by Goda, Julia
“Well, I’ve got more money and I don’t care how much of it I have to use to make her disappear from our lives.” Cole’s face was hard. So was his voice when he continued. “I want you to go on the offensive. Discredit her, take her job, her money. I want you to make it hurt.”
“Cole—” I tried to interrupt. He was going a bit far and probably only making it worse by poking the angry lion.
“No, Liz. We talked about this and you agreed. She’s gotta pay. Nobody tries to take you away from me. Nobody tries to hurt you and not suffer the consequences. And she’s your sister for God’s sakes! Who does that shit?” He was shouting now, working himself up.
“Maybe she doesn’t know—” I tried again.
“Oh, she knows. That vindictive little bitch knows exactly who you are. Like Max says, it makes perfect sense. Fucking hell! I’m such a fucking idiot! I brought this on us. If I hadn’t tried to protect you from me all these years, I would have never hooked up with her and none of this would have happened! Fuck!”
“Cole!” I shouted, pissed at him for blaming himself. I shot up from the couch since I couldn’t very well put my hands on my hips when I was sitting.
“What?” He shouted back as he took in my stance and his eyebrows narrowed.
“Don’t be an idiot! You had your reasons for not being with me! Yes, they were stupid, but you gotta let that go! Stop dragging us back there! You realized it was stupid and you did something about it! We’re together now and that’s all that matters! We’re getting married for Heaven’s sakes!” That last past I shrieked at him, too far gone to keep myself in check. Cole realized this and started toward me, but I took a step back.
“No! You gotta hear this and get it through your head! I never told you about all the awful things she did to me, because I didn’t want to be your charity case! You rescued me often enough as it was! If I had told you, you can’t deny that you would have dropped her like a hot potato years ago. So according to your logic that makes it my fault just as much as yours, if not more so! She is making the choice to treat people the way she does! Nobody is holding a gun to her head, forcing her to ruin people’s lives, Cole! It’s not your fault and it’s not mine! It’s on her!”
“Okay, baby. You’re right. Calm down,” he said, his lips twitching.
“What’s funny?” I was still shouting.
“You are, baby. You’re hell on wheels when you’re riled. I should piss you off more often.” His amusement turned into something else as he stared at me. I narrowed my eyes at him. He burst out laughing and reached for me, grabbing me by the hips and pulling me into his arms. I wasn’t ready to let it go.
“I’m serious, Cole. Don’t take the blame for the things she does. It pisses me off.”
“I think I got that, honey,” he murmured, his eyes still dancing.
“The whole building got that. We done?” Max was ready to go.
“Yeah, we’re done. Give me regular updates.” Cole answered him and gave him a chin lift. Max looked at me. “Keep your eyes open, doll,” to which I nodded. I thought they were a little overly dramatic. As far as I could tell, Courtney had played her major card and there wasn’t anything else she could hurt us with. Other than physically hurting us, but I didn’t think she would go that far. We were not in Fatal Attraction. No need to hide my bunnies. Not that I had any, but you catch my drift. Things like that didn’t happen in real life. Trying to break us up out of jealousy? Sure. Risking getting arrested? No.
Chapter 20
Lizzy
Cole was taking me to dinner tonight.
On a date.
The last week had been super busy for both of us, trying to catch up on time we had lost at work due to all the drama. Then there was the wedding that needed to be planned in a hurry. I was so very grateful for Sam and all her connections. She had become my own personal wedding planner and I had realized quickly that she was a go-getter who didn’t take no for an answer. A girl after my own taste. We were now on each other’s speed dial and talked often and extensively, not just about the wedding. I really liked her no-nonsense yet chipper and upbeat personality. She was hilarious. Her constant, dry one-liners cracked me up. We were well on our way to becoming new besties, just like I’d warned Cole. It was kinda weird for me. I had never had a lot of friends, especially not female ones. It was always easier for me to get along with men. They were less complicated, there was no drama, what you saw was what you got. Most of the time. Now my female circle of friends was expanding and my initial bewilderment at that was turning into acceptance and delight at being able to talk to women I could actually trust.
A completely new experience.
As if that weren’t enough to keep us busy, Cole and I had two more meetings with ‘the guys’ as he now called them.
The first meeting didn’t result in any new information. It was the day after I had found out all there was to know about my father. The night before, Cole and I had snuggled in bed while we talked. Or while he talked, I should say. I was still too stunned to formulate a clear thought. Too many things were swirling in my head, options, possibilities, right next to confusion and the feeling of not knowing what to do with all that information.
One thing was clear. I had to go and see my mother. Talk to her, ask questions, get confirmation that Walter Matthews was indeed my father. Yes, he was listed as my father on my birth certificate, but I wanted my mother to admit it. I needed her to admit that she had lied to me all these years—that my father hadn’t left us because of me.
That he had died.
I just wasn’t looking forward to actually going to see her. I hadn’t been back there in over six years. As soon as I could, I had left for college, right after high school, before the summer had even really started. I had sworn I would never set foot in that house again. Not for anything.
But this was something I had to do.
And it scared me.
“Liz? Have you heard anything I just said?”
I lifted my head from his chest and looked up at him. “Sorry. No.”
His hand moved up and he brushed a strand of hair out of my face while he studied me. “Talk to me,” he said, his voice calm and quiet, his eyes loving and worried.
I rested my head back onto his chest and sighed, then I said in a voice that was little more than a whisper, “I have to go back.”
“Go back?” Cole repeated, confused.
“Back there. To my mother’s house. I have to go and talk to her.” Cole said nothing, just held me tightly and brushed his lips across the top of my head. He knew, of course, that I hadn’t been back and had never intended to see her again. He also knew how hard it would be for me and that no words existed to make it any easier.
“I’ll go with you.”
Unless they were those words.
“We’ll go this weekend. Get it over with. I’ll need to have words with my mother as well and I’d rather not do it over the phone.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
Great.
Now I was even less looking forward to that day.
Cole gave me a squeeze. “She won’t hurt you. I won’t let her.”
“I know you’ll try and I’ll do my best to not let her get to me, but you know what she thinks about me. It’s not like she’s ever made a secret of it.”
Now it was Cole who sighed. “I know.
We lay silent for a few minutes. Then I remembered something from years ago. “Do you remember that day we ran into yours and Courtney’s mom in town?” Cole’s body stiffened under mine. He remembered. “It makes sense now, doesn’t it? Why she called me a home wrecker.”
“No, baby, it doesn’t. I get what you mean, but you never did anything to wreck anyone’s home. If you need to blame someone, blame your mother and father. They shouldn’t have had an affair. He should have left his wife instead of getting his girlfriend pregnant.”
“It’s not that easy when a child is involved. Courtney was still a
toddler.”
“I get that, but it was still wrong. He should have manned up and either gotten a divorce or tried to work it out with his wife. Not pull another woman into that mess and make the situation even more complicated.”
“That’s true. Still, I get where she was coming from.”
Cole used his hand under my chin to make me look at him. “That right there is something we need to work on, babe. You always try to understand why people do what they do, why they act the way they act. And then you sympathize with them. There is nothing about the way the Millers have treated you to sympathize with—or anyone in that town who has ever looked down on you, for that matter. There is absolutely no excuse for what they have done. None of what happened was your fault. You never treat anyone with hate or animosity or resentment, and you’re not rude or mean or evil, even though people have given you more than enough reasons to. You’re the most compassionate, caring, honest, loyal, and fun person I know.”
“Some people would argue with you about the not being rude part. A lot of people, actually.”
“Then they’re stupid.” Cole was losing his patience now. “You aren’t rude, you’re honest and straight forward. You don’t beat around the bush and people—especially women—take that the wrong way because they can’t deal with it. That’s their problem. Not yours. Let me ask you this, if the roles were reversed, would you have treated Courtney the way she treated you? Would you ever talk to anyone the way Mrs. Miller or my mother talked to you?”
I shook my head no.
“That’s right, you wouldn’t. If you had known you had a little sister, you would have taken her under your wing, would have been her family, no matter what. You would have protected her from the shit people were dealing out instead of making it worse. And that makes you a better person than any of them combined. Don’t try and find excuses for their actions, baby. There aren’t any. None.”
I thought about that for a second. It sounded so simple and logical if you looked at it like that. Cole was right. There was no excuse to treat someone like shit or a second-class citizen, no matter what, especially an innocent child. I had no patience with people who treated my kids with anything but compassion and respect. I wouldn’t stand for it. I needed to learn to apply the same to myself.
“You’re right,” I said.
“Damn right, I am.” My lips twitched. Cole smiled back at me. “I hate to spoil my victory, but since we’re on the topic of the Millers, have you given any thought to what you’re gonna do?”
No, I hadn’t. It had only been half a day since I found out and I hadn’t been able to wrap my head around all that Walter Matthews being my deceased father entailed. There were so many options, so many possibilities. And I wasn’t sure I wanted anything to do with any of them.
Cole kept talking when I stayed silent. “You’re entitled to your inheritance. More actually. You can sue them for keeping that information and your part of his estate from you. I don’t know all the technicalities, but Max said you could probably bury them if you wanted to.”
“I don’t want that.”
“I know you don’t. But you should at least fight for the part that is rightfully yours, that has been yours for twenty-five years. At least think about it.” Silence. I wasn’t ready to talk about that yet, and thankfully, Cole didn’t push any further.
We lay like that for a while, both of us lost in thought, before I whispered. “There is one thing I want.”
“What is it?” Cole asked.
“I want to visit his grave. And…” Cole’s arm around me tightened.
“And what, baby?”
“I would like to know what he looked like. If I look like him. I know I’m almost the spitting image of my mother, but…do you think we can figure out how to get a picture somehow?”
“I’m sure that can be arranged.” Cole’s lips were brushing the hair on the top of my head. “We’ll get through this. You know there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you, right?”
“I know. You know I feel the same way?”
The smile he gave me was bright and happy. “I do.”
“Good.”
Not long after, we fell asleep holding each other, just like we did every night.
The next morning, I had told Taryn about the possibility of someone trying to discredit me. I dreaded bringing my personal problems to work, but things could potentially end badly if I didn’t give my boss a heads-up.
“I don’t want to bother you with this, and she might not even try anything, but I’d rather you knew what is going on, just in case.” Taryn’s eyes had gone wide when I had explained to her about my father, about how he had died before I was born, and how I had just found out. I told her a little bit about my past, just enough so that things made sense to her, before I explained the drama of the past few days.
“Jeez. I thought stuff like that only happened in books or movies.”
I laughed. “Believe me, I thought the same thing. I still can’t believe that all this is happening to me.”
“No kidding.” She smiled at me. “Don’t worry about a thing, Liz. I know the type of person you are: one of the most compassionate and hard-working and loyal people I have ever worked with. The kids love you and respect you, you are always on top of everything and go by the book even though you loathe it. Yes, you are young and still have a lot to learn, but you live to help those children and everyone can see that. Don’t worry. Let her try to slander your professional reputation. She’s got nothing to go on.”
As much as I hadn’t wanted to share, it was a good thing I did.
Apparently, Courtney did have connections. The very next day, she had started her campaign to discredit me. Thankfully, she didn’t get very far. I had made a name for myself as a compassionate, caring, and understanding social worker who took her job seriously, just like Taryn had assured me I had. Yes, I was known for sometimes being a little too direct and impatient, but I was nevertheless efficient. There had been a few fake complaint phone calls, but those had been disregarded almost immediately. So Courtney had nothing more to go on when it came to me.
For the next meeting, Max and Derrick had come to our house. Cole and I were going to visit our mothers in less than two days, so Cole wanted to make sure we had all the info we could get. But there was nothing new. Max had told him so over the phone, but Cole had insisted on a meeting. According to the guys, Courtney had gone to ground and everything was quiet.
“See? You guys are overreacting. She’s got nothing to go on. I don’t think she’ll be stupid enough to come after you, Cole. She’s used up her trump card with that fake pregnancy. She tried to come after me but failed. She’s run out of ideas.” I told them.
“The pregnancy wasn’t fake. She just lied about Cole being the father,” Max informed me.
Huh. I thought it had all been a ruse.
“I talked to my lawyer, just in case, but nothing has happened, which would prove Lizzy is right. She isn’t coming after me.” That was Cole.
“It’s been too quiet. I don’t like it,” Max grumbled.
“She knows she’s beat. You went on the offensive, found out that she was sleeping with her boss, used it, and she got fired. Your mother hasn’t talked to Courtney from what Derrick could gather. Courtney is jobless, all her credit cards are maxed, and she’s a pregnant single woman. If she’s smart, she has reassessed her situation and come to the realization that she has other things to worry about.”
“Yeah, a smart woman would do that, but she isn’t smart. I say we stay alert, just in case,” Cole said. Max nodded his agreement.
“All right. You guys stay alert all you want. I’m too busy to keep looking over my shoulder. I’ve got a life to live, kids to worry about, and a wedding to plan. And according to my fiancée’s assistant, he is taking me some place special tomorrow tonight and I don’t own fancy clothes. He has seen the only little black dress I own. I’m not that fond of shopping, but my new posse tells me that I have t
o look the part, so they’re taking me shopping on our lunch break tomorrow. So you do what you gotta do and I’ll do what I deem as more important.”
“You don’t like shopping?” Max asked me, seemingly shocked that there was a woman out there who didn’t enjoy spending most of her time in a busy shopping mall.
“It’s not one of my favorites, no.”
He looked at Cole. “You’re a lucky guy.”
“Don’t I know it. It’s also very frustrating, though. The only woman I want to give anything she wants, and she doesn’t want one single thing. It’s a pain in the ass to buy her a gift. Always has been. Even when she was a little girl. Sweet as pie and hard as nails.”
“Like I said. Lucky guy.”
“Yeah,” Cole agreed, then his eyes came to me and he grinned.
I rolled my eyes at both of them, making them both chuckle. I changed the subject. “You staying for dinner?”
“Wouldn’t mind if I did,” Max mumbled.
Derrick shrugged his shoulders. “Sure,” he said.
“Good. Cole makes a mean lasagna.”
Cole chuckled again and shook his head at me. Then he proceeded into the kitchen to start cooking, giving me a quick but deep kiss as he passed by me.
Now was now. I had gone shopping with my besties and had only received a few groans and stink-eyes when I had complained about trying on all the dresses they had picked. Even Rainey had joined us and had found the experience more than amusing. She was so much like me it wasn’t even funny. At least that’s what Marie and Sam had said. Rainey had shrugged and grinned at me.
But I had to give it to them. Sam and Marie knew what they were doing. I was ready to go, dressed to the nines, hair and make-up done. I turned in front of the mirror for one last check.
Wow.
I couldn’t believe that was me. Sam had not been wrong. She knew her way around clothes, so I had trusted her judgment without question. Still, I had no clue that I could look like that. After finding the absolute perfect dress for me—her words—she took me to MAC to let them show me how to do my make-up and hair. I’d had some difficulties pinning my locks partly back the way they had shown me, but I got it on the seventh try. My make-up was light, but smoky, the grey bringing out the green in my eyes. Pale red lip-gloss. Silver waterfall earrings with little black stones at the end, matching the necklace adorning my ample cleavage. And what cleavage it was. Yeah, I had tits and ass, but holy hell! The dress was out of this world. It was green, which I usually didn’t wear, not a fan of the myth that anything green looked stunning on redheads. But this shade of green went perfectly with my coloring. It hugged my hips and other important parts of my body, coming just to the top of my knees. Sexy, black, not too high heels completed the ensemble. No purse. I told Sam I wouldn’t need it. Cole could put my lip-gloss in his pocket and that was all I needed. She had been a little disgruntled at not getting the opportunity to shop for the perfect clutch, but had let it go.