We've Only Just Begun

Part 37 - Surprise

We went home from the restaurant and Maddie, Nathan, and I sat in my living room diliberating on what we could do to keep Dylan away from Stephanie.

We wondered if we could call the cops, but we realized that we didn't have any evidence against him. We thought about threatening him, but we didn't think it would even work... we went through so many options with no luck.

"I have to go guys, call me if you think of anything." Maddie said as she stood up. I gave her a hug before she left and then sat down next to Nathan again. He pulled me to him and kissed my forehead. I was so exhausted that I ended up falling asleep on his shoulder.

I woke up the next morning in my bed with Nathan next to me, he must have carried me upstairs after I fell asleep.

I turned over and checked my phone to find a text from an unknown number. I opened the message to something I was never expecting to ever see in my life. It was a video of two people having sex. When I looked closer, I realized that it was Dylan and Stephanie. I sat up so fast that it woke Nathan up. He sat up slowly and groggily next to me. I sat there watching the video, my hand covering my mouth, tears flowing down my face.

"Baby what's wrong?!" He looked at me with wide eyes, confused, then looked at my phone. He stared at it for a couple seconds before realizing that it was Stephanie, then snatched it from me and closed out of the video.

"NO! WAIT!" I said trying to grab it back from him. He kept the phone away from me and then pulled me into his chest and held me while I cried. He held me for about a minute before I broke out of his embrace and looked at him. "I need to read the message that's attached, Nath."

He gave me my phone back and I opened the text.

"If I don't get what I want by the time you leave, I'll leak this video to the public and tell everyone that she's cheating on her rockstar boyfriend."

It had to be from Dylan. I texted him back: "What is it exactly that you want?"

I waited anxiously for him to text back. About five minutes later my phone vibrated. The text read: "$25,000."

I busted out into more tears.

"What?! Abbey what?!" Nathan pleaded. I showed him my phone and collapsed backward into my bed. He read the text and then put the phone down. He pried his hand under my back and pulled me up, forcing me to sit up. I sat there sobbing.

"I don't... know... what to... do..." I said inbetween sobs.

"Don't think about it right now. Just try and calm down." He replied. He held me to him and stroked my hair until I stopped crying.

When I finally calmed down, he started asking me a bunch of questions.

"Are you going to tell Steph?" "Are you going to tell Maddie?" "What about Jay? He could help." "Should you just call the police?" I was getting bombarded with so many questions, that I literallty had to leave the room and recollect myself in my bathroom. I was trying so hard not to break down again. I heard a knock at the door and opened it. It was Nathan. He came in and immediately hugged me.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked you all of those questions. You're already dealing with enough."

"It's okay. I know you're just trying to help." I said muffled into his chest. I pulled away and looked up at him. He wiped my tears away with his thumbs. "I don't want to tell Steph, it's going to be way too much for her to handle right now."

"I think it's best that you do tell her... she's not going to be happy if she finds out you kept this from her." He told me, still stroking my face. I thought about that for a minute then let out a big sigh.

"You're right." I replied. I went back to my room and grabbed my phone to call Steph.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Hey. I need to tell you something. It's really important but you... kind of... need to see it as well..." I told her.

"Fuck..." She trailed off.

"Do you want to meet somewhere? Or I can come to you... it doesn't matter." I said.

"No I'll come over there, we're near the area anyway." She replied. "Be there in fifteen."

"Okay." I said, and I hung up. I sat down on my bed, trying not to burst out into tears again. Nathan stood leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed, staring at me. He seemed genuinely worried.

"If this gets out, it's going to be extremely damaging to Jay's career. That's the thing... Dylan's not going after Steph, he's targeting Jay." I said, staring blankly at the floor. I stood up in frustration. "UGH, WHY THIS?! OF ALL OF THE THINGS, WHY THIS?!" I yelled.

"Shhhh, babe. You don't want to alarm your parents." Nathan replied as he walked over to me. He pulled me into another hug. I let the tears fall again and they soaked into his shirt.

Calm down, Abbey. I thought to myself. I unwrapped my arms from Nath's waist and placed my hands on his hips to brace myself. I took a deep breath, my face still pressed against his chest, and forced myself to stop crying. I hated this part of the job. Everything was so personal to me, but I had to pull away from the personal aspect of it and deal with this situation in the most professional way possible so that the boys' careers, and my career wouldn't be in jeopardy.

I wedged out of Nath's embrace and pulled out my phone to text my sister. I told her what was going on and to come over right away.

Nathan and I changed and got freshened up, then went downstairs to wait for Steph. I put the kettle on to make us some tea, and that's when I heard a knock on the door.