Chapter 3 An Enemy In Sight

The newspaper and magazine headlines were creative, Rachel would give them that much. With titles like: Rachel Rivers Runs Her Rivers Through Teen Valley, to Rivers Run Deep In Rachel Rivers Lies. Rachel couldn’t ignore the newsstands as Larry’s car crawled through the morning traffic. People were talking about it, it was the biggest news – well it would be because everyone knew Rachel Rivers, the young sexy, and intelligent TV presenter who covered hot celebrity topics other journalists were too spineless to talk about in both papers and on set, asking difficult questions to trap immoral politicians and so-called self-made billionaires. If they were into illegal trades, Rachel knew how to trap them. She was a force to be reckoned with but that force was currently watching her face on popular magazines flash by as she drank soulfully from the bottle of wine in her hands.

To her utter horror, the parking lot and every other available space in front of the high-rise ABN channel building were clogged with reporters and cameramen waiting to get a glimpse of the disgraced Rachel Rivers. Stupid, pesky leeches. They will do anything for a little juicy gossip. And since her luck since walking into her husband and babysitter last night was still rotten, her story was the hottest news.

In front of the giant media building was the jumbotron mounted on the giant wall playing the live feed of the breakfast interview show, Dana was hosting in her place. Rachel scrunched her face. That bitch.

“…isn’t it just pretentious of Rachel Rivers, the icon of integrity and a model for all of the housewives of Gem Hills sitting in front of their TV, to spew lies about family and love and values,” Dana spoke through heavily glossed lips. That should have been Rachel on that suede sofa castigating whatever new celebrity had been caught misbehaving in public using her mean puns and extraordinarily advanced vocabulary to strip the flesh off their bones.

“I must say this is something no one saw coming…” another guest said.

“No one?” Dana queried. “Doesn’t seem that way to me. From what I heard her husband who just might be an ex very soon has a lot to tell us about the other side of Rachel Rivers no one knew about.” She turned to the camera, smiling like the ugly piranha she was. “Coincidentally, Jacob Henderson is here to tell us what more we need to know about her.”

There was a round of applause among the skinny audience in the studio. Like the hungry reporters grappling for crumbs of gossip Rachel craned her neck to see Jacob walk into view looking as handsome and charismatic as the devil himself. The suit, shirt, and tie were gifts she had given him last month on his 29th birthday. He flashed a charming smile at the camera and at Dana who was preening her feathers like a peacock- or was that a peahen? Wait a peahen was ugly, wasn't it? That suited her better.

Larry dropped a hand on Rachel’s hand feeling the tensed muscles in her hand.

“Whatever you are thinking – don’t,” he warned.

“I’m not thinking of doing anything…” except to murder a cheating lying son of a bitch and a fat lying, deceiving whale.

“In all of this, I gotta say that you Jacob are the biggest victim. I can’t imagine what 4 years of marriage must have been with this huge secret…”

Rachel saw red. Without realizing what she was doing, she pushed the car door open, alerting the vulturous reporters and cameramen to her very shabby-looking self. Rachel didn’t care that her hair was rough and knotted as she pushed through the crowd closing in on her. Larry was right behind her waving off the microphones and recorders thrust in his face. Every warning he tried to preach to Rachel fell deaf ears. She pushed past the security, running like her life depended on it – well her life, as well as her reputation, depended on it. Thundering feet of security men and women, silently cursing their second breakfast of doughnuts and coffee, echoed in the hall after her. Before anyone could stop her, Rachel pushed the studio door open, stumbling into equipment on her way to the main room where the show was still on air.

“You know, Dana, every family has secrets…” Jacob was graciously saying oblivious to the storm heading his way.

 In the gallery were failed attempts to cut the cameras and opt for a commercial break. A few of Rachel’s loyal friends who had questioned the sudden decision to replace her as the star of the show with Dana who they all hated but now secretly envied, moved to stop her but Rachel was beyond common sense now. Crashing into the center of the show where a stunned Dana, Jacob, and the two other guests looked up from their conversation of lies.

“How dare you?!” Rachel yelled. She swayed on her feet, a testament to the many glasses of wine she had drunk the previous day. Throwing herself on Jacob, she latched her fingers into the collar of his shirt and ripped it. Upstairs in the gallery, an order was given for all the cameras to be focused on her. The jumbotron outside and televisions in many homes displayed the raving madness of a desperate woman seeking to regain control of her life. She yelled nonsense at Jacob. Jacob attempted the save face by pretending to calm her down as if she was a deranged psychiatrist escapee. It infuriated her that he was the victim here and she the villain. “You fucking bastard?! Why don’t you tell the whole fucking world how you were fucking…”

“A crazy person?” his voice drowned hers. He was frantically trying to save his own ass by sacrificing hers. “Because I loved you. I was trying my best to keep your secrets. You are crazy, Rachel.”

Whirling on Dana who was already inching away out of the studio, she grabbed her by the hair. "And you backstabbing lying three-legged toad, I hope you're glad and you have all you've ever wanted!"

All over Gem Hills, anyone who cared – which was the majority of its population – tuned to the ABN channel to watch the downfall of star journalist Rachel Rivers. In a 48-floor building, a beautiful but harried-looking secretary with silky black hair excitedly switched on the television mounted on the wall after spending the last 5 minutes preparing her boss for his next meeting. He was heading downstairs now. But a few seconds later, before she realized it her boss was back because he got an urgent call on his office phone. He was staring at the television screen before she had the time to turn it off.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Madden,” she stammered. “I will turn it off now.” She fumbled for the remote. It fell and slipped under the table. She bent to pick it up when his voice stopped her.

“Wait. Leave it.”

His dark gray eyes were fixed on the drama unfurling on the ABN channel. There was no emotion on his face. She could never tell what he was thinking, all she knew was he was the most gorgeous man alive and she was happy to work for him because he paid well.

Nate Madden watched the woman on the screen with the wild red curls that gave her chocolaty complexion an exotic look and smiled - though his secretary couldn’t tell if it was a smile or a grimace.

Rachel Rivers.

She was the woman who had almost unwittingly ruined his reputation.