Chapter Twenty-one

 Richie got Jon a beer and they settled in Richie’s music room. Richie always felt more comfortable where it had all the things a bachelor could ask for.

“So Daddy, you nervous?” he asked his best friend.

“Oh God Rich, I don’t know how I feel. Ellie and I have been talking and God some things came up that well you know you never think of when you’re having sex with the Mother of your child if you get what I’m saying.” Jon tried to explain to him.

Richie listened and was trying to figure out what the hell he was trying to say to him when all of a sudden it hit him hard. “Holy Crap! You mean when you go (making hand gestures pointing down) and the baby pops out there or when she feeds the baby here.” Watching Jon the whole-time making faces and trying not to laugh at him. “Hey did she breast feed Jimmy?” he wanted to know.

Shaking his head no and answering him also, “No she couldn’t. She tried she said but she wasn’t making any milk she told me and Jimmy cried and cried so she finally gave him a bottle because he was latched on her for like 2 weeks and apparently he wasn’t getting anything so she broke down and fed him a bottle and he just downed it like in a second she said. Then he drifted off and slept thru the night. She called her gyno and told him and he transferred her to the nurse that was handling her and she told her off telling her that she could have hurt Jimmy and starved him to death. Her Gyno wasn’t too happy either and fired her. I guess she was shaming people about not breast feeding and you know Ellie she got pissed `because no one hurts her kid.” Jon told him a little agitated also.

“Wow! I’m surprised she didn’t kill her.” Richie smirked.

“I know right. But Rich I should have been there to help her. So this time there is no way anyone is going to take me away from my family during this precious time. Nobody!” he stated angrily.

“Well that’s why I told you to get here. I had a hunch and went back to the bar where Cheri was and I got lucky. The same bartender was there and I got to talk to him and ask him some questions.” He told Jon who was surprised that the bartender gave him any info.

 “And he told you? He told you how to get in touch with her” Jon ask excitedly.

“Better he gave me her card on how to get in touch with her. All he ask’s is not to let anyone know who gave this to me. Say’s she is really bad news. Hangs with a bad crowd and she gets a really big pay for her night job if you know what I mean. So you got a freebie because someone else paid for it. That’s what we got to find out. Who paid for your so-called romp and who wants to ruin your marriage and career.” Richie said curious.

“Yeah but who the hell did I piss off that bad that they want to do this to me this badly?” Jon wondered.

“Well first we can start by making a list. Shouldn’t be hard.” Richie smirked.

“It’s not funny Richie. If I wasn’t going to be a Dad again I wouldn’t care that much. But I don’t want this stress on Ellie. If she finds out that I screwed Cheri my marriage is over.” Jon told Richie nervously.

“Jon I get that. That’s why we need to talk to her. Find out what’s really going on. Let me call this number and set something up and we’ll see what happens.” Richie got up and got the phone as Jon looked on. Jon was nervous as hell but needed to know who was pulling her strings. There were about five rings when an answering service picked up. Richie left his info and the service took it and told him that the party that he wanted will review it and will get back to him with-in a twenty-four-hour period and hung up. He turned to Jon, “Well you heard so I’ll call you when she calls?” he told him.

“Yeah because I can’t stay here while Ellie is here. But I’m going to have to make some excuse to leave fast when you do call. She wasn’t too keen I don’t think with me leaving now. She said she was but with her hormones on the loose I can’t be sure.” He told him making an uneasy face.

“Oh that’s right, I forgot about the pregnancy hormones. We all are going to be on alert for those. We’ll have to keep both David and Alec away from her the way they blurt things out without thinking.” He said chuckling.  

“Now you’re just being mean that you want two of your best friends sent to the firing squad because they don’t think first before they talk.” Jon laughed.

“You know they can’t help themselves their idiots and you know one of them will say something stupid about Elvis Jon and her Irish temper will come out and God only knows what is going to happen to them and I’m sure as hell am not getting in the middle of them.” Richie laughed.

“Gee thanks you’re going to make me get in the middle of a hormonal woman.” Jon smiled.

“Why not you got her pregnant.” Richie smiled at being an Uncle again.

“You know this is the best thing about being married is you can’t get in trouble about knocking up your wife.” Jon laughed.

“That’s true.” Richie agreed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheri arrived at Jon’s hotel to see what she could do to rattle him some more. Her client told her to get him good and shaken so he would make a payoff to her so they would have proof that he was fooling around on his wife. Then she would get the rest of what they wanted when he was good and rattled. She went to the reservation desk and asked for Jon’s key again.

“Mrs. Bon Jovi right? Well the latest Mrs. is in his suite as we speak. So unless you can prove that you are the real Mrs. Bon Jovi we can’t give you his key.” The manager told her.

Well Cheri wasn’t too happy about that. “Well you gave it to me before, how do you know that the woman up there isn’t the impostor.” She told them angrily.

“Because Mr. Bon Jovi told us if you ever came back to never give you his key again and if you persisted I’ll have to call the police.” He explained to her.

Well she was pissed to no end and now had to figure out how to get up there without them seeing her. “Fine I’ll leave but this won’t be the last he’ll see of me.” She told them and stomped off. She went back outside and went into her car to figure out a plan. She thought for some time when it finally hit her.  She got out of her car and walked out back to see if the kitchen door was unlocked. Luckily it was seeing that they had to go in and out to use the dumpster. So she quietly walked in and snuck thru when their shift was changing. She used the back elevator to get to his room and once she was on his floor she took a deep breath because she knew she couldn’t mess this up. She hoped that this would take care of her debt that she owed to Philip. She told him two jobs ago that was going to be it. But he has kept pushing. So this is the one that she is going to put her foot down.

She walked over to his door and adjusted herself then knocked on his door. She could hear someone moving around so she propped herself up against the door frame when Ellie opened up the door.  “Hey Baby!” Cheri happily said until she saw Ellie standing there looking very unhappy.

“Who the hell are you?” Ellie asked annoyed.

“I’m a friend of your husbands. Is he here?” Cheri asked her trying to look into the room.

“Well it’s none of your damn business but no he’s not. He went out for a little while, but again who the hell are you?” she asked her again getting very pissed now.

“I told you we’re friends.” She told Ellie again snotty.

Staring at her, “I just bet you are. Why don’t you tell me the message and I’ll give it to him when he gets back.” She told her trying to stare her down.

“That’s ok I can wait.” Cheri said as she tried to walk pasted her but Ellie wouldn’t budge. “Look you might as well move because I’m not going anywhere.” She told her as her voice was getting louder now.

“I don’t think you understand that this is our room and you are not welcome here. I’ve dealt with groupies like you Honey and he isn’t yours he’s mine. So if you don’t back up I’m calling either security or the police. Your choice.” Ellie laid down the law to her as Cheri didn’t expect her to do that.

“Well that’s funny because he didn’t say anything to me when we woke up together last week.” she told Ellie with a smirk.

Ellie just looked at her without any emotion. “Richie told me you were stalking him.” She said trying to remain calm.

Leaning up against the door frame, “Well I guess they were lying to you then. Did you really think your husband would tell you that he was having an affair. In fact I’m surprised my name even came up. He told me he didn’t want you to know in fear of you leaving him and taking everything from him. I guess that’s all he worries about is his money.” She smugly told her.

“Get Out! Get Out Now!” Ellie loudly told her before she wanted to do bodily harm.

“Oh I’ll leave I think I got my point across. Just tell him I was here and I’ll be in touch. You have a nice day now." Cheri told her as she turned around and went back to the elevator.

Ellie slammed the door shut! She couldn’t believe that Jon and Richie lied to her when she asked about Cheri. What she really couldn’t believe was he was up to his old tricks again and was cheating again. Especially now where they were going to have another child. She went and sat on the couch and just stared into space. She had no idea what she was going to do. She thought he loved her. But if he loved her he wouldn’t have cheated. Right? All of a sudden she had to get up and run to the bathroom. The nausea was horrible and she started to vomit badly. Once she felt a little bit better she came out after rinsing her mouth and started to pack her things. She couldn’t be here any longer knowing that he was with someone else. She called the airport to find out the next flight times out to New Jersey and the next one out was at five-forty a.m. so she booked it and also told the limo service to come and get her.

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                                                                                   Jon and Richie went over some scenarios of what they wanted to do on how to get Cheri so they were going to have Richie call and leave a message. He left one on some kind of answering machine that said she would get back to him with-in a twenty-four time on how to contact her. If they didn’t call that number with-in that certain time frame then they could forget it. Jon told Richie to call him when she calls him and he would come right over but he had to get back to Ellie. He wanted to send her home and then see if he could finish up with the album in his studio. He really needed to be with his family.

Jon got back to the hotel and when he walked in saw Ellie’s bags by the door. He was confused to see them there so he called out to her. “ELLIE! ELLIE!” he yelled when she walked into the room looking none too happy.

“What?” she asked with her hand on her hip and shooting darts from her eyes.

“I was only gone for a couple of hours. What the hell did I do?” he chuckled.

“Oh you really want to know big shot?” she asked him pissed off.

“Now I don’t know.” He told her looking scared.

“Your friend was here?” she vaguely told him.

“My friend? What friend?” he wanted to know as he inched towards her.

“Don’t, just don’t ok?” she told him as she went back into the bedroom and to her side of the bed. Sitting she reach for some ibuprofen as Jon stood in the doorway looking very confused.

“Baby are you alright? Your acting strange. OH! Is this one of those mood swings you were telling me about?” He asked her dead serious.

Ellie nearly spit out her pills. Coughing hard Jon ran to her and started to hit her on the back but Ellie held up her left arm. Through gritted teeth she said, “Don’t I’m fine.” As she finally got up but she didn’t know where or what to do next.

Jon was just looking at her confused as hell trying to figure out what he did. He knew she was mad at him for something and she did warn him she was going to go thru these mood swings. He just didn’t think it would be this soon. “Ellie, Baby? Can I get you anything?” he asked carefully.

Looking at him and wishing she could shoot daggers out of her eyes, “No.” Then she changed her mind. “Wait Yes you can. You can get me a divorce.” She told him looking as angry as hell.

Jon looked back at her and at first didn’t know what to say when all of a sudden he figured what the hell and said, “Ah this is a real big mood swing baby. What’s going on?” he asked her now wanting to know why she is acting like this.

“I told you that you had a visitor. Don’t you want to know who it was?” she asked him ready to jump down his throat.

“Well actually I’m kinda afraid to ask?” he told her not knowing what to expect.

“Well while you were over at Richie’s your girlfriend came here to see you.” She told him fuming.

“Ah…wha…what girlfriend?” Jon asked her nervously.

“You know the one. The one I asked about earlier? Cheri!!!!” She told him as she walked over to her suitcase to move it to the bedroom door.

Jon wanted to throw up himself. “Babe she came here? What did she say?” as he was really afraid to ask her.

Turning around she spotted her pocketbook so she walked over to get that also while talking to him. “What the hell did you think she said to me Jon.  I’m going home to pick up my son and then going home to my parents. Do not call me. (putting her pocketbook around her shoulder) You will only speak threw your lawyer to mine. Got that. Because I really don’t need some fucking broad coming to me telling me she fucked my husband. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going downstairs and have someone come up here to get my bags.” she told him furious.

Well Jon wasn’t going to let her just walk out like that. He grabbed her arm as she shot daggers at him. “You’re not going anywhere. I heard you out, now you’re going to hear me out.” He told her determined.

“What? Are you going to give me a blow by blow Bongiovi?” she said sarcastically.

“You’re not funny. No You’re going to listen to my side so sit down,” he told her as he sat her in the large armchair in the bedroom. “OK Missy, I thought I could handle this myself but I couldn’t. So I called Richie to see if he could help me. But then you showed up and apparently all hell let lose. It all started when I went to Emilio’s party about a few weeks ago. I was making a lot of connections and all I remember was this woman came up to talk to me. A pretty red head. She didn’t stay long but the next thing I remember was feeling like I was getting tired and feeling like I had a hundred drinks. So I went to the men’s room and I don’t remember anything after that Babe I really don’t til I woke up in my own bed the next morning.” He told her.

Ellie listen intently and was trying to figure out if he was lying or not. So she just sat there quietly and said nothing. That always drove him nuts. He saw that she wasn’t responding to him which meant that she was really mad at him and he knew he had to make sure that he really had to make sure he explained this just right or he was going to lose his world.

“Ok you know if you have any questions you can ask me.” He told her. All she did was shake her head yes. “Well morning came and as I woke up I was hurting so I was going to get up and when I started to turn I felt someone beside me. At first I was really hoping it was you. But unfortunately when I started to feel around and she called out it wasn’t. It was her that Cheri person. After screaming at her she told me that we did it all night and that she had a photo of us in different positions. So she has been black mailing me since.” he told her but when he looked at her she was smirking at him. After about a few seconds Jon just had to know.

“Babe why the hell are you smirking at me when I just told you all of this?  I thought you would be trying to rip off my junk.” he asked her perplex. 

Now smiling widely, “That’s easy Honey, you can’t get it up when you’re drunk. “You’re too out of it.” She just kept smiling.

“Excuse me?” he said as his pride was hurt a little.

“Oh don’t get your pee pee in a snit. But it’s true and you know it. When have we ever done the deed when you’ve been drunk? Right? Between you getting off of the stage and being exhausted, when we get back to the hotel you pass right out. It’s only when you really want it you’re careful or if your drinking beer or wine that doesn’t seem to effect you like the hard stuff anymore. You should be happy at the fact when she said you two did it when you were drunk that only you and I would know that can’t be. Otherwise I’d be calling a divorce lawyer right now. So would you rather have your manhood a little rattled or me taking about three quarters of what you own?” she asked him smiling.

Without a beat, “You would take three quarters of what I own?” he asked rather surprised.

“Jon I’m almost three months pregnant. Any judge would give me that with a great lawyer when they explain to them our history and your Mother.” She told him as she walked over to him and took some hair off his face and he put his arms around her waist.

“Yeah you got me. This wouldn’t be a great time to file would it?” he asked her as he started to nibble her neck.

“Well if your trying to convince me I already made up my mind. But no it wouldn’t be a good time with me being pregnant. But this broad didn’t count on one thing?” she told him.

Lifting his head curious, “What’s that?”

“That we know each other to well. She counted on that little tid bit to get those pictures of the both of you while you were drunk. If you were that out of it there was no way you knew what you were doing. You would have to be wide awake and really into it. Were you? Did it look like you were really into?’ she wanted to know.

“No. I looked like I was out of it. My eyes were even closed.” He told his wife.

“Then I take it you and Richie have a plan of some sorts?’ she asked him hoping.

“Yeah we left a message to have her call Richie and we were going to set up a time for him to meet and then Surprise! It would have been the two us and we were going to drill her for info on who was really doing this to us.” He explained to her still holding her.

“Well now your armed with more ammo. See if you just told me to begin with I would have never have had a heart attack and cursed you.” She told him trying to get free now.

Shaking his head, "Babe you know if I told you all hell would have broken out. And I have been a very good boy since being out here. So I think I should get a reward for it don’t you?” he told her picking her up as she squealed.

“Jon you put me down this instant!” she cried out.

“Nope. We have the rest of the night and then tomorrow I’ll book you a flight out of here.” He told her.

“Oh I have a limo coming for me I believe at four-thirty a.m. for a flight home at five-forty. It was before I knew.” She told him with a puppy dog face.

“Well that’s okay because I want you out of here anyway. I don’t want you or the baby near her.” he told her as he kissed her softly.

But she pushed him away. “Jon I don’t want to leave you. I can help.” She told him but Jon was adamant.

“Don’t care I wasn’t around the first time but I’m here now. So your going home. I have Richie so don’t worry okay?” He told her as he started to nibble down her neck. Well that’s all it took and they continued til the limo came. It killed them to part but there was no way he was going to have his wife or his baby around this nut of a woman.  Jon promised Ellie that he would call her every night so she would know what was going on and know that he was alright. His heart broke when the limo drove away taking the love of his life away but he would soon be home to see the birth of his child.

Jon went back to bed only because he knew Richie would let the phone go to his service until he got up. So this gave him a chance to get some more shut eye in. It was nearing eleven a.m. which Jon was surprised that he slept that late. But he did call his best friend when he got up right after he checked his messages. Thankfully the only one there was from Ellie stating that she got in and that she was going to pick up Jimmy after school and to be on hand around four-thirty their time because she wanted the two of them to tell him that he was going to be a big brother. That made his heart flutter. He couldn’t wait to be a Dad from the start.