Chapter Twelve: Putting it to rest

The next morning

Miranda had been up since 6 am. Which wasn't saying much, since she really only tossed and turned all night. She couldn't stop obsessing over the interview. She was afraid they'd ask too many personal questions and she'd shut down. Or walk out and make the situation worse. When the alarm started buzzing at 6 am she was grateful. She spent the next 2 hours showering, eating breakfast and talking to Emily and Jaq' for support. The time had arrived for her to head to the TV station and Emily offered to drop her off.

Emily: "You'll be fine." She reassured for the billionth time. Miranda quit fidgeting with her nails long enough to flash her a small smile.
Miranda: "I know. Thank you." She said. She was happy Emily was with her after all, now if only she could do the interview for her she thought. They had reached their destination and Miranda headed inside. Emily followed her, but she could only go so far.



Emily: "Good luck!" She yelled from behind. Miranda nodded and continued on to her dressing room.

Makeup Artist: "Oh my god! Hey, I'm Abby" Abby gushed as soon as Miranda entered the room. Miranda was a bit caught off guard. She was used to stylist that could compose themselves better, but she also loved meeting a fan.
Miranda: "Hello" She replied back with a genuine smile.
Abby: "I am so happy to meet you and to be able to do your makeup and hair! It's a real honor."
Miranda: "Well I'm glad to hear that." Miranda said.
Abby: "So do you have a particular look you're going for today Ma'am?" She said once she had calmed down and realized she was behaving inappropriate. Miranda thought for a moment, she didn't want to give the girl full control but at the same time she didn't want her to feel bad about her skills. It wasn't hard to notice that she was Abby's first celebrity client after all. She decided to take the risk and let the girl run free.
Miranda: "My face is your canvas." She joked and took a seat.
Abby: "Really? Oh thank you! You'll look fabulous I promise." Abby said and began to grab her makeup palette and brushes.

"What do you think?" Abby asked nervously. Miranda inspected her face and was completely pleased with the results.

"Abby it's wonderful, you did great!" Miranda said enthusiastically.
"Really?" Abby asked in disbelief.
"Yes and don't ever doubt yourself okay?" Miranda said. Abby nodded.
"Thank you Mrs. Griffin." Abby said and blushed. Miranda was brought back to reality with her slip up. She was not a misses. It seemed like Abby realized her mistake too and covered her mouth with her hands.
"I am so sorry! that-- She began to apologize but Miranda silenced her.
"It was an honest mistake I'm sure." Miranda said. "How about you give your information to my publicist? I'd like to book you again." Miranda said before heading out the door.
"Sure thing Sky." Abby wasn't going to make the same mistake twice so she opted for using her stage name.


The cameraman pointed Miranda to the direction of stage and walked out to greet the interviewer.

After receiving the OK to start, the interviewer, Paige, began.
"Darling we are so happy that you decided to grace us with your presence. Everyone at the studio are big fans of yours."
"That's really good to hear." Miranda replied. Paige motioned for her to sit down and took her seat opposite of her.

"So Sky tell us how are you holding up?"
"Well honestly I've had better days Paige."
''Oh honey I know! I feel so bad for you."
"Thank you..I guess."
"What do you think is worse, the affair or knowing everyone knows?" Miranda sighed softly. Here's where it gets personal She thought.
"Well the affair. Having everyone know is just icing on the shit cake you know? But the affair is definitely worse."  Paige nodded sympathetically.
"I can imagine hon. Did you have any idea it was going on? Miranda shook her head.
"Not one clue, but it was a busy time for me I barely had time to think"
"What was going on? Besides the norm of course."
"Well..that's not really what I'm here to discuss" Miranda shot a look at Emily who was watching from afar. Emily said she'd given Paige strict orders to only talk about the affair and her feelings around it. She didn't want Paige forcing her to spill anything else, especially about her family issues. The cameraman signaled for commercial break.
"We'll be right back with our special guest, Sky, and hear more about this heart breaking time for her."
"I'm sorry" Paige said in a whisper. She knew the producer was going to have her ass if she messed this up. Miranda only nodded while she waited for the break to be over. The break was over and they started up again.

"And we're back with Sky." Paige started. "Sky how did you react when you found out?"
"Well Joshua wasn't home, so I had to wait of course." Miranda wasn't revealing that his father was the bearer of bad news.
"Where was he exactly?"
"At work and considering that I'm a public figure I didn't want to cause a scene there."
"I see I see, so when he got home did you let him have it?"
"I asked him, he admitted to it. I told him to leave, but I ended up leaving."
"You left your own house?" Miranda shrugged.
"Yes I needed to get my head clear and I couldn't think properly if he was begging for forgiveness and I was yelling. Wouldn't you agree?" Paige wasn't expecting that.
"I suppose so.." She looked over to her producer and noticed she was signalling for her to get juicier information.
"Sky if you don't mind we'd like to read some tweets and have you answer some of your fan's questions."
"Alright go for it."

" @solive99 tweets "Sky and Joshua were my favorite couple, they gave me hope", "@teamsky tweets: "Mimi and Joshua were freeloaders, sky's better off without em'!" , @HannahB tweets "Where's Mimi been? I bet she leaked all of this. Sky do you have any responses?"

 "Solive, thank you sweetheart, but you shouldn't wish for anyone's life or relationship. You'll have your own fairy tale. She laughed before addressing the next tweet, TeamSky I really appreciate the support. And Hannah, I don't know where Mimi is and I asked that you don't accuse her. I am not her biggest fan at the moment, but don't let your anger cause you to judge anyone wrongly."

"Wow so you would defend Mimi after everything she's done?"
"Paige I'm not defending anyone, but I can't support someone damaging another's image."
"Well has she tried to apologize since this happened?"
"No I haven't spoken to her since she moved out."
"And how did that make you feel?"
"At the time I didn't know about the affair so I was confused and hurt. She was my best friend and it didn't make any sense for her to up and leave, but I figured when she wanted to tell me then she would."

"That's understandable. Would you mind addressing some rumors in the magazines?" Paige asked.
"Such as what?"
"Well there was an article in Sims in Hollywood magazine that stated the three of you were into threesomes."

Miranda closed her eyes for a second. Is this woman out of her mind? She wanted to ask.
"Paige I can assure you, the only person I laid down with was my fiance'" Paige nodded.
"Another article in Celebs exposed suggested that you were pregnant and that's why you changed the wedding date. Any comments?" Miranda took a deep breathe.
"No that wasn't the reason for our wedding plans moving up. We decided we wanted something more intimate and at our home." Miranda explained. Is this over yet?! She thought.
"So you aren't expecting?"
"Does it look like it?" Miranda snapped.

Paige blushed from the embarrassment. My boss is totally having my ass today, damn it She thought.
"Let's go back to twitter shall we?"

"@Angieisme says: Go Miranda!!", @leggonation says: "Joshua is a dumb***", "@Chocolatecup33 tweets: "Sky is the wedding still on??" Well Sky, is it?
"No unfortunately. We've decided to end things for good."

Paige touched her heart, as if she was deeply sadden for Miranda.
"We are so sorry to hear that. I personally was cheering for team Mosh as your fans called you."
"Thank you, but it's better this way."
"Well Sky we appreciate you doing this interview with us. As a special treat you're going to leave us with a performance correct?"
"Correct Paige. I think it's a very fitting song." She said with a smile. Miranda headed for the microphone and Paige stood to watch.

"This is a song by the lovely Nicole Scherzinger, entitled Happily never after"

I don't think I want this anymoreAs she drops the ring to the floorShe says to herself, "You've left before"This time you will stay gone, that's for sure"

And he shouted something as

she drug her suitcase down the path,

To the driveway.

She had never gone that far.

Normally this would be the time 

that she would let him talk her out of leaving,

But this time, without crying,

as she got into her car, she said,

No happily never after,

that just aint for me, because finally

I know I deserve better after all,

I'll never let another teardrop fall.

She finished up the song and it wasn't a dry eye in front of her. Paige was wiping away tears and so were the camera crew and Emily. Through the tears, Emily smiled and nodded her way. Miranda returned her smile.

"While I'm here, I'd like to also announce that I will be taking a small break from show business. Rest assured, I'll be back, but I need time to find Miranda. I was too busy letting Sky live her dreams and I couldn't see how it was truly affecting me, Miranda. Thank you Paige and the network." She stated and stepped off the small platform. As she left that day she felt like a ton of bricks were lifted off of her shoulders. 

Later that evening, Miranda has went to celebrate with Emily and Jaq'. Although, none of them knew exactly what they were celebrating. Jaq' had tried and failed to convince Miranda to re-think her decision to leave. He knew even a small break could hurt someone's career and didn't want Miranda to have to fight to climb the ladder again.

"Emily it's getting late, and I'm tired of having you know who take pictures of me" She said and snapped her head in the direction of the paparazzi who'd been watching all night. Emily nodded her head understandingly."Get some rest." Emily replied.

Miranda surprised Emily by pulling her into a hug."Thank you..for everything, for being there."
"It's all apart of the job." Emily whispered back. Miranda headed to her awaiting limo and was home bound.

. 
Louis, who was filling in for Alice, saw a strange man awaiting them as he pulled up.
"Ms. Griffin, do I need to call the police?" He asked reaching for his phone. Confused, Miranda turned around to see Toby sitting on her steps looking half sleep.
"No that won't be necessary." She said and began to open her door.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yes, I know him. Good night Louis." She said as she stepped out of the limo.

"Toby?" Toby looked up and stood to meet her.

He rolled his shoulders as he stood.
"Hi..I would have called but I didn't know your number." He said.
"How long have you been here?" Toby looked up to see the sun starting to come up.
"A while." He said and smiled. Miranda would have smiled back, but it was borderline creepy.
"Why?" She said suddenly feeling tensed.
"I just wanted to see you and then you never responded back. You didn't like the flowers?"
"No they were lovely, I was just busy."
"Yeah I heard..sorry to hear about that." He replied referring to her rocky relationship.
"It's not your fault."
"I guess I should leave. Sorry for coming, I just..I don't know. I wanted to see if you were okay I guess." He said suddenly feeling unsure of himself. Miranda smiled. It was a bit creepy, and she wasn't sure why he cared so much but it was still nice.
"Thank you. And I'll make sure to call you ok?"

As Toby was about to leave, Miranda hugged him. It was spontaneous and probably a mistake but she didn't care.
"Thank you for caring." He gave her a little squeeze.
"Anytime." He replied.