All of Me by Tiffany Patterson

Chapter 31

Lena

“I’m not signing that,” I snarled, flicking away the papers Demetria held in her hands. I was backstage trying to get ready for my first late-night show appearance to debut my new single, “Tornado”.

Demetria sighed but didn’t say anything.

I turned back to the mirror, trying to complete my makeup.

“He asked that I bring it up to you,” she said, sounding despondent.

“I’m sure he did. Shit,” I cursed after I smeared the eyeliner.

It’d been a month since I returned to LA. I finished the album, having worked with a couple of musical artists whom I respected greatly. That was the only good thing about the past month.

I’d never felt so hollow in my life. Every morning I awakened from another restless night of dreaming about my last encounter with Gabe. The hurt in his eye cut deeper than any of the words he hurled at me.

I wanted to run to him, to tell him the truth, but fear stopped me. It was my fault that Nate had become so callous and vindictive toward Gabe. Nate had the power to ruin not only Gabe’s career as a fighter but as a manager.

My eyes watered, and my vision blurred, forcing me to forego the eyeliner I tried to apply.

“I mean, the contract doesn’t seem all that bad,” Demetria said after a while.

I turned to her with a wrinkled forehead. “Then you sign your name to it.”

She frowned.

“I’m sorry.” I pushed out a deep breath. “You didn’t deserve that.” Demetria had flown from New York a month ago and worked with me to organize all of the interviews and other tasks that came along with rolling out a new album.

Nate was pouring it on heavy, unmindful of what I wanted to do to release my album. I was surprised he hadn’t fought me harder when I insisted that I didn’t want to work with many other producers. I called two producers I worked with in the past to arrange three songs on the album. Aside from that, the other seven tracks were entirely written and produced by me.

It would be a proud moment for me if my heart didn’t ache so much.

“No, I didn’t,” Demetria said, her voice was a little biting.

“Things will calm down eventually.” I turned to the mirror and glanced down at the green pantsuit I wore for the performance.

“I mean, truthfully, you should be grateful that he’s doing all of this for you.”

“What?” I asked Demetria. She’d often been a defender of Nate in the past, but she hadn’t been this adamant about the business side of things before. But then again, she didn’t know the whole story. That he was blackmailing me into working with him and signing a new contract.

“Nate’s done so much for your career. If it weren’t for him, you’d be—”

“I’d be what?” I rose from my chair, glaring at her. It was one thing to speak from a place of not knowing the whole picture. It was something else entirely to downplay my hard work and talent.

Nate had done enough of that mess while we were together. And I bought into it. I was done with denying my part in my success.

“You’d be nothing,” Nate’s deep voice said as he entered the room, shutting the door behind him. He wore a menacing look. “Did you sign the damn contract yet?”

He peered down at the papers Demetria placed on the glass coffee table at the center of the room.

“No.” I lifted my chin. “My lawyer hasn’t finished looking them over,” I lied. I hadn’t even given the contract to my lawyer. I needed to bide my time to figure out what my next move was.

I had hoped this current album would hold Nate’s focus. Yet, he continued harping on me to sign another contract with his label. I wanted to hold him off until I got some incriminating evidence on him to use as leverage.

It was a shaky plan at best, but it was all I had come up with.

“Fucking lawyers. They take months to get anything done. We don’t have that kind of time,” he demanded, tossing the contract to the floor and stomping over to me.

“I’m not signing it until I get the okay from my attorneys.”

His fists balled at his sides.

“Anyway, I have a show to do for this new album. We should focus on that.” I stepped to the side to brush past him, but he grabbed my arm, gripping it tightly.

When I tried to pull away, his hold tightened. “Get the hell off of me,” I demanded, still trying to get my arm free.

Nate got in my face. “He’s forgotten all about you and that broken pussy of yours.”

“Fuck you,” I yelled in his face.

Nate’s smile was menacing. “What? Do you think that white boy gave a shit about you? You’re holding up this contract signing, thinking he’s going to come for you or something? Shit, maybe I should tell him what a waste of time you are. You think he’ll want your ass once he finds out you can’t even have his children?”

It was my turn to smile. “There’s nothing wrong with my ability to conceive.”

The frown on his face deepened.

“I never wanted them with you.” I hurled the words that I’d wanted to say for years. “I was on birth control because bringing a child of yours into this world is the last thing I would ever do.

“Ahh.” I gasped as the side of my face stung from his slap.

“Nate, no,” Demetria yelled.

I stumbled a few steps backward, holding the side of my face that now burned. When my vision cleared, I saw Demetria, holding Nate back with one arm while he glared at me. She murmured something in his ear.

I dropped my hand and stood erect. I took in the couple in front of me for what it was.

“You’re sleeping with him.” I looked at my assistant of five years.

Slowly, she dropped the innocent girl act, and her scowl matched his. “He deserved better.”

“How long?” I asked him.

He lifted his chin. “Years.”

I thought for a minute, adding things up in my mind. I let out a laugh. A genuine laugh. It all started to make sense.

“The videos from unknown numbers to my phone. That was you.”

Demetria didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to.

“How did you get that video of me at the house?”

I guessed Demetria was tired of holding in her apparent disdain for me because she blurted out, “That was easy. I paid one of those silly bitches five hundred dollars to film you that night and send it to me. It wasn’t the first time I did it. I just happened to hit the jackpot that night.”

The anonymous person that posted the video online. It was my assistant. My gaze shifted between her and Nate, standing there like a united front.

I laughed again. Not even angry that he cheated on me with her. I let go of his betrayal some time ago. He was a snake in the grass. One who’d gotten his hooks into me when I was still so young and naïve. But I’d learned what real love was in the past nine months.

“And New York?” I asked, looking at Demetria.

She shrugged. “I was on the phone when he told you about that club. All it took was an Uber ride over and a few pics with my phone. Neither one of you saw me. The way you were all over him on the floor, I knew Nate deserved better.”

I shook my head and let out a humorless laugh. “You two can have one another.”

Demetria gave me a cocky expression as if to say she knew she’d already won. However, the wrinkles in Nate’s forehead deepened as his anger increased.

Before anyone could speak again, a knock on the door sounded. A second later, one of the producers for the night show opened it.

“Ms. Clarkson, we’re ready for you.”

I nodded and proceeded toward the door. I stopped in front of Demetria and Nate.

“I hope he’s taking care of you because you’re fucking fired. You know that, right?”

I brushed past the both of them, thinking the first call I would make after the show was to my lawyer to draw up papers to sue Demetria. I was sure she breached our contract somewhere along the line.

But that would be for later.

My immediate action was to focus on this interview. It was time to debut my new music to the world. At the last minute, I decided against singing the song I’d planned and to go with another.

I couldn’t speak directly to Gabe, seeing as how Nate monitored all of my calls and whatnot. But I could sing to him via this interview. Maybe he would be watching.