Chapter 35

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

It was already warm out on the patio by the pool as Selene sat at the table closely examining the tabloid she had obtained from the bathroom attendant the night before. She knew she shouldn't be looking at that stuff but she also knew that she was partly responsible for it having invited Beth into their home recently and handing her a golden opportunity to write such an article. It disgusted her to the point that she felt physically ill over it. How could she allow this to happen and put her husband in such a vulnerable position? She felt as though she had failed her husband.

She flipped through the lengthy multi-page article that was splattered with a variety of photos that were very personal in nature.

"8 pages..." She said aloud as she counted while she flipped through the whole thing.

She begun reading the article, painful as it was. It was filled with lots of unnecessary drama about the lives of disabled people and seemed to be largely padded with research on Micky's specific injuries sustained in his accident. There were photos to demonstrate this however, the photos had been taken out of context a great deal. Several photos showed Selene and Micky in what appeared to be compromising positions at various times while they were out. These must have been captured by a photographer that Beth had employed to follow them around and snap photos. She kept reading and found information about Micky's prior marriage, his drug problem, abuse, neglect, affairs and more. The usual celebrity drama and spin was all there just like he had said. She knew that most of what she was reading was sensationalized to make it sound more dramatic to the reader. After all, this was a celebrity that hadn't been in mainstream media for years until this devastating accident that ended up bringing them together.

THE NEXT PAGE

On the next page things really got interesting. The heading at the top of a paragraph read "Doctors have no hope that Dolenz will ever walk again" and went on to detail his medical condition with more research to pad the article. It made him sound as though he was a completely disabled man who needed 24/7 around the clock nursing care! Furthermore, there was a stock photo of a Mercedes like the one he crashed and then an actual crash photo of his car. It was horrific.

"This is unbelievable!" Selene said once again aloud as she picked up a cup of hot tea taking a sip to calm her nerves.

The article continued in the sense that the writer had actually spoken with Micky or Selene, and the truth was, she had! The day at the cafe when Beth was asking all of those questions about their relationship it had been purpose driven. She had been asking because she wanted to use the information in her article. Apparently Beth's painted picture of a severely disabled old man who needed constant care changed quite drastically when Selene was brought up in the article as a "decades younger caregiver who had been perky enough to breathe new life into the aging and now disabled musician" as it read. It went on to talk about the intense sexual sessions and was padded with additional information-Beth had apparently done a lot of research and embellishing of this-information on people who have fetishes with certain disabilities and then place themselves into positions where they may encounter individuals with specific disabilities. In this case, a celebrity who was significantly older than she was and who depended on her totally for his care right down to using the restroom and other personal needs.

Selene was mortified. The article went on to detail their secret wedding on the beach and their recent move to a new location as well as Micky's use of medical equipment and other things that she knew Beth had seen in their house.

Selene sat there with her mouth gaping open as she finished skimming the article and all of its outlandish and embellished information trying to figure out just how Beth took a few conversations and came up with something that was 8 pages in length and contained 11 photographs to include personal ones taken from their own albums that she knew were theirs she had not given her permission to use.

Just then it came to her - "I didn't give her or anyone else permission to use those much less look at them or obtain them...she stole them..." Selene thought to herself. This was terrible. Selene wondered for a split second whether or not there would be a follow up article. She knew that often, if an article done well, there were follow ups on things like this to feed reader interest and sell the magazine. This would be no different and it would be hard to tell what would be on the cover next time. She had hoped that nothing would come out, that this story would flop and fall flat on its face and quite honestly that she would never hear from Beth again. She was livid with Beth right at that moment. How could someone who she had known for such a long time do something like this to her. She knew how she could do this to other people but to a longtime close friend, someone she had confided in for years about her own career and relationship mishaps and bungles? This was the ultimate sin. She knew the truth though. The article was written with a target audience in mind-and for that audience, it was well written and would be well read.

Selene had already spent well over an hour pouring over the magazine and what it had to offer. She took a moment and looked at some of the other stories as well. She really had learned to view these things in a different light in a hurry. Before she found herself in a relationship with Micky, she used to pick up one of these things while waiting in line at the supermarket and casually browse through it to see what was going on. It was amusing then. This wasn't amusing now because she now realized more than ever that celebrities were real people who had real lives and real feelings and that these tabloid publications although not reliable and completely for entertainment only, were hurtful and misleading about the lives of many. Not only this but they created an invasion of privacy she was pretty sure didn't happen with reputable publications. Apparently it was 100% acceptable with the editor and publishing company for a writer to obtain photos and information by any means necessary even if it involved stealing it right out of their home, stalking them illegally to gather it and fishing under false pretenses for it in seemingly innocent conversations. She felt so violated and exploited.

Even though Micky had brushed it off the other day when they both saw it, she still felt as though she should tell him about it. She would have to wait until he came home from the studio. He had left earlier in the morning for an early recording session. Micky wouldn't be home until around lunchtime. Selene didn't feel like hanging around doing nothing so she decided it was a nice day to hang out by the pool and perhaps take a swim. She made laps around the pool and lost count of how many thinking about how she would tell Micky about this issue. She had to work this one out carefully.

The door leading out to the patio terrace slid open. Micky had arrived home. He had apparently been home long enough to change clothes and put his things away. He rolled out across the tile. He has also apparently noticed that Selene was in the pool since he had changed into his swim trunks before coming out.

"How's the water, babe?" He asked her as he lowered himself from his chair to the patio and allowed his bare feet to dangle in the pool while sitting on the edge.

"Water's fine." She said as she swam closer to where he was and positioned herself right in front of him between his feet holding one of his legs.

"Want to come in or sit up there on the side of the pool?" She said

"Oh, I'm coming in!" He said with certainty and a wink and a sly look meant especially for her.

He lowered himself into the crystal blue water beside Selene and caught her in his arm on the way in. He kissed her on the cheek holding her with one hand and holding onto the edge of the pool with the other hand so that he wouldn't sink. His arms had built up some noticeable strength and muscle.

"I'll get you the pool noodle" She said as she swam to the other side of the pool where they kept the noodles he used for his therapy routine. She picked out a bright blue one for him and returned with it.

Having a noodle helped him stabilize in the water when he didn't want to swim. Otherwise he could swim perfectly with his arms without issue. Relaxation needed a noodle or another flotation device.

Micky detailed to Selene his morning and gave her a rundown of the recording session. He was pleased to tell her that he would soon be releasing an EP with some new material on it.

"A couple of the new songs were inspired by you." He told her.

She blushed a little bit with that. She hadn't heard any of the new songs since he had been doing all of his work at the studio. Now wasn't the right time to tell him about the tabloid and that Beth had stolen the photos from their home that were printed in it. She didn't want to ruin the day so she went along with his chipper mood the rest of the time they were in the pool, over lunch and on into the evening until he noticed that something seemed to be bothering her and asked about it.

Micky sat relaxed and reclined on a sofa in their living room channel surfing while Selene sat across from him in a recliner chair seemingly involved with television even though there was nothing on and the channel was changing every 3 seconds due to constant commercials and advertisements for products that nobody wanted to buy or pay shipping and handling for.

He muted the TV and looked at her until she broke her concentration from the now silent television and looked at him. When he got her attention, he patted the couch beside him indicating he wanted her over there. She obliged and came to sit on the couch next to him.

"Whats on your mind, Selene?" Micky said as he looked at her with a look that made her feel that he was actually sitting there looking into her soul to see what he could see. There was no backing out of it now. She knew that he knew something was going on and she wasn't hiding it well.

He sat upright on the reclining sofa and took both her hands in his. "It's alright, whatever it is, it will be ok" He assured her.

She looked down toward her lap for a moment and broke eye contact with him and then regained eye contact after taking a deep breath.

"Remember the other day in the grocery store..." He stopped her mid sentence.

"It's ok, its not a big deal. Tabloids happen all the time and whatever it was, isn't true and it shouldn't worry you." He said reassuringly.

She didn't want to be reassured or silenced because this wasn't just any old tabloid story. This was serious. Someone had violated their privacy, taken advantage of them and stolen personal photographs for their own financial gain and then exploited them.

"No, its not ok!" She said with some alarm in her voice. This caught Micky a bit off guard.

"No, Micky...I'm afraid I really screwed up and its not good." She continued. "I went back and looked at that tabloid article and its 8 pages of our personal life!" she said.

"That's what tabloids do-they sensationalize the lives of celebrities so that people buy their magazine and keep reading it. It makes us all sound way more interesting than what we are. How did you screw up? You didn't write the article." He said, still showing little or no concern and possibly thinking that she had overreacted a bit.

"That's not it. I let her into our house, she lied and made me believe things in order to get information, she stole our photos right out of our album and stole your medical information and a lot of other stuff." Selene said, almost crying "And I let her do it and didn't even think twice about the possibility of anything like that ever happening."

"What are you talking about?" Micky said this time in a more serious tone.

"Beth! When she was here, I left her alone for just a few minutes and she apparently raided the house, stole our photos from the album, obtained photos of your medical information and all kinds of stuff as well as what I actually told her about our relationship." Selene informed him.

There was a silence.

"I thought I was telling a curious friend about my husband and bragging about our great relationship when in fact she was hanging on every word I said setting me up to provide her with the information she would then use in the article she wrote for that magazine." Selene stopped and choked as she began to cry.

"Selene, babe, what do you mean she stole our photos and my medical information?" Micky asked her, confused as he smoothed her hair with his hand.

"Talk to me, I need to know whatever it is that you know." He continued.

Selene got up off the couch and returned with the rumpled copy of the tabloid to show Micky what she was talking about. He didn't usually look at these things or give them the time of day but this one did get his interest immediately when he saw the candid and personal photos that had been taken of them during times when Selene had been helping him in or out of the car and kissed him while doing so as well as the photos that he knew were their private photos from the album that they kept in their home.

"Selene, have you checked the album to see if she actually took the photos from it?" Micky asked.

"Well, no, I just saw our photos in that magazine but no, I haven't checked to see if they are still physically in the book." She said as she went to pick up the book from their coffee table and look through it. The photos were still all there just where they had been when she put them in the book. Nothing had been physically stolen.

"She must have used her cell phone to photograph the photos and also take photos of things around the house." Micky said as he closed the magazine and in a fit of disgust, he threw it across the room toward the muted television.

"She asked to go to the restroom while she was here as well. She must have used her cell phone to take photos." Selene told Micky.

He was upset, not at Selene but just in general.

"She had no right to come into my-our- home and invade our privacy like this." He said in a quiet tone that indicated that he wasn't happy.

Selene was silent for a moment then sat down beside Micky again, taking his hand in both of hers.

"I also told her some things about our relationship." She said, embarrassed.

"I told her how great the sex was, how much I loved you and that you were the best thing that ever happened to me-in other words, that things were great. She took that and turned it into some embellished weird fetish story about a younger caregiver and an older disabled celebrity." Selene said "And I'm sorry I didn't see it coming before this happened. I should have known. This is all my fault. I'm really really sorry." She sobbed. She got up and left the room.

Micky hated seeing her like this but at the same time he was livid about the privacy invasion. He knew that Selene had honestly not meant any harm and remembered a time in his life when he would have lashed out at anyone who had engaged a reporter about his personal life. He had mellowed since he met her. She had managed to change him by just being there and just loving him. He pushed his fingers through his hair as he still sat there. A deep sigh escaped him, he switched the television off and picked up the photo album.

Selene was in the master bathroom and had very clearly had a moment of uncontrollable emotion. She couldn't stop crying, she was gasping for air and very clearly remembered the last time she felt like this-she was having a panic attack. Last time she felt like this was when she was involved in the shooting. She stood at the bathroom sink with her hands firmly planted on the vanity hanging her head down toward the sink trying to take some deep breaths.

From behind, she felt a gentle hand touch her lower back and slide around her hip and then another as he pulled her toward him and gently onto his lap where he held her, stroking her hair and wiping her tears.

"It's ok" Micky said with some concern as he held her close, one arm around her shoulder and the other hand at the back of her head. She nearly instantly felt the panic draining out of her and suddenly felt worn out and tired. She let herself fall into him, her face buried in his chest and shoulder and her arms around his neck. He continued to hold her and whisper gently in her ear.

"I love you and this is going to be ok." He said quietly.

It absolutely pained him to the core to see her this upset and know that she was upset because of something she had unknowingly done to him. He let her hold him and he held her until she relaxed. He managed to pull a washcloth from the shelf and soak it in cool water with one hand while holding her with the other, wrung it out and then told her "hold on babe, we're going to the bedroom" as he laid the damp washcloth on his wheelchair and then moved it and Selene who was still holding him, to the bedroom where he then coaxed her gently off of his lap and onto the bed. He could feel that she was in a weakened state from the panic attack she had experienced. She began to tremble as soon as she let go of him and lied down on the bed.

"Here love, this will make you feel better" he said as he blotted her face with the cool washcloth. Her face now looked blotchy and reddened from crying. Selene let him blot her face without protest with the cool cloth as she lay there on the bed facing him in the fetal position. He soon maneuvered to the other side of the bed and joined her on the bed, this time lying behind her, conforming his body to hers and his arm over her mid section. She had grasped his arm and hand with both of hers. It gave her an extra sense of security to feel him close to her like that and his arms around her. He held her until they both fell asleep. There was no need to verbalize any discussion. They had already talked emotionally and conveyed a mutual love for one another. There would be no need to discuss this further or make an issue of it within their relationship. If any action was taken, Micky would take care of it outside of their relationship and it would not concern Selene in any way. She did not deserve to have to be a party to these things that he had become so accustomed to during his life and career.