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Just like Fatal Attraction. I shivered. Once Glenn Close started boiling bunnies, everyone had sympathy for poor Michael Douglas, who had done nothing except give into his basic, animal instincts after all. Poor man.
“She cornered me. I didn’t want to. But I was afraid of what she might do or say. So I… we did. We had sex.”
“Just that one time.”
“Yes.” Tyler agreed. “Unfortunately, Dale came into the room… during…”
“He discovered you and his mother having sex?”
“Yes.” Tyler cleared his throat. “I tried to talk to him later but he wouldn’t have anything to do with me.”
“I don’t blame him,” Sidney Clare snapped.
Tyler didn’t take the bait. He hung his head.
“I don’t either.”
The camera focused on Sidney Clare’s face.
“When we come back, find out what Tyler Vincent did to try and protect his family from an obsessed fan.”
Protect his family? They made him sound like a boy scout. And obsessed fan? She was a woman he was involved with for years! They’d been lovers before Dale was born. Tyler even admitted as much.
The screen showed commercials, just like the viewers at home saw. But I knew, down the hall, all of this was happening live. And Dale was walking right into the trap. I sprang from the sofa and rushed out the door. The hallways were numerous but there was a red arrow with “studio” painted on each wall, showing the direction.
I followed the arrows, coming out to a backstage area where crew was hurrying around, getting things done. I was familiar enough with a crew to know they probably wouldn’t even pay attention to me—until I walked out on the stage.
But Dale beat me to it.
He was on the other side, in the wings, just like me, but I didn’t see him until he stalked out onto the stage. Tyler didn’t see him coming. Dale could have stabbed him in the back and he wouldn’t have known it until the knife was between his shoulder blades. But Sidney Clare saw him coming. Her eyes widened as Dale approached.
“Uh… Tyler…” She had a mic on so everyone heard it. The audience gasped as Dale faced his father. Tyler stood the minute Dale came around that side of the sofa. They stood there talking, but Tyler had muffled his mic. I couldn’t hear anything. And neither could the audience.
“We’re live in twenty seconds.” The announcement over the PA startled me.
“Sit down!” Sidney Clare stood, trying to get Tyler to take his seat again, but he and Dale were still in a heated argument. “This is a live show! Sit down now!”
She was half their size but she got her way. Tyler finally relented. Dale stood for a moment, glanced at the camera, and then took a seat on the couch with Tyler—as far away as he could get.
“Welcome back.” Sidney Clare smiled, looking as poised as ever. “Today I have with me…”
Sidney recapped things for viewers just tuning in, also introducing Dale, who was brooding on the other end of the sofa.
“So Dale. “Sidney leaned in, just like she had with Tyler, using that same, kind, soft voice that meant, tell me everything, I’m your friend. “How do you feel about everything you’ve heard so far.”
“It’s bullshit,” he snapped. “This man is a liar and a coward. I don’t like him, I never have, and I’ve spent most of my life trying not to be like him. I’m ashamed that he’s my father. I wish he wasn’t. But wishing doesn’t make things true.”
I knew, somewhere, Greg Richer was having a heart attack. He’d set this whole thing up, I was sure of it, to clear Dale’s name and dissociate him from Tyler as much as possible. This was television—they could make everyone believe a lie. It was easy.
“How do you know, Dale?” Sidney Clare asked gently.
“What?” Dale glared at her. “How do I know he’s my father? My mother told me so. She told me everything. The affair started before me and my sister were even born.”
“Your sister?” Sidney Clare prompted. I glanced at the screen overhead and sure enough, the camera was on Chrissy. They planned it all.
And now Dale was ruining all their plans, simply because he couldn’t stand by and watch Tyler sitting up there and telling more lies, denying everything Dale knew to be true. If Dale had just kept his mouth shut and gone along with it, the world would have believed Tyler Vincent. He was a consummate actor, a master manipulator.
I could hear Greg in my head. What are you doing, Dale? What the hell are you doing?
