Click.
“Summer claims that it was guilt over-”
Click.
“Her fiancé OD’d because of guilt over-”
Click.
“Nick Carter has had no response to questions about his feelings and relationship with Autumn Evans in light of the news of her past.”
Click.
Nick tossed the remote aside and glared at the blank television screen. Every single channel he flicked to had Autumn all over the place. The ones that didn’t play the story were children’s channels, the Discovery Channel, the Weather Channel, and the Travel Channel. Considering he didn’t much care about kids’ shows, Animal Planet, what the weather was in Kansas, or some multibillion-dollar, centuries-old hotel in the middle of Africa, he was out of possibilities of things to watch.
The phone was currently off the hook as reporters had somehow got hold of his number and kept calling. Recording had been delayed until the press stopped surrounding the studios in hopes of talking to Nick about Autumn. About the only thing he had left to do was twiddle his thumbs and hope that Layla wasn’t out on the front lawn talking to the reporters that had actually bothered to show up at his home.
He asked himself, again, why he simply didn’t just open the door and tell them that he and Autumn had never been dating. Of course, that would just make things harder to explain, and he didn’t think it fair to make her explain what she shouldn’t have been a part of in the first place.
Thinking he’d follow BJ’s lead and cook something—or attempt to cook something without blowing the oven up like the last time—he moved into the kitchen. Giving the buzzing telephone receiver an evil glare, he yanked open the fridge. And froze.
How the hell had he eaten everything in his refrigerator except one egg, a jar of mayonnaise, and milk that was probably souring? He rooted around for bread and found none. His pantry was practically empty, too. How had he not noticed that he was running low on supplies? Hadn’t he just gone grocery shopping the day the Autumn bomb had dropped?
Oh, wait. He’d had Chris over two days before. And Chris had brought, well, everyone he could think of with him. They’d tiptoed around the reporters and snuck in. And the party had raged for a while.
“Well, damn. Now what?”
When his cell phone beeped, Nick grabbed it and flipped it open. “Hello?”
“Nick. I’m glad I reached you somewhere. Did you take the phone off the hook?” He recognized his PR rep, Juliette’s, voice and sighed.
“Yeah. Things got a little crazy with reporters. The company’s working on changing my number,” he told her. “But, you found me. What’s up?”
“You and Autumn Evans.”
“Uh, Juliette? I hate to break it to you, but there is no me and Autumn Evans.”
After a moment of silence, she spoke again. “I see. So when there were all of those pictures of you in the tabloids, you didn’t think it necessary for anyone to know the truth? That I should know what was really happening?”
Nick winced. “Yeah, well, I didn’t really think-”
“That is perfectly obvious. However, the situation is a little complicated now. Your name is coming up more than it has in the last several years.” He could practically hear her tapping her fingers impatiently. “Have you thought about what you’re going to do now?”
“Do?” He swallowed nervously. “I thought I could just keep quiet and it’d blow over. I take it that’s not going to be happening?” he asked in a tiny voice. Much as he adored the woman, Juliette Harris was the only one who scared him down to his toes.
“No, Nick. I received a phone call from Autumn’s PR people, and, after reviewing the situation from all angles, I think it’s best that we take certain steps to help out you and Autumn, image-wise.” She paused. “We’ll be meeting with Autumn and her representatives tomorrow, Thursday, morning at nine. My office. Got it?”
He sighed. “Got it. Thanks, Juliette.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We’re only just getting started. The way Summer Evans has been spouting statements, it’s going to take a good long time to fix it all. Don’t be late, Nick.”
“I won’t.”
“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a good rest of your day, and don’t talk to reporters.”
He grinned. “Will do. See you tomorrow.”
Hanging up, he glanced around at the kitchen. There wasn’t much he could do about his food issues, he decided as his stomach growled loudly. He scooped his keys off the counter and, after corralling Layla in the house again, hopped in his car.
Autumn pressed a hand to her belly where the butterflies were beating their wings frantically. This was it, she thought, staring up at the apartment building. It was now or never, and she couldn’t put this off for too much longer.
She was going to see Summer, and she was going to see her now.
Pushing her sunglasses to the top of her head, she stepped up to the entrance and pressed the button under her sister’s name. She only had an hour to see Summer before returning to her stylist’s salon and getting dressed for the People’s Choice Awards. She’d been nominated for two awards, and she doubted she’d be receiving either of them. The dark cloud looming over her head made it impossible for anything to happen otherwise.
“Hello?” The voice she hadn’t heard in two years crackled over the intercom. Autumn hesitated as memories crashed over her. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
She licked her lips nervously. “Uh, it’s me. Summer, it’s Autumn. I need to come up.”
There was a short silence. Then, “Come right up.”
There was a buzzing noise, and Autumn heard the locks snick open. Pushing through them, she stepped onto a waiting elevator. The building wasn’t new, but it wasn’t falling apart either. It was tastefully decorated, and the kind of place she’d once lived in. Autumn wondered how Summer had managed to afford an apartment in such a place.
When the doors to the seventh floor opened, she stepped off and made her way towards the right apartment. The door was already opening when she reached it, and, for a moment, she stared at the mirror image of herself. Summer’s dark curls were chopped short, and she was no longer as gaunt as she’d once been under the influence of various chemicals. Her eyes were clear and full of dark amusement. Autumn wondered if her sister had somehow cleaned herself up and gotten onto the right track again. Then, Summer spoke, and it was as though two years hadn’t passed.
“Well, if it isn’t my infamous sister. Come on in, Autumn, dear,” she added, in a voice dripping with malice. She held the door open, and, smothering nerves, Autumn stepped into a cozy apartment with neat furnishings. There wasn’t a spot of dust anywhere nor did she smell alcohol or the dregs of smoke. “What do you think of my humble abode, sister dearest?”
Autumn turned to face Summer and noted that there was a gleam of unholy amusement and victory in her eyes. “It’s more than I expected. And I didn’t expect much at all.”
The smile didn’t vanish from Summer’s face. “Why don’t you have a seat? I’d offer you something to drink, but you’d probably suspect me of doctoring it. So, we’ll sit, and you can tell me what brings you by.”
Settling onto a couch, Autumn studied her sister again. No matter what lay between them, this woman was her flesh and blood. They’d spent their first seven years together, and they’d been best friends. Was there nothing of that Summer left? she wondered.
“How are you doing?” she asked, sincerely wanting to know if Summer was truly off the substance abuse.
Summer shrugged and tapped a lethal red nail on the arm of her chair. “I’ve certainly come up in the world. I quit a lot of things after Kyle died. I didn’t want to end up like him, so it was cold-turkey for me.” She studied Autumn. “You’re not here because you care about my personal well-being. You want me to shut my mouth about the past. How does it feel, Autumn, to feel unloved and hunted by the media?”
She was not going to scream or yell, Autumn reminded herself. She’d gone over this with Liz and rehearsed everything she’d say. It was like a role, she told herself. She was going to be calm, cool, and in control. She met Summer’s amused gaze with cool eyes. “I haven’t really cared enough to think about it,” she said now. “I only care about the reasons you have for talking about the past. I want to know why.”
“Because I can. Because you deserved to be knocked off that pedestal of yours. Because you’ve always gotten everything you ever wanted in your life,” Summer stated quietly, anger creeping into her eyes. “I thought it was time that people knew the woman they were applauding for is nothing but a snake.”
Autumn nodded. “Right. I’m the snake for opening my home to you. I’m the snake for tolerating your petty bullshit. I gave you a place to stay, a place for Kyle to stay, and what did you do? Your precious Kyle raped me, Summer. Have you ever experienced something that horrible? Because if you had, you wouldn’t have opened up this can of worms.” She sighed. “I missed my sister, and I wanted to spend time with her. Instead, you gave me more pain than I thought possible.”
“If you missed me so much, Autumn, why didn’t you keep in touch? You never cared enough to call or write in all those years that we were apart. If you’d really missed me, you would’ve looked for me the way I looked for you. But you didn’t.” There was vicious anger in her eyes and voice now.
Well, she hadn’t prepared for this, but she realized that she needed to talk this over with her sister. “I did call, Summer. I called on every birthday. You could’ve called, too, you know.”
“No, actually, I couldn’t. You got the sweet relatives, the caring ones. I got the ones who didn’t see me as anything more than their Christian obligation.”
“Are you telling me that they wouldn’t let you call or write to me?” She couldn’t really believe that, could she?
Summer grimaced. “They wouldn’t let me touch the phone and read everything that I tried to mail. I tried to send you a letter once. They opened it and read all the complaints I had against them. The letter ended up in the fireplace. I never tried to send another one again.”
There was a horrible ache in her heart for the neglected child her sister had been and the misguided woman she’d become. Though she wished she could go back and change the past, the only way to go, Autumn knew, was forward. “I’m sorry, Summer. I’m so sorry about the past. I’m sorry that I didn’t think about you as often as I should have. That I didn’t worry about you. I didn’t know what was going on, and, if I had, I would’ve tried to help. But it’s in the past now. Nothing I can say or do now is going to change what they did to you.” She wanted to reach out and hold Summer’s hand but knew she’d get slapped back for the trouble. “All I wanted was for us to be sisters again, but I know that it’ll be difficult for you to get past the anger and the hatred you have for me. I wish you didn’t because there are still times when I wish we could be like other siblings. I’m sorry about Kyle and sorrier still that I didn’t try to get you two help when you were living with me. There’s nothing I can do about it now.”
“Nothing you want to do,” Summer spat, still angry. “You can take your apologies and shove them, Autumn.”
Horribly tired and feeling hollowed out, Autumn stood. “I came here to ask you to not release anymore statements, but I can see that you’re going to do exactly what you want.”
“Damn straight. We quit being sisters the day we buried Mama and Dad.” Summer, too, stood. “We can’t go back, so there’s no point wishing for what can’t be undone. There’s only moving forward. Revealing your dirty secrets is lucrative.”
“I see.” And she did. Knowing she’d fall apart at any moment, she tried to hold off the sobs. “So you’ve made your choice.”
Summer moved to the door and opened it. “I have. No matter what you do, you can’t stop me. Everyone wants to know what’s hiding in your closet, and I’m more than happy to let them know.”
“It won’t last long.” Autumn lifted her eyes to meet Summer’s. “I intend to make a statement soon, and, once I’ve finished, whatever you think you have left to tell, it won’t make a damn difference. And that is my choice.”
She swept past her sister, heard the door slam, and blindly made her way onto the elevator. It hadn’t made a difference to Summer that she’d come to talk to her, to try to forge some semblance of sisterhood. Whatever there may have once been between them was long gone. She only hoped she hadn’t done anything to cause further damage.
Sliding behind the wheel of her car, she pulled the door shut and glanced around to make certain there weren’t any reporters in sight. When she couldn’t see any, she turned the car on and pulled into traffic. She didn’t look back, didn’t let herself. Nor would she allow the sobs to spill. There were things she needed to do, and she wouldn’t let her shaky emotions get the best of her. The press had already begun chewing on her, and all they needed to swallow her whole and spit her out was a breakdown. So she wouldn’t give it to them. Autumn Evans had talent she fully intended to use, and she had a long way to go in the business.
Summer had been right about one thing. There was only moving forward.
