Did he have that deranged look on his face? Did he stand a little taller?” I don’t think I will ever forget the way Louis and my brother’s relationship first started. Louis is one of my brother’s best friends today, but back then, Louis looked at him with a murderous stare. Who would’ve thought they would be such close friends after their initial encounter?
“He wasn’t happy; he wanted to know if I was trying to kill him, again. But you need to hear this. I go into all the details I’ve just told you about meeting Will, blah blah blah, and then I say the name of the hotel that Will owns—Le Spa, the place I chose accidently—and Louis goes ballistic until he comes down long enough to ask me if it was William Knight who came to my rescue!”
My eyes enlarge to the size of melons as I start to smell the scandal. “Wait one fucking minute! Are you telling me that your husband knows this guy Will, William whatever his name is?” This is no good.
“Sara, he doesn’t just know him, they hate each other. I-wanna-cut-your-throat kind of hate.”
“What?! Why? Are they business enemies? Em, shit, is this Will guy trying to find you and hurt you?” Suddenly, it isn’t funny anymore, and a cold chill spreads through my body as I think of somebody trying to get revenge on Louis by hurting Emily.
We both sit up as I try to make sense of all the details Emily’s been telling me since this morning.
“I have to talk to you about something we’ve never discussed before.” Fuck! There’s more shit! I may need to get a pad and start writing crap down. Emily may need a lawyer, not just a friend. “When you and Eddie came to see Louis and I after we had gotten engaged at The Blue Lagoon in Turks and Caicos twelve years ago, do you remember that?”
“How could I forget?”
“Well, that day I walked in on Louis having a very disturbing conversation on the phone with another woman.”
I may help Will kill Louis if she starts telling me that he hurt her back then, too.
“Sara, wipe that look off your face. It’s not what you think. He was talking to a girl that he used to be good friends with. He told me that he slept with her once before he and I met and that she wanted more. She wasn’t all there mentally and didn’t take his rejection very well. She was a spoiled rich socialite with a drug habit and a penchant for wild sex.” She sounds like every guy’s wet dream. “After she heard about Louis being off the market and with me, or probably before that as well, she wrote a memoir. A freaking tell-all book about her fucked-up life!”
I’m about to say “who cares” when Emily stops me from talking.
“The book was about her and Louis. How she loved him, what she did for him, and what he did to her. She was going to publish a book of lies to ruin his career and probably try to break us up as well. Thank God that book never made it anywhere. Louis, with an army of lawyers and your brother’s help I’m sure, stopped the publishers and I believe Louis bought the rights to that book and won a judgment stating that if any illegal copies of it ever see the light of day, it would cost her father everything he’s worth…which I heard is a lot.”
I grow confused with her story and this strange detour about some woman and her book. “Em, I think I need to start writing down some information because I’m getting confused and I don’t want to get to the point of negative returns, where my brain starts subtracting facts. Sit tight, let me go get my writing pad.” I start getting up as Em jerks me back down.
“I don’t need a lawyer, I spoke to ten already, I just need one friend.”
She’s right, I need to turn my attorney radar off and just listen as if we’re teenagers. “Sorry, keep going. You were up to the part where the book was never printed and I suspect they have her father’s assets tied into their lawsuit, which I’m sure included defamation of character.”
She nods and continues. “Louis also had video footage of this girl saying that if he doesn’t continue having a sexual relationship with her, she will ruin him. I know that video played