Leighanne arrived to the hotel where Brian and the rest of the Backstreet Boys were staying relatively early in the afternoon. She didn’t know what their schedule was going to be like that day, but it didn’t matter. She wasn’t planning on confronting Brian right away; she had another woman to deal with first.

She went to the hotel desk and claimed the key that she had called ahead and requested. Security for the Backstreet Boys wasn’t quite as high as it used to be, and she knew all of Brian’s secrets anyway. She had his credit card information and doubted that anyone would question her being there, especially after the news of Brian’s affair had broken.

Leighanne slowly made her way up to Brian’s room and let herself in. She was praying with everything inside of her that she wouldn’t walk in on anything inappropriate. To her immense pleasure, the room was empty. She walked through the suite into the bedroom portion and winced at the twisted pile of blankets and sheets. A shot of electricity ran through her. She couldn’t remember the last time she and Brian had left the bed looking like that.

Again, she found that she was mentally chastising herself for letting everything that a marriage was supposed to be fall through the cracks. She wasn’t a wife to Brian. All that she ever did was yell at him for not being enough. Of course he wasn’t happy. How would anyone be happy with what their marriage had become?

Leighanne was determined though. She was going to make it better. He’d be leaving the tour with her when it ended.

Leighanne slipped her shoes off of her feet and called for housekeeping to come and service the room while she showered and changed. When she was finished in the bathroom, the maid had already come and gone. She’d left fresh towels on the bed so that she didn’t disturb Leighanne. Luckily, there had been a clean towel left on the towel rack for Leighanne to use.

Leighanne changed into a comfortable, but sexy, light-weight dress and walked over to where she’d left her suitcase. She pulled it up onto the bed and began to pull out the clothes that she’d brought with her. She opened the dresser and saw that another woman’s clothes were lined in the drawers where Leighanne had always put her clothing.

That was a whole other level to this affair that Leighanne hadn’t thought of. Brian had replaced her in every possible way. The funniest thing about it was that it seemed like he didn’t replace her at all, he just stuck someone else in her place. Brian had taken all of their routines and put another face into the picture. It made Leighanne sick.

Without thinking, she reached into the drawers and pulled all of the other woman’s clothes out and threw them off to the side.

All of the whore’s shanky little panties and negligees were splashed around the floor in a colorful array. Next, out came her tiny little t-shirts and skinny jeans. Before Leighanne realized what was happening, tears were pouring down her cheeks. She had convinced herself that she wasn’t going to let Brian’s little whore affect her like this. She was going to stand up to her and tell her to get the hell away from her husband. Leighanne didn’t know much, but she did know that she was going win this war.

By the time that Leighanne unpacked her suitcase, it was early afternoon. Since Brian hadn’t been back yet, she assumed that the Boys were rehearsing. She knew something about tour schedules and if she was right, they would be breaking and coming back to the hotel soon and Leighanne couldn’t wait.

***

Noelle walked into the hotel through the back entrance and rode the service elevator up to her and Brian’s room. Since the pictures had come out the day before, walking around in public hadn’t been fun. She hadn’t even wanted to go to the venue with Brian because she knew what people were going to say, but Brian had insisted. He said that he would tell anyone that said anything to her that they were wrong. He was going to tell everyone the truth.

AJ wasn’t speaking to either one of them, which Noelle thought was stupid. Brian was in the process of a divorce. It wasn’t his fault that the media takes what they want to believe and twists it around to make someone the bad guy.

During the question and answer session at the rehearsal that afternoon, some brave fan asked Brian about the pictures in the tabloids. Their manager, Jen, had tried to divert the attention and take another question, but Brian wanted to answer. He looked dead into the faces of the audience members staring back at him and he broke the news. He said he was in the process of getting divorced and not everything is as it appears to be. He apologized to his fans saying that he really, truly believed that marriage should be forever, but he also believed that God wants people to be happy and learn from their mistakes. He told them that he’d met someone amazing and that he was truly in love again and beyond that he hoped for their respect and the privacy that he needed during a difficult time. And it was left at that.

When the Boys came backstage to where she was waiting, Noelle wrapped her arms around him and planted her lips firmly on his.

“I love you,” she had said. “So much. Thank you for that. I needed it.”

Brian grinned his thousand watt smile and kissed her again. “I know that you did. I told you that I would make things better and I am. I love you, too.”

While the Boys finished getting ready for their show that night, Noelle headed back to the hotel where Brian was going to meet her for dinner that evening.

When she got to the door of her room, she stuck her key into the slot and let herself in. She stopped in the hallway when she heard the television softly playing from the next room. She didn’t remember leaving the television on that morning. In fact, she didn’t remember turning the television on.

Slowly, she made her way into the bedroom. From the hallway, she could see all of her clothes strewn about the floor. Stupidly thinking that she could protect herself if there was a burglar in the room, she pulled out the bottle of mace that she kept in her purse.

The mace container and blue and orange. She would always be a Gator at heart.

When she got into the bedroom, her heart sank. The mace fell from her fingers and bounced with a thud on the floor. Her mouth fell opened in surprise. Brian’s wife was in the room, sitting on their bed and she was even more beautiful in person.

Leighanne shot Noelle a sickeningly sweet smile as she slid off of the bed and walked toward her. “I think that you can imagine what my being here means for you.”

Noelle clenched her jaw and shook her head. Suddenly, she was pissed off because the truth was that she had no idea what Leighanne’s being there meant for her at all.

“No,” Noelle replied seethingly. “Not really.”

“Get your shit,” Leighanne spat from between her teeth. She was a little ashamed because she never spoke like that, but seeing this woman in front of her was really bringing the devil out in her. “And get out of my husband’s life.”

“I don’t really think that’s your decision,” Noelle replied, standing up to Leighanne. “He gave you the divorce papers. It’s time to move on.”

Leighanne laughed and shook her head slowly. “Are you really as dumb as you look? Until we both sign the papers they’re meaningless and there are no more papers to sign. Brian has them. I gave them back to him, and he still hasn’t mailed them back or had them officially filed.”

“He doesn’t have the papers,” Noelle said softly in disbelief. “I would know if he had the papers.”

Leighanne walked over to the closet where Brian’s suitcase was housed and unzipped the side pocket. She pulled out a manila folder that held the divorce papers that she had refused to sign and threw them at Noelle. “You can take them with you when you go. I assure you. Brian and I are not going to need them.”

Once again, Noelle’s mouth was hanging opened. All this time, Brian had the divorce papers with him and she hadn’t known? She was a stupid, fucking idiot. She found her head shaking and suddenly she was speaking without thinking.

“No. No. He told the crowd today during the sound check. You’re getting divorced.” Noelle looked back up at Leighanne, suddenly feeling sorry for the both of them. “Brian loves me and I’m not going anywhere.”

“Brian thinks that he loves you!” Leighanne yelled. “Brian promised himself to me until death do us part and God help me we’re both still living; so unless I drop dead here in this room, I’m staying married. You can try to play whatever little games that you want, but once we’re both in front of him, he’ll have no problem choosing.”

This time, Noelle smiled. She was getting sick of Leighanne’s possessiveness over Brian. She had tried to understand. Leighanne hadn’t seen this coming. She had firmly believed that Brian would never leave her, but now, there was no denying it. Brian was already out the door.

“Honey,” Noelle spoke softly, patronizingly. “Brian had us both right in front of him already and he’s chosen. It’s over. He doesn’t love you anymore.”

Leighanne could swear that she saw fire behind her eyes. Her skin began to boil and before she could stop herself, she raised her hand and slapped Noelle across the face.

When she looked up, Brian was standing in the doorway.