I became flustered. The truth is not something I was ready to face.
“I have to get home Bright-Wing because I see the sun is setting soon. Thank you for the lesson.”
I got on the horse that the Chickasaw people had given to me in exchange for some firewood and other supplies. The horse was worth much more than I had to give but I was a part of their community and they took care of me. That night I lay in bed with my hand on my belly and thought of Job as I did every night. I wasn’t showing yet so I could get away with not telling Job about the baby on this trip, although it was the right thing to do. I didn’t sleep that night because I was feeling ill but also because the roof was leaking. The constant dripping was torturous.
With spring came rain and the leaky roof was no longer tolerable. There were still boards left over from the old porch so I decided to perform repairs. I was no longer nauseous but the roof although not very high, made me dizzy. I was determined to get the roof finished by the time Job arrived, which would be any day. I thought of the initial bet that I made with Job on the day we met. If I were to leave my cabin on Grist Creek at this point then I would have to be dragged away kicking and screaming.
The sun’s rays penetrated the canopy of loblolly Pines that surrounded my cabin. The day was perfect and I was pounding one of my final nails when a flock of swifts flew above my head. I was startled and slipped. First, I slipped a few feet to the edge of the roof when I grabbed for a board that wasn’t secure and fell to the ground. I laid on the ground unable to move and screamed for help at the top of my lungs. The last thing I remember before I lost consciousness was the angelic face of my friend Bright-Wing.
“Cassandra. You’re going to be fine. We’re all going to be fine my sweet.” Job patted my abdomen.
“What happened Job? I was fixing the roof and a bird scared me. I must have fallen and hit my head. My ankle hurts too. What about.” Tears were flowing down my cheeks.
Job placed his fingers gently to my lips. “Shh. Our baby is going to be fine. Bright-Wing says there has been no bleeding and you must have fell in a way to protect our child. He or she is tough like you.”
“I was afraid to tell you Job. I thought you’d be better off continuing your life in Oklahoma City with your family. I’m sorry Job.”
“Sorry? I love you Cass and I have since I laid eyes on you. I told you on the night we made love but you didn’t respond. As far as spending life with family; my family is right here with you and the baby here on Grist Creek.”
“I love you Job Morgan. I won the bet didn’t I?”
“I have never been happier to lose a bet. I think our child will need a last name shared by a mother and father. Will you marry me Cassandra O’Brien?”
“Yes, I will Job Morgan.”
Job and Cassandra were married on the banks of Grist Creek before the birth of their son. He was named Edward after Cass’s Father. They built their small cabin into a beautiful home. A place to live and more importantly a place to love.
THE END
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THE SECRETS AND DESIRE OF THE LONE WOLF
Prologue
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I didn’t bother to turn around. I was beyond angry. I was beyond reason. I had let Josh turn me into a monster. I was sickened by my actions. But I was done. I wasn’t going to let Josh have any more power over me. My whole body was shaking with rage now. And I felt bile rise in my throat as my stomach twisted in knots. Regret was driving me mad as my mind focused on all the terrible things I had done in the name of love. But I knew now that I had been foolish; love didn’t hurt innocent people. No, our relationship hadn’t been based on love. It had been based on manipulation, power and greed. I wasn’t going to give Josh the satisfaction of knowing he still held power over me through the awful things he convinced me to do. I was done letting that monster control me.
“Sky, would you just wait? You’re overreacting. Would you just listen?” he said with frustration in his voice as he grabbed my arm, forcing me to a stop.
How could this have happened? I thought to myself as I turned around and faced him. I regarded him without showing a hint of emotion as I studied his classic “All-American” features with his tall, strong build, blue eyes and blonde hair. He was handsome, well-off and ambitious. What woman wouldn’t have fallen into his web of deceit?
Tears now threatening to spill, I turned my face away. I thought to myself, perhaps another woman would be pulled into his lifestyle of lies, but not me, I was done being stupid. Despite the tears, I tried to downplay how upset I was. Maybe I couldn’t control my emotions as well as I thought. My voice came out shrill. “Let go of me,” I said shaking his hand off my arm easily. “Don’t touch me! Don’t you dare touch me ever again!” I shouted at him so loudly that I scared myself.
He didn’t step back. Instead he came closer, so that his body was less than an inch away from my own. He was almost touching me and I could see the fury now in his suddenly cold ice blue eyes.
He grabbed me by my chin roughly, hurting me as he dug his fingers into my skin. I tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let me move. I pushed at his chest and he brought his other hand up and slapped me hard against the face. I whirled back in shock as pain engulfed my face, but yet he didn’t let go of my face and I cried out as he continued to press his fingers unrelenting into my soft skin.
“You want to go. Then go. But you’re nothing without me. Nothing.” He said softly. His words cut through me like a knife. And at that moment, I hated him. I hated him with every fiber of my body.
“You really think you’re somebody? You’re no one. You’re nothing but a two-bit, no good, whore. You’re not worth sh---” he didn’t get the rest of his words out as my knee connected with his groin and he momentarily loosened his grip on my face.
I ran then, clawing at the door and flinging it open. Not stopping to think, ignoring the blinding pain on one side of my face, I ran down the hall to the stairwell exit---panting and crying as I took the stairs two or three at a time. Stumbling and injuring my ankle as I ran as if my life depended on it in what felt like seconds, I crashed through the door on the ground floor and sprinted down the street. I didn’t stop running until my chest was heaving and I couldn’t breathe.
I collapsed against a wall, tears still running down my face. My heart pounded. Sweat pooled between my breasts, soaking the sheer top that I wore with only a lace bra. I pulled in vain at the tiny mini-skirt I wore trying to lengthen it so it covered my long legs, suddenly feeling modest. And as I stood there in the alleyway trying to calm down, I swiped at the tears and wrapped my arms around my middle hugging myself.
And if things weren’t going badly enough, it began to rain.
“Dammit,” I whispered as the rain went from a soft mist to a sudden downpour. I hunched my shoulders to fend off the cold rain as it drenched my body, preparing for the long walk home. I looked behind me, every now and then, afraid of what Josh would do to me if he found me.
My Present
“Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Skylar! Happy Birthday to you!”
I blushed, embarrassed by the singing telegram, or whatever it was called, that was now bouncing up and down in front of me, rocking his hips to the beat of the Happy Birthday song. I was in my office just coming back from a coffee break when I saw the man standing next to my cubicle. I should have known something was up when I saw the tight white polyester clothing he had on and the over the top hair. Yep, an Elvis impersonator. Someone had sent an Elvis impersonator to sing happy birthday to me. And I was pretty sure I knew who that person was.
As the rest of the office stood up and joined him, I shook my head, unable to stop myself from smiling. I knew my Aunt Cici and my best friend Becca probably had something to do with this. I was pretty much certain of that. Last year, they had sent a clown. It had scared me so much that instantly upon seeing it I slammed my door
shut and ran and hid. Elvis was a much better choice. Speaking of which, now the impersonator was rocking his hips and crooning about blue suede shoes. I saw a manager appear from around the corner and I instantly signaled for Elvis to stop. Elvis was enjoying himself too much though to pay attention to me. He was in his element apparently, as he now commanded the attention of the whole office. He had his head back, hands in the air, belting out lyrics with reckless abandon all while I attempted to shush him.
“What in the world is going on here?” Marianna, my boss’ manager, said placing her hands on her hips and poking out her bottom lip, clearly expressing displeasure, but looking more like a petulant child.
Suddenly my direct supervisor appeared and cut in before I could say a word, “It’s just a birthday gag, Marianna.” I looked at my supervisor and mouthed thank you. I had only been with the company for nine months, so I still felt new there. Even though my probation period with the company was over, I didn’t feel so secure in my job that I could easily explain why I had a gyrating man there. My boss, Clinton Steward was a sweetheart, though. His boss, Marianna, not so much. He touched Marianna’s shoulder, gesturing for her to follow him.
“I need to talk to you about the Jefferson account. I need to hear your recommendations on it. Do you have a minute?” He said pulling Marianna in the other direction. She nodded, her mind already back on work and Clinton followed her into her office winking at me as he closed the door behind him.
With a sigh of relief, I looked at the now silent Elvis who looked smug as he stood there and said, “Thank you. That was great. Best birthday song yet.”
“I aim to please Little Lady,” he said bending down to take my hand. He raised it to his lips as if he were about to kiss it and I pulled my hand away hastily and gave him a fake smile.
I awkwardly pat him on the shoulder, said, “Again, good job!” and hid in my cubicle, closing the sliding door behind me. When I heard a knock a minute later, I slid the door back just a little and peeked out of it.
To my relief it was just my boss, I smiled at him. “Thanks again, Mr. Steward. I appreciate it. Was Marianna really mad?”
He shrugged, “Marianna’s always mad. What difference does it make that today she actually had a reason?” He then smiled at me, “Anyway, I’m having a get together at my house after work on Friday. I figured it would be a good team building opportunity.”
He then leaned towards me and whispered, “Actually, I figured it would just be nice to get away from Marianna and have a few beers without worrying about her showing up.”
I had to laugh. She had invited herself to all our other happy hours. She would just show up unannounced making us highly uncomfortable and ironically quite unhappy in the process.
“So it’s kind of a secret, just letting the staff directly under me know about it and I’m calling it a team building activity so she doesn’t get the urge to invite herself.”
I nodded in understanding and said, “Smart.”
He wiggled his eyebrows and said, “I’d like to think so. Anyway,” he said letting his voice get louder as he stepped away from me, “Feel free to bring whomever you want. I know some of the others are bringing family members. No kids though. I hope no one brings their kid. I’ll have to clarify that.”
He said the last part with fear in his eyes and I giggled, “Don’t worry. I’ll leave all five of my children home that night.” I joked and he winked at me and kept walking.
I was lucky to work at Adalind and Associates I thought, not for the first time. It was an accounting firm and I worked as one of the assistants. I had learned a lot while I was there and was considering going back to school to get an actual degree in accounting, finishing what I had started all those years ago.
I tried not to think of what had stopped me from finishing my degree as I focused on the project in front of me. I was immersed in it when my phone rang and I reached out to automatically answer it, pushing the speaker phone option on my phone, never taking my eyes off the computer screen as I did so.
“This is Skylar, how can I help you?”
“Happy birthday!!!” screamed the person on the other line, so loud that I knew my other coworkers heard as they broke out in laughter.
Hurriedly, I reached for the phone and put it up to my ear, “Hey, Aunt Cici.” I said warmly. She had adopted me when my parents had passed away in a car accident when I was in my late-teens. It had been a hard adjustment for both of us. But Aunt Cici never stopped believing in me, even when I got into some really bad situations with some really bad people. I would be forever grateful to her for that. I pushed the past out of my mind and instead focused on my present.
“Thanks for the birthday sing-a-gram.” I said to her smiling still.
“No problem, honey. I thought it would be a nice surprise.”
“It was definitely a surprise.” I said sardonically. “Did Becca have anything to do with it?”
My aunt laughed, “Becca wanted to send a stripper. I wanted to send flowers. Elvis was the compromise.”
Laughter spilled from me before I could stop it. I could only imagine Marianna’s response if a stripper had shown up instead of Elvis. Her eyes would have popped out of her head like that cartoon character I used to watch as a kid. That much was for sure.
“Well, Elvis was a good choice. Flowers would have been fine too. The stripper, though, not so much.”
My aunt laughed and said, “Well, I just hope you have a great day, sweetie. You only turn 25 once, so enjoy it.”
“Thanks auntie, you’ve already made it great.”
“You’re a sweetheart, just like your mother.” Her voice grew soft at the mention of Mom.
“You’re forgetting about my tumultuous teen years,” I replied, finding it hard to accept a compliment.
“No, I’m not forgetting about them. I’ve just convinced myself that an alien had inhabited your body during that time, you know like a parasite. And now it’s gone! Presto!”
“That’s a good way to look at it,” I laughed again, loving her sense of humor. I still felt guilty for all the crap she had to put up with because of me. Instead of worrying about where I was going to college, she had to worry about whether or not I was going to end up in jail. I had turned my life around, but I still resented that it took something so terrible for me to make up my mind to do better and to be a better person. My Aunt Cici had spent too many nights waiting up for me, convincing my probation officer to go easy on me. There had been counseling, social workers, teachers; everyone had wanted to help me and I had resisted help from all of them. And then Josh had happened. Just thinking of him made my skin crawl.
Pulling my thoughts away from that unpleasantness, I wrapped up the conversation with my aunt and pulled out my cell phone ready to dial my best friend. As if she could read my mind, I realized that she was already calling me and I locked my computer to step out of my cubicle to have a private conversation with her.
“Hey girl!” she practically sang into the phone. I had met Becca at a temp agency when I had went for a job there about four years back. She had been the secretary there and had helped me to land the better jobs on the totem pole. She had taken an instant liking to me and me to her. She was witty and fun and just all around good-natured. She had been the person I wanted to be. Also, her parents happened to be loaded, so she passed all her underused Louis Vuitton’s and Prada bags to me. I happily accepted her rejects.
As I walked down the hall, we chatted about nothing of importance and I thanked her for the sing-a-gram.
“No problem. I wanted to send a stripper.”
“Oh yeah, I know, Aunt Cici told me. I’m glad she vetoed that suggestion. I wouldn’t have wanted to be fired.”
“Fired? Doesn’t my dad own the building your company is in?” she asked.
Surprised, I said, “Does he?”
“I’m pretty sure he does. So you wouldn’t have gotten fired under my watch or I would have had daddy evict the whole company
.” I laughed, but I knew she was being serious. If I learned anything about Becca over the years, she was fiercely loyal and protective. She was the epitome of a true best friend and I deeply appreciated her.
“Soooo my boss, Mr. Steward, invited me to a get together at his house. He said we could bring whomever we wanted. And since you know I’m a little socially awkward, I figured my social butterfly of a best friend would be able to join me.”
“Hmmm social butterfly...I’m not sure how I feel about that description,” she said in a pensive tone.
“Becca, please,” I begged her.
“Alright. But I don’t know how hanging out with a bunch of accountants will be a good time. I’ll probably die of boredom and you’ll have to carry my body out.”
“If that’s the case, I’ll be sure your body is carried out by the cutest guy there.”
“Alright, you have a deal.” She said reluctantly.
“Thanks!” I said brightly and changed the subject. We talked for at least another ten minutes and then I looked at my watch and realized that it had actually been close to half an hour.
A Bride Worth Billions Page 16