Hollywood Scandal (13 page)

“That’s diabolical,” Alex said in a revered tone.

Calla agreed. “It’s going to drive him crazy.”

“He won’t be able to do a damn thing about it, either. If he starts a scene in my house, he’ll look like the rude little attention seeker he is.”

“What if he doesn’t play fair? He doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who follows the polite rules when they don’t suit him.”

“We shall have to keep a close eye on him.”

Something niggled at the back of Calla’s mind. “Wait, what about the restraining order?”

“Oh Alex, you didn’t?” his grandmother chided.

“He approached her at a restaurant. He made threats.”

“What an idiot. Can I still invite him?”

“Yes. If Calla initiates contact and invites him, then the order won’t be violated.”

“Then invite him for Friday night. I’d hold it on Saturday, except that some of our relatives might think they can crash the party and say they’re coming over on Sunday a few hours early.”

“Really?” Calla asked.

“They did it a couple of years ago when grandmother hosted a pre-Oscar party for a friend who was up for best actor,” Alex said with a raise of his eyebrows.

“A complete disaster,” Maddy laughed. “Your father was going through his third divorce I think. All three women, his two ex-wives and one soon-to-be ex-wife, had a screaming match on the front lawn in full view of the press.” She shook her head. “Still, we’ll have to be careful. Is there anyone you want me to invite who will make a good buffer between Calla and MacKay?”

“Celebrity?”

“Yes.”

“How about Gerry Shumaker? He’s playing a surgeon on that new TV show about the medical team that goes all over the world responding to earthquakes, tsunamis, and fires.” Alex snapped his fingers. “What’s it called?”

“
Disaster MD
,” Calla answered.

When Alex and his grandmother stared at her, she ducked her head and said, “It’s a good show. They don’t get all the details exactly right, but it’s close.”

“See,” Alex’s grandmother said, pointing at her. “That’s exactly the conversation you can have with Gerry. He’s a character actor and loves to talk to the
real thing
.”

Calla glanced from one to the other. “So, we’re going to do this?”

“Yes,” Maddy said, looking imperious. “It’s going to be a party to remember.”

“For the right reasons, I hope.”

“Trust us, dear,” Maddy said, patting Calla’s hand. “Things will run smoothly.”

So why did she want to find a hole and jump in?

“Can I leave the planning in your capable hands, Grandmother?” Alex asked. “Calla and I need to check in at Seacliffe and prepare for an interview with the AMA tomorrow.”

“Of course you can. Can I have your cell phone number, Calla? I’m going to call a designer friend of mine to see if we can borrow a dress for the occasion.”

“You can borrow dresses?”

“Half the dresses women wear to those award shows are borrowed or loaned. Same with the jewelry.” She leaned close to whisper. “Sometimes even the hair.”

Calla choked down a laugh. “I had no idea.”

“Oh yes. There’s nothing more fake than a Hollywood party. All those beautiful people talking nicely to each other, but as soon as their backs are turned, they plunge the proverbial knife in.” Maddy took her hand in a surprisingly tight grip. “Never let your guard down.”

“Especially with a handsome actor who wants something from you?”

“Especially with him.”

Chapter Fourteen

“Good advice.” Advice Calla should have had at her first engagement party. “How do you know who to trust?”

Maddy pulled her into a hug and said into her ear, “Trust your heart. Listen to what it tells you.”

“It’s led me astray in the past,” she said as quietly.

“Has it? Or did you only hear what you thought you should hear?” Maddy pulled away and smiled. “You think about that.” She addressed Alex. “Why don’t the two of you join me for dinner tonight? About seven?”

“That sounds great. You can catch us up on the party plans then.”

“Excellent.” Maddy’s smile was wide and bright.

“Calla?” Alex held his hand out to her. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. He took a step, but she didn’t follow.

“Are you sure?” she asked Maddy.

“About your heart?”

Calla nodded.

“Yes, dear. I learned that lesson too late. Don’t let fear hold you back.”

“What happened?”

“It’s a long, sordid story.”

Calla blinked at her choice of words. “Sordid?”

“Oh yes,” Maddy said with a sigh. “It was quite the scandal at the time.”

She tugged on Alex to come closer so she could sit down. “I’ve never heard of this.”

“I promise to tell you the entire story sometime soon.” Maddy’s eyes and mouth drooped. “Alex knows some of it. He can give you the quick version.”

“The beginning of the Clarke curse?” Alex asked, watching his grandmother’s face closely. “My favorite thing to discuss with my soon-to-be fiancé.”

Calla watched Maddy physically rally herself to say to Alex, “She should know. She’ll likely get asked uncomfortable questions about it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he responded as if she were his commanding officer.

“Good.” She nodded like it was settled.

“Calla, we need to go.” Alex told her as he kissed his grandmother on the cheek and extended his hand to her.

She took his hand and he led her out of the house. “So there’s more to the Clarke curse than what you told me?”

He unlocked the car and motioned for her to get in. “I’ll explain, but it’s a crazy story that seems to have a life of its own.”

“Right now, I could use a story that’s crazier than mine.”

“This definitely qualifies.” He drove out through the gate at the end of the driveway. “Okay. So, you know my dad has four ex-wives?”

“I heard that.”

“Well, he’s not the only one.”

Calla waited for him to finish or add more, but he didn’t. “Only one what?”

“The only one in the family who’s been married and divorced multiple times. In fact, I alone am the only member of my family descended from Maddy Clarke who hasn’t been affected by the Clarke curse,” he said as if he’d achieved something extraordinary.

“So you’re telling me that everyone thinks your family is cursed to marry and divorce over and over?” Calla asked, trying not to show how surprised she was.

“Sort of. It’s more like we’re cursed to never find our true love. The one person who we stay married to for more than a couple of years.”

“That’s silly.”

“I agree. Unfortunately, the press love it.”

Calla narrowed her eyes. “The press started this, didn’t they?”

“Sort of. See, Grandmother fell in love with a young man, John Sommers, when she was sixteen. He wanted to marry her, but he was the son of a farmer and didn’t have anything to his name. So he left to make his fortune in China. He sent letters for months. Then the letters stopped.” Alex cleared his throat.

“In the meantime, Grandmother was discovered singing in a restaurant and ended up a star in Hollywood. She waited two years for John to come back or surface, but she heard nothing. So she married the man who discovered her—Eddie Hardy. She was pregnant with Eddie’s son, my dad, when John showed up out of the blue.”

How awful.
“Oh no.”

“Oh yes. John had ended up in South Africa and had come back with pockets full of diamonds. When he saw Maddy in her condition, he was devastated. She tried to talk to him, but Eddie wasn’t having any of that. He convinced John that he and Maddy would never be together.” Alex hesitated, then said, “John killed himself.”

“Holy shit.”

“Grandmother was hysterical. She blamed Eddie for John’s death and began divorce proceedings. Two months after the divorce was final, she received a package from John’s lawyer. It was the diamonds he’d brought back from South Africa. He’d left them to her in his will, providing she was divorced from Eddie.”

“I’ll bet those diamonds weren’t what she really wanted.”

“No, she wanted John back, but that wasn’t happening. She ended up marrying four more times, but none of those marriages lasted longer than a couple of years.”

“Hence the curse of searching for love and never finding it?” Calla asked.

“Yes. She was smart, though.” Alex grinned. “She had every single one of those men sign a pre-nup, so they weren’t able to grab any of her considerable wealth.”

“When did this tragedy extend to the rest of your family?”

“When my father and his half siblings started to marry and divorce. Then the next generation started doing the same.”

Calla stared at his profile. To anyone else, he would have looked calm, his face relaxed, but there was a slight tilt to the side of his mouth she recognized as something he only did when he was beating himself up. “Except for you.”

“Except me.”

“So, basically, everyone is saying our relationship is doomed from the start?”

“Yeah.”

“Rosy outlook,” Calla drawled.

Alex laughed. “It is, isn’t it?”

“One that’s destined to come true since we’re not really engaged.”

“Also true.” Was it her imagination, or had his smile become brittle?

She watched him, searching for any evidence of the discomfort or anxiety raising her blood pressure. “That doesn’t bother you?”

He shrugged. “So, I’m a late bloomer.” His voice was sharp enough to cut muscle, tendon, and bone.

It hurt to hear it.

Even the toughest of men had a weakness. It shouldn’t surprise her to find out his family was his. “Alex, I’m not sure I want to do this.”

“Do what? Shut Jeff MacKay up? Don’t back out on me now, partner
.
”

Of course, being a tough guy meant he was going to be stubborn about it. “Why should I participate in a circus that will leave your reputation permanently damaged?”

He laughed, but it didn’t sound happy at all. “You make it sound like my life will be ruined.”

“Alex, you’re nothing like the rest of your family.” She poked him in the shoulder. “You don’t participate in their ridiculous one-upmanship crap. You’re a serious lawyer with a large practice. Wouldn’t this kind of publicity damage your professional reputation?”

“I don’t know.”

She shook her head. “This is a bad idea.” A lawyer’s reputation was important. Just like a doctor’s. Ruining their credibility would accomplish nothing and she wasn’t going to give Jeff MacKay that kind of power. “Nope. I’m not doing this. Turn the car around. We’ll tell your grandmother to stop the party.”

“It’s too late.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, we only left her ten minutes ago.”

“Exactly. She’s already had ten minutes to call the chef, the singer, and Jeff MacKay. We can’t back out now.”

“Really? She’s that fast on the phone?”

“Are you kidding? She could have our wedding arranged by Friday if that’s what we wanted.”

“Your grandmother is intimidating and very…cool.”

“She’d like being described that way.”

There was no way to get out of a formal dinner party with thirty high-profile strangers, including a man she considered to be a rude, selfish bully. A bully who’d threatened to harm her and Alex.

Her stomach rolled. Was there a her and Alex?

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

“If you’re planning to write yourself a sick note, I don’t think my grandmother will accept it as an excuse.”

“No, I mean I’m going to vomit all over the lovely interior of your car.”

He gave her a sharp glance. “Food poisoning?”

“Nerves. I don’t think I can sit down and eat at the same table as that man.”

He relaxed a little. “Don’t worry, I won’t let him get anywhere near you.”

How could he possibly guarantee that? MacKay seemed to have an answer or rebuttal for everything they’d tried. Everything. She clutched at the sides of the leather seat. “Promise?”

Alex glanced at her and held out his hand. “Promise.”

…

Calla took his hand. Hers was shaking.

Alex frowned. “You’re really worried about him, aren’t you?”

“Men like him don’t know how to deal with rejection gracefully. Actually, they don’t know how to deal with it at all, so they convince themselves that the woman they want, for whatever reason, can’t possibly mean what she says.” She was silent for a moment, then said softly, “I’ve seen this sort of situation go badly. Very badly.”

“Define ‘very badly?’”

“In one case, a husband stabbed his wife thirty times with one of the steak knives they got as a wedding present.”

How did she say that like she was shopping for groceries?

“Another man,” she continued. “Showed up in Emergency with a gun and threatened to kill everyone if his wife didn’t go with him.”

Was this shit what passed for normal at hospitals? “What happened?”

“The woman in the first case died. The man in the second case shot his wife and then himself. She survived. He didn’t.”

Alex cleared his throat. “I don’t think Jeff MacKay is homicidal.”

“That’s what they all say. ‘He was such a nice man. They were such a quiet couple, I don’t know how this happened.’ Usually the woman is too afraid to say anything. When she does, it’s too late.”

Calla’s hands were so tightly clenched her knuckles were white. Her lips were mashed together, creating lines he’d never seen before around her mouth. Her shoulders were drawn up and hunched over, as if she was trying to shield herself.

“Calla?” Was her reaction because of what she’d seen at work, or something she experienced herself? “Calla?”

She glanced at him, her brows hung low over her eyes.

“Were you…? Did your fiancé ever…?” For the first time in his life, he couldn’t finish a question. Couldn’t imagine Calla being yelled at or beaten without wanting to kill the man who did it.

“Not physically, but emotionally… He could guilt-trip a nun into robbing a convenience store. When he left me, I was completely convinced it was my fault, that I’d failed him and my family. It took me a long time and the help of good friends and my brother for me to realize it wasn’t my responsibility, that he’d made all his own choices and I hadn’t deserved what he put me through.” She breathed through her nose, deep, drawn-out gulps of air. “Jeff MacKay reminds me of him. A lot. Smiling one second, snarling the next. I had to fight not to throw up when he confronted me at the restaurant. I don’t know why it hit me so hard, but I’m afraid I’m going to react physically when I see him again.”

“Like post-traumatic stress?”

“Yeah, like that.”

He couldn’t put her through that again. He
wouldn’t
. “I’ll call my grandmother and cancel the party.”

“
No.
”

“Calla, I won’t allow him to hurt you.”

“I need to face him.”

“Why, so you can say you faced down your fears? That’s junk science. Bullshit.”

“I won’t let him win.”

“Letting him upset you
is
letting him win.”

“I want to look that idiot in the eye and tell him he isn’t going to be able to bully me into doing what he wants,” she snarled. “I want to look that idiot in the eye and tell him he’s going to have to take responsibility for his actions.”

“He is not worth this much effort,” Alex told her.
Why wasn’t she listening?

“No, he’s not, but
I
am and
you
are.”

“Me?” Nice try, Doctor, but he wasn’t going to allow her to deflect the topic. “This has nothing to do with me.”

“He’s attacked you because of me. He won’t stop unless we make him.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“But this time you don’t have to. We’re a team.” She watched him for a moment. “At least for now.”

“We
are
a team, but I worry about you.”

“Of course you do.” She waved off his concern. “You’re my lawyer. It’s why I pay you the big bucks.”

How did she know the exact thing to say that would make him laugh?

“Look, why don’t we sit down with Helen and talk all this out with her? She may have some ideas and she certainly has the right to know what we want to do.”

“Good idea.”

They pulled into the employee parking lot behind Seacliffe and Alex’s office. He parked in his regular spot, then they went into the clinic. Alex led the way to Helen’s office.

The door was open. He poked his head inside, and saw that she was staring at her computer screen with a scowl on her face. “Is this a bad time?” he asked.

“I was about to call you.” She drummed her fingers on her desk. “Please come in.”

Calla followed him in. “What’s wrong?”

“More confidential clinic pictures in the tabloids, print and online.”

Alex had never seen Helen so defiantly angry before. Squared shoulders, eyes narrow, and her mouth pulled down in a severe frown. “What else?” he asked.

“Several clients have cancelled appointments. I expect that to continue as long as these leaks keep happening.” Helen’s fists clenched tight. “The negative media coverage is killing us.”

“Has Jeff MacKay tried to contact you?” Alex asked.

“I’m meeting him in an hour.”

“About what?”

“He wasn’t specific,” Helen explained. “He wants to make things right.”

Alex didn’t believe that for a second. “I think he wants the media to see him making the motions, but in reality, he’s only trying to strengthen his claim that he’s a victim.”

“A victim of what?” Helen asked.

“Of a fall-down artist and a shady doctor.”

“You mean Alicia, the woman Calla operated on after Jeff hit her?” Helen’s tone was incredulous. “That’s ridiculous.”