Chapter 15

Our engagement announcement made a lot of papers, thanks in part to Chelsea and in part because of our fame. We received a lot of congratulatory notes and calls. We also received some notes that disturbed us. J.J. Callen sent Sissy a long, impassioned email about how he knew she was his soulmate and she was making a huge mistake, asking if I was holding her against her will and offering to come and rescue her. It was really creepy to read. She saved it, forwarding it to her publishing house and consulted the local police.

They seemed to think nothing would come of it but reached out and had his local department pay him a courtesy call, asking him to cease and desist any means of contact with her. He ignored their advice and sent her several more strident messages, resulting in another visit. The locals told him one more instance of contact and he would be arrested for cyberstalking. Sissy didn’t give him another opportunity, changing her Facebook and email accounts.

At some point he hooked up with Roderick, who was hoping to represent him somewhere down the line. Their first joint effort was a virtual attack, spreading rumors about my behavior while traveling. It was one thing to mess with my reputation. It was an entirely different matter to do it with the reputations of the ultra-rich. One was a computer guru and he put his whole company, all 190 of them, on to nothing but deciphering the code and finding who was sending the emails.

Roderick was surprised when the cops knocked on his door, even more surprised that he was led away in handcuffs. He was looking at two years and he sang like a bird, throwing J.J. under the bus to save his own ass. He ended up with intense probation for three years, a $25,000 fine, and loss of his career. Apparently, there is a morals clause in all the contracts signed with publishing houses, and his name was mud. Rumor has it he’s selling used cars now. He ought to do well, with his snake oil salesman type of personality.

J.J. Callen was another matter. He had the money to fight the charges and did. His reputation suffered and his sales dropped quite a bit, but he managed to avoid going to trial. He was on the last book of his contract and after it was published, he just barely got a two-book deal that would have made a beginner cringe.

He harbored a lot of anger, most of it directed at me, and after we’d been married about six months, he started showing up at some of the same events we attended to help Sissy’s career, hoping to rekindle his. He would stay as far away so possible because Sissy had told him through her lawyers that if he ever approached her again, she’d get a restraining order. He must have known she meant it, so he always sat as far from us as possible. I’d look up once in a while and find him staring at me, the hate in his eyes obvious to all. The looks he gave Sissy were creepy enough to make her feel uncomfortable. We all breathed a sigh of relief when he relocated to California, putting a whole continent between us.