“One second!” Brian called from the kitchen. He ran to the front door and threw it open. “Can I help you?”
“Special delivery for Angela Perera.” The man handed Brian a clipboard for him to sign. Brian signed the form and took the Fed-Ex envelope from the man. “Thank you,” he said before closing the door. “Hmm…” There was no return address. The postmark was from Los Angeles. “Who does Ang know in LA?”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Everyone in the conference room was in an uproar, unable to believe that they would give full custody of the little boy to a complete stranger. But Nick wasn’t hearing any of it. He was in total shock. “There has to be some mistake,” he said, finally. “I’ve never even met these people. How is this possible?”
“I have a copy of the birth certificate.” Jared Dylan began searching through the papers in his briefcase. “Mr. and Mrs. Gordon were unable to have children of their own. Aidan was adopted.”
“How could they do this?” Mary Gerhart, Catherine’s mother, cried. “How could they leave that little boy to a complete stranger?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Gerhart,” Jared apologized. “This was drawn up right after Aidan was adopted. It’s not my job to question my client’s wishes.” He finally pulled a copy of the birth certificate out of his briefcase. “Here you go, Mr. Carter.” Nick stared at the piece of paper in his hand:
Nick was furious after reading the birth certificate. How could she not have told him? Instead, she took it upon herself to give the baby up for adoption without him ever even knowing. Didn’t she understand that he would have been there for her. His career was never that important.
The meeting ended with the Gerhart’s swearing that they were going to fight Nick for custody of Aidan. But Nick barely even heard them. He was already halfway out of the building. It was about time he paid a visit to his ex-girlfriend.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Brian?” Ang called, entering the house. “You home?”
“Yeah,” Brian replied. “I’m watching t.v.”
Ang set her purse and keys down on the kitchen table and walked into the family room where Brian was sprawled out on the couch. She leaned down and gave him a kiss. “Hey babe.”
Brian tore his eyes away from the television and smiled up at her. “Hi. How was Brooke’s?”
“Alright.” Ang shrugged. “We didn’t get that much done. Everyone had other stuff on their minds. Speaking of which, have you heard from Nick?”
“No.” Brian shook his head. “He went to New York last night. Something about someone’s will.”
“Damn,” Ang muttered. “I thought that maybe Lanie was wrong.”
“What are you talking about?” Brian asked, sitting up so Ang could sit down. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Ang lied. “I just have a feeling that Nick and Kate are finally going to run into each other. And it’s not going to be pretty.”
“I meant to tell you,” Brian said, a little bit later, as he and Ang were finishing lunch. “A package came for you earlier.”
“Really?” Ang’s eyes narrowed. “From who?” Brian shrugged. “I don’t know. There was no return address. It’s postmarked from Los Angeles.”
“Hmm…” Ang thought for a moment. “I don’t know anyone in L.A.”
“Well, it’s in my office,” Brian stated, looking at his watch. “I gotta go, though. I told Kevin I’d meet him.”
Ang leaned in and gave her boyfriend a kiss. “See you later.”
“Bye!” Brian called, walking out the front door. Ang finished cleaning up the kitchen and then went into Brian’s office. She saw the box sitting on his desk and went to open it. Opening it up, her eyes widened in horror. Inside were pictures from that fateful night in Los Angeles. She was passed out cold, syringe in hand, next to a dead body. She saw a note underneath of all the pictures and, with trembling hands, picked it up.
Angela,
I told you I’d be back. I thought I told you to stay away from Brian. How could you live with yourself if these pictures got out? Perfect little Backstreet girlfriend: a murderer. Do you know what would happen to the Backstreet Boys if news of this went public? Consider yourself warned.
Ang stared at the note in her hands with tears silently streaming down her face. She knew what she was eventually going to have to do and, as much as she didn’t want to, she had no other choice.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Nick threw money on to the front seat of the cab and muttered a thank you before jumping out and storming through the doors of the Park Avenue apartment building.
“Excuse me, sir!” The doorman yelled as Nick marched right by the desk. “All guests must be announced.” Nick ignored him and stormed past the desk and into the elevator, repeatedly hitting the ‘close door’ button so he could get upstairs without being hassled. When he arrived on the floor where the Taylor’s apartment was, he marched, determined towards the door and banged on it until someone opened.
Adrienne heard the loud banging on the door and dragged herself off of the couch, groaning. “I’m coming. Jesus, keep your pants on!” She flung the door open and stared in surprise. “Nick?!”
Nick pushed past her and into the apartment. “Where the hell is she? Is she here?”
“Nick…” Adrienne began.
“Katelin!” Nick called, interrupting her. He walked back towards the living room. “Kate?!”
“Nick!” Adrienne yelled, getting his attention. “She’s not here.”
“Where is she?” Nick glared at her. He was so angry at the moment, that he could barely control himself.
“She went out to lunch,” Adrienne replied, leading him into the living room. “What’s wrong?”
Nick flung the birth certificate at her. “This is what’s wrong.”
Adrienne’s eyes widened in shock. “Where did you get this?”
Nick ignored her question. “When will she be back? Adrienne, please, I need to talk to her.”
Adrienne softened at the pleading tone in his voice. “She should be back soon. Let me call her cell phone.” Adrienne reached over and grabbed the portable phone that was sitting on the coffee table. While she waited for Katelin to answer, she watched Nick out of the corner of her eye. He looked so nervous. His knee was bouncing up and down and his hand was shaking. After a minute or two, she hung up the phone. “She’s not answering.”
Katelin and Dylan climbed out of the cab in front of her building just as her cell phone began ringing. She pulled it out of her purse, glanced at who it was, and put it back in the purse.
“Aren’t you going to answer it?” Dylan laughed.
“It’s just Adrienne,” Katelin responded. “We’ll be up there in a minute.”