stephanie opened the flap of the envelope and pulled out the contents, her eyes narrowing when she saw the first picture on top of the stack.

“This is you,” she said, her eyes running over it in confusion. “And Lance.”

“Yep,” Adeline said.

“Where is this? What is this?”

Adeline didn't answer; she only stared into the box sadly.

“Wait, this is the time he took you to Coney Island,” she said, and flipped to a new picture. “And that golf game you played...and the beach at Coney Island...and in his parking lot?” she said, confused. “Did you have these taken?”

“Nope,” Adeline said shortly.

“These look like...close-ups from a distance,” Stephanie said. “Paparazzi pictures maybe.”

“You're close,” Adeline said.

“Oh my God, Addy, he had you followed!”

“Try stalked,” Adeline said, tipping the box over in a single movement, letting its contents spill out.

Stephanie stared at the items, trying to process what her friend was telling her.

“He's had me stalked since the beginning. Lance's tires getting stolen, the break-in at Thanksgiving, that guy from his building always showing up at the exact wrong time, the feeling like I had eyes on me all the time...I can't believe I didn't put the pieces together. And when I walked in on him with his assistant, he had this sick, demented smile – like he knew I was going to be walking into the house, like he knew I was coming back, and he set me up to find him to spite me. He's seen everything.”

“Including this,” Stephanie said, holding up the purple shawl.

“He knows about the proposal,” she said. “He knows everything.”

“And he hasn't taken you to the cleaners?”

“I told him I wouldn't have him arrested for all his illegal activities if he gave me a month to move out of the house. He was so open to my agreement that he gave me a month and a half.”

“So he's a generous bastard,” Stephanie said.

“Only for now,” Adeline said. “You know he's going to put me through the wringer during the divorce. He'll use these pictures to do all he can to destroy me.”

A smile finally came across Stephanie's face.

“Not if he doesn't have them,” she said. “Feel like starting a fire tonight?”

Adeline shook her head and knelt down and started picking up pieces of glass from the floor.

“He probably has copies, Steph,” she said. “There's no point. Besides, I deserve it. I played with fire and now...I'm getting burned.”

Stephanie sighed. She felt slightly guilty, as she was partially to blame for Adeline and Lance's relationship.

“I wish I hadn't pulled Lance into all of this,” Adeline continued. “No matter what he did to me...he doesn't deserve this.”

Stephanie grabbed a picture from the top of the stack of Marc's photos – it was from their night at the club. These pictures couldn't speak tangible words, but every one of them told a story, and this one was the loudest. The kiss may not have been the way Adeline had planned to end her night, but she could see from the picture that it was no accident.

Stephanie may have had bad timing, but she was right; her two friends belonged together.

“I screwed up, Steph. I screwed up so bad. I wish I could go back and erase the whole thing. I love him but it's not worth all this.”

A sadness took over Stephanie. She didn't want to break her friend's heart more than it had already been broken.

“Addy...”

Adeline looked up at her friend, who was normally so confident – she had something to say, that she didn't want to.

“I have some bad news,” she said.

Adeline didn't say anything; the feeling she had in her stomach was enough.

“Lance and Mackenzie are back together,” Stephanie said, her head hanging.

The bad feeling subsided for a moment as she turned away.

“I figured they were,” she said. “That's good. I'm...happy for them.”

She went back to picking up shards of glass carefully from the floor. When Stephanie didn't say anything or make any movement in response, she looked back up.

“They're not just back together, Addy,” Stephanie said. “They're...getting married. In two and a half weeks.”

Stephanie watched as her face fell, even though she tried to hide it.

“Why so soon?” Adeline asked.

“Nobody knows,” Stephanie said. “We don't even know what the hell he's thinking. It's like he doesn't care anymore, probably because you're not in the picture.”

“Please don't, Stephanie,” Adeline warned.

“Call him, Addy,” Stephanie said. “I'm begging you. Talk some sense into him, even if you don't take him back.”

“It's his life,” Adeline replied. “Besides, he was going to marry her before. They were engaged for a long time. Maybe they're tired of waiting.”

“She's not a good person for him. She's going to drag him down. I don't know what her motive is, but I know it isn't good.”

“Then let him make that mistake,” Adeline said as she gathered glass to throw it in the trash. “He hurt me – why should I still have to run after him cleaning up his mistakes and making sure he doesn't ruin his life?”

“Because you still care,” Stephanie said.

“I don't care anymore. If it's not great for him, then he can learn that on his own. We're not together anymore. He can make his own poor choices.”

“You do think it's a mistake,” Stephanie said.

“Nothing new. He's made a lot of mistakes lately.”

“Yeah, that's not bitter and hostile,” Stephanie said. “Say what you want to say – that you think he's making a huge mistake because he's marrying her and not you.”

“That wasn't what I was saying. It was a personal observation as his former employee.”

“Excuse me, former employee? I love you, but can I please strangle you?”

Adeline ignored her, going around the room to collect more trash.

“It's a wonder that you manage to go anywhere, because all you're ever doing is digging your heels in,” Stephanie said. “I used to think that Lance was the most stubborn person that I knew, but you're twice as stubborn as he is. You don't even want to say former fiancee. Why can't you just admit that you're miserable without him? Look around you, Addy.”

Stephanie kicked a large piece of glass away from her foot and closer to Adeline.

“You didn't do all of this because you're mad at Marc,” she said. “Sure, he slept with his assistant and you walked in on it, but you're not all that surprised. You were coming back to file for divorce anyway; walking in on him just gave you the confirmation you needed, not to mention ammunition. You're still wearing your engagement ring.”

Adeline's hand went to cover the ring, giving it a twist around her finger.

“Didn't think I noticed that, did you?” Stephanie said. “That's your problem. You don't let people in. I'm your best friend and you don't even let me in all the way. You laugh with me, you commiserate about our jobs with me, you gossip about our clients with me, you dole out endless shit with me – but when you're hurting, you shove me away and try to pretend that you don't need anybody, that you're fine. You're not fine, Addy.”

When she looked up, Stephanie thought maybe she had finally broken down the barrier, that Adeline might cry.

“You're not fine,” she repeated. “All he wants is to talk to you. He doesn't want things to have ended like this between you, and you don't want that either. He still loves you. He doesn't want to be without you; he only accepts it because he thinks that's what you want. You haven't given him any indication otherwise. You won't call him, you won't listen to or return his voicemails, you won't even pick up the phone when he calls. You shut him out like you shut everybody else out and lie to yourself that that's the way you want it. You're a really bad liar, Addy.”

“That's what I've been told,” Adeline said. About to break into tears, she stepped over glass and papers to leave the room, running down the stairs quickly.

Once she was gone, Stephanie looked around at the room once more, moving more shards with her foot, some of them cracking under her toes. The destruction took on a new meaning as she looked over it all. It was funny when she had first walked in, but now she looked at it and could only feel sadness. It was the only visible sign that her friend would show of how she felt – broken and destroyed.

“Well, at least she didn't throw anything,” Stephanie said to herself. “Who am I kidding? There's nothing left to throw.”