Five Minutes

Prosthetic Head

Now that Veronica had told him about Daniel, Ralston continuously imagined himself savagely beating the stupid, self-entitled director and producer to a pulp. What nerve did he have harassing Veronica? And he had the audacity to make her seem deranged because she wanted nothing to do with him? Ralston was furious.

He lay in bed beside Veronica - it was the first time in a while. He didn't know if it was right, but he couldn't refrain from asking, "What are you going to do?"

"Pretend it didn't happen," she replied.

"You're not going to take it to court?"

"No."

"Why not?" he asked, shifting his position on the bed to look directly at her. "He can't get away with what he did."

"But he's going to. He has way more power than either of us. If I try to take it to court, he'll take us for everything we're worth."

He knew that she was right. Daniel held a lot of power and authority. It made any attempts for defeating him highly improbable. Ralston opened his mouth partly to say something, then registered that nothing positive could be said pertaining to the situation.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to talk about it anymore. Let's just forget it," Veronica said.

"How can I?"

"Because I want to put it behind me."

He couldn't fully understand what she was going through mentally, but he was trying. Didn't she want justice? "They deserve to know the truth. He's probably a repeat offender." Most rapists were. He didn't even want to imagine how many countless other women Daniel had hurt throughout his career.

It was also hard for Ralston to tolerate the stories he was spinning. It wasn't okay.

However, he couldn't persuade Veronica to come forward if she wasn't ready to. It took her months just to admit it to himself. Rape victims sometimes waited years before sharing their story. Besides, he could foresee the backlash and the insults already. Veronica was already attacked for being a stalker obsessed with Daniel Sanders. Ralston had to strongly fight against the temptation of going off on those gullible idiots who easily swallowed the words of their stupid idol.

"I'd heard about him touching women inappropriately and I didn't even..." His voice trailed off. He wasn't the cause but he pushed his wife carelessly towards a creepy director. He'd just been so happy for her snatching a big role in a big film that those stories were easy to dismiss.

It was a mistake. Stories like that were never to be dismissed.

"This isn't your fault, Ralston," Veronica assured him. "He's known for being this super friendly, eccentric guy who isn't well equipped to understand boundaries, but someone people are like that. They're not all bad people."

"I know." Still, this could have been prevented. It hadn't been and Veronica was a victim. And she'd been tormented for the last few months. "Let's just go to bed, okay?"

He wouldn't push anything else out of her if she wasn't comfortable with it, so he said, "Okay," and turned off the lamp beside their bed.

Veronica turned over on her side.

Ralston cautiously lifted himself up and leaned over to see if her eyes were closed. They were. Lying back, he grabbed his phone and went into his Twitter account. He wasn't going to stand idly by without any interference. He made sure to tag Daniel and typed, Why don't you stop making up lies about my wife?

More people needed to call him out. Ralston had seen a few who knew Veronica personally deny anything transpired, though it was only a handful. Barely enough to make a dent in the negative comments.

He turned his phone off after the comment was posted. He was fuming, wishing he could strangle Daniel until his stupid beady eyes popped out of his head, until his face turned blue. Until he fucking dropped dead. Then Ralston would celebrate at his funeral.

Placing his phone on the nightstand, he pressed his head back against the pillow, speculating the various ways he could fight back against Daniel. But what was there that he could do? Daniel was a powerful man in Hollywood and had the ability of persuasion; he could put everyone against both Ralston and Veronica.

And Ralston didn't really want to go against Veronica's wishes. It wasn't right to play dirty behind her back, especially when she was involved as well. Maybe he didn't give a shit about jeopardizing his own career to protect her; he didn't want to bring her down with him.

He couldn't fall asleep. Grabbing his phone another time, he went back into account. Someone had already responded to him.

Stop writing and directing shit movies. While you're at it, stop acting.

It was a stupid comment. He'd made himself exposed to criticism being in the industry. But this Tweet in particular made him angry. Why was this person resorting to personal insults?

Ralston wanted to retaliate. He just didn't have the energy to argue with a person he didn't even know. He set his phone aside and finally closed his eyes.