Sweet Revenge: A Nanny to Mommy Romantic Suspense

by Ford, Mia

  I wasn’t sure what to think or what to feel. The past month of my life had been one crazy extreme to another. The angelic married life I had dreamt of my entire life was slowly becoming more like a nightmare with no end in sight.

  Ted had changed. He was almost a completely different person than he’d been when we first got married. He had no motivation, he had no ambition, he was always short and ill tempered, and he had given me the impression he might get physically abusive if I didn’t just respect his space and not meddle with him.

  It was like being married to a stranger.

  “Maybe he is depressed,” Penny said one day over lunch.

  “I’ve thought about that, but he won’t talk to me.”

  “Well, his whole life has changed, too. That injury and not being able to do what he loves—I imagine that has hurt him more than he ever let on to you.”

  I nodded. “I know it has, but his injury doesn’t seem that bad at times. I mean, I’m sure it hurts but he won’t talk about it so it is impossible to know what he is feeling. If he won’t communicate then I can’t reach out to understand him or try to help him.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t want help,” Penny said. “Maybe he just wants to be miserable and wallow in it.”

  “I’m sure he feels that way, but that’s when you need to snap out of it the most. No matter what you have to keep moving forward. I went through that when I lost my parents. I didn’t want to be around anyone or do anything, but I had to get back out there and keep going. I just wish I could help him do the same.”

  Penny took a bite of the pie she was eating. “That’s the thing. You can’t do it for him and you can’t push him out into anything.”

  That had been a few weeks ago and I tried to let Penny’s advice sink in but I wasn’t sure it fit Ted anymore. He was just so mean and almost sadistic at times. It felt like it had little to do with him being depressed. He was always laughing and goofing off with his friends. It seemed like he wanted to be around everyone but me half the time.

  But our sex was still amazing. That had never let up. And the weirdest thing that I couldn’t wrap my head around was that since Ted had become different the sex had actually become even better. Maybe it was that I craved the intimacy with him even more because I felt that our emotional intimacy had gone astray. I wasn’t sure but it was drilling a hole in my brain to find out.

  And now on top of everything, I’d just come back from the doctor to find out that I was pregnant with twins. Twins…the doctor heard two separate heartbeats. They were both healthy and strong. I was going to be a mother… a mother…

  I felt so blessed. I’d always wanted to be a mother. And now I was going to have twins. I couldn’t believe it. The feeling was overwhelming, but that was because there was actually a plethora of feelings going through my head and my heart. I’d wanted to be a mother since as long as I could remember. My own mother was so phenomenal, so loving, and so perfect that I wanted to be just like her. I dreamt of one day having a daughter or a son that I could love and cherish the way I’d been cherished.

  And now it was going to happen.

  But what was Ted going to think about it? What would he really think?

  We’d never discussed at length the possibility of having kids before, though we’d both agreed that we wanted kids. With Ted the conversation was always short and sweet. He would say that kids were great and he was looking forward to it, but that it was more of a few years down the road. I knew that he didn’t want kids right now. But sometimes things happened where surprises came along that you weren’t expecting by a long shot. And this had happened to us. And now we were there to get everything together to make this happen. It would require sacrifice and commitment on both our parts, but I was ready for it. I was excited for it.

  I did not think that Ted would be so pleased and I was right.

  “What?” Ted asked when I told him the news. You would have thought I’d slapped him upside the head; the look of surprise was so quick and so full of repulsion.

  “I’m pregnant,” I said again. “With twins.”

  I began clearing away some of the dishes. I’d sent the crew home early because I wanted to have this conversation after dinner and I wanted the two of us to be alone.

  “I don’t believe it…” Ted said.

  He stood up and began to pace back and forth.

  “Well, this is good news, right? Are you as happy as I am?”

  I knew the answer but I wanted to put the best face on this that I could.

  Ted paused in mid step and looked at me. I could see the confusion rolling across his face as if he didn’t know what to say. I knew the answer already. He was deeply saddened, possibly enraged by the news, but he knew that I was very happy and he was playing for my benefit. I wasn’t sure if he just didn’t want to hurt me, or if there was another reason for his confusion. But I desperately wanted to find out. What was in his mind?

  “Yeah,” Ted said. “That’s great news.”

  “Tell me how you really feel,” I said. “Please talk to me.”

  Ted glared at me. “How do I feel? Well, fine. I’ll tell you. I think this is something we were planning on years down the road. I like to think that everything has its own place and timing and this screws the hell out of a lot of the things we had planned.”

  “How?”

  “How?” Ted exclaimed. “How do you think?” He demanded. “How am I going to work on building a business if I have kids to take care of? You going to stop working suddenly to take care of them? Or are you going to do like other rich people and just pawn them off on the staff? Yeah, that will be a great way for kids to grow up, being raised by people that their parents employ.”

  “We will work it out,” I said. “There are a variety of ways we can work our schedules so that one or both of us is always here.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about! To make that happen it means that our lives are going to be forever changed. This isn’t a phase or something short lived. Dammit! I thought you were taking birth control?”

  I nodded. “I am. Sometimes it isn’t always a hundred percent effective. And it’s possible that I missed one, or we made love when I ran out and hadn’t had a chance to refill it. That’s happened a few times. Things happen. I think this is a beautiful thing.”

  “Oh, you think it’s beautiful. That’s rich. That is rich…I’ll tell you one thing Mrs. Proud Mommy; you’d better not let those babies make you fat or my eyes might just start to wander. You keep that in mind the next time you think it is no big deal that you didn’t take your birth control and now we have rug rats on the way.”

  Ted stormed out of the kitchen and out the front door. A moment later I heard his motorcycle start and he was gone.

  I stood there watching him for several minutes with tears rolling down my face. The words he spoke still stung my ears. I felt sick to my stomach and I had to hold the table in front of me to steady myself. I was terrified and I felt like I was about to start breaking down. The stress of it all was too much to take.

  I called Penny and she came over as quickly as she could. I didn’t even know if Ted would be coming back home tonight.

  “I feel stupid crying like this,” I said. “But I just can’t stop. How could he say those horrible things to me?”

  Penny rubbed my hand. “It’s ok,” she said. “He is just upset. You know there are things he’s going through. I think it’s just the shock of it all and after he’s had time to calm down and adjust to the news he will be fine. I bet he comes back home bearing gifts and apologizing.”

  “I’m not sure I’d care if he did,” I said.

  “You don’t mean that.”

  “I do. I’ve been so patient waiting for him to shape up and be the man I married, to get his stuff sorted out. And I’m over it. I…I don’t think he loves me anymore. I’m starting to wonder if he ever did.”

  “You don’t mean that,” Penny said. “Every couple fights and has disagreements, usua
lly when big news happens. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love you.”

  “I wish I could believe that,” I said. “I just don’t know what to think. I’m so confused. I don’t want our kids to grow up without a father, but I just don’t know how much longer I can stand this.”

  “Are you sure the pregnancy hormones aren’t playing into things here a bit? You need to relax. Being upset is very bad for the babies. Whatever you go through, so do they.”

  Penny was right. I tried to calm down. Having her there was helping a lot.

  “Any idea where Ted might have gone?” Penny asked grabbing me another ginger ale from the fridge.

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “He just leaves every now and then. He goes off somewhere; I have no idea where. When he comes back he doesn’t say anything about it.”

  “And when you question him?”

  I shook my head. “I stopped questioning him about anything. Every time I do he yells at me and he’s threatened me a few times.”

  “What?” Penny asked.

  I almost wished I hadn’t told her that, but I was feeling so vulnerable and scared. I had to tell someone. There were times when I feared for my safety around Ted. I couldn’t believe that I felt that way, that things had actually gotten that bad with us.

  “It’s ok,” I said trying to dismiss it.

  “What do you mean? What type of threats?”

  “I shouldn’t have told you.”

  “Has he ever hit you?”

  “No,” I answered quickly. “No, he never has. I’d kick his ass out the moment he did.”

  I meant it.

  “Well, threatening isn’t far off. I’ve read about this. These sorts of things have a pattern.”

  “Why are you reading about that stuff?” I asked.

  Penny sighed. “When I was in high school, I had an abusive boyfriend for a few months. I know what it's like.”

  “I’m so sorry. But Ted is not abusive. At least not physically, and I don’t want to blame him for the way he’s been acting. I don’t know that it is really his fault. Like you said, with all of the stress he has gone through recently it would be strange if he wasn’t having some issues.”

  “That’s all well and good,” Penny said. “But when is it enough? When does it cross a line?”

  I nodded. She was right. I wasn’t sure when that line would be crossed or if it would be, but I was scared.

  Penny stayed with me for most of the evening and then she left. I waited up for Ted but he never showed that night. He often took off for a few days without any warning. I had no idea where he was or what he was doing (or with who) but it worried me sick.

  He had to know it wasn’t right to just leave me that way and never even mention where he was going or where he’d been when he did arrive. To him it was like riding to town to grab some cough drops.

  I’d thought about hiring someone to follow him and just see where he went, but so far I hadn’t been able to bring myself to really follow through with that. I wasn’t sure if I just didn’t want to know the truth or if I just didn’t want to hate myself for violating that trust.

  I retired to the living room and relaxed with a good book and a hot cup of tea. Eventually I went to bed and I thought about the twins and my relationship with their father. Ted… he was going to be a father… I wasn’t sure how that made me feel. He was barely able to be a husband. What type of a father would he make? Was it possible that he could change back to the man I’d married? Did that man still exist?

  Or had he never existed? I was facing the truth more each day, and as scary as it was to admit, I eventually found myself believing it.

  Ted was not the man who’d made me fall in love with him. Ted was someone else entirely.

  I just didn’t know who. But I was going to find out.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ted

  Nine Months Later

  I swung the golf club hard but smooth trying to make sure that I kept my back even and straight and that my wrists stayed nice and locked in without being too rigid as I continued my follow through. I connected solidly with the ball and watched as it lifted off the tee and sailed far through the air towards the hole. It landed on the green and came to a stop not far from putting distance.

  “Nice shot!”

  Andrew Brower, one of my newest golfing buddies, congratulated me with a hearty pat on the back. He was one of those guys that had to try to be alpha in everything he did, which included very hard pats on the back that he pretended were soft. They used to piss me off, but I’d gotten past that. Andrew was just that way. Besides the guy had more money than he knew what to do with and he sounded very interested in investing in my motorcycle company I was on the verge of starting up.

  After months of trying to find the right investors, I decided to go to the source and start investing in actual riders. A few of my racers had done well and this began the word of mouth about me as a legitimate businessman. Now I was ready to move on to bigger and better things. I was no longer considered a washed up racer who was only ever mediocre to begin with. I knew I could have become great if I’d wanted to invest that much time and work into it, but I’ve always been the kind of guy who likes to go with the path of least resistance. It was far easier this way and it made life that much more enjoyable when you weren’t constantly thinking about competing against anyone else.

  “Thanks,” I said putting my driver back into my bag. I slung the bag over my shoulder and started walking towards the ball.

  “Why didn’t we get a cart?” Andrew asked.

  I laughed. “Because we aren’t that lame that we can’t stretch our legs and walk a bit. It’s good exercise. If you spend too much time sitting, it just destroys your body. We humans are not meant to be sedentary creatures.”

  “Ah, I forgot. You are a bit of a science buff, aren’t you?”

  I nodded. “That I am. But also history, art, languages—you name it and I’d love to be a recognized expert in it. Think about how many people have no idea about the world they really live in. I don’t want to be uninformed.”

  Andrew took off his sunglasses and cleaned the lenses on his shirt. “I hear that, but who has the time to sit around and read so much? I barely had that kind of time when I was in school.”

  “Time is something we are all in limited supply of, but don’t forget that I have the same twenty-four hours a day that you do. It’s all about sacrifice and choices.”

  “Well, some of us fill our time with business,” Andrew teased.

  I very nearly turned and belted him one across the jaw, but I held my anger in check. I’d had to do that a lot lately, and frankly I thought I was starting to get pretty good at it.

  “So do I,” I said. “Speaking of which, have you given any more thought to what we discussed before?”

  Andrew sighed and coughed, clearing his throat. “I have actually.”

  After a moment of silence, I goaded him to continue. “And…?”

  “I think it’s a great deal, but I want to alter it a little.”

  “If it’s such a great deal already then why would you want to alter it?”

  “Because a great deal can always become greater,” Andrew said in his usual glib fashion. The guy had words for days, especially for someone who claimed not to read much.

  “Ok then,” I said. “What alterations do you propose?”

  “I’ll go in the fifty million, but I want thirty-five percent.”

  I couldn’t help laughing out loud.

  Andrew stopped and stared at me. “Did I say something funny?”

  He had a dead serious look on his face.

  I stopped and turned back towards him. “Well, twenty-two percent to thirty-five percent is a huge hike. Why would I want to do that?”

  “Well, because you need my investment to really get this company off the ground. It’s kind of funny, but you are a billionaire. Why would you even need money to invest?”

  “Well, most of that mon
ey is tied into the cosmetics empire my wife’s family built. It’s the goose that lays the golden eggs. We don’t mess with that.”

  “So none of the money is fluid?”

  I groaned quietly. Was I going to have to stand here and dispute my financial status with this fool? Only a moron used his own money to invest into a large business. If it went belly up, then you were out on your ass. That was the risk that investors took, but that was also the perks of doing none of the work and reaping huge benefits. Putting your own money in and running the machine—that was a terrifying gamble for anyone.

  I looked him right in the eye. “I’ll give you thirty. That is my final offer. Take it or leave it.”

  With that, I started walking away towards my ball.

  “That is a deal,” Andrew said.

  “Great,” I said. “There’s your ball.”

  Andrew’s last shot had landed about forty yards shorter than mine. It gave me a bit of pride that I was consistently out driving him. Every guy loved to hit the long ball. It was part of the male pride ego.

  Andrew got into position and started making his shot.

  I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket, but I had it on silent so it wouldn’t ring. It was probably the office; I’d get it later. I told them never to call me during this time. Most of the best business deals out there were made on the golf course. Didn’t those imbeciles know that?

  Andrew used his wedge and hit a nicely played shot that got him up on the green close to the hole. It almost went in. I was going to have to get a bit more serious or I was going to lose this game. And I hated to lose…at anything.

  “That’s what I’m talking about!” Andrew cheered and then went into his little victory dance that resembled a drunken cha-cha.

  “It’s not over yet,” I said. “I can still take you out.”

  We started walking towards my ball so I could show this jerk how it was done and my phone started buzzing again. Frustrated I pulled the phone from my pocket while I had a minute between shots.