Misty actually chuckled at the image of the three women locked up. “Helen would have hated not being able to wear her stiletto heels in jail,” she said. “She has a shoe wardrobe that’s the envy of every woman in town. One pair probably costs as much as all my school clothes last fall.”
“Yeah, Helen does love her Jimmy Choo’s.”
Surprised that she’d been able to find anything at all to laugh about, Misty sighed. “As bad as this is, I’m glad you told me, and I’m even happier that you’re my friend.”
“Always,” Katie told her. “Now, I think I hear Kyle downstairs. Let me get him on this right now. I’ll call you back after he’s handled it and after I speak to Helen, okay? Or do you want to come over? Maybe hang out for a while?”
The thought of facing Kyle after he’d seen the pictures online was way too depressing. “Not tonight.”
“But I will see you at the rally tomorrow, right?” Katie said.
When Misty didn’t immediately answer, Katie prodded, “You have to be there, Misty. And you have to speak. You’ll regret it if you don’t. I’ll come to your house and go with you, okay?”
“Okay,” Misty agreed reluctantly.
With Katie’s warning about regrets still ringing in her ears, Misty hung up, then threw herself across her bed. Her friend was probably right. She would hate herself if she didn’t stand up for herself.
She just wasn’t sure she could face the humiliating prospect of having everyone staring at her, wondering if just maybe she really had posed for those sick pictures online. If even a single person believed she could do anything like that, she thought she might very well die of embarrassment.
19
Cal and Maddie had just finished cleaning up the kitchen and putting their two little ones down for the night when Kyle walked in, his expression dark. Maddie gave him a questioning look.
“Were we expecting you tonight?” Maddie asked, giving him a fierce hug. “Not that I’m not always happy to have you come home from college.”
“Katie called me,” he explained, looking from his mother to Cal, his expression puzzled. “She hasn’t talked to either of you about what’s going on? I thought for sure she would.”
Maddie frowned. “Not a word. What is it? Why would she call you, rather than telling us?”
“Something to do with Misty,” Cal guessed, his anger stirring. “And it’s online. She wants you to fix it.”
Kyle nodded. “She filled me in on what’s been happening and on tomorrow’s rally. Someone’s apparently not taking it well.”
“What does that mean?” Cal asked.
“They posted fake pictures of Misty online, worse than the previous ones, if Katie can be believed. It shook her up. She asked me to help her take them down. I got in the car and headed straight home.” He gave Cal a distraught look. “I can’t believe some pervert is doing this to a nice girl like Misty. Who would do such a thing?”
“We all thought the obvious suspect had been neutralized, so to speak,” Cal said. “Either she’s foolish enough to keep her vendetta going or someone’s acting at her behest.”
“At the moment, that hardly matters,” Maddie said. “Can you do what Katie wants? Can you take them down?”
“Shouldn’t Helen see them first?” Cal asked.
“I think Katie was going to call Helen and print them out for her before I got here,” Kyle said. “Helen can probably get a court order under the circumstances, but I may be able to get them down faster.”
“As long as Helen’s okay with it, do it,” Maddie said at once. “Even if Katie’s already called her, I’ll get her over here.”
Kyle nodded and headed upstairs.
Cal looked at his wife. “This makes me sick to my stomach and I haven’t even seen the pictures.”
“What it makes me is livid,” Maddie said. “I keep picturing Katie being in the same situation, and I want to rip out the heart of whoever is tormenting Misty.” She regarded Cal with dismay. “Could Annabelle possibly be doing this? She’s already in a world of trouble.”
Cal shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. I know Mariah has raised Annabelle to feel entitled and a little above everyone else in Serenity, but I thought her father was trying to keep her grounded in reality, especially now with so much on the line.”
Maddie nodded. “I’d better make that call to Helen. Do you want to check on the kids, see if there’s anything you can do to help?”
“On my way,” he said, then paused to give his wife a kiss.
“What was that for?”
“Just to let you know how glad I am to be married to a woman who’s such an incredible mother of such terrific kids. Katie’s not only smart, she’s mature beyond her years. And she’s learned what it is to be a good friend from watching you, Helen and Dana Sue.”
“I know Bill’s their father,” Maddie said, “but you’ve had a lot of influence in the way all of them have turned out. Credit where credit’s due, okay?”
Cal winked at her. “Let’s see if we can keep getting it right with the little ones. We have a long way to go with them.”
Upstairs he found Kyle at work on Katie’s laptop while Katie paced around the room, chewing on one of her nails. She regarded Cal with alarm.
“You know?” she asked.
He nodded. “You could have told your mom and me, but I’m glad you called Kyle for help. The important thing is to deal with this, and you did all the right things.”
To his surprise, Katie threw her arms around him. “I’ve wanted to talk to you from the very beginning, but I couldn’t.”
“I know you made a promise to Misty. You did the best you could, and your mother and I are very proud of you for figuring out a way to help Misty and remain loyal at the same time.”
“I still felt kinda sneaky,” she admitted.
“But you knew it was too much for you and Misty to handle on your own. It takes real maturity to recognize that and act.”
She gave him a pleading look. “Don’t look at the pictures, okay? It’s awful enough that Kyle has to see them.”
Cal understood her embarrassment on her friend’s behalf. “You made printouts for Helen?”
“Uh-huh, and
