by ANDREA SMITH
Once I had emptied my bladder, I washed my hands and moisturized. When I returned to the bedroom, Trey was in sweats. He looked at me, smiling just a bit.
“Nice jammies,” he said, nodding toward his shirt that I was wearing. I really hoped that things were normal again between us. He seemed to have enjoyed my make-up blow job earlier. It was nothing personal about not getting married at the moment. It was simply the way it needed to be. I went over to him, shyly, standing on my tiptoes and planting a kiss on his unresponsive lips.
(Okkaay….)
“We’re to have breakfast with Mother and Father this morning,” Trey informed me (at the last fucking minute.) “They want to discuss the situation with both of us.” (Oh God, not the ‘situation’ again?)
I knew that he had not just found this out. Why hadn’t he told me sooner? Perhaps his parents were pressuring him into marrying me my insecure subconscious was screaming. The thought of that simply made everything worse.
“What are we, fucking high school freshman? Thanks for giving me notice, Trey,” I snapped grabbing clothes from my suitcase and going in the bathroom to shower.
He shaved while I showered, neither of us talking to each other. Piss on him if he thinks his parents are going to pressure me into something that I’m not ready to do.
I put on jeans and a University of Kentucky sweatshirt. I guess they needed to know that I was a ‘no frills’ kind of girl. Trey dressed in Dockers and a long-sleeved Polo shirt.
I brushed my teeth; dabbed a bit of make-up on, and brushed my hair up into a bouncy ponytail. I was ready to face whatever they planned on dishing out.
Trey and I descended the staircase together. Breakfast was being served in the formal dining room. My stomach was growling since I hadn't eaten dinner the night before. Susan came over to us immediately, giving Trey a hug, and then reaching out to me, kissing me on my cheek.
“How lovely you look, Tylar,” she said sweetly, giving me her sincere and down home smile. “You look very well-rested, glowing almost,” she gushed, tickled pink (or blue).
“Please, take a seat. Clive will be joining us in a moment.”
As if on cue, Clive came into the room, bidding everyone a good morning. A servant was busy bringing in warm platters of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, fried potatoes, fresh fruit and muffins, placing everything on the sideboard. There was coffee, juice and milk already poured.
Trey pulled out my chair for me, waiting as I took a seat before taking his. Very properly raised I thought. Mr. & Mrs. Sinclair took their seats as the servant filled water glasses and poured coffee.
“Please,” Susan said, once the coffee had been poured. “You two help yourselves to some breakfast.”
I touched Trey’s arm as he started to get up asking that he get me some scrambled eggs, a muffin and fruit. He nodded. I wasn’t sure now that as hungry as I was just how much I would be able to eat. My nerves were jittery. I couldn’t imagine what they needed to discuss with us. We weren’t high school kids who got into trouble.
(No, how about adults who should have known better than to get into trouble?)
Once everyone's plates were full, we commenced eating in very uncomfortable silence. I talked to Susan a bit about the auction they had attended. It was a horse auction and they had purchase two more warm bloods. I was
finishing up my melon slices when Clive finally got to the point.
“Tylar,” he said in his lovely British accent, “Susan and I want you to know that we are here to support you in any way possible and acceptable to you. We’ve not been blessed with a grandchild as of yet,” he said, glancing toward Trey briefly.
“We want you to consider staying with us so that we can provide you with anything you may need financially or emotionally during this time. We fully understand that Charlie Roberts’ trial is scheduled for January, and that you may need to be here in Bristol during that time, should they not meet a plea agreement."
(Why did I not know that?)
"We would be happy for you to stay with us; we will make sure that you are taken care of to the best of our ability.”
“Mr. & Mrs. Sinclair,” I spoke frankly, because it appeared that Trey had left me out on the ledge here, “I so appreciate your hospitality and generosity where I’ve been concerned. I want you both to know one thing. I love your son – I love Trey. Trey loves me.”
I looked over and he was gaping at me, never expecting that I would speak so candidly to his parents. (Doesn’t he know how I roll yet?)
“We are both so happy about this baby – about blessing you both with your first grandchild.”
I reached over, taking Trey’s hand in mine. He was trippin’ I could tell. I smiled inside; it wasn’t often that I could cause that.
“Trey proposed to me last evening. I asked Trey to be patient with me.”
I looked over at Susan, knowing that another woman might understand what I was about to say.
“As a little girl, I fashioned this whole scenario about how I wanted it to be when I married. I wanted a prince to sweep me off of my feet; a wedding that was about just him and me. I’ve met my prince – your son. All I want now is for our wedding to me about him and me. I understand if this
doesn’t sit well with you ---“
I was suddenly cut off by Susan; she jumped up, coming over to me and sweeping me into a loving embrace.
“Oh sweet girl,” she said, “You are everything I could have dreamed of for my son. You are perfect for him. I see the love between you both.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. I was glad I wasn’t the only one emotional these days. I hugged her back, tears springing to my eyes now. Clive cleared his throat, uncomfortable with all of the female emotions no doubt.
“Tylar,” Clive said, “We want and support whatever Trey and you desire. That’s all we want you to know. We consider you family. We hope you will come to feel the same way about us.”
What wonderful parents I thought. I felt a fleeting pain that I had never known that kind of unconditional love. Trey’s arm was around me now, pulling him toward me, kissing my cheeks, once again, wiping my tears away with his thumb.
Susan was ecstatic that we had somehow dealt with the elephant in the room. I was too. Suddenly I was famished, digging in to my breakfast, and feeling that everything would be okay. We chatted about everything; my home in Kentucky; my job. I avoided the subject of my mother. I wasn’t sure what all Trey had told them about my father who was a phantom in my mind.
“Tylar, what is your due date,” she asked excitedly.
“May 5th,” I replied. “Kentucky Derby month.”
“Oh that is so thrilling,” she said, all bubbly and excited. “Do you know if the baby is a boy or a girl – not that we care either way. Clive and I are just tickled to death for a grandbaby.”
“Not yet,” I replied. “My doctor is going to do an ultrasound my next appointment which is at the end of next week. I’m not sure if I want to know or not. I kind of like the idea of being surprised.”
Trey looked at me seriously, “Why didn’t I know about the ultrasound, Tylar?”
Uh-oh, I should have mentioned it to him before now. I scrambled to come up with something to assuage his irritation.
“I’m sorry, babe,” I said softly, patting his cheek gently with my hand, making sure I sounded contrite in his parents presence. “Can you come to the appointment with me next week in Radcliff?”
“Certainly,” he smiled, sipping his coffee. “In fact, I’ve rearranged my schedule to spend time with you in Radcliff until the Christmas holidays if necessary.”
(What? Really?)
I was speechless. The truth was I loved it that Trey would do this for me. I was a bit pissed off that I had to hear it from him just now. Why hadn’t he told me earlier? I would have been so thrilled to know that.
I then realized that Trey had the power to call his own shots at the firm. He was a senior partner after all.
(Touché, cou
nselor).
“Well, then I am tickled pink,” Susan gushed. “Clive and I feel so much better knowing that you two have worked out so many of the details!”
She was wall-to-wall smiles and grandmotherly instincts were rampant.
“Tell me, Tylar,” she asked, gushing. “Now I know that’s its early and all, but have you and Trey discussed names for the baby?”
“Well,” I said softly, lowering my head a bit, looking at Trey in my peripheral vision as he was preparing to take another sip of his coffee.
“I haven’t mentioned it to Trey just yet but I was thinking if it’s a boy, ‘Jack’ and if it’s a girl, I like ‘Danielle.” I could see Trey, choking on his last sip of the hot coffee; I pretended not to notice.
“What do you think, babe?” I asked, turning to face him.
He glanced at me while pulling his cloth napkin from his lap and wiping his mouth. He gave me one of his ‘your-ass-is-mine’ looks which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was fun sparring with my Trey.
“I think we will discuss names later, Tylar,” he replied authoritatively.
“Well whatever you two come up with I’m sure that Clive and I will love it.”
The rest of our breakfast was enjoyed in good spirits. Afterwards, I went back upstairs to grab my hoodie. I wanted to go out to the stable to visit with Derringer. Trey was right behind me.
“That was quite a performance you gave down there,” he said wryly.
“Trey, I meant everything that I said, well, with the exception of the baby names.”
“I should hope so,” he replied, smirking.
“Did you really plan on staying with me or was that something you conveniently manufactured?’ I asked.
He was thoughtful for a moment, choosing his words carefully to not upset me.
“Tylar, I have made arrangements to stay with you until the Christmas holiday break with my firm if necessary. I have several reasons for doing so. You need to trust me when I tell you this and not get pissed off and stubborn. Can you do that?”
I knew that Trey was serious and concerned about what he wanted to tell me.
“Yes, of course, Trey,” I answered.
He pulled me down so that I was sitting next to him on the bed. He was momentarily quiet, choosing his words carefully.
“There is a very good chance that the C.A. will accept Charlie Roberts’s plea bargain for giving us your mother.”
I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.
“If that happens, you won’t have to face being at his trial; he will simply plead guilty to a lesser charge. Now I don’t want you to be concerned about that. Charlie will do time in prison, just not as much. My only concern at this point is that the authorities have not yet located your mother. I’ve had my own private investigator looking into her whereabouts as well.”
“You have?” I asked wide-eyed.
Maybe that explained his constant need to be on his Blackberry at all hours.
“Your mother has been living in Indiana.”
“Indiana?” I asked, totally perplexed with the notion. What possibly could be in Indiana to entice her to move? Then it hit me. Daniel. I looked quickly at Trey; he saw that I had connected the dots.
“Yes,” he said softly. “She’s been with Daniel.”
“Oh my God,” I said, still somewhat shocked though I truly didn’t know why.
“He’s in college. He’s at Purdue.”
“Unfortunately, he’s not any more, Tylar. Daniel lost his scholarship it seems. For whatever reason, he was apparently obsessed with your mother. It has been going on for quite some time.”
Since my fucking senior prom!
"Your mom is expecting his child. He quit school and has been working at a factory nearby. Somehow she figured out she was on the radar after Charlie’s attempt to assault you went awry. By the way, that was not actually part of their plan if it makes you feel any better.”
It didn’t. I wanted to hear what exactly the plan was. I had a feeling that I was about to.
“According to Charlie’s sworn statement, the plan was to make it look like an accident.”
“Make what look like an accident?” I questioned. Trey shifted nervously beside me, wrapping an arm around me, pulling me close.
“What? She wanted me dead?”
I looked up at Trey and I knew the answer though he couldn’t speak the unspeakable. Trey had a heart and a soul; my mother had neither. I couldn’t fathom anyone wanting to kill someone much less a mother her own child.
What made her hate me so much?
I buried my face into his chest sobbing inconsolably. I finally raised my head. I had drenched his shirt. I wiped my wet cheeks with the back of my hand, raising my eyes to his.
“Why, Trey?” I sobbed. “Why would she hate me like that?”
“I don’t know, baby,” he said, stroking my face with the back of his knuckles; the tip of his thumb catching an errant tear.
“I don’t understand it either.”
He kissed the top of my head, stroking my hair. He continued in his smooth silky voice.
“Charlie was biding his time, hoping to get an opportunity to catch you alone, either in the stable or your cottage. The plan was to make it appear as if you befell an accident with one of the horses. He thought he had a perfect opportunity the night he saw you going into the stable alone. He didn’t realize that I was in there as well. When he did, he decided to cash in on a better opportunity in advance of the original plan.”
The video recorded session of Trey and me in the stable; the night our baby was conceived.
“So, I don’t understand,” I interrupted. “Was the plan to kill me nixed then in favor of getting blackmail money from the video?”
“That’s the story Charlie is sticking to as far has he is concerned,” Trey replied. “Your mother apparently had a life insurance policy on you for $150,000. Your mother offered him $50,000 of it to arrange the . . .accident. Charlie saw an opportunity for more money by blackmailing me with the threat of making our little video go viral. He claimed your mother was still hounding him to complete the other as well. She wanted the $100,000 life insurance money on top of her portion of the blackmail money. Additionally, if you were gone, the house in Radcliff would go to her as natural next-of-kin.”
“But the jig is up, right? I mean she certainly wouldn’t collect on any insurance now if I died under strange circumstances, would she?”
“That depends,” Trey said, “Unless she’s well connected within the law enforcement community here, she may not know that Charlie sang like a bird.”
“But maybe she still has connections.” I was thinking out loud at the moment. “I mean she did work for a law firm for many years; it’s possible I suppose.”
“Either way,” Trey said, “I don’t want you alone in Radcliff. I want to make sure that you are safe. Hopefully, she will be located and brought in for questioning soon. There is an outstanding warrant for her here.”
“What good does that really do if they aren’t actively searching for her?”
“First of all, I have a private detective looking for her; secondly, if she gets stopped by law enforcement for a minor traffic ticket, they will run her identification and see that she has an outstanding warrant in Virginia.”
I knew my mother, or at least I thought I had. She has the survival instinct big-time. She wasn’t going to be as easy as all that.
“Does Daniel know any of this?”
“No,” Trey answered, “The last thing we want is for your mother to be tipped off. For some reason though, she’s not been with him over the past several of weeks.”
I was becoming extremely creeped out by all of this. People that I thought I had known, I hadn’t really known at all. My life had been nothing but a collage of lies and half-truths at best. The only parent that I knew was a con artist and wannabe murderer. I was nauseated by all of it.
“Tylar, I want you to consider something for me if you will?�
��
Trey had lifted my chin so that our eyes were locked. I nodded.
“You don’t need to make a decision this minute, but consider please giving up your house and job in Radcliff, and coming back here to live before Christmas?”
“But Trey, you’re not here,” I countered. “What would be the point?”
“You’ve refused to come to Atlanta and stay with me; at least here you would be closer, and my mother is dying to look after you.”
"It's not that I don't want to be with you in Atlanta. It's just that I would have nothing to do there. I need to be
doing something Trey. I've got this nesting instinct thing going and I need to settle somewhere and prepare for this
baby.”
“I totally understand that, Tylar. Please consider making your nest either here or Atlanta, for me?”
He raised my hand to his lips, kissing my knuckles, never taking his sapphire blue eyes off of me.
Oh God, how could I deny him anything?
“I will, Trey. I promise. It will be one or the other.”
“Good girl,” he smiled, his dimple appearing. “Now how about you and I going for a very gentle ride together on Derringer?
“Really?”
“Yep,” he answered, “I’m driving though.”
Trey and I spent the afternoon in the brisk November sunshine. We rode Derringer down through the woods, stopping for awhile to sit on a log and talk.
We discussed what needed to happen when we returned to Kentucky the following day. I wanted to make sure that I gave at least a week or two’s notice so that another temp could be located. That was probably what I regretted giving up the most. I actually didn’t mind putting the house on the market. No matter what, there would always be dark memories there.
Trey definitely was looking forward to going with me to my doctor’s appointment scheduled for the following week. He hadn’t decided whether he wanted to know the gender of the baby or not. Either way, he promised he would respect my desire not to know until he or she was born.