by Lexy Timms
Murmuring how I was the only woman for him.
I felt his hips stuttering as his fingers pressed deeply into me. I pressed back into him as far as I could go as his body grew taut. His teeth bit down into my shoulder, sinking in deeply as I groaned into the room. Stars burst behind my eyes as my toes curled, my hand raking against his scalp to pull him even closer to me.
“Yes, Bryan. Shit. Oh, fuck. I’m so sorry. I’m sor-sorry.”
I couldn’t catch my breath. My body was vibrating with pleasure, and my pussy was pouring juices on the bed. My breasts were peaking with want, and goosebumps were ricocheting along my body. Bryan rutted against me, short bursts of thrusting as he poured himself deeper into my body. I could feel every pulse as my walls fluttered around him, drawing him the closest I’d ever felt him in all of our relationship.
We relaxed against the bed, heaving for air as the smell of our sex swirled around our heads.
Bryan stayed between my legs until he began to shrivel. His arms pulled me close, moving me away from the wet spots we had created together. He nuzzled into my neck as I opened my body for him, lacing our fingers together and bringing his hands to my lips to kiss. My heart was thudding hard against my sternum. Tears were rising to my eyes. I had no idea how I could ever accuse this beautiful man of cheating on me, but I knew what I had to do now.
I knew that Bryan was right.
“I’ll do it,” I said.
“I think we just did,” Bryan said.
“No, you cheeky little man. I mean going to the police.”
I felt him pause, and it gave me time to turn around in his arms. My stomach pressed into his as he cupped my cheek, his thumb caressing my flushed skin. I looked into his eyes as my leg slid between his, not caring about the fluids dripping from between my thighs.
“If we go to the police, we could set up a sting. I still don’t have a security camera system in the gallery—”
“Which we’re changing once this is all over. Immediately,” Bryan said.
“I know,” I said. “But a sting operation would catch him in the act. And it would be perfect since he’s coming back for his money in a few days.”
“When did he say he was coming back?”
“The third of July,” I said.
“The first thing we need to do is call Ramon. We need to tell him what’s going on. If we tell him why you were willing to sell the paintings, he’ll relinquish them. He’s a good man.”
“A good man you were jealous of once,” I said.
“Yeah, well. I had some time to get to know him and his actual intentions with you.”
“He might try to use another art tour as a bargaining chip for giving up the paintings,” I said.
“Then let him. Your European tour was highly successful. Why couldn’t you do another one?” he asked.
“Because I’m about to have a child,” she said.
“Then set the tour for after our child turns one. I’d like to have a cultured child anyway. I’ll be the fun stay-at-the-hotel dad, and you can do your thing. Then, we can come to all of your gallery openings. We could celebrate our child’s first birthday that way.”
“You’ve really thought about this, haven’t you?” I asked.
“Nope. I spitballed that. But it’s an option. Just call Ramon. You let me handle the police.”
“Okay,” I said.
“I have one question, though.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Was that burger good? Because that burger looked fantastic.”
I buried my face into the pillow and began to laugh as Bryan’s hands danced along my sides. I giggled as he tickled me, rolling me over onto my back. He straddled me and pinned me down as I squealed and screamed for him to stop. I grabbed his hands and tried to pull them away from my body, causing him to collapse on top of me.
“I love you, Hailey. We’re going to get you out of this,” he said.
“Please forgive me,” I said. “I’m so sorry, Bryan.”
“You’ll always be forgiven with me,” he said.
Chapter 23
Bryan
The more I talked to the police and thought about this Ben situation, the more convinced I was that Laura had nothing to do with it. Once I sat down with the police and figured out how easy it would have been to track Hailey down, I was no longer convinced this Ben character was capable of digging into my past. With the news articles that had run on Hailey alone, anyone would have been able to find her.
Even someone as sleazy as Ben.
So, there was only one other option, the only person who knew of my current life with Hailey and the only person who was still rallying against it, despite everyone asking her to back down. This had my mother written all over it, and I was ready to end this once and for all.
I told Hailey I didn’t want her to be a part of this. I told her exactly what I thought and how it was the only theory that made sense. My mother adored Laura. She was one of our champions in high school. She was ready to announce our engagement at my fucking graduation party. And when Laura broke up with me, she spent months chastising me for it, telling me what I could’ve done better and how I screwed things up with a wonderful girl. She’d even given me advice on how I could get her back and what grand romantic gestures my mother ‘knew she would love.’
My mother had staged this, and she was about to get my wrath.
I pulled up to my parents’ house as I white-knuckled the steering wheel. In order for me to get through to my mother, I had to approach her with a level head. If I erupted in front of her, she could cast this off as no more than an emotional outburst from her stressed son. But if I kept a level head and looked her in the eye, she wouldn’t be able to blame it on emotion.
She would have to face it head-on, and I was determined to make sure she did just that.
I drew in a deep breath before I slid from my truck. I marched up to the door and knocked on it before I opened it myself. I needed to keep a level head, but I wasn’t going to give my mother any semblance of control. From the moment people approached my parents’ house, they were controlled. Someone opened the door for them, someone dictated a dinner time for them, and someone else got them a drink of their own choosing. I needed to set a standard that I was the one in control of this scenario.
So, I opened the door and made my way into the sitting room.
“Bryan? Is that you?”
My mother looked up from the book she was reading as my father poked his head out of his studio.
“Son! What brings you around? Is Hailey with you?” my father asked.
“I have missed you so much,” my mother said.
She got up to give me a hug, but I didn’t return the favor. She wrapped her arms around me and patted my back, but all I did was cast a glare at my father. He stood in the corner with his brow furrowed, wondering what in the world had brought me here.
But he was about the find out the exact type of woman my mother had allowed herself to turn into.
“I am so glad you finally came to your senses,” my mother said. “Are you all right?”
“Bryan? Where’s Hailey?” my father asked.
“She’s fine. She’s at home cooking some dinner. I don’t have much time. I only came to talk,” I said.
“She’s at home? Well, she could’ve come here and had some dinner. I’m sure whatever our chef’s cooking would’ve been much better for you,” my mother said.
“I know you think I’m here to apologize, but I’m not,” I said.
“Oh?” my mother asked. “Then why in the world did you just barrel through our front door?”
“Have you been in contact with Laura Green?”
“Laura Green? That little girl you dated in high school?” my father asked.
“She was the one with the blond hair, right?” my mother asked.
“Don’t play that game, Mom. You’ve never been good at it,” I said.
“I don’t know what you mean,�
� she said.
I watched her keep a stoic face, but it was her hands that always gave her away. She had this tick whenever she was lying through her teeth. She could look you in the eye, but she couldn’t keep from picking at her nail beds. She spent hundreds of dollars a month on manicures trying to get her hands to not look like the battleground they were, and my eyes quickly dropped to see what they were doing.
She was picking at them relentlessly, and my eyes slowly panned over to my father.
“Dorothy. What have you done?” my father asked.
“I haven’t done a thing,” my mother said.
“Your fingertips say differently,” I said. “Now, you can admit it, or I’ll admit it for you. But if I have to admit it, you’re done.”
“What in the world does that mean?” she asked.
“With our life. With Hailey’s and my life. With your future grandchild’s life. You’re done,” I said.
“Now Bryan, hold on a second. Maybe your mother hasn’t done whatever it is you’re accusing her of,” my father said.
“It’s noble, you standing up for your wife. I get it. I’ve done it time and time again with you and Hailey. But at some point in time, Mom has to accept the consequences of her actions. And even though I defend Hailey, I never stand in the way of her learning a lesson no matter how hard that lesson is. Because she’s an adult. Just like Mom,” I said.
“I am nothing like Hailey,” my mother said.
“No, you’re not. Because Hailey is beautiful and full of life, compassionate and unreserved. She loves with everything she has, and she always forgives no matter what. She’s artistic and fluid. Spontaneous and happy. You’re right, Mother. You’re none of those things.”
I held my gaze with my mother as I tried to keep my voice under control. Her eyes were dancing along my face as my father scooted behind her. I had to give it to him. He was a strong man standing behind a woman like that. But in some ways, I felt sorry for him that he was stuck with a shell of a woman who was unwilling to admit how far she had fallen from grace. It had been a grace she once possessed when John and I were still little.
“I’m going to give you one more chance to tell me about Laura Green,” I said. “Because if I have to, when I walk out of here, it’ll be the last time I step foot in your life.”
“Bryan, threatening people the way you do doesn’t solve anything. And I have no idea what you mean with regard to Laura. Sure, I’ve kept up with her family. It’s what people do. They keep up with each other. I tell people what you do because I’m proud of you. I’m proud of the man you’ve turned into and the job you have and the people you’re finally fraternizing with.”
But all I did was continue to stare at her as she slowly backed into my father’s arms.
“It’s not a threat,” I said. “It’s merely a statement of the consequences you will incur because of your actions. What you’ve done was wrong, plain and simple.”
“Dorothy, answer the boy,” my father said.
“I am not answering him when he’s like this. He’s scaring me,” my mother said.
“All right, Dorothy. I am through with this,” my father said.
“What?” my mother asked.
I watched my father step out from behind my mother as she whipped around toward him.
“Michael, what are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m demanding you tell the truth. What is our son talking about?” he asked.
“He’s putting random pieces together! Making up things in his mind!”
“You know that’s not true,” I said.
I watched as my father slowly walked around toward me. My mother’s eyes followed him, heated with anger and frustration and shock. For the first time in my life, I watched my father stand up to my mother. I watched him take someone else’s side but hers. My eyes connected with him, and I could see the sorrow behind them. Years of apologies he wanted to give but couldn’t.
“I know, Dad. It’s okay,” I said.
“You know what?” my mother asked.
“That Dad is sorry for all the times he should’ve done this before but didn’t,” I said.
“Tell the truth, Dorothy,” my father said.
“There is no truth to tell,” my mother said.
“Tell the truth, or I choose. And I promise you that I will choose a relationship with my grandchild over a relationship with the shell of a human being you’ve become,” my father said.
“What?” my mother asked.
I sighed as my mother’s gaze fluttered back over to mine. I could see her cracking. I could see her slipping. I could see the truth dancing just behind her lips.
All she had to do was open her fucking mouth and say it.
“Fine,” my mother said. “Yes, I did it.”
“Did what?” I asked.
“I tracked down Laura Green and talked her through some of the things happening in your life. It started out as a simple lunch conversation, a way to vent to someone who truly cared for you at one point. She asked me if there was anything she could do to help, so I gave her something to do,” my mother said.
“Tell me what you did,” I said.
“It’s obvious you already know,” she said.
“Well, I don’t,” my father said. “So spit it out, Dorothy.”
My mother was seething as her eyes flared with fire and brimstone.
“I told Laura where Hailey’s gallery was and figured Laura could pay her a little visit. Just to talk to Hailey and figure out where her head was. Bryan deserves a certain caliber of woman, and I figured Hailey could use an example of the kind. It was to help Hailey, and it was for your own good too.”
“You did what?” my father asked.
“Are you aware of what you’ve done?” I asked.
“I helped my son. Where is the harm in that?” she asked.
“Hailey and I spent that entire night fighting over whether or not I was cheating on her. You didn’t fix anything. What you did was eventually bring us closer, but in the process, you put Hailey and your grandchild through an emotional ringer. Laura came into that gallery preaching about how she could treat me better than her. How Hailey needed to lose weight, Mom.”
“What?” my father asked.
“Well, she has put on a few unnecessary pounds,” my mother said.
“Have you forgotten the eighty pounds you put on when you were pregnant with John?” my father asked. “All the ridicule you took from your so-called friends? And you willingly put another woman through that pain?”
“Eighty pounds? Impressive, Mom,” I said.
“I did it for your own good. Hailey is no good for you, and you know it,” my mother said.
“Hailey has her faults, but there’s no need to pick at the splinter in her eye when you’ve got a Viking boat protruding from yours,” I said.
“I will not have you speaking to me that way in my own home.”
“Can it, Dorothy. I’ve had enough of you and this person you’ve turned into,” my father said.
“I’m going to keep my voice as steady as I can while I tell you this, because I’m only going to say it once,” I said. “Money morphed you into a selfish woman, but John’s death plunged you into a depression. And now that you know he was murdered, there’s no one to blame and no one alive to pay for what happened. And you’ve allowed this anger and emptiness to fester. You’ve turned into a demon, Mom, and I won’t have someone like that around my family.”
“You will not take that grand—”
“Listen to me!” I roared.
My mother jumped, and I could feel my father’s eyes widen.
“You are not the woman I loved as a child. You are not the woman I confided in as a teenager. And you are not the grandmother I want around my child. You are to no longer have any contact with us. What you did with Laura was unforgivable. I almost lost the family I created because of your antics. You want to know why Laura and I ended things? Because she didn’t like the fact t
hat I wanted to start my own business. She thought I was boring, and it was her loss. You have no control over this situation. You never did, and you need to start dealing with that. So, until you do and until you can apologize to my wife and the mother of my child, you don’t exist.”
“Now you’re just overreacting. You get that from your fath—”
“Enough, Dorothy. This has gone on long enough,” my father said.
“Can’t I at least get a sent—”
“No,” I said. “You can’t.”
“I’m disgusting and ashamed of your behavior,” my father said. “This woman you’re trying to manipulate and carve out of Bryan’s life is pregnant with our grandchild. She’s the one who helped John when we didn’t step up to help. She’s the one who saved him from his addictions when we were chastising him for them. She was the one rehabilitating him while we were acting like he didn’t exist!”
“We did the best we could, Michael,” my mother said.
“We stood by and did nothing,” my father said. “But Hailey? She did everything. And if you’re uncomfortable being around her because of your guilt, then that’s on you. I suggest you get some professional help to work through it.”
“I’m not crazy,” my mother said.
“Yes. You are,” I said.
“Bryan, if you will still allow it, I would really enjoy a relationship with my grandchild,” my father said.
“Hailey was really looking forward to you coming over and talking about the European tour. I know she’d like it if you still came over to talk,” I said.
“You’re not going over to that house,” my mother said.
“I’m tired of listening to you talk,” my father said. “Deal with your anger and your guilt. Otherwise, you’ll lose the family you claim to be trying to save.”
I watched my mother as she crumbled down into the couch. Her head turned toward the wall as an eerie silence fell over the entire house. I could smell dinner beginning to permeate the house as my mouth began to water. I was ready to get home and eat. I was ready to get home and wrap my arm around Hailey.
I was ready to be done with this catastrophe once and for all.