Chapter 21 - She Came Looking For Some Shelter

Jon walks over to his wife, with his arm over her shoulder he guides her to the foot of the stairs where they have a seat. 

He knows that he has to clue her in, she needs to know, so that she can prepare.  The shock is going to kill her, so he needs to be delicate about what he's going to tell her.

"All that I am going to say right now, and I promise to tell you everything once were in the air, is pretty delicate and personal."  He cringes a second, waiting to see her reaction.

"Okay, tell me more." she holds his hands and never breaks eye contact with him.

He moves in closer to her, he has her in his arms and as quietly and as delicately he tells her, "Your first attack was recorded."

"Of course it was, we made the record at the police department - stating he broke in and raped me."

"He has the security footage from your house and it has the entire attack on it."  Beth's heart hit the floor.  

"Please tell me it's April Fool's Day.  The police had the videos for evidence?" she's now running every scenario through her mind.  "How did he get it Jon?  He's in prison, how can he have it?" she's borderline hyperventilating now.  

"I haven't seen it yet.  Some of his shady ass fucks tried to email it to blackmail us, but what they sent didn't work.  They are threatening to release it to the media if we don't put in a good word for him at his next parole hearing."

"Then let them release it.  I will not do anything to help that man get out of prison.  He raped me, more than once and wants me to help him get out of prison?  FUCK THAT!"  she jumps to her feet, to see who was driving the vehicle that was pulling down the driveway.  "Who the hell is here?"

Jon stands to look out the window, knowing the only people he might be expecting would be media.  "We have to get out of here babe.  As you can see, they know no boundaries"

She turns around and can see that he's serious.  "I'll grab the go bags we have packed.  Can you gather my pocketbook and things from the kitchen?"  He sees her go into survival mode, "My phone, my laptop....."  she darts up the stairs and leaves him stunted.  He shakes his head.

They meet back in the foyer.  "Are you ready?"  he asks her.  She nods her head and together they walk out the door, to the garage where they get in his Cadillac.  As they pull out of the driveway, they see two news fans parked on the side of the street, as they drive past them, they can hear then shouting, but the intentional loud music drowns out the words.  

"How can this be happening?  He is supposed to be out of our lives forever." 

"We knew he'd pull something at some point." he reminds her.

Beth gets loud, "Is that damn Dorothea involved in this?"

"I don't think so.  The email that the video was sent from was some dumb yahoo account, so no real way to trace it without getting the authorities involved."

"And that's what we're going to do." she tells him, "he is not going to screw with us anymore Jon."

Jon reaches over and takes her hand, "I'm going to do whatever I can, you know that."

"I do, but you need to know that I'm going to, too."

They make it to the airport and take the 15 minute ride into the city.  The chopper lands on the roof of  Beth's building, the one that her firm is in.  They gather their things and head to her office, the one that's furnished like an apartment, for all of the late nights that she had back when she was in investments.  They drop their bags on the couch, "Want a glass of wine?"  He asks her, walking around the apartment closing the sheers.

"Please."  she just stands there and looks around at the place she hasn't been in in several months.  "We're going to need groceries.  Want me to go to the bodega?"

"No, we'll order in." he hands her a glass of Pinot, "We're going to sit tight and hide until we can get our hands on this video."

"That video is horrific.  No one needs to see it, ever. What did you tell them?"  she wants all of the details and she wants them now.  In one big gulp, she empties the contents of her wine glass, "Please tell me you told them to fuck off."

"I did and that pissed them off even more.  They said they were going to release it tomorrow."

"So that's why we all were whisked away?  Is that who Tony seen you on the phone with at the studio?"  Jon simply nods.  "And when you were in your office on the phone, that was them?"  He nods again.  Beth kneels next to Jon on the floor, rests her head on his legs and continues, "This is going to be bad."  Her eyes start to sting from the revisited tears.  Her mind was going back to the house in L.A. and the Vineyard; the times that he physically and sexually assaulted her - back to a time that she thought she had buried, a time she wanted to forget.

Jon slides the hair from her face and catches a tear before it falls from the bridge of her nose, "I know it's going to be bad, but we will get through it."

"We shouldn't be going through this, Jon."

"Peter says that no one will show it on television, it's too graphic but he can't attest to the internet - we know how bad that can be."

"And we can't stop it?" she kind of whimpers.  "There's nothing we can do?"

"If we knew who had it, maybe.  But I don't know who all has copies or who I've even talked to.  It's a burner cell phone and can't trace the email address.  So yeah, we really can't do anything."  He caresses the side of her face.  "There is nothing we can do to stop it, we need to figure out how we're going to control it, babe."

"Have Ken handle that."  she's quick to reply.

"Sunshine?" 

"He's your PR guy."  she climbs up on the couch and sits next to her husband, her head on his shoulder, "He can make every thing better."  she laughs, exhausted.  "I mean, what can we do?"

"We need to do something for damage control or we can just ride it out and hide."

"I like that idea, only because I don't want to relive it but we have kids we need to protect.  We have family and friends that need to be shielded."  she gasps, "What if they release it on the internet?  Jesse, Steph - their friends will see it."  Her hands cover her face to hide her outburst crying.  

Jon leans over and holds her tight, gently kissing the side of her head, "Beth, it might not be that bad.  We can't shield everyone.  Those that love us, those that love you and know what you went through, none of them will even watch it."

"The band, your crew, your fans.....oh my God Jon, this is a nightmare."  He holds her even tighter.  He knows that they are to the point to where they need to put a plan into action.  "Have they sent you another email?"  She wants to know if they did, as the video didn't come through when they originally sent it.  It could be a bogus claim just getting them to help Dalton with his parole release.  

"I heard my phone indicate that I have email."

"Can you get your laptop?" she asks, pulling her self back a bit giving him the space to get up.  "Let's see."

Beth pours them each another glass of wine on the coffee table, Jon gets his laptop and they meet back at the couch.  Side by side, they open the email that has a subject line of Beth's Good Times x 2.

Jon looks at Beth and asks, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

She nods her head, "Yeah, I have to know."

Jon opens the email attachment and presses play.  They both watch for just a few seconds when Beth notices something.  "Jon, that's not from the security cameras."

"Why do you say that?" he's puzzled.  The video quality was good, cameras were high and focused on key places of certain rooms.  

"There wasn't a camera facing in or IN the bathroom. HE put cameras in there before I got there!"  She gets up and walks away.  She can't watch anymore.  Her attack started in the bathroom and the 10 seconds that she watched made her want to vomit.  Jon paused the video.

His cell phone rings from the kitchen.  Beth looks at him, with her eyes she asks, "Please don't answer it."

He hops up, "Need to see who it is, could be kids."  He snags his phone off of the counter and sees it's the people that are blackmailing them.  "It's them."