by Lena Hart
“As your counselor, I don’t think it’s best to give my opinion on such a sensitive topic. Especially one that’s based on hypotheticals.”
“I’m not asking you as my counselor, but as a woman who happens to be married,” Mason said, staring pointedly at the wedding band around her finger. “If your spouse admitted to thinking about having an affair, then you later found evidence that suggested they may have had one, what would you do?”
She tilted her head slightly. “Honestly, I would make sure I had more solid proof besides strategically angled photos or suggestive commentary from outsiders before I made any assumptions.”
“But would you honestly be able to trust him again? The way you used to?”
“If my husband was courageous enough, like your wife, to tell me something that brutally honest, then I would give him the benefit of the doubt when he says nothing physical happened. I think you need to ask yourself what is keeping you from fully trusting your wife.”
“I do trust her,” Mason said. “I just…” Don’t have confidence in her feelings for me anymore.
Dr. Kahn leaned forward in her seat, but she didn’t pressure him to finish his thought. Instead, she gave him a gentle, sympathetic smile.
“You and your wife got your start based on a pretty funny, but also big misunderstanding that led to a coerced date, and ultimately the end of an existing relationship. All of this laid the foundation of a marriage that would be filled with assumptions, manipulation, and some uncertainty. And these seem to be a running theme in your marriage.”
Mason frowned, wanting to refute everything she just said. But he couldn’t find the words that would unravel her neatly outlined assessment of them.
“Speaking as your counselor,” Dr. Kahn continued, “I would strongly suggest that when you find yourself reacting, stop and start asking questions. You and Jules both need to start opening up to one another if you hope to rebuild trust in each other.”
Jules sat across from her lawyer, her hands clasped tightly on her lap. “So you’re saying there’s nothing I can do?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Linda said. “The news stations are smart. They wouldn’t broadcast anything that could come close to being considered defamatory. They’re just making a lot of noise that will eventually die down. You’ll see.”
“But how can they go around saying these things about me?”
Linda shrugged. “Freedom of the press.”
Jules’ frustration level nearly reached its boiling point. She had missed her counseling session for this, only to be told that she could do nothing about protecting her name and reputation in the press.
“I could have the station publish a statement addressing these allegations, but honestly, I believe it is best we not draw any more attention to it. It’s nothing but salacious gossip, and the public will see it for what it is.”
Jules shook her head. “I don’t care about public opinion. These lies are hurting my marriage, and I want them to stop.”
Actually, she wanted that night to never have happened. As much as she hated to admit it, Mason had every right to blame her. She had brought this drama into their lives, and now she just wanted it to disappear.
“I’m sorry, Jules. There isn’t much I can do. And frankly, this isn’t my area of expertise. If you want to continue with the divorce proceedings, however, then that we can get started on today.”
Jules frowned at the thin, sharply dressed woman. “I told you, my husband and I are going through marriage counseling.”
Linda sat back in her chair. “And how is that working out for you?”
Jules stiffened at the intrusive question, hoping the woman wasn’t intentionally trying to be snide.
“Fine,” Jules said tersely. “It was actually going great until this mess in the news came in, and…” Crumbled what had been the rebuilding of something sweet.
Linda offered a polite smile. “Well, if things take a turn for the worse, I’ll be ready.”
Frustrated, Jules rose to her feet and slid on her sunglasses. She began to question her decision to come here in the first place. If she was looking for an ally in saving her marriage, Linda Greisen was not it.
“You may want to leave from the back. I believe some reporters have started gathering out front.”
As Jules took the long way out of the attorney’s office and to her car, guilt over missing her counseling session today began to gnaw at her. Coming here had been a waste, seeing as she had gotten very little answers or solutions from Linda. Instead, she could have used this time to meet with Dr. Kahn so she and Mason could work through the rising tension between them.
“Jules, over here!”
She instinctively looked up from her car door, barely registering the camera rushing toward her. The man was now only steps away from her and she vaguely wondered how a slender man could move so fast with such a large piece of equipment.
Forcing herself into action, Jules wrenched her car door open and jumped inside. She had the door shut and locked just as the man jammed his camera at her window. She had never been more grateful for the tints covering her car windows than she was right now.
“Jules! When did you and Slater Reyes start seeing each other? How did you two meet?”
Her heart raced and her hands shook uncontrollably as she scrambled to get the keys into the ignition. The man continued shouting questions at her, which only frazzled her more, but eventually she got the car started. She peeled out of the parking lot and it wasn’t until there was enough distance between her and that camera that her tremors started to ease. She’d never been in a situation like this and she didn’t know if she could take much more of this.
If only she had never gone to that stupid hotel…
Jules dashed away the tears that slid down her cheeks. She couldn’t start feeling sorry for herself. There was too much at stake for her to give in to the insanity now.
She drove around for a bit before heading home to get her emotions in order. When she pulled into her driveway, Carrie was on her way out with Madison strapped in the back seat. Jules went to the passenger side and leaned in.
“Mommy!”
Jules smiled at the sound. She would never get tired of it. “Hi, baby. Have you been good today?”
“Yes. I was very good today.”
Jules glanced over at Carrie.
“Nothing’s broken and that’s all I’m going to say about that,” she said with a low chuckle. “What are you doing back so early?”
“I had to cancel one of my appointments because the other ran late. Are you two headed to the park?”
“Yup, then we’re going to pick up Jeremy from school.”
“Mommy, am I starting school tomorrow?”
“Yes, honey, but it’s like practice school. You start your real school in two weeks.”
“Can I wear my new shoes?”
“Yes, with your new uniform.”
Madison beamed with excitement and Jules realized that soon both her babies would be in school, leaving her with a lot more time on her hands. A small twinge of nostalgia was already starting to take root, and she sighed. The first day of school was going to be a tearful one for her.
Until then, she would be busy wrapping up the planning for the Family Fun Day with her program director. Then there was Jeremy’s progress report meeting in the morning. It was going to be a busy day tomorrow.
“Carrie, I just realized I have a few early meetings tomorrow morning, which is also the first day of Madison’s prep classes at Saint Francis.”
“Whoa, prep classes for preschool?”
Jules shrugged. “They’re one of the best. Would you mind swapping just for tomorrow? I’ll take Jeremy and you drop off Madison?”
“Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
Jules smiled. “What would I do without you?”
“Remember this moment when Christmas rolls around,” Carrie said with a wink.
She pulled out of the driveway
, and Jules waved at them until the car was out of sight. She grabbed the mail from the box and went into the house. Jules sat at the kitchen table and began to sift through the pile. She had gotten in a habit of opening the mail that she didn’t hesitate when she came across a letter from Dr. Kahn’s office.
Treatment Verification Letter.
Jules skimmed the letter, confused as to what she was reading. She read it again, and this time it began to make sense.
This was for his job.
She racked her mind trying to think of another reason Mason would need a letter like this, then realized it didn’t matter. The fact that their counseling sessions were being used to fulfill another purpose beyond repairing their marriage hurt. This was yet another example of him putting everything else before their marriage—before her.
Jules blinked the moisture that suddenly blurred her vision. It was silly, really. She should have known that his sudden interest in marriage counseling had something to do with his career and little to do with actually repairing their marriage. He had given in to the idea so easily and now she knew why.
Her head spun and there was a painful tightness in her chest that made it hard for her to think or do anything but sit there stiffly. It took her a while to pinpoint it, but she realized she wasn’t just angry at him. She was angry at herself for believing, yet again, in his empty promises.
Jules didn’t know how long she sat there until Mason came home and found her at the table. She couldn’t even look at him, so she kept her gaze glued to the letter.
“You weren’t at our session today.”
“I know.”
“You could have told me you had another appointment. We could have rescheduled our session for later in the day or tomorrow.”
She raised her gaze to his, incensed that he would have the audacity to be upset with her for missing a session he really cared nothing about.
“I didn’t plan to miss our session, Mason. My meeting just took longer than I expected.”
He frowned. “Was meeting with your lawyer more important than sticking with our counseling session?”
“As a matter of fact, it was,” she said tightly. “Since I can’t rely on you or anyone else to be in my corner, I needed to know if there was anything my lawyer could do to stop the media from spreading any more lies about me.”
He pressed his lips in a tight line at her jibe, but she continued anyway.
“And you know why? Because I was hoping that maybe once this was over, we could get back to fixing us. But you don’t really care about that, do you?”
“What are you talking about?”
She shot to her feet and shoved the letter at him. He grabbed it, his brow furrowed in a deep frown as he quickly read the letter.
“What am I missing?” he asked, glancing back up at her.
Did he not see anything wrong with what he did?
She scoffed and shook her head. “You truly are unbelievable.” She tried to walk around him, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“No. Help me understand, Jules. Because I’m really trying to figure out what’s going on in that head of yours.”
“That letter, who is it for?”
“This?” He glanced at the letter in his hand. “It’s for the league so they would get off my back about going to anger management.”
She had been right. It was for his job. Then again, everything he did was always for his career.
“So you used our marriage counseling to get out of going to anger management?”
“What? No.” His frown deepened. “I got this letter so that I didn’t have to split my time between our sessions and mandatory anger management. Though it doesn’t really change anything for us, because I fully intend to finish what we started.”
She stared at him closely, wanting to believe that he meant what he said. But how was she to know?
“Now that you’re using our marriage counseling to fulfill your work needs, how do I know this isn’t just about you keeping your job then fixing us?”
“This has always been about us, Jules. Nothing’s changed that. Trust me.”
“Trust you? How?”
She hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but it echoed between them. Loudly. The magnitude of what it meant and what it conveyed peeled back a layer of unspoken words between them that clung to the tip of her tongue.
How am I supposed to trust you if I can’t even count on you?
Her very thoughts were reflected in his eyes.
“Mason, if we can’t be there for each other, what are we holding on to?”
He stilled, and Jules was stunned by her own words. The suffocating silence continued to spread between them as his piercing gaze moved over her.
“I rescheduled our session for us next week,” he said quietly. “We can work this all out there.”
Without another word, he turned and left. As her eyes followed him, she prayed that therapy would be enough to save them.
13
“Is it still safe for me to come down next month?”
Mason tucked the phone between his shoulder and ear as he shuffled through a few documents on his desk. “Yeah, Ryder. Why wouldn’t it?”
“I’d hate to show up to find out my big brother has become that guy.”
“What guy?”
“The forty-year-old divorcee who’s renting out a too-expensive bachelor pad.”
Mason gritted his teeth in annoyance as he waited for his brother to finish laughing at his own stupid joke. “Very funny, asshole.”
“Lighten up, Mason. It’s all just media gossip. You and Jules are solid.”
Mason let the heavy silence that followed linger between them. He wished he could find some assurance in his brother’s words, but he couldn’t even convince himself that their marriage could survive this. The tension at home was palpable and with each passing day, it only seemed to grow stronger.
“Mason.” This time, Ryder’s tone was sharp. “You two are good, right?”
“We’re still figuring things out.”
There was a brief pause over the line before Ryder let out a lengthy curse. “Damn, man. I didn’t know things had gotten that bad. You know I wouldn’t joke like that had I known things were that serious.”
Mason sighed and sat back in his seat. “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry about it.”
“How can I not? We both know how it felt when we thought Mom was going to leave Dad. I don’t want Madison and Jeremy to go through that same thing.”
Mason tensed at the memory. It had been so long ago, he’d almost forgotten. He’d been fourteen when his parents had separated. Ryder had been ten. Together they had barely weathered the storm of what had been an anxious and highly stressful moment in their lives. He wasn’t sure what had driven the wedge between his parents. He could only remember the many nights his mother had gone to bed in tears. On those nights, Mason had hated his father for the pain he’d caused their mother.
Eventually things had gotten better and their parents had remained married until their father’s passing. Mason had faith things wouldn’t get so dicey between him and Jules. For one, he was still at home, even if they were sleeping in separate bedrooms. Besides, Jeremy and Madison were too young to figure out why. He and Jules were just getting through a hurdle. They could survive this and things would get better. He had to believe that.
He did believe that.
“No matter what happens, we’re not getting a divorce,” Mason said more to himself than his brother.
“I hope not, because I’m telling you now. Don’t ask me to be best man at your second wedding.”
“There isn’t going to be a second one. Now why don’t you redirect your focus from my marriage and worry about yours?”
“I will as soon as I find myself a wife.”
“I thought things were getting serious with you and…what’s her name?”
Ryder snorted. “That’s been over for a while now.”
“What happen
ed?”
“WTF. That’s what happened.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
His brother’s sigh was heavy with exasperation. “Wednesday found out about Thursday then they both found out about Friday and well, let’s just say it really screwed up my weekend.”
Mason shook his head, though couldn’t help the small chuckle that forced its way pass his lips. Though it was nice to have someone else’s relationship woes to talk about for a change, his brother could be pretty damn evasive when he wanted to be.
“You know what your problem is, Ryder?”
“I’m too damn lovable?”
“No. You never know when to get serious.”
“Well, just think of me as the yin to your yuck face.”
“’Bye Ryder.”
“All right, I’ll see you and the Cup next month. Try not to get yourself divorced before then, yeah?”
Ryder ended the call before Mason could fire back a response. He hung up his phone and put his focus back on the contracts he was reviewing. Cutting into his concentration was a sharp knock on his office door.
“Not right now Doug.”
His assistant ignored him and pushed open the door. “Mason, there’s someone here to see you.”
He glanced up from his desk and frowned when Doug came into his office and quietly shut the door. It wasn’t exactly what Doug had said that piqued his suspicions, but how he said it.
“Who is it?”
Doug stopped just steps away from his desk, his new cell phone clutched in his hand. “I couldn’t believe who it was when he walked in. Actually, I could believe it, though I still had to look him up and make sure it—”
“Doug.”
“Right.” He glanced back down at his cell phone then turned the screen to face him. “This is the guy who’s here to see you.”
Mason stared down at the screen, and something in his gut clenched. He snatched the phone from Doug’s hand and took a closer look.
“Please, be gentle,” Doug murmured, his eyes glued to his phone. “She’s new.”