Chapter 47: I’ve Worn That Shirt Too
Chapter 47: I’ve Worn That Shirt Too
Eric said firmly, “Annie, I won’t break up with you. Can you tell me your address in New York? I’ll visit you at Christmas.”
“Dream on,” Aniston refused with a tense little face. At the same time, she could not help thinking, Can’t you find it yourself? Even that Drew Barrymore managed to find me. “Don’t you already have… a new girlfriend? That… big-mouthed girl?”
“You mean Julia. She has good potential. I’m planning to open a talent agency, and I want to sign her.”
Aniston glanced unhappily at the gossip tabloid still spread open on the nearby table. “Do all the actresses in your agency have to sleep with you? I’ve… I’ve worn that shirt too, you bastard!”
After hesitating for a few seconds, Eric said softly, “I’m sorry, Annie. Forgive me, alright? I promise I’ll never do that again.”
Hearing the rare weakness in Eric’s tone, Aniston’s voice softened a little. “Eric, I think the distance between us is too great. The longer we spend together, the more I realize you’re someone who drifts without settling. I don’t want to feel that kind of insecurity every moment.”
“Annie, I just bought a villa. It’s on Beverly Hills…”
“But you don’t have a home in your heart, Eric. Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I feel like you’re a passerby, someone who suddenly barged into this world. When I’m with you, sometimes I can’t help worrying that you might suddenly disappear.”
The two of them fell into a brief silence at the same time.
“Eric, I called you today only because I wanted to tell you something. This morning, I received an anonymous letter saying someone wanted to meet me to talk about you. I saw that the address was a public place in Central Park, so there didn’t seem to be any danger, and I went out of curiosity. That stranger asked about you and me, then asked me… asked me about what happened that morning. I didn’t say anything, but that person may have noticed something. Then he tested whether I’d be willing, if possible, to appear in court and testify that you and Drew had a relationship. He also said that if it succeeded, he could give me money. I refused.”
Eric listened quietly to Aniston’s account, his lips pressed tightly together. Only after Aniston finished did Eric say lightly, “Annie, thank you for telling me this. You still love me, don’t you?”
“You…” Aniston’s heart jumped rapidly, and her voice rose. “How can you still be in the mood to obsess over this? Didn’t you understand me, Eric? Someone wants to send you to prison. I specifically looked up Roman Polanski’s case. Back then, it was true there was solid evidence that he had a relationship with that girl, but there were also people targeting him. They wanted to sentence him to life imprisonment, and that was why he had no choice but to flee the United States.”
“Annie, I understand. Don’t worry. I’ll handle this.”
After hanging up, Eric sat quietly on the sofa and thought for a long time. Although Home Alone had squeezed the box office of many film companies, that was still normal business competition. Even if many people hated him, their most extreme methods should only have been like the previous days, smearing him through the media to suppress his films’ box office.
Besides, Fox had already launched a fierce counterattack. Once the other side realized nothing could be done, they quickly stopped.
After thinking it over, Eric could only come up with one person who hated him enough to want to send him to prison: Blount Cohen. Because of the bet agreement controversy, Blount Cohen had been forced to publicly apologize to him. For someone who had occupied a high position for years, publicly bowing his head to a brat young enough to be his grandson must have been a humiliation. On top of that, the man was not exactly broad-minded, so he was the most suspicious.
However, other possibilities could not be ruled out either. Everyone knew the human heart was the hardest thing in the world to predict. It was also possible that someone had simply found Eric unpleasant during this period and happened to have the means to do this, so they went along with it just to disgust him.
Although he was not too worried, Eric still dialed Edward Lewis’s number. More than half an hour later, his private lawyer arrived at Eric’s house.
Eric told him what Aniston had said. The two discussed it for a long time, and Edward Lewis personally took notes while asking many detailed questions.
After more than two hours, Edward Lewis closed his notebook and asked solemnly, “Eric, I want to confirm this one last time. Can you guarantee that you did not have relations with Miss Drew Barrymore that day? You need to understand that whether it happened or not requires two completely different contingency plans. If… you’re not telling the truth, we may be caught off guard by the opposition later.”
Eric carefully recalled the situation at the time and said with certainty, “Absolutely not. When we woke up that day, we were in the same bed, but the sheets and everything else were clean. There were no traces of anything after sex. Later, Drew also personally admitted that we didn’t have that kind of relationship.”
“Then I have no other questions. Eric, don’t worry. I’ll immediately prepare a response plan when I get back. You don’t need to worry about this at all. Although public opinion is still somewhat unfavorable toward you, when the fact itself doesn’t exist, even if someone tries to falsely accuse you, they won’t succeed.”
Eric finally felt relieved. After seeing Edward Lewis out, he suddenly remembered that when the storm had first started a few days ago, Drew had been unable to run over to his house anymore, but she still called him from time to time to act clingy. Yet these past two days, she had suddenly gone silent.
Eric called Drew’s home several times in a row, but no one answered. A bad feeling rose in his heart. He was not worried that Drew would join forces with those people to frame him. It was just that Drew’s greedy and not particularly intelligent mother was hard to say.
On the second floor of an apartment in Culver City, Los Angeles, Drew, who had been locked in her room and was boredly watching television, heard the phone in the living room ring again and again. She grew irritated. Although Eric had never taken the initiative to contact her before, her sixth sense told her that the call was very likely from Eric.
These past few days, Jaid Barrymore, who usually did not care about her, seemed to have suddenly discovered her conscience and turned into a responsible good mother. Using the media storm as an excuse, she grounded Drew in her room and would not let her go out. She even forbade her from making phone calls.
Drew, of course, did not agree. After an argument, the mother and daughter nearly came to blows. In the end, Drew, with her small arms and legs, could not overpower Jaid Barrymore and was locked in her room.
Moreover, Drew sensed that someone was plotting something with her mother. Late last night, she had accidentally heard her mother in the living room, lowering her voice and muttering on the phone with the person on the other end for a long time. In the past, Jaid had never avoided her when making calls. She did not even lower her voice when flirting with men on the phone.
“No. Something must have happened…”
Drew turned off the television and muttered to herself for a while. Uneasily, she paced around the room a few times and checked the time. Her mother would probably be back soon. Drew felt she could not wait any longer. After thinking for a moment, she found several bedsheets in the closet and tied them together into a rope three or four meters long. She tied it to the bed leg, tested its strength, opened the window, and carefully climbed down along the rope.
When she was about to land, the knot suddenly snapped. Drew fell from about one meter up and hit the ground. She groaned in pain a few times, but she did not bother with the bruise on her knee. Limping, she ran out of the yard, hailed a taxi, and headed toward Eric’s house.