by Goda, Julia
Lizzy
I knew what Cole was doing. He was right, of course. That didn’t change the fact that my stomach plummeted with dread when we pulled into the driveway and I looked up at one of the most impressive houses in my hometown of Ashford. It screamed sophistication and money.
It also scared the ever-living hell out of me.
I felt like I was fifteen years old again, worthless, trash, unwanted, like I had been told so many times. How stupid of me to think I had overcome all of this when I moved away and made a life for myself in Boston, a life I was damn well proud of. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to gather my wits and steel myself for what was about to happen.
“What the fuck?” I heard Cole’s voice beside me. I looked over to him and saw that his eyes were pointed toward the two cars parked beside us.
“What is it?” I asked, confused.
“That’s Courtney’s car. And my guess, the other one is her parents’.”
“You’re kidding.” My whole body froze. Not in fear, though, in anger. I had a debt to settle with that bitch. Before Cole could say anything else, I opened my door, got out of my car, and stalked to the front door. Cole caught up with me right before I was about to reach it, and turned me to face him, then wrapped his arms around my tightly strung body.
“Easy there, baby. I know you’re hell bent on settling your score, and believe me, I would love nothing more right now than to watch you do it, but we gotta go into this with a clear head. There’s a reason why she is here with her parents and we gotta be prepared. My guess, she told her parents that she’s pregnant with my child, and they’re all here to try and set me straight.”
“That fucking bitch,” I growled. I would relish scratching her eyes out, couldn’t wait actually.
“Baby, look at me.” Cole lightly shook my body and my eyes went away from the front door to his. Besides amusement and pride, I saw worry and dread in them, and a whole lot of anger. He was seething, but was trying to keep himself in check for me. Because he was worried about me having to face not only his parents, but Courtney’s parents as well. “You’ll get your chance to go head-to-head with her, I promise. But promise me you’ll try and keep a clear head. We don’t know what that bitch is capable of or what twisted story she has told everyone. She might say things about me, about us, to try and hurt you, to try and make you run.” The apprehension was obvious in his eyes as well as his voice. He wasn’t just worried about me. He was worried I would leave him if I heard something I didn’t like.
“Is there something you haven’t told me about you and Courtney?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Is there a sex tape I don’t know about?”
Another “No.”
“Have you had threesomes with her?” His lips twitched slightly as he shook his head.
“Have you ever told her that you loved her? Promised her anything besides a good time in bed?”
“No, Lizzy. You know this already.”
“Then what are you so worried about?”
His eyes roamed my face as his fingers brushed a strand of my hair aside before he cupped my cheek. “Nothing, I guess. Just ignore me.”
I leaned into him and touched my lips to his. “I love you, Cole. And I know that you love me. I trust you. Now, let’s go kick some bitch ass.”
“Sounds good to me.” He pressed his lips against mine and slipped his tongue into my mouth for a quick touch, making me moan and gasp at the same time. Before we could get into it, though, the door opened.
“Cole! How dare you bring your whore to this house!” his mother hissed. Cole’s body locked, and so did mine. He pulled his lips from mine and turned to his mother.
“Don’t you dare speak about my fiancée that way, mother.” His voice was low. And threatening, as was his body language. He towered over his mother, his body taut, his hand firmly grasping mine. His mother gulped, but recovered and narrowed his eyes on him. “I have taught you better than this, Cole. You have no idea how disappointed your father and I are with what you have done, how much of disgrace you have brought to this family.”
“Oh, believe me. I know only too well. What you never understood is that I don’t give a fuck what you or anyone else think. And I’m putting an end to this fucking charade right fucking now.”
He moved his mother out of the way with the hand that wasn’t holding mine and pulled me behind him into the foyer, through the hall, and into the dining room. Everyone was there, sitting at the table, all prim and proper, dressed up in their Sunday finest while they were waiting to be served. There was one open spot next to Courtney, which I assumed was where Cole was supposed to sit. That was so not going to happen. I tightened my hand around his and got a reassuring squeeze in return. My eyes never left Courtney.
I could smell her game from a mile away. She sat there, pretending to be almost demure, playing the confused and hurt pregnant girlfriend who had to put up with her boyfriend’s escapades. But her eyes betrayed her. That glint that told me she thought she would always get what she wanted no matter the collateral damage showed the person she truly was: a vindictive, manipulative, and spoiled little brat. My body heated with my rising anger. It took everything in me to not stride toward her and rip her fucking head off.
Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Cole taking them all in before his eyes settled on Courtney as well. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he growled at her, his anger unyielding, his voice uncompromising.
Courtney’s eyes flicked to her mother then settled back on Cole. “Cole, baby, I’ve been patient, but—”
“Do not call me ‘baby’. Only one woman has that right, the woman whose hand I’m holding right now. And cut the shit. Why don’t we tell everyone what’s really going on here. How you tried to trap me with a baby that’s not mine, how you stalked me, threw yourself at me, how my own mother helped you try to drive Lizzy away from me. Let’s talk about that.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Cole. That baby is yours. All I was trying to do was stake my claim on you, to make her see that you’re taken—”
“Oh, I am taken, all right. But not by you. I would never commit to a hateful and cruel bitch like you. All I ever did was use you to get off. And you were only too happy to offer.”
That’s when the unthinkable happened. Courtney started crying, shedding desperate and distressed tears, her body shaking with uncontrollable sobs. Oh, she was good. It was almost believable. I had the crazy urge to clap.
“Daddy,” she whispered for help, her eyes going to her father in desperation.
“Fucking unbelievable,” Cole muttered under his breath as he shook his head. I could see Courtney’s mother gear up to say something. Her face was full of hatred, her eyes swinging from me to Cole then back to me. But before she could say anything, a loud boom startled all of us.
“For fucks sake, enough with this farce already!”
My eyes went to the person who belonged to the unfamiliar voice. It was Courtney’s father. “We all know what is really going on here. I thought we were invited for dinner with friends, but now I see what the real reason is behind the invitation. And let me tell you, I will not be a part of it. I told you to get your life together, Courtney. You’re neck-deep in debt. On top of that you just lost your job. I will not bail you out any longer. I gave you an ultimatum and what do you do? You get pregnant and lose your job. We all know that baby you’re carrying isn’t Cole’s. Do you even know who the real father is? You’re twenty-seven years old and still behave like the spoiled little brat your mother created.” Another reason to jump up and down with applause. Looked like Courtney was finally getting the years-overdue whip-lashing from her father that she deserved.
“I have had my life ruined by my loyalty and commitment to my family. I will not stand by and watch while you try and do the same to someone else. I know both of you think I’m stupid enough to fall for the games you’re playing because I’ve
always turned a blind eye. But believe me, Courtney, I’ve always known you are nowhere near the sweet little daddy’s girl you pretend to be to get your way. I’ve always known you were just like your mother. I tried, I tried so hard to do right by my cousin and raise his daughter to become a kind young woman. But I didn’t stand a chance against your mother’s bitterness, her games and manipulations. But this is the last straw. I’m done.”
I gasped as his words registered. His cousin’s daughter? What the hell was going on here? Cole pulled me close and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, tucking me into his side tight.
“George, what the fuck are you saying?” He had caught it, too. Courtney’s father’s, George’s, eyes turned to Cole at hearing him speak, then to me and softened.
“You must be Elizabeth. Lizzy. It’s nice to finally officially meet you.” His voice had softened considerably as well as he was addressing me now. I couldn’t say anything, so all I did was stare at him as my mind went into overdrive, trying to make sense of what this man had just said.
Cole answered for me. “Yeah, this is Lizzy. My fiancée. Now, tell us what the fuck you meant.” Cole was getting impatient, and I had to say, I was right there with him.
“George,” Courtney’s mother hissed under her breath, at the same time Courtney whined, “But daddy—,” but George cut both of them off with one look and a “Not one more word from either of you.” Courtney’s mother was seething, it was easy to see, while Courtney dropped the act and narrowed her hateful eyes on me right before she spat, “You fucking bitch! You worthless, meaningless little slut! Not only did you take my real father from me, now you’ve turned my other father against me too. But I will not let you take Cole! Mark my words—”
“I said, enough!” George’s voice boomed once more. “Sit down and be quiet, Courtney. I don’t want to hear one more word come out of your mouth.” She glared at her father, but sat down. As did her mother, whose eyes hadn’t moved from me through any of this.
George turned back to me. Then he started to explain, and his words once more tipped my world upside down and over its own axis. “Shortly before your father, my cousin, died, he told the family that he was filing for divorce. He couldn’t stand his wife, didn’t want to be with her for one more second. Their marriage had been arranged, it was never a love match. He also claimed that he had found the love of his life. Your mother.”
I made a whimpering sound in the back of my throat. Cole pulled me in closer, wrapping his second arm around me, cocooning me with his body. I had known about the intended divorce, of course, but hearing it first-hand from his cousin, my—what exactly was he to me anyway? My head was spinning too much to figure that relationship out at the moment—and hearing the truth and sadness in his voice, was something different altogether. It made it real.
“He said that they were pregnant, and that he wanted to marry your mother. He loved you. Both of you.” My body started shaking and tears were forming in my eyes. My father had loved me. The love of a parent was something I had no idea how to grasp. I was struggling. George went on, not giving me a chance to get myself together. “He wanted to marry your mother. And he wasn’t just going to file for divorce, he was going to file for sole custody for Courtney as well. Your mother was delighted to raise your half-sister as her own, he said.” My eyes went to Courtney, whose eyes were shuttered and resentful. Then they went to her mother. Bitterness, loathing, and hostility rolled off of her in waves. George continued. “My family is old-fashioned. Divorce is not acceptable, no matter if you’re miserable or not. You have a duty to your family, and nothing or no one is ever to interfere with that duty. But my cousin didn’t care. He was getting divorced, no matter what that meant. My parents were furious with him and threatened to disown him. Then he died unexpectedly.” His voice grew grave at his last words. He really seemed to have loved his cousin, my father. He missed him. “When he died, everyone pretended that your mother and you didn’t exist. I had heard about your mother going into labor the same night of the accident and giving birth to a girl, but I was too devastated by the loss of my cousin to think straight, to do the right thing.” His apologetic and sorrowful eyes shifted from me to over my shoulder as he got lost in his memories. “I was four years younger than your father. I adored him, looked up to him, was proud of him. He was my idol. But then my parents started talking about how he had gone against the family’s wishes, and how that had resulted in his death. I was stupid and grieving. I know that is no excuse, but it’s the only thing I can offer. They talked me into marrying my cousin’s widow, for the sake of the family, said that I needed to honor his memory and take care of his wife and child. I thought I was doing a good thing, convinced myself that I was. So I married her and adopted Courtney.”
My mouth hung wide open at this point. Who were these people? What kind of world did they live in that they thought they could make decisions like that about other people’s lives? They were immoral and selfish, and I hated every single one of them. My anger was coming back, making the shock and sadness recede.
Good!
“Now I wish I had been braver,” George continued. “That I had been smarter. I’ve been living a lie, covering up many a lie and deceit for my family’s sake, while you and your mother had to endure the life you were doomed to live. I wish things had been different, that I had helped you, had supported my cousin’s true love. It’s what he would have wanted. I know that now. If I’m honest, I’ve known for a while. But I didn’t. I was a coward. I have not only failed my cousin, I have spat on his memory, and I have to spend the rest of my life with that knowledge.” He swallowed hard, then his eyes came back to me and he finished with, “But there is one thing you need to know, and again, I know this is poor as excuses go, but when I learned that Cole had taken you under his wing, I knew you had him to rely on. I have always known he was a good kid, so I knew he would take care of you, protect you, make sure that you were okay as much as it was in his power. I knew you were in good hands.”
This was all too much. I didn’t know what to think, what to do with this information. My father had loved me. Had loved my mother. Had wanted me. And Courtney’s stepfather was my first cousin once removed, which in return made her not only my half-sister but also my what? My second cousin? How fucking messed up was all this? And all these people had been in on it. I just knew it. Even Courtney, by the looks of it.
“Did you know?” That was Cole’s voice. I looked up at him to see that his eyes were going back and forth between his parents several times before they finally stopped on his mother’s face.
“Of course we knew. Everyone in our circle does. Why do you think I wanted you away from that whore’s daughter? Her mother brought enough disgrace to this town. I didn’t want you to fall into her clutches. Don’t you see? She is just like her mother, trying to take a man away from the woman and their child.” Her voice was filled with venom. This woman could not be believed. Did she not hear what George had just said?
“You knew. You knew this whole time that Lizzy was Courtney’s sister, that their dad wanted them to grow up as sisters with the woman he truly loved as their mother. You knew all this and yet you did nothing but look down on Lizzy and her mother, did nothing but make life miserable for them, spread rumors, fabricate lies, lock me up in the basement so I couldn’t go see her. Lizzy was a child, mother! How could you do that to an innocent child?”
“Ha! Your Lizzy was never innocent. She probably doesn’t even know what that word means or how to spell it. Those low-life white trash women are all the same. It’s in their blood. Thank God that filth left town and took her foulness with her. Ashford has been a much better place since.”
And there they go again, throwing me for yet another loop. Was she referring to my mother? Was she gone? “My mother left?” I asked in astonishment at the same time Cole asked, “You made her leave, didn’t you? Both of you, or all three of you. You did something to make her leave.” The glee in his mother’s eyes w
as unmistakable. She had done something to my mother. She had made her disappear.
“I bought her a bus ticket myself,” she said triumphantly.
A red haze settled over my eyes at that knowledge. My mother wasn’t my favorite person in the world, not even close. She had made my life a living hell, but now that I had all this information, now that I knew what exactly had happened, I could somehow understand how and why she had changed into that god awful person she had been all my life. It didn’t excuse her treatment of me, didn’t excuse the blame and guilt she put on my shoulders, but it did explain why and how she had sunk so deep. She had been lost in her grief. And all those bitches in town with their noses up their asses had done everything in their power to make her sink even further into the abyss of hell. All because she had fallen in love with a married man. They shouldn’t have had an affair. My father should have gotten divorced before he started anything with my mom, but the extent these women went to for revenge was unfathomable. I saw now why my mother took delight in the fact that she was sleeping with their husbands. It was her own type of revenge. The only revenge she had been capable of meting out.
Absolute fury controlled my body as I tore away from Cole, the complete disregard for another human being these people lived and breathed on a daily basis boggling my mind and making me livid. “How dare you? How dare you people treat another human being that way? What the fuck is wrong with you? Where is she? Where did you send her?” Without realizing it, I had taken a few steps towards Cole’s mother and was now only a couple of feet away from the chair she was sitting in with no intention to stop. I was going to kick her ass and not regret one single second of it. Strong arms wrapped around me from behind, holding me back. I knew they were Cole’s so I didn’t struggle.
His voice was low in my ear, soothing. “Calm down, baby. She’s not worth it.”
Cole’s mother hadn’t moved an inch, had stayed in her chair while calmly and malevolently scrutinizing me. “That’s right, son. Keep your whore in check. She wouldn’t want to be charged with assault.”