Chapter 16

As Melissa and Lindsey pulled into the hotel entrance, they were suddenly surrounded by hordes of people rushing to their car from every direction. Mel had almost forgotten what it was like to be accosted at every turn.

The press loved a good drama.

Cameras flashed all around her, blinding her even in the daylight. Reporters shouted questions so loudly, she couldn’t tune them out.

They were asking her all these horrible questions about her supposed battle with drugs and alcohol and suicide.

“Mel, did you really try to kill yourself?”

“Do you have a drinking problem? Drug overdose?”

“How was rehab? Did you recover?”

“We heard Brandon found you and saved you. Are you two getting back together?”

Brandon and Carl Carson were waiting for them in the hotel lobby.

“Get off me,” Mel hissed at Brandon, knowing that this was the ultimate publicity stunt for him. If Mel Dawn could forgive Brandon, then why couldn’t the rest of the world?

“Stop being so difficult, Mel,” he said through clenched teeth. “Let me help you inside.” He smiled brightly at the cameras before kissing the side of her head.

The moment his lips touched her, Mel recoiled and fought off the urge to puke all over her fancy shoes. The paparazzi continued to shout, cameras continued to flash, and she no longer cared about any of it. She pressed her palms against Brandon and shoved him away from her so hard he almost fell to the ground. She wished he would have.

“Stay away from me!” she yelled without considering the implications. “I don’t want you here! You disgust me!”

She rushed into the lobby of the hotel and into a waiting elevator, in which Aaron, her reliable bodyguard, held the doors open. It was nice to see a familiar, friendly face.

“They’ve been here since yesterday, Miss Dawn. It’s like they knew you were on your way back. They won’t leave.”

“This is Carl’s doing ... He staged this whole drama,” Mel muttered under her breath. She wondered if Brandon’s cheating and the video with the stripper that ‘leaked’ to the press weren’t part of a complicated publicity stunt.

“It’s not true, Miss Dawn, right? All the things they’re saying?” her bodyguard asked her.

“No, Aaron, they are not true,” she said with a tired sigh. She was exhausted, and she’d only just returned.

A wide smile transformed her bodyguard’s face. “I knew it. None of it sounded like you at all.”

Thankful to finally have someone on her side, Mel said, “Aaron, please make sure that no one, not even Brandon or Carl Carlson comes up to my apartment without verbal permission from me first. Okay? It’s important. I need some time for myself.”

Melissa no longer trusted her agent. She had only considered the notion before she left town, but she was now convinced that he didn’t have her best interests at heart.

“No one will come up,” Aaron assured Mel with a nod.

“Thank you.”

“Anything for you, Miss Dawn.” He leaned around her and pressed the proper floor on the button panel before slipping out of the elevator and leaving her alone.

As the doors closed, Spencer’s face appeared in Lindsey’s eye and she winced. Would she ever see him again? She couldn’t imagine Spencer being part of all this madness. The thought broke her heart.