CHAPTER 7
A couple of weeks had past and the guys were leaving to go back to LA for a while. They would be doing some promotional work and then would be heading to New York to appear on MTV's TRL. Justin wanted Anya and the baby to come with him to LA but she decided that she needed to stay home and not miss work. He didn't like her working but knew she needed to be around other people to keep her sane. He would miss them terribly but she would come to New York in a couple of weeks to be with him.
This would give her some time alone to think some things through. She had received another letter in the mail that had said that she thought she was too good for everyone else and her time would come. She would know what it felt like to have the world against her and then she would be all alone. She racked her brain trying to think of who she could have pissed off lately. There was Laura at the awards show in LA, but she wouldn't do this, she didn't have their address, besides, she met her after the second letter came. She had been rude to the girls and JC lately but they were ruled out immediately, none of them would ever harm her, they were her close friends. Only one person kept coming back to her mind and he was someone she tried not to think about. He did live in Tennessee, so to speak, prison was more like it. The thing that Anya was unsure of was how he would know about the things that she did? She thought that he could have seen them on TV or heard about them in the paper but still didn't know why he would do this to her. He wouldn't be out of jail for another year, at least, and if Anya had anything to do about it, he would stay in for his entire term of 5 years. She prayed her thoughts were wrong. She didn't know how she would tell Justin that she was getting letters from Ben but she knew she had to sometime. He deserved to know the truth.
The days passed slowly for Anya. She wanted to be with Justin and the guys in LA but knew that they were busy and she would see them next week. Valentine's Day was here and she was feeling very depressed. Last year they spent it together, as friends only, but this year would have been something different. Justin was use to spending the holiday alone because he was always working but this year he had Anya and Emma to think about and miss. They talked to each other for most of the day.
"Honey, I know you want us to be together today, but you chose to stay home and work."
"I know, Justin, please don't remind me. I am so sorry but I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn't want us to get in the way of your work but I didn't realize how much I would miss you."
"Anya, look, we will be in New York in a few days, why don't you come earlier than next week. Change your ticket to Wednesday and we can see each other sooner."
"Yeah, I think I'll do that. I really miss you, you know that?"
"I do and I miss you too. Give Emma a big hug and kiss from me and I'll talk to you soon."
"Okay, I love you, bye."
"Love you, too. Bye"
They both hung up but Anya didn't want to let go. She was so lonely these past weeks. She had work and the baby to keep her occupied but they weren't enough. She missed having Justin near her, making her laugh, making her smile, and loving her. Girl, get a hold of yourself, your acting like a love-struck teenager. You CAN make it a few weeks without him. Lord, get a life! She had to laugh at herself for acting so foolish. She would be fine until she saw him again. She got Emma ready and they went out to celebrate Valentine's Day together.
Wednesday morning came and Anya was putting her bags in her car to go to the airport. Her and Emma would be leaving in a few hours to join the guys in New York. As she put the last bag in, the mailman delivered the mail. She went to get it and noticed another letter addressed to her in the same way the others had been. She started to panic and thought she would fall to the ground. She heard Emma crying in the house and that snapped her back to reality. She ran inside to find the baby upset because she dropped her bottle. Anya laughed at her daughter and picked her up to let her finish drinking.
She sat down at the kitchen table and brought the letter out to open it. Inside was the same few typed lines as the others but this time the letter made her mad, not scared. I guess you don't have everything you thought you did. You were alone while your boyfriend was with another woman. Happy Valentine's Day!
Tears came to her eyes, not ones of sadness, but of anger. This person was accusing Justin of seeing another woman while he was gone. He would never do that to me, never!
She looked at the post-marked stamp and sure enough, it was from Tennessee. That's it, I know it is Ben that is doing this and I won't take this anymore. She decided she would call the prison and request to have all of his letters he sent out to be looked over and none to be sent to her again.
"Yes, may I speak to the warden, please? Yes, I'll hold on." She waited for the warden to answer and then told him who she was and what her problem was. "I would like Ben Sanders' mail to be looked through and nothing sent to my house again."
"Ma'am, I'm sorry to tell you this but Ben Sanders was killed 3 weeks ago in a fight that broke out in the cafeteria. Didn't anyone inform you of that?"
Anya sat there shocked at what he just told her. "But that can't be. I have been getting letters from someone in Tennessee, I assumed they were from Ben. No one told me anything."
"Ma'am, again, I am sorry, you were suppose to be notified about his death but I guess the message got lost somewhere. Do you want me to look through the other inmates' mail to see if anyone else would be doing this to you?"
"Um…yeah…thank you…um…you have my number, right?"
"Yes I do, I'll call you if I find out anything."
"Thank you." She took the phone away from her ear but didn't hang it up. She sat there unable to move. All this time she was sure it was Ben that was trying to scare her but now that he was dead, she had no clue who the mystery person was.
She snapped out of her trance when she felt Emma drop her bottle on the floor. She picked it up and realized that they had to leave immediately or they would miss their plane. She picked Emma up and grabbed her diaper bag and headed out the door.
On the plane ride to New York, all Anya could think about was the fact that someone other than Ben was after her. Someone either wanted what she had, or wanted her to lose what she had, both of which were Justin. She wasn't about to let anyone come between them…but wait, the letter said he was with someone else…what am I going to do?
They finally reached New York and were greeted by two familiar bodyguards. "Hey Anya, are you ready to go?"
"You know, I could get a cab. I didn't need you guys coming for us." She hated having people make a fuss like this.
"We know but Justin didn't want anything to happen to you or Emma. We are only following orders."
"Tell me, what has Justin been up to lately, I haven't spoken to him since Valentine's?" She was curious to see if the guys would slip and tell on him.
"Well, he hasn't done much of anything except go out with a couple of old friends and hang out with the guys. Nothing big, why do you ask?"
"Just curious, that's all." She showed the guys which bags were hers and they left to get into the van that was waiting for them.
When they arrived at the hotel, Anya was immediately bombarded by fans waiting outside for the guys. She was very nervous about the crowd, especially since she had the baby with her. If it had only been her, she could have handled it, but she didn't want to put her daughter in that situation. "Anya, just follow close to us and everything will be okay. Do not stop for any reason and keep moving forward, got it?"
Anya looked nervously at the bodyguard and nodded her head. The doors to the van opened and Anya and the baby were pushed out. She could hear screams and people shouting for her attention. Part of her wanted to turn and talk to some of them so they wouldn't think she was a snob or anything, but the part of her that was a mother, could care less. She would talk to them without her daughter if they wanted, but Anya wouldn't subject Emma to this madness.
They made it inside and up to the room that Anya would be staying in. When she got there, she found a note from Justin saying that he was glad she was here and he would be back in a few minutes, he was down the hall in JC's room talking over the plans for the next few days. Anya settled herself and the baby in and laid on the bed to watch a little TV. The next thing she knew, she felt something warm on her neck. She opened her eyes and found Justin leaning over her, kissing her.
"Hey, when did you get here?" She said as she started to wake up.
"Just now. I saw you and the baby asleep and couldn't help myself." He smiled at her and motioned for her to scoot over so he could lay beside them. He brought both of them into his arms, gently so he wouldn't wake Emma up. "How was your trip?"
"Well, except for being attacked by the fans downstairs, I'd say it was okay."
"They didn't hurt you, did they?"
"No, I followed the bodyguards into the lobby just like they said. It was just that there were so many of them and they kept yelling for me to turn so they could take pictures and stuff. I would have done it but I didn't want Emma involved in that stuff."
"I agree. You know that when this article in Rolling Stone comes out next week, everybody is going to be after us but I don't want them getting Emma at all." He was worried that the press or fans would go after taking pictures or what not of the baby and she was off limits as far as he was concerned.
"Don't worry, I'll be careful and keep her out of it if I can." She rest her head on his chest and felt him run his fingers through her hair. She really missed the closeness they had but something inside her kept her from enjoying herself. "Justin, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, what is it?"
She took a deep breath and hoped he would tell her the truth. "Did you go out with another girl while you were in LA?"
He stopped what he was doing and shifted nervously on the bed. "Um…well…"
"Please be honest with me."
He sat up and held onto Emma. "How did you know about that?"
"You did. I can't believe this. How could you do this to me?" Her voice was raising with every word.
"Wait, let me explain. You remember Victoria my friend from back home?" She nodded her head. She remembered 'Vic' from the after party in LA and how she hung on Justin. "Well, she was still in LA and called the hotel to see what I was doing. Since the other guys where out that night, I thought that I would go out to eat with her. That was all we did, only dinner and nothing else. I didn't want to spend the night alone again so I went out. You know I would never do anything to hurt you. It was just dinner."
"Dinner on Valentine's Day isn't just dinner. Why didn't you tell me?" She was getting angry with him.
"It was no big deal. I didn't think about it, really, it meant nothing. What I don't get was how you knew?"
She got off the bed and walked to her suitcase on the floor. She picked through it and retrieved the letter she had received earlier. "This is how."
He looked at the letter and didn't understand. "Who sent this to you?"
"That's just it, I have no idea. There was no return address and the post-marked stamp is from Tennessee. How would anyone in Tennessee know about you and Victoria?"
"I have no idea. There weren't any cameras on us that night and the press never knew about it. The only people that had any idea were the guys and Kiley and Beth. They were all there when I got back to the hotel but they weren't in Tennessee to send this to you. I don't like this at all. Have you gotten anymore like this?" He hoped she hadn't been keeping something like this from him.
"Well…"
"ANYA, tell me this is the first one."
"I can't…I'm sorry, Justin, I've got three other ones. They started a few weeks ago. I didn't want you to worry about them. I thought, at first, they were from angry fans but then they sounded like they came from Ben."
"What, is Ben doing this?"
"No, I called this morning to the prison and the warden said he was killed in a fight in the cafeteria except no one called to tell me. I couldn't have been him but it is someone who wants what I have."
"Ben is dead?" She nodded her head. "Wait a minute…what do you mean someone wants what you have?" He didn't like the sound of that.
She reached into her bag again and pulled out the other two letters. "I threw the first away, thinking it was nothing, but kept these."
He read over the other two and realized that someone had been making threats to his girlfriend. They didn't say specifically that they would harm her or the baby, but Justin wasn't going to take any chances. Someone knew about him going out with Victoria which meant he was being followed and that scared him. Since Anya had been assaulted in Cancun, he swore that he would never let her get hurt again. He left her once to keep her from harm, but this time, he wouldn't make that same mistake. "Look, we need to figure out who is doing this and why. I'm going to give these to the guards and have them take care of it. I don't want you telling this to anyone and I mean that. No one, not even the guys can know about this. This person knew about me and Victoria and that bothers me. No one outside our friends knew about that, which means it could be someone close to us. I know the person hasn't exactly threatened you but I don't want it to come to that. Whomever it is sounds like they are mad at you for something and we need to figure out why."
He put Emma on the bed and approached Anya. He brought her into his arms and held her tight. She felt much better about telling Justin. She wasn't afraid of this person, she knew she would be safe, but still, someone was mad at her for some reason and until they figured out who it was, she wouldn't know for sure what he or she was capable of doing.
"Justin, can we just forget about this for now. I have been thinking about it for so long and all I want to do it be with you and our daughter right now."
He pulled away from her and held up a finger to tell her 'just a minute'. He walked out the door then returned a few minutes later. He came back to his spot holding Anya and leaned down towards her. "It's taken care of. I told the guards about it and they will keep it hush-hush for now. Don't worry about it again. I will be here for you and won't let anything happen, okay?"
She looked into his eyes and knew he wasn't lying. He wasn't going to leave her like he had before. He was there to stay. "Okay." She put her hand on the back of his neck and brought him down to her level. Their lips finally met after several weeks and Anya knew everything would be okay.