Secret Obsession (3 page)

T
he examination hadn’t been as bad as Paige had thought it would be, and now she sat on the side of the beautiful sleigh bed in one of her sister’s guest bedrooms. She was exhausted, sleepy, and feeling out of sorts, but she knew she couldn’t put off calling Karla any longer. As it was, she hadn’t called her right after the incident, and she knew Karla was going to be livid.

Paige pulled out her BlackBerry and dialed her best friend.

Karla answered right away, but her tone was groggy. “Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Paige?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Is something wrong?” she asked, and Paige could almost see her sitting straight up in bed, now fully awake. Especially since it was only seven a.m., and on Saturdays Karla was never up before nine.

“Actually, there is. I was raped last night.”

“You were what? Raped? When? And why are you just calling me?”

“I knew you were going to be upset, but it all happened so fast. Then, once I contacted 911 and called Camille, all I could do was lie across my bed until the police arrived.”

“Oh my God, Paige. You really should have called me. And who did this to you?”

Paige told her everything—not the part about her rape being staged or that Derrick had served as her loyal accomplice—but she conveyed everything else she could think of.

“I just don’t believe this,” Karla said.

“I know. I’m still in shock myself. I can’t seem to stop crying, and my nerves are totally shot.”

“Okay, look. Let me go, so I can get dressed and be on my way over.”

“You don’t have to do that. I mean, you can come later if you want, but Camille insisted that I stay with them for a while, so that’s where I am.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re not alone. Although you know you could have moved in with me as well.”

Paige wasn’t shocked by Karla’s offer, and this was the real reason she hadn’t been so quick to call her before now. She hadn’t wanted to take the chance on Karla extending an invitation before Camille had. “I appreciate that, girl, and if I start to feel like I’m in the way over here, I may take you up on that.” Paige knew that would never happen, but she didn’t want to sound ungrateful either.

“I hope you will. Although I’m sure you’re very comfortable with all the space Camille and Pierce have.”

“Yeah, it really is very nice,” Paige said, thinking about the fact that this gorgeous home of her sister’s would soon be hers.

“So, did the police find any evidence?” Karla asked.

“No, and without any semen or fingerprints, I’m not sure they ever will.”

“Criminals always make some sort of mistake. There are certainly a lot of unsolved cases out there, but for the most part, they always get caught.”

Paige didn’t like the sound of that, but at the same time she wasn’t all that worried, because no crime had actually happened. There was the physical battering that Derrick had inflicted upon her, but when it came to the police finding some random rapist, Paige knew they were searching for someone who didn’t exist. So again, there was absolutely and positively nothing to be concerned about.

Still, Paige responded by saying, “I really hope they do, Karla. I hope they find this guy and send him away for decades.”

“I’m sure they will. And hey, P, is there anything I can do at all?”

“No, just hearing your voice is helping me already, and I’m so sorry I didn’t call you sooner.”

“I’m sorry, too, but I also understand how upset you must have been and that it was probably a major undertaking just calling for help.”

“It was. The whole thing was a living nightmare.”

“Gosh,” Karla said. “I honestly don’t know what to say.”

“I know.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come over?”

“Yes. Plus, if I can, I really wanna try to get some sleep.”

“Okay, then I’ll just drop by this afternoon. I’ll call you first, though.”

“Sounds good.”

“You take care of yourself, girl, and you know I love you.”

“I love you, too, Karla.”

When Paige ended the call, she removed her velour hooded sweatsuit and slipped on the hot pink silk pajamas Camille had loaned her. Then she lay down, exhaled, and thought about Pierce. He’d been so gentle with her when she’d stepped out of the vehicle at the hospital, and if Camille hadn’t rushed to help her when they’d arrived home, she and Pierce could have had more intimate time together. They couldn’t make love just yet, but simply being in his presence and having the opportunity to touch him was enough for the time being. She’d wanted this man for years, and it was hard to believe she was finally going to have him. She also couldn’t be happier about living under the same roof with him, which would be for a nice little while, since she wasn’t planning to move back to her own place until she’d done everything in her power to end his marriage. She wouldn’t cause problems for Camille and Pierce right out of the gate, not today or tomorrow, but she also wouldn’t let more than a week or two go by before she initiated a massive blowup between them. She would slowly but surely place doubt in Pierce’s mind about his loving wife and do the same with Camille about her husband. She’d have them hating each other, and that’s when she’d make her move to destroy their union permanently. She would carefully and strategically lure Pierce away from her sister, and he would never want to go back to her. He would wish he’d never married her in the first place and would thank Paige for freeing him from his unhappy situation. It was true that right now he didn’t actually know how unhappy he was, but Paige was going to make things crystal clear for him. She’d make him see that Camille wasn’t his soul mate after all, nor was she the woman he was destined to live the rest of his life with. He would soon know that
Paige
was the real woman of his dreams and the only woman who could satisfy him completely.

I
t was Sunday morning. Paige took a well-needed stretch, opened the pewter-trimmed glass shower door, and stepped through it. She’d turned the water on just before cleansing her face, and now it was hot. It seemed to take a bit longer warming up than her own shower did, but she knew it was because the water had a much lengthier distance to travel in such a huge house.

Paige held her head back, allowing the water to soothe the front of her body, and wished she could stand there forever. It was wonderfully relaxing to her muscles, so she definitely needed this. Yesterday she’d planned on taking a long, hot bubble bath, but as it had turned out, she’d slept well into the afternoon and had only gotten up and gone downstairs when her parents and Karla had come over to see her. Needless to say, things hadn’t fared too well with her mother, and it hadn’t been ten minutes before Maxine had gotten on her nerves. It was at this point that Paige had begun conversing only with Karla, and had soon heard her mother telling Paige’s father they were leaving.

Then once they were gone, Karla and Camille had tried getting Paige to eat something, but she’d pretended she was still too upset to eat anything. Of course, in all honesty, she’d been starving but hadn’t let on, because she’d needed Camille to continue feeling sorry for her. She did, however, feel bad about Karla, who’d been devastated and in tears. She’d been terribly hurt over what had happened to Paige, but there was just no way Paige could tell her the truth—that she’d planned the whole incident down to every dirty detail. She would never admit how she’d mapped out, plotted, and schemed her way into Camille and Pierce’s private life or how she was only weeks away from winning the grand prize. She couldn’t tell her that she’d only done what she had to do so she could finally be happy.

But the worst part of yesterday’s activities had been the conversation she’d been forced to have with Owen. She could still hear his distraught tone even now.

“Baby, why didn’t you call me? The police were just here, asking me questions about our breakup. Then they told me you’d been raped.”

“Because I just couldn’t,” she’d said. “I couldn’t burden you with something like this, not when we’re no longer together.”

“But baby, you really should have called me. Are you okay?”

“I’m as well as can be expected…I guess.”

“I am so, so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, and I hate those detectives even contacted you. Especially when I told them the guy who raped me was much taller and bigger than you are.”

“They were only doing their jobs,” he’d said, “and I’m glad they’re really trying to find this maniac.”

“It was awful,” she’d said in a believable, trembling, and very shaky voice.

“I’m sure it was, baby, and I could just kill whoever did this to you.”

Paige hadn’t said anything else, and once Owen had begged to see her, to no avail, he’d finally told her he would at least call back to check on her later in the evening—although when he had, Paige had let all three of his calls go to voicemail. She sort of felt bad, since she could tell how concerned he was about her, but it was simply best that Owen move on and forget about her. It was better for him to leave well enough alone and find a woman who truly wanted him.

When Paige finished showering, she stepped out, toweled herself dry, and walked in front of the mirror above the vanity. Her face was still extremely swollen, and she looked horrid. She even had a black eye and hadn’t wanted Pierce to see her this way yesterday. Although, as it had turned out, seeing how pitiful she looked had only caused him to empathize with and care about her even more, something she’d noticed when she’d seen him gazing at her. He’d clearly felt sorry for her and probably would have quickly taken her into his arms had his little wifey gone into another room where she belonged. Just thinking about Camille and how she was always in the way made Paige cringe.

Paige saturated her body with a generous amount of shea butter, got dressed in a mustard-colored velour sweatsuit, and went down to the kitchen. When she arrived, she saw Camille setting out her breakfast dishes at the center of the table near the patio doors and Pierce, PJ, and Crystal laughing, talking, and preparing to eat. They all greeted Paige, and Paige hugged both her niece and nephew and took a seat. She’d first considered sitting closer to Pierce, but then decided it was best she sit toward the other end.

“So, did you sleep well last night?” Pierce asked, lowering the sports section of the
Chicago Sun-Times
.

“Not really, but I did get a couple of naps in here and there,” she said, knowing she’d slept like a two-day-old baby.

“I know it’s hard right now,” Camille said, chiming in. “But things will get better as time goes on.”

Paige smiled at her sister. “I sure hope so.”
Geez. Can’t you see that Pierce and I were having a nice one-on-one conversation that had nothing to do with you? So why couldn’t you just stay out of it?

The family chatted about this and that, but when Camille took her seat, Pierce said grace.

“Father God, we come right now, thanking You for all You’ve done, all that You are doing currently, and all that You are surely going to do in the future. We thank You for keeping our family in good health and for allowing my sister-in-law to be here with us. Then, Father, we thank You for the food we are about to receive and for my beautiful wife who prepared it. We humbly ask that You please bless this food, Father, as we use it for the nourishment of our bodies and for our overall strength. With these and many other blessings we ask in your son Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Paige took a sip of orange juice and then bit into a piece of sausage. “So are you guys going to church this morning?”

“Pierce and the children are,” Camille said. “But I’m staying here with you.”

“I’ll be fine. You’ll only be gone a couple of hours, anyway, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to leave you all alone.”

“I’m telling you, I really will be okay, because all I’m planning to do is head back upstairs to get a little more sleep. Plus, Karla said she was going to stop by around noon.”

Camille hesitated but then said, “Well, only if you’re sure. Because actually, I am supposed to meet with our women’s auxiliary right after service to discuss our upcoming luncheon.”

“I told you, sis, I’ll be fine. So just go. Enjoy the service and take care of your business.”

“If you say so.”

“I do.”

“Auntie Paige, I can stay here with you, too, if you want,” Crystal said.

Paige smiled. “Why thank you, sweetheart, but I’m good. Really I am.”

Pierce buttered one of Camille’s homemade biscuits and said, “Well, if you need anything, all you have to do is call us. You have both our cell numbers, and of course, if something else comes up, there’s always 911.”

“And we’ll also make sure to leave you the alarm code so you can set it as soon as we leave and then disarm it when Karla gets here,” Camille said.

“Will all of you please stop worrying about me?” Paige said, laughing.

“We can’t help it, Aunt Paige,” PJ told her. “We just don’t want anything else happening to you.”

“I know that, honey, and you have no idea how much I appreciate that. But for the last time, Montgomery family, I’m going to be fine.”

Now they all laughed, and Paige knew they had no idea how fine she truly was going to be just as soon as they backed out of that driveway of theirs and drove down the street. She would be fine because she’d finally have her first chance at accessing the information she needed—information that would prove priceless.

T
he Montgomerys hadn’t been gone five full minutes when Paige dashed up to Camille’s office. However, now that she’d arrived, she was outraged. Camille didn’t even have a real job, yet the entire room screamed style and refinement and was much bigger than the one she had at her condo. The office was filled with expensive cherry-wood furniture that included a fancy desk, matching working table, wall-to-wall bookcases, and a classic black leather sofa. It was enough to make Paige despise her sister even more. Not to mention, while she’d said it many times before, she couldn’t help saying it again: Camille had everything, and it just wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right, and if Paige had things her way, Camille would end up miserable, destitute, and even suicidal. She would practically lose her mind once Pierce filed for a divorce, asked her to move out, and then settled with her for the least amount of alimony possible. Of course, the children would be welcome to live with their father and favorite auntie for as long as they wanted, but if they chose instead to reside with their mother, Paige had no objection to Pierce paying child support. Paige loved her niece and nephew with all her heart, and she would never hurt or deprive them of anything.

Paige sat in front of Camille’s computer and clicked on the AOL icon. She waited for the sign-on screen to open, and as expected, Camille’s password was saved in the system and Paige easily accessed her email account. At first she browsed through Camille’s inbox listing, without opening any of the messages, and then she opened a new window so she could send out the following email to [email protected], a fictitious email address Paige had created last week through some off-brand mail server for Camille’s fictitious lover, William Tanner:

Paige hit the send icon, printed out a hard copy of the message, deleted it from Camille’s sent messages folder, and then signed into William’s email account and began typing:

Paige printed out both the email William had received from Camille and also the one he’d just sent back to her. Then she signed back into Camille’s account, printed the email from William, and then deleted it from Camille’s inbox. This way, she now had both the outgoing copies from each of them as well as both the incoming ones.

Paige signed out of AOL, turned off Camille’s computer, and felt proud. She left the office and strolled down the plush-carpeted hallway toward her room, but stopped while passing Camille and Pierce’s master suite. In the five years since they’d built their home, she’d gone in there many times, but she wanted to see it again and all by her lonesome.

She pushed the door completely open, walked in, and felt worse than she had when she’d entered Camille’s office. The black and off-white color scheme was tremendous, the California king sleigh bed with leather headboard and footboard was adorned with the most striking velvet comforter, matching shams, sheets, and pillowcases, and the matching velvet drapes and off-white Berber carpet were to die for. There was also the stunning marble fireplace situated in the sitting area, right in front of the balcony, as well as the mansion-size walk-in closet Pierce and Camille shared. Paige was in total awe and couldn’t believe this was all going to be hers in the near future. She likely wouldn’t change a thing except possibly the paint color to a slightly lighter crème than what her sister had chosen. Although as she looked more closely at the carpet, she could see maybe choosing a different texture for her and Pierce’s bedroom, and she was sure he’d be fine with making any changes she wanted. He’d always allowed Camille to do whatever made her happy, and she knew he would offer her the same courtesy. He would want the absolute best for his new wife and would do anything to see that she had it.

Just thinking about the fabulous life she’d soon be living gave her tiny goose bumps and made her feel as though she’d finally be special—just as special as Camille had always been to their parents and everyone around them, and maybe even more so. Pierce would treat her like a queen, and she knew they would be happy until death.

Paige went inside the walk-in closet, scanned Camille’s section of it, and decided right then that she was going to have every one of these items. Camille must have had every high-end shoe she could think of—Christian Louboutin, Bally, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo—and then there were her beautiful handbags: Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, Marc Jacobs, etc., etc., etc. It just didn’t make sense, especially since Camille
never
got excited about brand names or any other luxuries she’d been blessed with. As a matter of fact, most of the pricey items she owned had been given to her by Pierce as gifts, because whenever Camille shopped, she looked for serious bargains at normal department stores and only tended to buy things she actually needed or clothing for the children. Paige, on the other hand, was planning to shop for the best of everything, every chance she got, and wouldn’t feel bad about it.

About a half hour after Paige had gone back to her own room, the doorbell rang. She smiled, because even though it wasn’t quite noon yet, she knew it was Karla. So she went down the winding staircase, disarmed the security system with the code Camille had recited to her, and let her in.

“Hey, honey,” Karla said, hugging her.

“Hey yourself, and look at you all dressed up in that tight-​fitting black sweater dress.”

“Well, we do what we can,” Karla said, laughing as they walked into the family room and sat down on the apple red, grained-leather sofa.

“With a dress like that, you’ll find a new man in no time. Because I know there had to be a ton of them checking you out this morning.”

“Yeah, I guess, but since I went to the early service and wanted to come by here, I sort of hurried out to my car when it was over. And it’s not like I’m in a huge hurry to meet anyone anyhow.”

“You will be eventually.”

Karla’s face softened, revealing a touch of sadness. Paige knew why and rubbed the top of her best friend’s hand.

“You will,” Paige said. “You’ll see.”

“Maybe, but I won’t even lie, P. I miss Kevin so much, and to be honest, I’m not sure any man could ever replace him. That’s why I’m not all that interested in meeting someone else so quickly.”

Kevin and Karla had only been engaged a month when he’d been killed by a drunk driver, and Paige completely understood how hard it must have still been for her. Especially since it had only happened six months ago.

“I know it’s tough,” Paige told her. “But as time goes on, you’ll feel better and better.”

“I sure hope so. But enough about me. How are you?”

“Still hanging in there.”

“Have you heard anything from the police? Are there any leads yet?”

“No, nothing at all.”

“It’s too bad you couldn’t see his face.”

“I know. I keep thinking the same thing,” Paige said, hating all the lying she kept doing to Karla.

“Well, at least it’s over,” Karla said, scanning the family room and kitchen. “And it’s good you have people who love you like Camille and Pierce.”

“That’s for sure. They’ve been extremely wonderful to me.”

“And you have me, too, remember?”

“Of course, and I won’t ever forget that.”

“And hey, wait a minute. Where’s Owen? Is this his weekend to stay over at the fire station? I just thought about him.”

“Girl, long story short, he came over on Friday evening and proposed to me, but I told him I wasn’t ready for marriage. And we broke up.”

“Oh no. I’m so sorry, P. I had no idea.”

“It was all for the best, because I just didn’t love him the way he wanted me to.”

“Well, as long as you’re not upset about it.”

“I’m not. I mean, I feel bad for Owen, because I can tell he really loves me, but he’ll get over it.”

Paige and Karla chatted for another hour, ate some leftover pizza, and then Karla prepared to leave.

“You look tired, so I’m going to let you get some rest.”

“Yeah, I am a little sleepy, but I’m so happy you came over. It gives me such peace every time I see you.”

“I’m glad. And I’ll be back tomorrow, too. I have a meeting after work, so it might not be until early evening.”

“That’s fine. And if you can’t get back until later in the week, then just call me.”

“I will,” she said as they walked to the front door. “And you take care of yourself, you hear me?”

“I will. I love you, Karla.”

“I love you, too.”

Paige waved at Karla one last time and watched her drive away. Then she closed the door, went upstairs, and climbed into bed. She tried making herself comfortable, but it wasn’t long before her thoughts got the best of her…and she began calculating her next move.