Loving A STRANGER 244 Chapter 244: Take It Back

Kylie looked at her and then at Sally. She pulled her first dress out of her bag and said, "Indeed, I started the evening in another dress. You can see that there are similarities between it and Sally's dress, but you can also see that they are not the same. Even if they were, I would have had no hope at outs.h.i.+ning the sun.

"Initially," Kylie admitted, "the dresses were the same. When I learned that they were the same, though, I altered my dress to save face. Halfway through the evening, my dress began to fall apart, so I had to change. As you can see, I am as much a victim as Sally is."

Not knowing what else to do or say, Khloe lowered her head and walked away. Before she was halfway to the door, though, Sally stopped her. In a commanding voice, she said, "Stop right there. There is still the matter of the dress and my own personal injuries. When you snuck up behind me and slashed the dress, you also cut into my skin. Anyone can see if they'd like to look."

No one took up Sally's offer, and after hearing these accusations, Khloe's heart beat fast, and she began to hyperventilate.

"Once we were in this room," Sally continued, "you sought to use that to shame me. What's wrong with you? It wasn't enough to destroy my dress and cut my skin, but you had to poke your fingers into my dress and try to make me look like a fool. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Suddenly Khloe began to foam at the mouth. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and, as she fell to the ground, her consciousness slipped away. "What a drama queen," Sally sighed. "Now she'll never be held accountable for her actions." She looked around the room and said, "I suppose somebody ought to call 9-1-1."

Khloe had hit her head when she'd fallen, but she'd known that in order to make her ordeal look real, she'd have to risk injury. When the paramedics began to move her, it was incredibly hard to keep herself from crying out. She knew that if she did, her lie would be discovered, and she would be even worse off than she'd been in the first place.

As the paramedics completed their ABCs – Airway, Breathing, and Circulation – the media began to crowd around them. Things had already been interesting as Khloe's evil intentions were revealed, but this really took the story to another level. Cameras flashed one after the other without stop and, even though no one was answering their questions, they couldn't help but shout them out. It was a part of their nature to be inquisitive.

Khloe's a.s.sistant tried to push her way through the crowd, but the paramedics would only allow her to get so close. She obeyed their directions while waiting for an opportunity to slip past them. When the time finally arrived, she lunged forward, took Khloe's hand, and said, "Miss Finch, what's wrong with you?"

Khloe squeezed her a.s.sistant's hand to let her know that it was all an act. Seeing how she'd slipped past them, the paramedics rushed her. Before they got to her, though, she said, "Stop! You can't take her to the hospital. She has no money to pay the bills, and her father is already in the hospital – and no one is paying his bill! Just take him to my house, and I will take care of her!"

The paramedics conferred with each other and finally agreed that, so long as she had a nurse check in on her daily, her idea was probably the best option.

 ***

As soon as they were alone in the a.s.sistant's home, Khloe stood up and stretched. She laughed and said, "Well, that was something, wasn't it? A real adventure – I couldn't have done it without you! Thank you!"

"It was nothing," the a.s.sistant replied. "I was even able to send out the photos of Kylie dressed in rags as you'd asked."

Suddenly Khloe's smile turned upside down, and she slapped her a.s.sistant across the face. She knew that, if the picture went out, Sally would know where it came from, and she would seek revenge on Kylie's behalf. "Take it back!" Khloe shouted.

Hearing this demand, Khloe's a.s.sistant was completely confused. She had only done as she'd been asked. For the first time, she looked at Khloe and wondered if she was completely sane or not… Not knowing what else to do, she called the reporter she'd sent the pictures to and asked him not to run with the story. "I am sorry," he said, "but it is too late. Everyone here has seen them. The pictures cannot be repressed."

Cliff looked at Kylie and said, "I think that that was the craziest thing that I have ever seen happen at one of these events. I will tell you something that would make it even crazier: I think that Khloe faked her medical incident!"

"I don't know about that," Kylie replied, "but I wouldn't put it past her. That girl is a lunatic. I can't believe she tried to go after me with a razor!"

"She should be charged," Cliff added.

Before they could say anything more, Bob came over and sat with them, and then they all ordered off of the menu. Kylie was sitting between him and Cliff and, across from her, sat Dora. She didn't say much, but, every time Kylie looked up at her, she could see the anger in her eyes. She gave it no mind, though. She had learned long ago that anger was a kind of poison. They had all gathered to celebrate but, so long as Dora was angry, she could not be happy.

After a while, Miller took a seat beside Dora. He had a wine gla.s.s in his hand that he raised as a toast. "To us," he said. "To Hollywood, and to our good fortune to be able to make movies for a living. May our good fortune last until the day that we die!"

Everyone – even Dora – raised their gla.s.ses. "Cheers!"

Cliff glanced at Kylie as he sipped the wine from his gla.s.s. It was her first gla.s.s of wine for the evening, and he hoped that she wouldn't get in trouble for it. Ethan and Kylie's relations.h.i.+p was very public, which meant that a lot of people knew how he could be jealous and controlling and that he generally didn't allow her to drink.

Indeed, as she drank, she frowned. He was not sure if her sadness was because of the wine or because she was nervous, or for some other reason. Kylie's eyelashes were slightly wet, though. It made her look rather pitiful and, seeing her this way, and he felt as if his heart had been crushed into a post by a Mack Truck.

Putting down his gla.s.s, he gave her a gla.s.s of honey water and said, "Drink this. It will make you feel better."

When Miller saw how Cliff was taking care of Kylie, he smiled, and he said, "Cliff, you are a good man."

Cliff blushed, and he said, "It's nothing. It's a tough old world. We've all got to watch out for one another."

"True, true," Miller chuckled. "True, true."

Miller offered another toast and, once it was done, Kylie excused herself to go to the washroom.

Cliff watched her walk away. She had a mis balanced step, and he was worried about her, so he made an excuse to leave the table, and he went off in the direction that she'd gone.

As Kylie walked out of the restaurant, the cold wind made her head spin. She found the washroom easily and, once she'd peed, she found a payphone and dialed Faith's number. As soon as Faith picked up, she said, "Come and get me as fast as you can. I'm drunk, and I'm scared!"

"Wait for me at the door," Faith replied. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

 Faith hung up the phone and told Lucas to bring the car to the front of the building. "Kylie's in trouble," she said. "We need to pick her up.

Kylie leaned against the marble pillar, and the cold metal helped to clear her head. As her stomach churned, she turned back in the bathroom direction, but she walked straight into a wall instead and fell to the ground.

Cliff saw her fall, and he helped her to stand up. "Are you okay?" he asked her. "Is someone coming to pick you up?"

Kylie tried to answer but, when she opened her mouth, she puked all over Cliff, and a pungent smell immediately permeated the air. Cliff frowned in disgust, and he wanted to let Kylie go, but he was afraid that she couldn't stand on her own.

"I'm so sorry," Kylie cried. "I must have drunk too much. I suppose this is why Ethan never allows me to drink…"

"Never mind," Cliff sighed. "What's done is done."

Cliff helped Kylie to sit on a chair, and then he went to talk to someone at the reception desk. He explained the situation and asked for a room so that Kylie could lie down while she waited for her ride. As soon as they heard his story, the staff opened a room up for her on the main floor and set about cleaning the mess she'd made.

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