THE FIRST NIGHT
1181 Words
LEO
Leo sat in the small, quiet room. The walls were beige. The table was gray metal, cold under his arms. He wore a big, blue LAPD sweatshirt that wasn’t his. They had taken his clothes. For evidence.
He couldn’t stop seeing it.
Chloe’s bedroom.
The morning light through the blinds.
The way she looked like she was sleeping, but wasn’t.
He put his head in his hands. His whole body felt numb, except for the shaking. A fine tremor he couldn’t control.
The door opened.
A woman walked in. She was beautiful, but in a strong, steady way. Not like the women at award shows. She wore dark pants and a soft cream sweater. She carried a leather bag.
She closed the door and sat across from him.
“Leo,” she said. Her voice was calm. Clear. “I’m Maya Sterling. I’m your lawyer.”
He looked up. Her eyes were dark brown, serious. She wasn’t smiling. She wasn’t pitying him. She was just… there. Solid.
“From this moment on,” she said, “you don’t talk to anyone unless I’m with you. Not the police. Not your friends. Not reporters. No one. Do you understand?”
He nodded. His throat was too tight to speak.
“Good.” She took out a notebook and pen. “Now. Tell me what happened. Start from the beginning.”
---
MAYA’S PLAN
An hour later, Maya left Leo with a uniformed officer outside the door. Leo looked exhausted, hollowed out. But he had told her everything. The scared phone call. The empty apartment. Finding her.
Maya believed him.
She walked down the hallway to where Detective Ross was waiting. He was an older man with tired eyes and a rumpled shirt.
“He’s free to go,” Ross said, before she could speak. “For now. No charges. But this is just the start, Ms. Sterling. We’ll be in touch.”
“He found her,” Maya said. “He called 911. He’s a witness, not a suspect.”
“He’s the last person to see her alive. He’s famous. And she was pregnant.” Ross shrugged. “You know how this works.”
Yes. She did.
“We’ll cooperate with a formal investigation,” Maya said. “But if you leak his name as a suspect before you have evidence, we will sue the department. And I’ll win.”
Ross almost smiled. “Noted.”
Outside the police station, the night had turned into a circus. Dozens of reporters crowded behind metal barriers. Cameras flashed like lightning. Voices shouted questions all at once.
“LEO! DID YOU KILL HER?”
“WERE YOU THE FATHER?”
“HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A SUSPECT?”
Leo froze in the doorway, his face pale under the bright TV lights. For a second, Maya saw the real him..not the pop star, just a young man, terrified.
She stepped in front of him. Not touching him, but shielding him from view with her body.
“No comments,” she said, her voice loud and firm. “Move aside, please.”
She put a hand lightly on his back and guided him toward a black SUV waiting at the curb. Julian held the door open. Leo climbed in, head down.
Maya got in after him. The door shut, blocking out the noise.
Silence.
---
THE MANSION
They drove to Leo’s house in the hills. It was huge and beautiful and totally empty. Floor-to-ceiling windows showed the whole city glittering below, but inside felt like a museum. Cold. Quiet.
Julian went to the kitchen to make coffee. Leo stood in the middle of the living room, not moving.
“You should sit,” Maya said gently.
He didn’t seem to hear her. “I should call her mom,” he whispered. “Chloe’s mom. What do I say?”
“Not tonight,” Maya said. “Let the police do that. It’s their job.”
“But she’ll hear it on the news…” His voice broke.
Maya’s heart ached for him. This was the part they didn’t teach in law school..how to comfort someone whose life just exploded.
“We’ll help you with that tomorrow,” she said. “Tonight, you need to rest.”
Julian came back with coffee. He looked old and worried. “The label called,” he told Leo. “Clayton Ford. He said, ‘Lay low. Don’t talk.’ That’s it. No ‘are you okay.’ No ‘we’re here for you.’”
Leo just nodded, like he expected it.
Maya’s phone buzzed. A text from Richard Thorne.
> Richard🤡: Locke wants a strategy meeting first thing tomorrow. The wolves are circling. Be ready.
She put her phone away. “I need to go,” she told Leo. “But I’ll be back early tomorrow. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t go online. Try to sleep.”
He finally looked at her. “They all think I did it.”
“I don’t,” she said simply.
He held her gaze for a long moment. Then he looked away. “Thank you.”
---
THE NEWS
Maya got home late. Her own house felt different.. warmer, safer. She dropped her bag and turned on the TV, just in time to see the news.
There was Leo’s face, pale and shocked, leaving the police station. The headline below read:
"POP STAR LEO VANCE QUESTIONED IN DANCER’S DEATH. PREGNANCY REVEALED".
The reporter spoke fast, excited. “While no charges have been filed, sources say Vance was the last person to see Chloe Reyes alive. The two were close friends, but rumors of a secret romance have circulated for years…”
Maya turned it off. Her chest felt tight.
She walked to her bookshelf and picked up the small photo of her father. He was smiling in his slightly-too-big suit.
“What do I do, Dad?” she whispered. “How do I protect him from this?”
Her father didn’t answer. But in her heart, she knew. You find the truth. And you fight like hell for it.
Her phone rang. It was her mother.
“Maya, baby. I saw the news. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
“That poor girl. And that singer… it’s so sad. You be careful, you hear? That world… it’s full of sharks.”
“I know, Mom.”
“Do you? You sound like you’re in it already.”
Maya sighed. “I’m his lawyer. That’s all.”
A pause. “Just remember who you are, Maya Sterling. You’re your father’s daughter. You fight for what’s right, not what’s easy.”
Tears pricked Maya’s eyes. “I will, Mom. I promise.”
“Good. Now get some sleep. You can’t save the world if you’re tired.”
They hung up. Maya stood in the quiet living room, holding her father’s picture.
Tomorrow, the war would begin. But tonight, there was just the quiet, the memory of Leo’s shattered face, and the heavy weight of the truth that needed to be found.
- Writer
