He laughs, he fucking laughs; here I am, so furious at her, so fucking pissed that she showed up and didn’t even ask for her son but was a cold bitch. “I’ll be home soon, baby,” he whispers and hangs up the phone.
I pace the hallway, waiting for him, and put Jack in front of the television to watch Paw Patrol. I pace the hallway back and forth till he walks in, and he does it with a smile and a bouquet. He kicks off his shoes, and I walk to the door. “I bought you flowers.”
“You stopped,” I say, looking at the flowers, “to buy flowers while I was here pacing the floor worried she would come back.”
“I bought the flowers before you called.” He comes to me, handing them to me, and I grab them. “And I think I would have stopped. I knew you would be good. I knew Jack would be okay. I was fine.”
“Zack, she came here, and she knows I’m his doctor.”
“She knows you’re a doctor. She doesn’t know shit, and on record, you aren’t his doctor,” he says, dumping the bags and holding my hand in his face. “I called my lawyer, and we made a note of it.”
“But what if this comes back, and you lose custody of Jack over it?” I blink but the tears come anyway. “I won’t be the one who lets you lose him.”
“Baby.” He kisses me as I quietly sob. “I’m not losing him. Not now, not ever.”
“She was so awful to him,” I say. “I told him I loved him.”
He smiles, kissing me again. “Okay,” he says.
“I do, you know,” I tell him. “I love him.”
“I know you do”—he kisses me again—“and he’s lucky to have that.”
I just nod my head, the words I love you too fighting to come out, but when I tell him I love him, it isn’t going to be because his ex-wife was here, or he thinks I’ve been rushed into it. I’m going to tell him I love him when it’s about him and me. When it’s about us. Holy shit, I love him.
“I’m hungry,” I tell him, and he nods his head, bending to get the bags and carry them into the kitchen. I follow him, and Jack gets up, following us into the kitchen. I find a vase to put the roses in while he takes out the croissants he bought for us, and we sit at the island and no one brings up that Chantal was here.
We get up and clean up. I make us some lunch, and I fall asleep on the couch while we watch cartoons. I wake up when I feel fingers in my hair, and I open my eyes and see that Jack is sitting by my head and playing with my hair. My feet rest on his father’s lap. “Did you sleep good?” he asks, and I just nod my head.
We prepare supper together, and we’re about to sit down when our phones ring at the same time. I look up at him, and he looks at us.
I look, and see it’s Steve, and I look over, and see it’s Olivier. “Hello,” I answer, looking over at Zack, seeing him answering the phone and listening and then his eyes flying up at me.
“Where are you?” he asks me hurriedly, and I hear Olivier in the background while he talks to Zack.
“We’re coming to you,” he says, and hangs up, and I’m standing here with my mouth open.
“What the heck is going on?” I ask him, and he looks at me and walks to me, taking my face in his hands.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, and my heart beats so fast I don’t know what is going on. He must see the worry set into my face because he pulls me from the kitchen, telling Jack to eat and that we’ll be right back.
My phone buzzes again in my hand, and this time I see it’s Max. “What is going on?” I look at him and ask him, and he just nods his head.
“Tell me.”
“ZMT is running a story that I left Chantal for my son’s doctor so he could get treatment. She’s saying I abandoned the family for you.” He puts his head down and then looks up. “They have reports that this isn’t the first time you’ve done this.”
“What?” I whisper, and I don’t know what is going on; the room feels like it’s spinning.
“It’s all over the media,” he says, and I don’t think I hear him right. This can’t be. During my whole career, I never put myself first; I never ever did this.
“I don’t feel well,” I tell him and sit down. “I think I’m going to be sick,” I tell him and turn to run down the hall to the bathroom.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Zack
“Denise,” I say to the closed door, listening to her getting sick on the other side. I’ve never felt rage like this. Not even when I caught my wife in bed with my best friend did I feel this type of rage. “Baby, please,” I say to the door, trying to keep my voice down so Jack doesn’t hear the fucking explosion.
The door unlocks, and she comes out. Her face is white, and I take her in my arms as she cries in my chest. “I’m so sorry,” I tell her as she hugs me.
“Is Dr. Denise not feeling well?” Jack asks from behind us, his face creased with worry. She walks away from me and hugs him.
“I’m okay, buddy. Did you eat?” she asks him, and the doorbell rings. I walk past them and look outside, seeing that it’s Olivier. I open the door, and Olivier walks in followed by Steve.
“Today was my day off,” he says to me, and I take in his outfit. It may not be a suit, but he still looks like he walked off the runway.
“I just called Liliane, and she is on her way,” Olivier says and then spots Denise and Jack in the back of me. “Are you okay?” he asks, and Steve walks to her and hugs her from the side. Jack is in her arms with his head on her shoulder.
“It’s going to be okay,” he tells her quietly, and I see her lower lip quiver.
The doorbell rings again followed by pounding. “What in the name?” I say, going to the door and opening it to see a pissed-off Max.
“Where is she?” He pushes me aside, walking in with Michael following him and Allison in the back of them with a screaming Alex. “Dada, dada dada.”
“I couldn’t keep him away.” Allison looks at me. “Sorry.”
I close the door and then walk into the living room where Max is now holding Denise as she sobs in his arms. My chest gets tight, and I look around to see that Jack hasn’t stepped away from her as he stands next to her, holding her hand in his. “Before we say things we are going to regret,” Allison starts and then looks at Max. “We need to hear what happened.”
“We all know what happened,” Max starts talking, but his voice gets loud. “It’s all over the f-” he says, stopping himself then continuing, “internet.”
“I’m sorry, Max,” I start to say, and he glares at me.
“I had a feeling that things were not okay,” he says, looking at me while he rubs his sister’s back.
“Oh, please,” Allison says while Alex still cries for her father. “I had to pick your mouth up off the floor in American Girl.” She rolls her eyes at him.
“The press is going to eat her alive, and everything she has worked for is going to be put under a microscope and examined. She’ll be the laughing stock …” He puts his head back. “She’s worked too hard for this.”
I look at him, and I’m about to agree with him. My heart is shattered just looking at her, and then he looks down at her. “We need to go,” he whispers to her, and then I’ve about had enough.
“She isn’t leaving,” I say, speaking up, and Max’s head flies up, and he looks at me.
“You’re the reason she’s like this.”
“He isn’t the reason,” Denise tries to tell him, but Max shakes his head.
“You don’t think I don’t know how the press works? You don’t think I don’t know how bad this could be for you and your career?”
“We are going to put a statement out,” Olivier says, and Max rolls his eyes.
“A statement? Please,” Max says, rolling his eyes.
“Max,” Allison says quietly, trying to calm Alex.
“No!” he roars, pointing at me. Jack and Michael startle beside Denise. “You need to fix this.”
“I love her!” I shout back and see Denise’s eyes go big while Steve goes to Olivier a
nd gives him a high-five. “I love her, and I’m going to fix this.”
“I love her too,” Jack says, whispering beside her.
“Oh, god,” Allison says, going to grab Jack and putting her hand out. “Come on, honey, let’s go get a snack.”
“I don’t want to leave Denise,” he says, and Max looks down at him.
“It’s okay, buddy. Your dad is going to take care of her,” Max says, looking at him, and then he leaves to go with Allison who turns and looks at her husband.
“You need to remember what it felt like when the whole world found out we were married.” She looks at him and walks out with Alex now lying on her mother’s shoulder.
My eyes never leave Denise’s as she leaves her brother and comes over to me. “Can we have a minute?” I look at her, seeing if she will follow me. Hoping like fuck she will follow me.
I grab her hand and walk up the stairs. Entering my bedroom, I see her things on the floor mixed with mine. I close the door and walk to the bed. Sitting down, I watch as she pulls her hand from mine as she stands in front of me. She walks into my open legs and sits down on my lap, putting an arm around my shoulder. I look down and finally let the past thirty minutes catch up with me as my arms wrap around her waist. A tear escapes and runs down my cheek. “I’m so, so sorry,” I whisper to her. “I never …”
She puts her fingers on my lips. “I love you too,” she says, and my heart finally settles. “I wanted to tell you before when you came in and gave me flowers,” she says, putting her hand on my cheek, “but I didn’t want you to think I was doing it just because of Chantal.”
“I love you,” I tell her again, and she leans forward, kissing my lips softly. “I love you enough to understand if you want to take a break.” My throat tightens when I say the words while she looks at me. “You’ve worked your whole life to get out from under the cloud, and you did it with beauty and grace, and I refuse to be the one to tarnish it.”
“Funny thing about this thing called love is when you do it, you do it with your whole heart, and you stick together through the hard times.” She tries to get closer to me.
I shake my head. “This is a clusterfuck,” I tell her. “She ...” I shake my head.
“She’s a bitch,” she finally says. “If she wants to fight, we fight.”
“What about your patients?” I ask her.
“I work on Tuesday, and I’m going to go in, and if my patients aren’t comfortable with me, then I have no problem switching them out,” she says. “I’m a good doctor.”
“No,” I interrupt her, “you’re a great doctor.”
She smiles at me. “You already got me.”
“Yeah, and I’m not giving you back.” I lean in and kiss her and hear a soft knock on the door. “Come in.”
Max opens the door and pops his head in. I sit up straight this time, and Denise must feel me get tense. “Your lawyer is here. So is the lawyer and the PR for the hospital.”
“Fuck.” I close my eyes.
“So are Matthew and Karrie, and Doug is on his way with his lawyer.”
“Where is Jack?” Denise asks.
“He’s downstairs,” he says. “He said he wanted to put his hat on in case his mom came back.” He shakes his head and looks down. “He didn’t want her to be mad at Denise.”
“That’s it,” Denise says. “She doesn’t get to make him feel like that.”
“Baby,” I say quietly when she gets up and walks out of the room, leaving Max and me by ourselves.
I get up, looking at him. “You love her?” he asks me.
“Two people in this world I would die for and she’s one of them,”
I tell him, and he laughs a bit.
“I said the same thing to my mother-in-law when she found out about us.” He puts his hands in his back pockets. “The difference was I knew I wasn’t good enough for her. I knew she deserved so much more than me.” I don’t say anything. “That’s the difference between us, because she deserves you. She deserves to have the love that Jack gives her, the love that you are going to give her.”
“I don’t know if I can ever make this up to her,” I say honestly.
“You will,” he says, and he is going to continue, but we hear frantic footsteps coming upstairs.
“Okay, there are a shit ton of people here,” Allison says. “Matthew just ordered pizza, and Denise is on a rampage about shaving her head.”
“What?” I say, walking past both of them and running down the steps. She wasn’t kidding when she said there were a shit ton of people here. I look in the living room and see that the lawyers have started on whatever they are looking at.
I walk into the kitchen and see Jack is running after Denise as she goes to the bathroom. “By any chance, do you have clippers?”
“Umm, no,” I say and then Jack pulls her shirt.
“I don’t want you to,” he says quietly, and the three of us squeeze into the little bathroom.
She sits on the toilet bowl and opens her hands to get Jack to sit on her lap. He reaches out to grab a strand of her hair. “I like your hair,” he says, twirling it. “It’s so soft.”
“Would you love me less if I didn’t have hair?” she asks him, and he shakes his head. “Would you want me to wear a hat all the time?” And he shakes his head. “So how about we do this. I won’t shave my head, and you stop wearing the hats when you don’t want to.”
“But ...” he says, looking at her. Her hair still in his hands.
“But nothing,” she says. “I love you from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes,” she tells him. “Hat, no hat, hair, no hair, blue eyes, brown eyes ... I love you.”
“Okay, no hats,” he says, looking at her. “And you don’t cut your hair.”
“Deal,” she says, smiling and bringing him to her chest. “Now, I need you to take Michael up to your room and show him all the cool things that you have while your dad and I talk to all these people.”
“Okay,” he says softly, climbing off her lap. I open the door, and we walk back into the kitchen. There are about ten large pies on the counters.
“Is this a party?” Jack asks, and Max answers him.
“Yeah, buddy,” he says. “It sure is.”
He just shrugs and calls for Michael, who comes running into the room. “Want to see my dinosaurs?” he asks him, and Michael nods his head, and they turn and run up to his room.
“Let’s get this over with,” Denise says, and the six of us walk out of the kitchen and into the living room.
Doug gets up and comes to Denise. “We are going to fix this,” he says to her, and she just nods her head.
“What do we got?” I ask them, and Liliane is the first to speak.
“We got an NDA. That is what we got,” she says, smiling.
“Apparently, she just called people to see if they wanted an exclusive interview with her,” Olivier says. “Luckily, I called them first.”
“ZMT just broke another story that you shut her out as soon as they confirmed your son had cancer.” Doug looks at his phone. “There is a picture,” he says, turning his phone, and a picture of Jack in his hat is splashed across the screen.
“I want to get on the record that she was fucking Colton.” I turn to look at Olivier. “I want to scream it from the rooftops.”
“Zack,” Denise says, coming to me, and I shake my head.
“I have proof that she never attended one doctor appointment,” I say. “I made a record of it, and the doctor signed a letter when I knew we were getting divorced. I also have proof she and Colton continued after I left.”
“What?” Liliane asks.
“My father hired a private investigator, and well, I have a forty-five page report on when it started, where it started, right down to how many times a week they were having sex while we were still married. I want to leak it to the press.”
“Zack,” she says, and now someone I don’t know says something.
“The hospital stands
behind Denise,” he says. “We just put out a press statement showing that his doctor isn’t Denise, and that what she does on her private time is her own.”
“Thank you, Ralph,” Denise says.
“We play Arizona on Monday,” Matthew says from the door. “We have to win.”
We all laugh at him. “What?” he says. “We can’t let her do this and then have her boyfriend win.”
“It’s a good thing you have your eye on the ball,” Karrie says, going over to him and hugging his waist.
“We play as a team; we fight as a team,” he says, looking at me. “Whatever you want to do, we do.”
“I just got an email that Jack’s blood work is coming back on Wednesday, so we start his treatment on Thursday.”
“Perfect,” Doug says. “You play Monday and then you’re off for two weeks.” I just nod my head. There is no way I would be able to play anyway.
“So what do we do now?” Denise asks, intertwining her fingers with mine.
Liliane leans back in the couch. “Now we go and grab a slice of pizza and wait for her to bury herself even more.” She looks at Denise and then back at me. “Putting an NDA in your prenup was genius. Not many people do it.”
“My parents were the ones who added that,” I tell them.
“Well, I’m going to send her lawyer a copy in case she didn’t bring him up to speed.”
“Do we need to tell her about Jack’s treatment?” Denise asks, and we both hold our breaths.
“Nope,” she says. “The funny thing is she just lost everything that she asked for. It’s almost like it becomes null and void, and you don’t have to give her a damn thing.”
“Will she fight me for Jack?”
“I want to say no, but chances are, she might try just to get some money out of you.”
Denise shakes her head. “Incredible,” she says, and for the rest of the talk, I listen while watching Denise.
The lawyers take their slices of pizza and leave, and it’s just the six of us sitting around the living room. “Well, so much for easing into this thing,” I tell Denise.
Something So Unscripted Page 19