Mystery Solved Or Is it?

“I’m so, so, so, so, so sorry!” Sophia started, collapsing into tears on my couch.

“Aw. Honey, what is it?” I said, turning into mother mode, handing her a tissue and sitting beside her.

“I did a terrible thing!”

“Sophia. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

And as she looked up at me, her wide eyes spilling with tears, I knew. I just knew. It was her.

“I…I….” she stammered.

“Sophia, calm down,” I said, getting up and grabbing my cell phone. I didn’t know how stable or unstable she was. I needed to be ready to call someone or flee, or both.

“It was me!” she finally said, quietly, bursting into louder sobs. “I sent all those flowers, I…”

“Calm down.”

She got up and started pacing, hiccuping, wringing her hands.

“Sophia, sweetie. You have to calm down and explain yourself,” I said, inching closer to the door and dialing Trent at the same time.

“You’re just the most perfect person. The perfect boyfriend, the perfect friends, the perfect life. I wanted to be you! And then I met Oliver and he was so great, I was so excited to be working with him. And then…and then….” she said, her eyes getting dark. She stopped pacing. “And then, he confessed to me one night that he was infatuated with you. And I couldn’t take it anymore. Yes, you were my boss and super nice and you gave me this great opportunity, but I wanted to break you.”

“I…I don’t know what to say,” I said. And it was the truth. I had no idea what to say. I certainly didn’t view myself, or my life, as perfect. I worked really hard to get where I was. I felt horrible that this young girl, just starting her career, viewed me as her nemesis or something. And I certainly had no idea about Oliver, but I wasn’t too concerned with that at this moment in time.

“Sophia,” I finally said. “I’m flattered that you feel that way. But you are also a very talented smart girl. You have your whole career ahead of you…”

“But I want to be you! You have EVERYTHING!!!” she screamed. Suddenly she wasn’t crying anymore. She turned around, her eyes flaming now.

The next few moments happened in a blur. Just as she lunged at me, I could see Oliver and Bruce running down the hallway to my office, with two security guards right behind them. The last thing I remember before my head hit the ground, was Bruce pulling Sophia off me.

***

“She hit her head, but it’s just a slight concussion. No damage. We’ll keep her overnight to monitor her. But she should be OK to leave tomorrow,” I heard a doctor say.

“What the?” I said, coming to. I could make out a man in a white coat and Trent. In the doorway was Bruce.

“Oh baby!” Trent said, rushing to my bedside, kissing my forehead and grabbing my hand.

The doctor gently moved Trent aside so he could flash a light in my eyes. He asked me the general questions of ‘Do you know where you are? Do you know how you got here?’ And unfortunately (and fortunately), I could answer them all. But I certainly didn’t want to stay overnight. I had work to do!

“Doctor, I feel OK. Would it be OK to just leave now?” I asked hopefully, as he made notes on my chart.

“I’m afraid we can’t let you do that with a head injury.”

“Baby, I think it’s best you just rest. You’ve been running around like a mad-woman lately, maybe this is what you need.”

“Well, someone needs to tell the office, both of them. Well, I guess everyone over at the show knows already…wait…Bruce?” I called out to him.

“Yes,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

“Groggy. And a little confused. Was Oliver with you at the office?”

“Yes. He came to security as soon as he heard what Sophia was doing. Apparently, she confessed to him over the weekend. She made him swear he wouldn’t tell anyone because she was going to stop, but when he heard she was going to confess to you…”

“He worried that she was going to hurt you…” Trent finished.

“Wow. Just wow. I had no clue. She was quiet and sweet on the set. Are we pressing charges?”

“That’s up to you,” Trent said. “The police do need a statement from you. But she’s confessed already. There is this one thing though…”

“What? This is it. It’s over, right?” I said, looking from him to Bruce. “Right?”

“Well..” Bruce started.

“I’ll tell her. Bruce, can you give us a minute?”

“Trent, you’re scaring me!”

“It might be nothing,” he started, after Bruce left. “But Sophia confessed to everything except breaking into your office.”

“Huh? You mean, there’s someone else out there, possibly crazy and obsessed with me? Maybe she’s lying. She’s clearly not all there.”

“She’s not. The night of the break-in, she was with Oliver. He’s her alibi.”

“I don’t even know what to say.”

“The network is going to have a security guard with you at all times at the office, and Bruce has agreed to be with you all other times that I’m not.”

“I don’t need a baby-sitter! I need a fucking detective to solve this already!”

“I know baby, it’s frustrating. But the police are involved now. They’ve gone back to your office to take more fingerprints. It’s going to be OK.”

“OK,” I said, curling into him on the tiny hospital bed. “What’s going to happen to Sophia?”

“That’s up to you.”

“Well, I don’t want to ruin the girl’s life by pressing charges. But I don’t want her on the show anymore. Can she just go quietly? We can re-cast, that won’t be a problem…”

“Sure,” he said. “We’ll talk to Sunny and the network tomorrow. Miriam has already said you can take the rest of the week off. So we can focus on cleaning this up together.”

“I love you,” I said, reaching up to kiss him.

“I love you, too baby. Now get some rest.”

And for the first time in a few weeks, I slept pretty soundly with Trent next to me. I’m pretty sure he didn’t sleep, because there was possibly still some psycho out there. But we were safe for the night.