Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Chapter 37

Beth copies the link to clipboard and then texts the link to Jon.  After that she texts SHE BETTER BE OFF THE PROPERTY BEFORE I GET HOME.

She drops her cell phone into her pocketbook and takes a deep breath.  She knows who the source is.  She has no doubt.  Her thoughts go a mile a minute and what upsets her the most is that she's so far from home and can't do anything regarding Dorothea.  She's not surprised that this is happening.  Dorothea took advantage of her leaving, even relishing in the fact that she ran Beth from her home.  But what Dorothea doesn't know is that she didn't leave because Dot was there, she left because she didn't want to be there with Dot.  Big difference.

Beth's phone vibrates from her pocketbook.  She takes it out and sees a text from Jon.  Angry face emoji starts the you can bet your ass she'll be gone before you get here text.

Beth taps her reply thank you.  I love you.  Her cell phone goes back into her purse.

When she arrives at the airport, she instructs the driver to take her out onto the tarmac.  He's never done that before.  "Are you sure I can do that?"  the young man smiles.

"Yep, follow the yellow line.  You'll be fine."  Beth takes her sunglasses from her bag and slides them on.  When they get to the plane, she tips the driver $100 and makes her way onto her chartered jet.

Beth settles in for her trip, unknowing any of the staff.  The flight attendant gets Beth a bottle of water, per her request and then they all prepare for take off.

Once in the air, Beth gets her laptop out of her bag and gets online.  She checks emails before doing anything.  There wasn't anything too pressing that she needed to tend to.  So, to kill time she Google searches her own name, something she has never done.  First she looks at Google images of herself.  Most of them are from events that she's been at or things relating to Bon Jovi.  As she scrolls down farther, there are images of her in the hospital, images of a bruised and beaten Beth and images of them graveside with family.  She is shocked.  The images of her in the hospital and her bruises are part of police files.  The pics were never released to the public.  She scrolls and keeps scrolling.  She comes upon images of her and Brian.  Images of her and Dalton.  Images of her and Melissa.  Images of her and Dorothea.  When she sees an image of her and Dorothea, her anger starts to boil to the top.  Here she is, on a plane to go home to a house that currently houses the woman that she hates most.  

Beth clicks on a picture of her and Dorothea.  It takes her to the TMZ website.  The picture is from a time in life that Beth has a hard time remembering.  The image is of Beth upclose, laying on a beach.  In the distance there is Dorothea talking to a man that looks like Jon, but his back is to the camera.  The photographer's intent was Beth on a beach.  But it's Beth on the beach not paying attention to the photographer.  That tells her it's either paparazzi or a Jon fan.  There is no story linked to the picture, just more pictures.  Up and down she scrolls.   She goes back to the main page for her images and scrolls through them for a few more minutes.  When she's had enough, she closes the laptop and turns her attention out the window.  She thinks to herself, 'rest up Beth Ann, you have one hell of a fight on your hands once you land.'

Beth's mind starts to calm and as they climb to altitude she's able to drift off to sleep.