“I know, Brody. It’s all good,” I said. After I got hugs from Nick and Samantha, my eyes scanned the room for a moment before the line of people started to form to wish Rory and I congratulations. My eyes fell on the lady I saw before, only now this time she was looking in our direction, but her expression was anything but warm and friendly. Her eyes were filled with annoyance. Before I could think about why she would be looking at us like that, I felt Rory stiffen at my side. I looked down at her and she looked much like the lady in the corner did, only instead of irritation she looked shocked and furious. “Rory, baby, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“What the hell is she doing here?” she said, her voice full of fury and surprise. My eyes trailed along her line of sight and found that her eyes were locked with the mystery lady’s, who now looked like she was now horribly offended that Rory was looking at her that way.
“That lady in the corner? I don’t know, I have no idea who she is. Why, do you?”
She started to breathe so rapidly that I thought she was going to hyperventilate. “Liam, you need to get me out of here. Now,” she demanded.”
I spun around and gripped her shoulders. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want to make a scene at your parent’s home. Please get me out of here,” she said, shaking with anger.
“Rory, you need to calm down, you are shaking. What is wrong? Who the hell is that woman?”
I swear I saw fire blaze through her eyes and she shoved her hand in the woman’s direction, pointing hard at her. “That’s Erica Darling, and she is a partner at Mitchell, Sterling, Jacobs, and Darling where Mason worked. She was Mason’s boss, Liam. That’s the woman responsible for his death!” she said, her voice getting loud.
I felt a mixture of fear and anger burn in the pit of my stomach. The fear wasn’t for me and certainly not for Rory…it was for this Erica woman. If I knew anything about my fiancé at all, it was that she wasn’t going to let another chance like this pass her by as long as she stayed and she needed to leave before she shredded this woman with her bare hands. I gripped Rory by the elbow and was about to usher her out of the house when my mom stopped us. “Rory, dear, what is the matter? Why are you pointing at Erica?” she asked, and I couldn’t help but notice the way she said Erica’s name. It was laced with contempt. Apparently my mother wasn’t a fan either.
Rory lowered her hand and gave my mother a weak smile. “Vivian, I am sorry for being rude, but I really need to go now. Please forgive me.”
Mom shook her head. “Oh, darling, you aren’t being rude. I am just concerned about you. Why don’t you sit down? You look like you are going to faint.”
Rory shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I just need to go,” she said.
Just then, Marissa looked around to see what was going on and when she saw Erica her eyes bugged out. “What the hell? Why is she here?” I heard Brody say.
“Okay, someone needs to tell me what is going on right now. I am beginning to get worried,” Mom exclaimed.
“Vivian, I can’t, I’m sorry,” Rory said, tears forming in her eyes again. “Please understand,” she begged.
“Rory, normally I would respect your wishes, but I am very worried about you right now and it is breaking my heart to see you in pain this way. Please talk to me?” Mom asked.
Before Rory could answer, Erica surprised us all and walked right up to our group and stood before my mother. “Vivian darling, I’m so sorry to rush off, but I remembered I have a meeting in the morning that I can’t miss so I need to head back to the city. Lovely party,” she said, and was about to dash off when my mother caught her by the wrist.
“Oh no, you aren’t leaving yet,” Mom said.
Erica looked taken aback. “Excuse me?”
“Well, for some reason your presence here has seemed to have upset my daughter in law and I want to know why,” she said.
I shook my head. “Mom, trust me, just let it go. Rory wants to leave, and trust me when I say its best if you let her, otherwise it’s going to get ugly,” I whispered to her. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Marissa shooting fire at Erica and Brody looked angrier than I had ever seen him.
“I haven’t done anything to upset her, Vivian. Although, I do think we have met before a few years back. You’re name is Rachel, right?” Erica said, looking right at Rory.
Marissa gasped loudly. “You have to be kidding me!” she said quietly and took a step in Erica’s direction but Brody caught her arm. “Her name is Rory and you know exactly who she is!”
Realization crept across her face and she nodded. “Rory, of course. You used to date an employee of mine before he died tragically, right? Mason Callahan, wasn’t it? Well, it seems you have gotten over it and moved on and did well for yourself since you seemed to have snagged one of the most eligible bachelors in New York, cop or not,” she said, smiling a tempestuous smile.
Rory’s face was burning red from anger. At that point there was no going back. Before anyone had a moment to absorb the rudeness of Erica’s statement, Rory’s hand reached out and slapped Erica hard across her obviously botoxed face. Everyone gasped loudly and it was suddenly so quiet you could hear a pin drop. My mother was the first to speak. “Rory! Why on earth did you do that?”
I gripped Rory’s arm and Erica shrieked, “You are a cop, Liam! You saw that right? She just attacked and assaulted me, unprovoked might I add! Arrest her!”
“I’m off duty for one thing, and for two, believe me, you deserved it,” I said, glaring at her.
“Rory, you need to tell us what is going on,” my dad said, his loud voice booming through the room still full of guests.
Raising a shaking hand, Rory pointed at Erica and said, “You deserved that, Erica, and if Liam wasn’t holding onto me right now your face would look a lot like a car ran over it. How dare you even speak Mason’s name after what you’ve done!”
“I didn’t do anything to that boyfriend of yours,” she spat out, holding a hand to her cheek that was rapidly swelling. I had to hand it to my girl, she sure as hell knew how to hit. “He was shot on his way to run an errand that he should have gotten done before you two went out on your little ‘date night’.”
“You fucking bitch,” Brody said, and he took a step toward her but Nick caught his arm.
“Calm down, man,” he said, and Brody stopped. Nick kept his grip on Brody.
Rory struggled in my arms to get free, but I held onto her as tight as I could. “’Little date night?’ It was our anniversary and he’d just proposed to me, you bitch! You knew all of this, because you were trying to get into Mason’s pants and he wasn’t having any of it. You only called him and threatened his job so you could get another shot at him! You meant to ruin our night and you know it!”
“I didn’t hit on him, Rory, and I wouldn’t have had to ‘threaten his job’ as you put it if he’d completed his work on time.”
At that moment, I heard another slap and I looked up and saw Marissa standing face to face with Erica. “You bitch! If you say another word about Mason I will attack you myself!” she shouted. “You know that you ran him ragged, just like you ran every other male that worked under you ragged too!”
“He loved that job and if he didn’t he wouldn’t have put up with everything you put him through, including the sexual harassment! Besides, he wasn’t leaving to run an errand, and you know it! He left because you told him that you were at a bar and you were too drunk to find your own way home! You know that you were just trying to trap him like always! Why couldn’t you just leave him alone? Of all the men in the world why did you harass him? Why couldn’t you just leave us be?” Rory screamed, tears flowing down her cheeks as she struggled to get out of my grasp. “I saw his phone, Erica! I saw all the rude texts and I heard all the voicemails and I saw all of the nude pictures you sent him hoping you would get him in trouble with me, but it didn’t work! He loved me and you were pissed that he wouldn’t give into you, so you deliberately made him leave that ni
ght by threatening him. I know you did because I saw that text too! Stop lying to cover your ass Erica because now everyone knows what a lying whore you are!” she cried.
Erica composed herself. “Vivian, if this is the kind of trash you allow into your home and your family you can guarantee I won’t be back here. I can’t believe you are letting your son’s ‘fiancé’ speak to me this way, especially since we’ve been friends for many years,” she said, using air quotes when she said “fiancé”.
Mom rounded on her and glared at her. “We are most certainly not friends, Erica, and if you ever call that sweet girl trash again, you are going to need plastic surgery after what I do to you. The only reason I have tolerated you all these years was so I wouldn’t upset or embarrass my husband, but after the scene you’ve created in my home I don’t really care anymore. I don’t believe for a minute that Rory would lie about something like that, especially since you have done that kind of thing to almost every man you have ever worked with, including my husband,” she said, and my eyes went wide. What?
“What are you talking about? I would never hit on a married man!” Erica shouted, and there were several audible gasps and muffled guffaws behind us. Apparently the whole crowd was aware of what Erica had done.
“Don’t insult me by lying to me, Erica. You relentlessly pursued my husband and you tried pulling him away from me and our son all the time. Grayson told me everything, Erica, so you can stop acting like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You need to leave my home right now before I tell my son to let Rory go and I let her have her revenge on you, which you deserve,” my mother said.
Erica rolled her eyes and held her head up. “Good luck with that one, Liam. Mason is probably better off dead than he ever was being with trash like her,” she spat, and she was just about to walk away when I felt a sharp pain in my stomach as Rory elbowed me as hard as she could and wiggled out of my grasp, making me double over. Before I could stop her, I heard her running and Erica’s scream of pain through the large room.
Chapter 15
Rory
I struggled in Liam’s strong grasp as I saw Erica roll her eyes. “Good luck with that one, Liam. Mason is probably better off dead than he ever was being with trash like her,” she said, and I lost it. The rage inside me had reached its boiling point. I’m so sorry, Liam, please forgive me, I thought just before I elbowed him as hard as I could in the stomach in order to get free. I could no longer stop myself as I saw her walking away from me, and I wasn’t about to let her get away this time with nothing more than a couple of slaps. I lunged myself at her and grabbed a hold of her hair, pulling her back around. She struggled in my grasp and spun around to face me, screaming the whole time. “Let go of me, you crazy bitch!” she screamed.
Once she was face to face with me, I cocked my fist back and socked her as hard as I could in the jaw. I could barely register everyone’s gasping and sounds of shock as I saw blood trickle from her mouth. “That was for Mason, you bitch! And this,” I said, before moving close and head butting her in the nose, “is for our baby! I hope you rot in hell and lose everything you love just like I did!” Seeing a fountain of blood pouring from her nose, I spit in her face and said, “You better steer clear of me because the next time I see you, I won’t hold back.” I turned on my heels and stormed out of the house, not bothering to look at anyone or even say goodbye or apologize to Grayson or Vivian for ruining their evening. Before I reached the door, I heard Vivian gasping, “A baby? Oh no…” At that moment, my heart broke. Vivian would never be able to forgive me for what I had just done, and I would never be able to forgive myself for embarrassing her like this. Now I had lost two mothers in my life, and I felt myself slipping into despair. This was the one mother that I actually wanted to love me. As soon as I reached Marissa’s car, I fell onto my knees and started bawling like a baby. I heard a cop car in the distance, knowing that they were coming to arrest me for attacking Erica. She would surely press charges against me, and that would seal my fate in this family. The Tanners wouldn’t want me now that I am about to have a record. They are a high society family, and how would it look to them if they have a crazy psycho bitch with an arrest record for a daughter in law?
As I lay on the ground and cried, I heard footsteps behind me. I couldn’t turn to see who it was…I couldn’t bear to look at anyone’s face after the scene I just created. “Rory? I brought you a blanket,” said a voice I instantly recognized as Grayson’s. “It’s getting chilly out.” I felt him wrap it around my bare shoulders and he knelt down beside me. Before I could begin to form the words to try and apologize, he pulled me into his arms in a tight hug. “Darling, are you all right?”
I blinked and looked up at him. “I just violently attacked a woman in your home in the middle of your holiday celebration, and you are seriously asking me if I’m all right?”
He chuckled. “Rory, you just did what most of us that know Erica have wanted to do for many years, and she deserved it. That woman is poisonous, and it is upsetting to me to know that because of her actions you lost someone you loved,” he said, rubbing his arms up and down mine in an attempt to warm me up. I hadn’t even realized until that moment that I was cold. “I am so sorry that this happened to you,” he said.
“No, Grayson, I am so, so sorry for embarrassing you and Vivian. Can you ever forgive me?” I cried.
“Forgive you for what? Standing up for yourself, your fiancé, and the child you lost? Like I said, Rory, that woman deserved every bit of what happened in there.”
“But the cops are coming to arrest me!” I sobbed, still hearing sirens as they grew closer to the house.
“No, they aren’t. They are coming to remove Erica from my home after she caused a drunken scene and fell on her face, causing herself injury. At least, that’s what Nick told the 911 operator when he called it on,” he said, and I looked up at him. He winked at me.
“Grayson, that’s not what happened. What if she tells the cops the truth or worse, they actually do a breathalyzer or a blood alcohol test and find out she wasn’t drunk?”
“Erica has been a heavy drinker for years. Her blood is probably ninety percent alcohol. I know for a fact that she drank a lot tonight because she stayed by the bar most of the evening while you kids were down on the beach.”
I can’t believe that he was protecting me after what I did. I am not sorry I did it. In fact, it felt good to finally get my revenge on her. However, I was so ashamed that it happened at The Tanner’s home. I wanted nothing more than to please them today and show them how much I loved their son, but instead I ended up beating a woman’s ass in their home. “Grayson, I am so sorry,” I said again, crying fresh tears.
“Rory, you have nothing to apologize for. Like I said, Erica deserved every bit of that and no one in that house will say anything different. They all hate Erica and they are standing by you, just like Vivian and I are. That woman has been a thorn in our sides for a long time. She tried everything that she did to Mason on me right after Liam was born,” he said.
If it were possible, I hated this woman even more. “She did?”
He nodded. “She was always calling me when she knew I was home with my family, and she would leave notes on my desk when she knew Vivian was bringing Liam to the office. She tried to make it look like I was cheating with her so Vivian would leave me, but I was honest with my wife from the start. Vivian is the love of my life and she’d just given me a beautiful baby boy, and I wasn’t about to let that treacherous snake mess it up for me.”
“You sound a lot like Mason,” I said, sniffing. “He was honest with me about her from the beginning, but he always said ‘It’s only for now, Rory. When I finally am a partner or I am offered a partnership in another firm we won’t have to worry about her again.’ He loved his job, and he honestly thought she was just harmless and that he could just ignore it,” I said.
“Well, I tried to ignore it, but it took me leaving the practice we both worked at and starting
my own firm with a couple of colleagues to make it completely stop.”
“Why didn’t Vivian ever confront her?” I asked.
“Because she didn’t want to hinder my chances of getting my practice going, so she stayed silent and made nice with her, but I know she didn’t want to. She’s an amazing woman and has always put myself and Liam ahead of anything she wanted for herself. Think of it this way, sweetheart. You didn’t just avenge Mason or the baby. You got her back for Vivian and every other woman in there whose marriages and relationships she destroyed. I’m very proud of you,” he said, hugging me tighter.
At that moment, a squad car pulled up in the driveway and two officers stepped out of the car. Shining a flashlight at us, one of them said, “Excuse me, sir, are you the owner of this house?”
“Yes I am, and the woman causing the trouble is inside. Please remove her from my home,” he said sternly. He wrapped his arms protectively around me and helped me back to my feet as the officers walked up the steps of the house. “Are you going to be okay, sweetheart? Do you need someone to look at your hand after you socked her in the jaw?” he said.
I laughed at him, and after what had happened, it felt good. “No, I’m good. Are you sure you aren’t mad at me?”
“Oh, my darling girl,” he said, hugging me even tighter. “I could never be mad at you. What you’ve been through…” he trailed off, “you are an amazing woman, and my son is so lucky to have you. He needs someone that can go toe to toe with his stubborn side, and it looks like he’s met his match.”
I moved my arms from inside the blanket and hugged him around his waist. “Thank you, Grayson. For everything,” I said, and before I could stop myself I blurted out, “I love you.”
He took a deep breath and looked down at me, pride in his eyes. “I love you too, sweetheart.”
At that moment, Liam came rushing out the front door towards us. “Dad, is everything all right? Rory, baby, are you okay?” he asked, frantic.
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