A Woman Worth Fighting For

by Eunice Hart

  “Look, you don’t need to do this,” he told her, trying to sound as calm and persuasive as possible. “I understand that you’re mad about everything, but this is just unnecessary.”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “Unnecessary? I’m doing this for you, Peter. In time, you’ll look back on everything and thank me.”

  Thank her? For ruining his relationship with Adele? For treating her like she was some unimportant, sub-par being simply because she wasn’t as classy as she thought was necessary? Could Aneko even hear herself? Why would he ever want to thank her for ruining his happiness?

  Why couldn’t she see how much he loved Adele? Just how far gone could a person be to not realize when someone was in love? It wasn’t like he was stuck in an abusive relationship. Not the kind of relationship he would’ve found himself in if he’d continued to date his sister’s friends. Couldn’t she see what he saw? Adele might be stubborn – and, sometimes, rude – but she wasn’t a bad person; he knew that much. She didn’t try to ruin relationships that were going great – except for that one time with Josh, and he’d been deceiving his many girlfriends, from what Peter had gathered.

  “That woman is no good for you,” Aneko said, absentmindedly picking at her food. “She’s going to ruin your life and the Tanaka legacy.”

  She kept obsessing about the legacy like it was her life force or something. Peter wondered if this was how he’d sounded all that time before he and Adele got together. It was an irritating obsession, he had to admit. An obsession with the wishes of the dead, as Adele might out it.

  “I don’t really care about the legacy anymore, Aneko,” he told her. “What I care about is my happiness and being with Adele makes me happy.”

  “You think she makes you happy,” she fired back. “But I don’t think that’s the case. She’s got your head filled with all sorts of nonsensical ideas, and now you’re acting like a lovesick puppy, trailing around after her because you think she really matters.”

  Peter shot her a dirty look. “Don’t you dare –”

  “You’re already sleeping with her, brother,” Aneko went on, looking disgusted as she said so. “Why would you do such a thing? Are you trying to put her in the family anyway?”

  Her words caught him off guard. Peter stared down at his plate, a sudden thought filling his mind. What would happen if Adele got pregnant from him? He would be thrilled to have a baby with the woman he loved, but what if she didn’t want to keep it? What if she didn’t think she was ready? There were so many things to consider. Too many. As much as the idea of having a baby with Adele thrilled him, he wasn’t ready to start considering the myriad possibilities.

  Still, the idea seemed to be a sore spot for Aneko. So, he fired back, “What if I am?”

  Aneko’s face contorted with fury and her grip on her knife tightened. For a moment Peter wondered if she was considering throwing it at his face, but she dropped both the knife and fork, keeping her eyes on him the whole time.

  “Then you leave me no choice,” she said, rising slowly to her feet. “I won’t sit by and watch your blind infatuation for that woman ruin our family legacy, brother. Have a nice day.”

  *****

  Pregnant.

  There was a time when that word wouldn’t have carried so much weight in her mind. But now…now, things were a lot different. She’d taken the test, and the result had come out positive. And ever since then the word seemed to have taken permanent residence in her mind. She could walk ten feet without reminding herself that she had a baby forming inside her body now.

  Peter’s baby.

  How many times had they made love? Adele couldn’t be sure. But she’d never really considered the idea that she might get pregnant. As far as she’d been concerned, she’d been pretty cautious, timing her periods so she knew when it was safe to have sex. Well, except for the times when Peter’s charm had overridden her senses. Like the last time they had sex, when she’d conceived without even realizing it. When they’d been caught by Aneko herself.

  Adele couldn’t believe she hadn’t even remembered Aneko. She’d been so concerned about what Peter might think, she hadn’t even paused to consider how his sister would react to the news if it ever got out. At this point, she wouldn’t put it past Aneko to try to get rid of the baby before it was born, even if it meant risking Adele’s life. She made a mental note to make sure Adele never found out. Well, at least until the baby was all grown up and serving in the military or something.

  She thought about Peter again and felt a twinge of worry. It had been two days since she found out she was pregnant, and she still hadn’t spilled a word of it to him. Adele wasn’t sure what he might think, and the possibilities filling her mind scared her. What if he said he didn’t want it? What if he said he wasn’t ready and that she should abort it? Peter wouldn’t do that, would he? He seemed much too responsible to react like that.

  Adele knew she should tell him now. Even Betty had advised her to do so, telling him sooner rather than later. Easy for her to say. She didn’t have a baby growing inside her.

  How was she supposed to deliver the news to Peter? She couldn’t just phone him and say, Hi, Peter! I just thought you should know you put a baby in me the last time we had sex. Hope you’re doing okay? And going to his house, where the threat of Aneko lurked like a monster in a closet, was a no-no. At least, until tonight.

  She didn’t see the point of buying a new dress for a dinner with Aneko and Peter – and on the same day – but Betty seemed to think that if she was going to the slaughterhouse, she should at least go in style.

  “Thanks,” Adele had told her. “That makes me feel so much better. You’d make an excellent cheerleader.”

  “Don’t get sarcastic with me,” Betty told her, rolling her eyes.

  They walked through the aisles of the clothing store, admiring the many dresses on display. A while ago, most of these dresses would’ve been too expensive for Adele to afford, but now that she was manager of the restaurant, she could buy a lot of them without getting the tiniest hole in her purse. Betty kept picking out dresses for her to try on, and by the time she was through the sixteenth one, she still hadn’t found the perfect fit.

  “Betty, we really don’t have to do this,” Adele told her. All she wanted was to go back home and think about her life as it was now, maybe finally select a gown to wear to dinner. But of course, Betty wasn’t going to hear any of that.

  “Oh, hush, dear,” she said, sounding like a mother talking to a stubborn child. “I’m doing this for you. Look – do you prefer the wine-colored gown with or without sequins?”

  Adele shook her head and walked into another aisle, glad to be able to put some space between herself and her friend for a while. She needed to think, and Betty wasn’t making that easy for her at all. Sure, she was being a good friend, helping her find a dress, but Betty didn’t seem to understand what Adele was going through right now. She’d never been pregnant before, never even had scares, so how on earth could she understand?

  Adele still hadn’t figured out when she would come out to Peter about her pregnancy. She couldn’t keep it from him forever; it was only a matter of weeks before she got a recognizable bump. That didn’t seem like enough time to come up with ideas. She fleetingly considered bringing it up at dinner tonight and nearly burst into laughter. The look on Aneko’s face would be priceless – at least, until she pushed her down the stairs to get rid of the baby. Tonight, was a no-no. If she wanted to talk to Peter, she would have to do it in private.

  She whipped out her phone and texted him: Hey. I need to talk to you about something. Could we meet somewhere private tomorrow?

  To her surprise, his reply came less than a minute later. Does this mean you won’t be showing up to dinner tonight?

  He sounded so hopeful, Adele was almost tempted to do as Betty had advised her and cancel, but the stubborn side of her won. She replied: Not a chance. Tell Aneko I’ll be there, 8 pm.

  He took his t
ime replying. A couple of minutes later, Adele’s phone buzzed with a message. She opened it and read: Alright. Please be careful, Adele. I don’t want you getting hurt. I love you.

  Somehow, seeing or hearing those words always managed to make her melt and turn her brain to slush. Adele was ready to spill the beans on herself and would have done just that if the voice behind her hadn’t spoken.

  “Texting your new boyfriend?”

  Adele froze. She knew that voice. And she knew exactly who it belonged to. Still, when she turned around, revolving slowly on her heel, she was not in the least prepared to see Josh Bromley standing in the aisle, just a couple of feet away from her.

  He didn’t look like the man she used to know. Josh was dressed in a blue denim jacket and a white t-shirt over black jeans, his hair pulled slightly tousled. Adele couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw red marks around his eyes, which looked slightly swollen. Was he losing sleep? Even with whatever was going on with him, he still managed to shoot a smirk her way.

  “Fancy seeing you here,” he said in that perfect British accent of his.

  “As if you just happened to stumble into me at a clothing store.” Adele rolled her eyes and struck a stance, hands on her hips. “How did you even know I’d be here? Have you been following me around? Because if you have, that’s just wrong.”

  “Well, seeing as you haven’t been picking any of my calls, it doesn’t seem wrong to me,” he fired back. “You don’t get to ruin my love life and act like nothing happened.”

  Adele shot him a look of pure amusement. “Your love life? More like love lives. Besides, you ruined mine last year when you cheated on me with several other women. I wasn’t even repaying the favor; I just wanted to make sure you didn’t do the same to Sheri.”

  “Well, thanks to you, she’s dumped me and won’t pick my calls or reply my messages.” A smirk appeared on his face. “Sound familiar? Now, so many people won’t talk to me, all because you think I cheated on you.”

  Was he trying to absolve himself of guilt? It most certainly sounded like he was. Adele fought the urge to slap in the face. Couldn’t he see what a crappy person he was?

  “I think you cheated on me?” Her voice went up a notch, but she didn’t really care. “You had several other girlfriends at the time we were dating, and I never even knew they existed until one of them harassed me in that restaurant. Heck, I might still be with you if not for her!”

  “Yeah, well, I was already dating them when I asked you to be my girlfriend, so it’s more like I was cheating on them, not you, see –”

  This time, she did slap him. Right across the face. The slap resounded through the aisles and sent Josh reeling, but he regained his composure soon enough. He stared daggers at her, massaging his cheek.

  “What was that for?” he screeched.

  A sudden hush fell on the entire store, and Adele could tell practically everyone had their ears pointed in their direction, but she still wasn’t bothered. There was only one person she had eyes for in the entire store, and he was standing right in front of her, being the asshole, he’d always been.

  It occurred to her that this wasn’t the Tanaka restaurant. She didn’t manage this place. She had absolutely no authority here. That meant she couldn’t kick him out even if she wanted to. They had just as much right to be here as each other. It irked her to know that the very guy she hated to see most could stand in front of her and talk to her like this, and all she could do was slap him across the face.

  “What was that for?” She laughed. “You can’t even see you’re playing victim, huh? After everything you’ve done to me, everything you’ve done to so many women, you deserve more than a slap from me, Josh.”

  His face turned bright red. “You think a slap is all I got? Do you even have any idea what Sheri did to me? She told everyone she knew that I was a player – everyone. On Twitter, Instagram, even Facebook. You know what that does to your reputation? I can’t get girls to go out with me anymore. Heck, even my mother wouldn’t want to date me out of pity, because everyone seems to think I’m such a horrible person.”

  Where the hell was Betty? Adele figured by now her best friend would have realized something was going on and come to her aid, but Betty was nowhere to be seen. For all Adele knew, she was still selecting clothes for her to try on. Or maybe she’d given up and started trying on the dresses herself. Adele sighed inwardly. She would have to face this guy herself.

  “And you’re not? Because I think there are about ten to fifteen other women who would truthfully say otherwise. Starting with Sheri. I never knew she would go so far to expose you, but I’d be damned if I wasn’t glad, she did. You definitely had that one coming. Maybe you just didn’t see it coming. Maybe if you had, you wouldn’t have been such an asshole.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted other customers gathering to watch them, and she was pretty sure she saw a few phones flash. Maybe it was time to leave. Before this blew up into something she couldn’t control. She turned to look for Betty, but just then, Josh spoke again, stopping her in her tracks.

  “What do you even see in that guy, anyway?”

  She spun around to face him. “Excuse me?”

  “What, you think I don’t know about your new boyfriend the CEO? I’m a marketer, Adele. Information is literally part of the job description. I’ve seen you two moving around town and laughing like teenagers. What could he possibly give you that I didn’t?”

  There was a split second in which Adele wanted to pounce on him and scream at him for being such a creep. Just how long had he been tailing her? She remembered the night she and Peter had been making out in his car, right outside the mall. Had he seen that too? The guy definitely had no regards for boundaries. Adele couldn’t help thinking he and Aneko would make a great couple…if they didn’t end up destroying each other with toxicity first.

  She sighed, thinking. What did Peter give her that Josh never could? What made her relationship with him so much better than hers with Josh had been? It had to be the fact that he hadn’t lied to her. Peter was honest to her even when it hurt, like the times he’d told her that coming to his place for dinner with Aneko was an incredibly stupid idea. Josh had kept her in a state of ignorance for months, lying and cheating on her with other women.

  Peter wasn’t a jerk.

  “Everything,” she said truthfully. “He’s given me everything. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to leave.”

  His lip curled, but he made no move towards her, merely sneered. “You have terrible taste in men, you know that?”

  She smiled sweetly at him. “Of course, I do, Josh. I dated you, remember?”

  Chapter 11

  Don’t Rain On My Parade

  The gown was a loose fit, subtly outlining her figure. There were no sequins or patterns, not even the slightest stripes only a low neck that gave room for her breasts to breathe, giving a rather tantalizing view of her cleavage. There were no sleeves, just straps that looked almost non-existent. The gown barely reached her knees, revealing her plump thighs. And oh, yes: it was red.

  Adele had to admit, she looked rather stunning.

  “You look fabulous, babe,” Betty said, coming to stand beside her and staring in the mirror. She smoothed Adele’s curls. “I feel so under dressed right now.”

  “You are under dressed,” Adele pointed out, gesturing at the pajamas her friend had on.

  “Oh.” A sheepish look came over Betty’s face. “Fair enough. Anyway, it’s 7:30. How come Peter hasn’t come to pick you up yet?”

  “I told him not to. I can make it there on my own.”

  Betty shot her a look of disbelief in the mirror. “Adele, honey, you’re my best friend and all, but sometimes you can be a real dumbass. Why would you turn down an opportunity to ride in Porsche in such a fabulous dress?”

  Her friend gave a shrug. “It’s not like it’s a date. I’m just going to have dinner with him and his sister. It’s not a big deal.”

&
nbsp; Betty stepped backwards quickly, as if trying to get out of arm’s reach in case something went wrong. “To be fair, it’s not just dinner. I keep telling you: you’re a lamb going to the slaughterhouse to become an entrée. All I can do is try to warn you against doing something you’ll most definitely regret, but I can’t stop you. This is a big deal.”

  Adele didn’t like the way Betty kept bringing this up, making it sound like she was going on a suicide mission. Sure, Aneko could be cunny, but Adele had known that when she agreed to come to dinner. It wasn’t about what would happen when she got there. What really mattered was that she showed up. This was a game of balls, and Adele couldn’t afford to come off as a coward. All she had to do was go there and stand her ground, no matter what Aneko had in store for her. At least Peter would be on her side.

  Peter, who had phoned a dozen times to try and convince her to rethink going to dinner before it was too late.

  “You and I can go somewhere else tonight,” he’d said. “Maybe grab burgers together or something.”

  “No,” Adele had replied. “Please, Peter, just let me do this. Just this once.”

  She’d looked into his eyes, and she’d seen that he knew nothing he said would convince her otherwise. She knew he didn’t really get it. Neither did Betty. Adele didn’t blame either of them for that. But she wasn’t going to let anyone stop her. Not even the man she loved with her whole heart.

  “Just trust me, okay?” she said when Betty didn’t reply. “I can do this.”

  “Of course, you can.” Betty’s lips curved into a smile. “You’re Adele freaking Kincaid.”

  Adele grinned back at her. “Yeah. I’m Adele freaking Kincaid.”

  *****

  8:00 P.M.

  Adele Kincaid stood at the door and knocked. Immediately, the door swung open and she was met with the sight of Peter’s gorgeous face. He had a drained expression on his face, but it lit up a little when he saw her. Then a look of resignation dimmed it a little. He wasn’t wearing a suit, just a blue flannel shirt tucked into black pants.