Stained Glass Shards

30.

GRIFFIN

My last day of filming started early in the morning. My scenes had been rewritten, and I had a couple of hours to memorize my new lines. I read through them quickly to ensure that I wasn't summarily killed off. My agent would have been warned and would have notified me. But the final scene showed that I was no longer valued in this series. The crew and production staff's interactions with me were minimal. Both sides remained professional but distant.

I had already secured my role in the spin-off. All contracts for that project were completed. Because the new show would be run by a different production crew, I was indifferent to this team's attitude. I'd been meeting my contract requirements, and they'd been fulfilling my demands.

My only concern was the lawsuit.

All defendants had responded to my complaint. And Elyce was behaving like any other defendant by not communicating with me at all. She wouldn't talk to me. My attorneys had warned me of this possibility, and it was a chance I'd had to take.

We were no longer lovers.

We were now adversaries.

The silence between us hit me worse than the other times she'd refused to see me. I needed to know how she was coping. There was only so much the private investigators could observe and report back. They couldn't tell me when she was sad because she put up a front. I alone knew how she looked away and blinked several times to stave off the tears. How she repeatedly combed through her hair when she was nervous about something. They didn't know of her tendency to wear her favorite sweater when she was anxious and depressed because she shivered from the chills that consume her.

The only information they could provide was her comings and goings, which were nil. As a writer who worked from home, she hadn't the need to go out. The timetables of take-out and grocery deliveries were frequent. It seemed unusual for a reasonable human being to stay remain closed off from society. Ritter's visits hadn't stopped since he appeared at her apartment days after the lawsuit. Despite him living in New York, he had managed to stay at her place. The investigators could find no hotel reservations in his name. He had arrived on a weekday, arriving late in the afternoon and leaving early the next morning.

It appeared she was shutting herself off from the world. And Ritter was enabling her from being human.

How could she be with a man like him?

What kind of man allows a young woman to restrict herself from living a full life?

Everyone I'd sued had filed all their responses and had also filed for summary judgment. The defendants had filed a request to have the judge decide the case without going to trial. Weeks would pass before a decision would be made. However, the filing was open to the public and the press had a field day reporting on the case. Elyce filed a legal brief claiming to have been inspired by real incidents that should nevertheless be considered fictional because she'd changed names, dates, locations, and events.

When she ultimately left her apartment, reporters and paparazzi followed her around Boston as she ran errands. Pictures of her were uploaded online. The press was not flattering. It was interesting how I ended up looking like a hero while she appeared like a gold digger who would sell her story to the highest bidder. My rating with women was at an all-time high. The new video game based on my future role had been selling out, making everyone rich. I should have waited out negotiations to obtain a higher pay rate, but hindsight was twenty-twenty.

I thought I would get some backlash. The limited negative feedback came from groups who claimed that I was an abuser, exerting my control over Elyce during and after our relationship. They accused me of playing the victim by suing to get the book pulled to hide my true nature—to preserve my honorable standing. Elyce never made any statements contradicting the abuse claims. She didn't outright call me abusive in the book, just sexually demanding, so the claims of these groups were baseless. Elyce, her agents, and the publisher withheld comment, claiming that because of the ongoing civil case, they weren't in a position to make any statements.