Gabe.
Colette’s heart beat in her chest so hard that she was afraid she was going to pass out. The white noise in her ears threatened her equilibrium. She gripped the sides of the chair trying to breathe, but she couldn’t. She could only watch.
Bunnie fast forwarded it more and Gabe was pushing into Rosa. She screamed his name as he started to fuck her. Colette’s hands covered her mouth, her eyes were rapidly filling with tears. It was her Gabe. Her Gabe was fucking Rosa. Bunnie forwarded it more and there was another shot that showed Rosa on top of Gabe, he wasn’t completely undressed, his ACU bottoms were still on. Rosa was completely naked, sitting on his dining room table as Gabe fucked her there too. She was screaming his name, scratching his back. Bunnie pushed the curser forward again and stopped.
“I have it on good authority that this happened the day after Rosa’s accident,” Bunnie smiled sweetly as she hit play and sat back in her chair sipping her vodka.
Gabe was standing in a different room that Colette had never seen before. Rosa was on her knees in front of him, sucking his cock. His hands were in her hair, his head was tilted back, and his eyes were closed. He was breathing heavily. She thought back to what he was wearing that day and it hit her...this is what happened when Gabe went to ‘talk’ to Rosa.
“ROSA!” Gabe cried out.
“Mi amor...I’ve missed you,” she crooned.
“It won’t be very much longer,” Gabe answered as he stood there while Rosa was licking him.
There were other things that were said, but it was a jumble of words that Colette couldn’t quite catch. The tears were streaming down her face, her heart wasn’t shattered....it was dust. Bunnie stopped the screen with Gabe looking down at Rosa, her hand still on his still hard cock, her tongue licking him.
Colette went to stand when she heard heels coming from the stairs to Bunnie’s office. There stood Clair, pissed off and out of breath.
“Colette!” she cried when she saw her sister. “Oh my God, mother...what have you done?” Clair made her way to Colette and embraced her.
“Ah, Clair. Right on time.”
“I have no part of this mother. What are you do...oh my God!” Clair stated. “So this is what you’ve been up to?” She pointed at the computer screen.
“Well, I just wanted to let Colette know what he almost father of her baby was up to. And to know that one of the Colonel’s soldiers is running amuck like this...what would he say?” Bunnie shrugged her shoulders. “I’m just the deliverer of the message.”
Clair shook her head, “I don’t know you at all.” She hugged her sister tighter.
Bunnie took another sip of her vodka and waived her hand in the air. “Such a flair for the dramatic, the both of you.”
Colette stepped out of Clair’s embrace and gave her a half-hearted smile. “Well…”
“I had nothing to do with this Colette, please believe me,” Clair begged, “I tried to stop them.”
“Yes, but luckily Rosa caught on to you and called me first,” Bunnie offered.
“So you’d planned this?” Colette asked, turning to face her step-mother.
Bunnie pursed her lips and tilted her from side to side a few times. “Not really.”
“So…what were you planning to get from all of this?” Colette took a step toward the desk.
Bunnie sat her glass down on her desk and smiled. “What did I get from this?” she paused for a moment, leaning her elbows on her desk, and steepled her fingers together, tapping her pointer fingers, “So many, many things.”
“Like what?” Clair stated.
Sitting back in her chair, Bunnie counted off on her fingers, “One, to hurt Amilie’s daughter the way she hurt me. Two, to see you suffer as I suffered every time the Colonel had to leave to go back to his wife every night when they still lived here. Three, to make sure that you had nowhere to run except back here…where I could control you. Four…” she looked up at the ceiling thinking. “…well, I’m sure that there is a number four, but I just can’t get over my glee to see you suffer. He isn’t one of us.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Colette and Clair screamed at the same time.
“Colette, there were so many things that I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t have all of the pieces to the puzzle. I knew Rosa was the catalyst, I just didn’t how. But I did know that Bunnie and the Colonel were having an affair. It’s what partially drove your mother back to France.”
Colette sat down in the chair, shock on her face. She scrubbed her face with her hands before she said anything.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” she answered, “it explains a lot about the pictures. The Colonel marrying Bunnie afterward.”
Bunnie didn’t say anything as Clair explained.
“They started it when he was house hunting before we were born. It grew from there.” Clair stood there for a moment, giving Colette time to figure it out.
“How do you know that?”
“I came into Bunnie’s office to get a few contracts and to see if I could find anymore pictures after I found the first ones before I quit.” Clair looked at her mother with disgust. “She was drunk…so I took advantage of her.”
Colette huffed out a breath. “Bunnie was drunk. Interesting. Why?” she asked, looking up into Clair’s eyes.
Clair didn’t hesitate, “She’d just finished filling out the last check for your mother’s medical expenses.”
Colette looked up at Bunnie who just raised her eyebrows and shrugged her chin to her shoulder in innocence.
“Why are you so upset with me though? My mother I could understand, but…me, why?” Colette asked.
Bunnie stood now and rested her palms on the desk, leaning over toward Colette. “Because the Colonel wasn’t the same man when he came back from France where he left your mother in that hospital to die. He agreed to pay her medical expenses to keep her quiet about his marriage to her. He brought you back with him when he promised me that he wouldn’t.”
“What about their marriage?” Colette looked at Bunnie harshly.
“It wasn’t entirely legal.” She straightened, picking up her empty rocks glass, and walked over the to bar to pour another glassful. “He had to further his career by getting married, and so he made up a whole marriage certificate and promised to send Amilie to cooking school. To the naked eye, it was all legal like, it just wasn’t filed correctly.” She took a long sip from her glass and shrugged looking at Colette, then Clair. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
Colette sat there for a moment, digesting everything that Bunnie was saying. She closed her eyes for a long moment, “So...I’m confused…”
“Honestly Colette, you are just as dense as Clair sometimes…you both must get it from the Colonel or something,” Bunnie said, waving her glass in a wide arc.
“You said he left my mother to die in the hospital…but I have….” Colette looked at Bunnie confused, “why would he pay for her medical expenses if…” But she never finished her sentence.
Bunnie pushed Clair aside and leaned down putting her face just inches from Colette’s, “Ask me about mommy Colette, ask me,” Bunnie taunted.
“That’s…not my mother in that urn…is it?” Colette asked cautiously.
Bunnie stood and turned around to walk to the side of her desk. She turned and smirked at Colette.
“I can’t answer that…but the Colonel can, and he’ll be home shortly.” Bunnie took a long pull of her vodka.
“Mother!” Clair stated.
“Oh no, no, no no!” Bunnie screamed. “She learns from her father and only her father where her mother is.”
Colette stood, looking between Clair and Bunnie. They were in a battle of wills, locked together.
“I’ve had enough of your shit Bunnie. Where is my mother?” Colette asked, her breathing was coming faster at the possibilities of what this could mean.
Bunnie looked at Colette and shrugged with a smile on her face.
C
olette had had enough. She put her hands under the edge of the Queen Anne desk. “Where is my mother you bitch?” she yelled.
When Bunnie just stood there smirking, not saying anything, Colette flipped the desk. It crashed over, knocking into the small table that held Bunnie’s computer screen, effectively making it fall to the floor as well. Papers were scattered everywhere, glass shattered. Clair stepped back with a scream on her lips.
Bunnie took a step back as well screaming. “GET OUT! GET. THE. HELL. OUT. OF. MY. OFFICE!”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Colette stood there staring at the mess that was Bunnie’s desk. One leg of her beautiful Queen Anne desk was broken, her computer screen shattered, papers and books scattered on top of the mess, and a fuming Bunnie that was staring at her.
Clair was taking it all in. She’d taken a step toward her sister to grab her hand and pull her away when she heard the front door bell ring. She looked between Bunnie and Colette, the face-off, battle of wills, whatever it was.
“Come on Colette. Let’s get out of here,” Clair said, finally taking her hand. “There is nothing left here to find out.”
“Except where my mother is,” Colette said.
Bunnie’s mannerism’s changed at the drop of a hat. Going from livid to scathing bitch in two seconds. She stepped toward the bar again and set her glass down to refill it with more vodka. Now that her glass was filled, she picked it back up and raised her glass to Colette and took a sip.
“Yes. Where is your mommy?” she said in a pouty voice.
“Come on Colette,” Clair said, again, trying to pull her away from Bunnie before something more happened.
“I’d be willing to bet,” Bunnie said, taking a step toward Colette, “that she isn’t in that urn downstairs. But, you have to ask the Colonel.”
Ding Dong, the front doorbell rang again.
“Clair, why don’t you be a good girl and get the door,” Bunnie said, not taking her eyes from Colette, “we’ll be fine.”
Clair let go of Colette’s hand and ran to the front door, her heels clicking on the hardwood. Neither Bunnie, nor Colette said anything or moved from where they were standing. When Clair came back in, she took her sister’s hand again and pulled her away.
“Come on. Let’s get you a bag packed.”
“Neither of you two young ladies will be going anywhere,” Bunnie said. “You’ll be coming to family dinner just like always. You’ve both missed dinner every night this week.”
Neither Clair nor Colette said anything as they left Bunnie’s office, closing the doors behind them. They made their way down to Colette’s bedroom, Clair sat in one of the chairs while Colette went over to the urn that she thought for the longest time held her mother’s ashes. That was when all of the doubts that maybe Bunnie was just being a bitch hit her. Maybe her mother was in fact dead, and Bunnie was just trying to keep in line with being the bitch that she always was to torture her because the Colonel wasn’t the same man that she had claimed. There were so many scenarios that Colette couldn’t wrap her head around.
Clair’s intake of breath had Colette turning toward her. She had a look of shock on her face as she looked at the mail in her hands.
“Clair, what’s wrong?” Colette asked.
“This letter that I just signed for, I didn’t realize it when I signed for it, but it was overnighted.” She looked up, holding the letter out for Colette. “It’s marked urgent. It’s from your family in France.”
Colette took a few steps to where Clair was sitting and took the letter, opening it.
Dearest Colette,
I am your cousin Henri. I have the gravest of news and will understand your continued silence if you don’t contact us back. Your brother...is in hospital. He was hit by a drunk driver. He came back from seeing your aunt, who is very sick.
As I am not a part of this legal problem by Bunnie Hughes, I wanted to contact you immediately. Please find it in your heart to contact me as soon as possible. I’m sure your brother and the rest of us could use your comfort. At the bottom you will find my cell phone number and my email.
Henri
Colette stumbled over to the bed and sat down. Clair was by her side immediately. Colette handed the letter and envelope to Clair as tears filled her eyes. Clair read and re-read the letter three times before she folded it up and went to put it back in the envelope when she saw a picture. Pulling it out, she saw a teenager wearing an apron, he was rolling out some kind of dough. She flipped it over and saw the inscription.
Gustave Richeliu, May - Patesseri
“Colette,” Clair whispered, “there is a picture here.” She handed the picture to her sister, who immediately started to cry. She watched helplessly as Colette held the picture in her hand and wiped at her eyes with the other.
“He looks like you and your mom,” Clair offered.
“Yes...he does.”
Colette couldn’t believe it. She had a brother. He looked tall, had the same brown hair she did. His name was Gustave. How old was he? With quick math, he was at least twelve or thirteen, because she was eight when she was told she lost her mother. Holy shit! How many letters did they send? Why hadn’t she seen any of them? Well, that she could answer...Bunnie had a hand in it.
“You have a brother. Oh my God, Colette I had no idea,” Clair said, putting an arm around Colette and leaning her head on her shoulder, looking at the picture.
After a few minutes, she got up and went for her purse on the floor by the chair. “I came here to give you the other letters that I found in Bunnie’s office today. I was going to drop of my official resignation, but she wasn’t there, so I took the liberty to look around a bit, knowing that she and Rosa were up to something. I came across them in the bottom drawer. She had them diverted to the office.”
“So that I couldn’t intercept them I imagine,” Colette said.
“More than likely.” Clair pulled out a stack of envelopes and sat down next to Colette on the bed. “There’s more.”
“More than this?”
“No,” Clair said shaking her head, “more...information.”
Colette tucked the picture in the envelope and set it on top of the ones that Clair had just handed her, then looked at her sister.
“The argument we had was about her cheating with the Colonel and Amilie wanting to leave. I found out that we are indeed half sisters.” Clair gave a genuine smile, “For years Bunnie tried to tell me that my father left us. He did, with his wife and daughter...to Fort Hood, Texas.”
“But...” Colette was stopped by Clair shaking her head.
“She explained it away because he had to PCS; he couldn’t stay here the whole time. So, after being in Fort Hood for three years, he came back here and they resumed their affair. She never said that my father came back home.”
“Clair...” Colette shook her head, “I’m so sorry she didn’t tell you.”
“I’d say it’s okay...but it’s really not. I don’t understand why she is the way she is,” Clair offered. Then she opened up to Colette about everything that she and Bunnie had argued about. All the way through to the part where she’d offered to buy Clair’s silence. “So that’s where the money in the envelope came from. She gave me a check for seven thousand dollars. I took two and gave you the rest.”
“Thank you,” Colette said. Not knowing what else to say.
“You’re welcome, but I also owe you an apology as well.” Clair put a hand up when Colette went to say something, “I knew where your important papers were, not because I’ve looked before, but because Bunnie knew. I put the money in the envelope and took the birth certificate to get the truth. The money was to help you in case you needed it. The birth certificate...”
Colette sliced through the air with her hand, “I don’t care about the birth certificate.” Colette stood up. “After what I saw...I don’t care if Little G is his or not.”
“Either way it plays out, I’d at least ask Gabe what happened,” Clair said, sa
dly.
“What happened was Bunnie and Rosa,” Colette said with finality.
“So, what are you going to do?”
Colette walked over to the urn and hefted it in one hand. “I plan on finding out where my mother is. Everything else is just...over,” Colette shrugged.
Clair stood up from the bed and walked to the door. She stopped before she opened it and smirked at her sister who was looking at the cream colored urn.
Pick Me (Wait for Me Series Book 2) Page 22