FicWad

I'm back Baby!!!!!!!! It took a minute, but I'm here!

Chapter 7

Thinking back to a less complicated time Arissa let a small smile slip. She looked down to her thin hands and quickly shook it away. The symbol of his love to her, the promise he'd made, was just an element. Another expensive lie in a bank of many. Peter was dead and the ring meant even less now than it did last week. The good times were long gone and now so were the bad ones. Nothing mattered anymore.

Detective Johnson, upon seeing her grin, let hope flash through him. A smile, a bit of understanding and maybe a little trust, could mean he was getting somewhere. But as fast he saw the glimmer of hope it slipped away.

Just as he was going to give up she surprised him. She was the first to talk this time. She volunteered information this time and he was listening intently.

"It started out perfect. It really did. He was the picture of a perfect boyfriend." She paused and took a breath. "Peter and I were inseparable. But one day the stress got to us and we started to let it eat away at our relationship. The one good thing we had left untainted. The one thing the media never got a piece of suddenly became available to anyone."

"You just didn't care anymore?" He asked leaning forward onto the table a look of hunger in his eyes. They were begging her for information. An explanation for their actions.

"It's not that we didn't care. We just got tired of caring so much. It is easier sometimes to just let them in. To just surrender to all the probing." Arissa thought back to the times they'd fought. In restaurants, outside of the recording studio, at parties and backstage on tour. "Everything became so public. We always got caught in a fight on camera. Him looking angry and me with tears streaming down my face. There were always pictures of me walking away from him or pushing him away from me or pictures of him screaming at me while I'm stood against a wall with my head down. We were front page news every week. 'What are Peter and Arissa fighting about now?'"

"So, It became you and Peter and the media?"

"No. It became me and Peter and the labels."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked unsure of how the labels got involved.

She sighed, "We never let the media get to us. That is the first thing you have to learn to do...Ignore the media." Biting her lip she smiled at Dean and crossed her legs. "The label couldn't ignore the media though. They had to do damage control every time we messed up. They would make us do something or go somewhere together." She played with the hem of her skirt and watched him through her eyelashes. "If we insisted on fighting in public they insisted on us making up in public. They became a sort of mediator or middle man. It was Peter, the labels and me in a relationship."

Dean stood and paced the room. All of this would lead somewhere eventually, but he needed eventually to occur sooner rather than later. "Would you say that's what tore you a part? The labels involvement in your personal lives?"

Arissa had no intention of answering that question. She was a rock star not stupid. The media paid off cops and doctors all the time to get stories and the last thing she needed was this Detective saying she spoke out against her label.

Dean watched her from where he stood leaning against a wall in the corner of the room he had grown to hate over the past three hours. Everything from the pale color of the walls to the lack of decoration drove him insane. The only thing giving any warmth to the room was Arissa's occasional smile or a peak at her soft, milky thigh.

"I like the way you look at me Detective." She teased him by turning in her chair toward him and leaning forward on her crossed legs revealing a little cleavage. "Makes me feel sexy." She whispered. "Do I turn you on?"

Though he desperately wanted to answer her every inquiry he simply couldn't. After so long he had learned to ignore her improper questions and accusations. If they had met under different circumstances he would have taken her in a heartbeat. But they hadn't, much to his disappointment.

So he had to keep the desires she placed in him at bay.

"You aren't going to answer." Dean led a tired hand through his hair and down his face. "What finally broke you and Peter up? What left you feeling betrayed? Why did you finally give up after so long?" He asked all these questions frustrated with her and himself. He needed to get out of the interrogation room and away from her.

Arissa's eyes were glued to her small, pale hand and the single ring it held. A generously sized diamond in a platinum setting. It was simple and somehow still too much. They were engaged. The ring stood for a love that was meant to be shown to the world. It was more than that though. It was his love sworn to be given to her and only her for eternity.

Dean let his mind wander. The gears in his head were turning swiftly. He pulled pieces together and stapled them in place. It all made sense to him now. The betrayal, bitterness and her complete disregard for the events of the past few days. It all fit into a perfect puzzle.

"He cheated on you. Didn't he?" Dean questioned his words laced with little concern for the state of her heart.

Arissa's head shot up and she stared at him. The look in her eyes was that of a woman scorned.

He'd found his motive.

***********

Did you miss me?

This was a short one I know. I had to end it there though! It had to be exactly that long with that ending.

I'm quite proud of this chapter actually!

More soon! Hope you liked it!

Review?!