From the creek running behind their accommodations to the invigorating Vermont air, Gabrielle adored everything about Killington. She particularly loved their rented house. Its triangular shape reminded Gabrielle of a contemporary Swiss chalet. The front was faced in cedar shingles, while the entire back of the chalet was glass, giving them full view of the surrounding woods. The house was delightfully secluded, their nearest neighbors being over three miles away, giving Gabrielle the privacy she so desperately craved.
Inside, the chalet was split into two levels. Upstairs was a huge loft with the master bedroom and bath, while downstairs held the living room, kitchen, a smaller bedroom, and a half bath. A huge stone fireplace dominated the living room, adding to the rustic yet contemporary decor. Ceramic tiles lined the floors, scattered with several colorful cotton rugs. The place was furnished in a mix of rattan and Shaker-style furniture. Several fans hung from the high, slanted ceiling.
Gabrielle and Jack were curled up together on the couch. More for ambience than warmth, logs crackled in the fire. Oil lamps were lit around the room and upstairs on the banister of the loft, making the house look as if the stars had come inside for the evening. This was the first night of their weeklong honeymoon, and both were feeling completely relaxed.
“I love you,” Jack whispered in her ear.
“If I shaved my head, would you still love me?”
“Of course I would. We just couldn’t share the same bed until your hair grew back,” Jack told her.
“Jack!” Gabrielle said, playfully hitting him in the shoulder.
“I’m sorry, you wouldn’t be the same without those curls.”
“What if I got fat?” she asked, getting up and heading into the kitchen.
“I can’t even picture you pudgy,” Jack said, unwilling to imagine his wife being anything other than drop-dead gorgeous. The Hollises were known in the press as one of the world’s “beautiful” couples, along with John Jr. and Carolyn, Will and Jada, Tom and Nicole. It was a reputation that Jack thrived on. If Gabrielle were to be disfigured in any way, would he still love her? Of course, would be his first reaction, but truthfully, deep down inside, could he be sure?
“Can you picture me fat now?” Gabrielle asked, walking back into the room with a bundle of dishtowels tucked under her shirt. She looked as if she were at least seven months pregnant. She stood in front of her husband, giving him her best runway poses so he could see her make-believe bulk from various angles. “So, what do you think? Does a little extra weight become me?”
“What’s going on here?” Jack laughed, still not quite catching on.
“I’m pregnant,” she told him, watching closely as the news sank in.
“You can’t be pregnant.”
“Here, open this,” she said handing him a small envelope.
Still stunned, Jack opened the pouch and pulled out what looked like three Q-tips with pink stripes. “I couldn’t believe it either, so I checked—three times. You see, we are having a baby!”
“This is fabulous. It’s terrific!” he yelled, giving his wife a bear hug. He wanted to have children with Gabrielle, though he hadn’t counted on starting quite so soon. Now that she was expecting, their timing couldn’t have been more perfect. With the announcement of her pregnancy, Jack was fully convinced that Gabrielle would now be his forever.
“I take it you’re okay with this?” Gabrielle asked, laughing.
“Of course I am. This is the start of a long line of Hollis/Donovan offspring.” Jack sighed contentedly.
“Just how many kids do you want?”
“Two. Maybe three. I hated being an only child, especially after my parents died,” Jack told her before putting his lips to her stomach. “Hi, Cashew, this is your dad.”
“Cashew? What kind of name is that?”
“I don’t know, I just figured the baby is about the size of a cashew nut right now.”
“It’s cute, I like it—for now. But what about real names?”
“If it’s a boy, I’d like to name him Kyle Alexander, after my father, and for a girl, Hillary, just because I’ve always liked the name.”
“I like Kyle, but Hillary Hollis? That’s a mouthful.”
“You have a better suggestion?”
“Kylie Helene. Kylie, after your dad, and Helene, after my mom.”
“I don’t care what we name her as long as she looks like you,” Jack said, pulling Gabrielle close. “I love you.”
Floating in an emotional whirlwind, Gabrielle had never felt closer to Jack than she did at this moment. “And I love—”
“Shh,” he interrupted. “Don’t say it until you really mean it. I know it will happen one day, but not today, not when we’re caught up in the emotions of becoming parents,” he told her. The fact that she was willing to have his baby was more revealing than those three little words could ever be. This child provided an everlasting bond between them, one that nothing and no one could ever break.
“Three Jenn Lane. This is it!” Howie announced.
“This tiny little cracker box is where she’s spending her honeymoon?” Stephanie said in disbelief. It looked nice enough, but it was certainly miniscule. Stephanie shook her head in disgust. According to Forbes, Gabrielle had made over $7.2 million last year, and still she rented this dumpy little cheese wedge for her honeymoon? Gaby had a lot to learn about the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
“Now what?” Howie asked.
“Now you’re going to drive me back to our house and then come back here and watch the place. If they leave, I want you to look around, check the doors and windows, see where we might be able to get in. Also, bring me back their garbage.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“We’re going to give Mr. and Mrs. Hollis a surprise wedding reception. One that it looks like they hosted themselves,” Stephanie revealed. She’d worked everything out while on the six-hour drive from New York to Vermont. Celebrities were famous for throwing wild parties and trashing places that didn’t belong to them. By the time she and Howie got done with the place, it would look as if the frat party of the century had just ended. Once this hit the news, Gabrielle’s reputation as the industry’s good girl would die a tortured death.
Howie dropped Stephanie off at the small cabin they’d rented six miles away. He loaded up his knapsack with his camera equipment and headed back to the chalet. He parked his Aerostar van down the road and hiked into the woods. The photographer walked about a hundred feet, until he found an inconspicuous spot where he could see but not be seen. Howie was there less than twenty minutes when he saw Jack and Gabrielle leave the house and pile into their Range Rover. He waited for them to clear the area before leaving his perch and venturing down to the house.
Howie took a slow tour around the property, not only looking for points of entry and the presence of an alarm system but also taking a few snapshots along the way. He started around back and found a sliding patio door that led outside to the deck. Howie tried pushing the door open. It was unlocked and moved less than an inch before refusing to budge anymore. He peered inside and saw a thick dowel sitting in the floor track, preventing any further movement.
Howie walked back around to the front of the house. Besides the door there were four large windows, too high off the ground to make entry possible. He tried the front door; it was locked also. On further inspection he realized that the lockset was not substantial, nothing that a quick jimmy couldn’t open. Howie returned to the side of the house and pulled the plastic bags out of the garbage cans, climbed into the van, and headed toward the house he and Stephanie shared.
“Well, let’s see what we’ve got here,” Stephanie said, dumping the garbage from the Hollises’ chalet onto the kitchen floor. Among the paper towels, yogurt containers, empty food cans, and the like, three small wands caught her eye. “Hot damn, Howie, we’ve hit the jackpot!” Stephanie screamed, holding up her find.
“What the hell are those?”
“Home pregnancy testers. It looks like Gabzilla is knocked up.”
“Those certainly explain these,” Howie said, holding up a box of unopened condoms.
“I hope she gets as big as a house and her nose swells up to the size of a pear. What is this?” Stephanie asked as she unraveled a scrap of paper. “ ‘Beatrice called.’ I wonder what Henny Penny wanted? I thought the whole idea of this little getaway was so the honeymooners could spend some time alone together.”
“They won’t be alone much longer.”
“Howie, I just got a great idea. You know those photos you took of Gabrielle and Salvatore Ciccone at the Fashion Plate?”
“The ones where he’s planting a nice juicy one on her for donating some of her outfits to hang in the restaurant?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s dig them out. Maybe we could stir up a little speculation over who’s the father of Gabrielle’s baby. He’s pretty famous for knocking up glamour girls.”
“You really are the master of inference, aren’t you?”
“No. I’m merely the master of my fate.”
“Our fate,” Howie emphasized.
“Yes, our fate. Now, let’s get into town. We have to shop for party supplies.”
“We can do that in the morning. It would be a shame to let these things go to waste,” he said, holding up the box of discarded Trojans.
Why not? Stephanie thought as she accepted Howie’s kiss. Though he was not at all gifted, his dick stayed hard and he didn’t smell or drool. And God knows, all this plotting against Gabrielle had Stephanie keyed up and wired. She needed to release some of this tension, and it was either screwing Howie or going for a jog. The way Stephanie figured, if she was going to have to break a sweat, she might as well do it in bed.
Beatrice didn’t even wait for the dial tone before hanging up on Gabrielle. When Gabrielle called to invite Bea up to the cabin to celebrate her pregnancy, the news upset Beatrice for a variety of reasons. First, as much as the idea of being a grandmother appealed to her, Gabrielle was much too young to have a baby. She had miles to go with her career before settling down to raise a family.
Also, Beatrice was sure that having a baby so early in their marriage was Jack’s idea. He knew that his wife didn’t love him, and this was an attempt to rope Gabrielle in and keep her tied to him forever. Why couldn’t Jack just disappear? Then things between Bea and Gabrielle could get back to normal, and Gabrielle would once again depend on and need her as she had before he’d insinuated himself into their lives.