Revengeful Deceptions

by Ursula Dukes

  Adam couldn’t help but smile as he thought to himself, so far, so good.

  Dominique was excited to be going out again. “This makes twice in one day,” she joked with Adam as she showered and dressed for their evening out.

  The month of May might have been warm back in Boston, but here on the island, it was a different story. Dominique chose a beautiful satin v neck evening dress. As she slipped into a pair of satin ballet flats, Dominique missed being able to wear heels, but she didn’t miss the discomfort of them as she glided down the stairs.

  “Baby, you look gorgeous.”

  “Thank you, so do you.”

  Adam had never in his life been more nervous, he'd worked on some of the hardest court cases and come across some pretty scary people but that was nothing compared to what he was feeling tonight. The knot in his stomach began gripping him tighter and tighter and he fought hard to hide it.

  “Shall we go?” He said in as calm a voice as he could.

  As they entered the romantic restaurant, Dominique noticed that Adams palms were sweaty and he was acting a bit off.

  “Adam honey is everything alright? You seem a bit strange.”

  “Everything is fine Dominique; I’m just hungry that’s all.”

  “Me too,” she smirked. Lately Dominique couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t hungry.

  “Well I chose this restaurant because they have the best of everything, so feel free to get whatever you and the baby want Dominique,” he said smiling as his gaze fell upon her belly.

  “That's very nice Adam, thank you for thinking of us.”

  “Dominique I think of nothing else these days, nothing else.”

  Once dinner was over and the two shared a dessert, Adam suggested that they take a drive to great point.

  “Oh could we? That would be a wonderful ending to this perfect day,” she beamed.

  “Absolutely Dominique, I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

  The drive to the point was short and as Adam parked the car, he wasn’t expecting Dominique to get out. But when she did, he shoved the tiny box in his jacket pocket and quickly followed suit.

  The night sky was clear and the waves rising and falling was the only sound. Stars dotted the sky and Adam thought to himself, this night couldn’t be more perfect.

  Dominique stood in the sand with her eyes closed just listening to the wave’s crash around her. She reached for Adam's hand and when she did, she felt a surge of warmth go through her. Adam told himself, it’s now or never as he turned to face her and got down on bended knee.

  Dominique couldn’t have been happier, she cried while Adam proposed. Her tears were tears of joy when she remembered her dream and how Stephen told her that it was okay to fall in love again and that he only wanted her to be happy. So when she said yes, Adam could hardly contain himself as he shouted his undying love for her into the night sky.

  As they lie in bed that night after making love, Dominique and Adam began planning their wedding. Dominique had shared with Adam that since she'd been married once before she did not want a large wedding, she had no family left and only a handful of friends. Then she sat up quickly as an idea began to form in her head.

  “Adam, we should have it here at the house! I can invite Molly, Neal, Pam and Rob and of course your parents and anybody else who you'd like to invite,” she said, eyes gleaming with excitement. “Do you like that idea or am I being selfish? I mean it is your first time getting married and you deserve some say in the matter I guess,” she said jokingly.

  “Dominique honey, I don’t care what we do as long as we do it fast; I cannot wait for you to become my wife. And if you want to have the wedding here at the house then we will have it here. I'll call my mom in the morning and I guarantee that she will have everything planned in a matter of two weeks. She lives for this kind of stuff.”

  “Oh Adam, really? Because I am going to need the help,” she said while gazing at the ring on her finger.

  The next morning, Adam, true to his word phoned his mother and told her the good news. The moment she finished talking to Adam, Muriel began making calls to caterers, florists, hotels, drivers and inn keepers. The final call was to Dominique to tell her to rest and leave everything up to her because she had it all under control.

  “Oh and Dominique? Congratulations! I'm going to finally have a daughter!” She said with glee as she hung up the phone.

  Within a week Muriel was able to fulfill her mission, and she did it with such ease that everyone, including her husband had told her that planning things on short notice was certainly her calling.

  “Are you kidding? I live for things like this.” Was all that Muriel would say about her speedy yet thorough planning. Dominique was surprised at how fast everything was happening. It was the first week of June and she would be getting married two weeks from now. She did not mind the fast pace with which everything seemed to be going at all. Muriel was taking care of it all and the only decision making she had to do was choosing her gown. She chose an empire style light yellow chiffon gown with diamond accents.

  “Muriel I hope we're doing the right thing getting married before the baby comes, it's just that I’m afraid things will be too hectic to plan a wedding after, what do you think?”

  Muriel gave her a warm hug.

  “Dominique I think it’s a wonderful idea that you two are getting married now and I know it’s something that Adam wanted to do some time ago. But you and I both know with all that was going on there never seemed to be the right time. And now is the right time, so come on now, no second guessing, you and Adam are going to be married, then you’re going to have my grandchild and we are going to be a family again.”

  Chapter Twenty Six

  The more he thought about it, the more Brandon felt resentful towards the Caruso family.

  Here he was having to work his way up from the bottom and there they were living the life of luxury. It wasn’t his fault that Jonathan had been a greedy, selfish man who took the money instead of doing what he would have done and ditched Muriel.

  After all if Jonathan had ditched her she would have gone to DiNunzio and then he would have been born into privilege and kept in privilege his entire life. He didn’t find it fair that he was given everything by his so-called parents and everything had been taken away, all because of that bitch Dominique and her controlling ways.

  He was set to forget about it until his real father had told him that he would have to work his way up. Brandon assumed that he would be given a position of power within the DiNunzio family, but instead he was nothing more than one of the crew's lowly thugs, and that was something he couldn’t live with. It didn’t take him long to figure out just where Dominique was staying, he hadn't been previously hired by the firm as an investigator for nothing, he knew how to follow people without being noticed and it was even easier following around his own mother who seemed to be incredibly preoccupied with doing something and he made it his job to find out just what that something was.

  Muriel had been making several trips from Boston to Nantucket and during those hectic trips she had no reason to think that anyone was following her, let alone her own son. Once she left the penthouse for the day, Brandon would simply stroll in and use his key to enter the home. Neither Muriel nor Jonathan had known that he had made a spare and kept it at Nick's place. Envy surged throughout his body when he entered the home.

  But he was glad that he had returned when he spotted a wedding invitation laid out on the coffee table in the living room. “So that’s what you've been up to mom, you've been busy planning a wedding for that bitch to Adam. Oh and look it here, they've got a baby on the way. Ain't that sweet. Shit! That doesn’t leave me with a lot of time.” He cursed as he read the date on the invitation.

  "Just about a week though, that'll have to do, I think I’ll have to dig my tux out from my old room, thanks mom,” he murmured as he slithered through the house. The more he wandered through it, the more he began to
reminisce. If it wasn’t for Dominique all of this would still be mine, he told himself, and now it’s going to be Adam's one day? How is that fair? Why should he benefit from it all? No, after all it was me who got the short end of the stick. If I can't have it, neither can Adam, he thought to himself, getting angrier with each moment. Brandon wanted to make Dominique and his half-brother suffer, and the only way he could do that was to take away everything that Adam held dear, his soon to be wife and their child.

  Although she had not planned on returning to Boston so soon, Dominique and Adam thought it easier to stay at Adam's place for a few days in order to finalize the wedding arrangements. She would return to the island with her friends Molly and Neal the day before the wedding; Adam would stay behind until the day of. Dominique wanted to do at least one tradition for the wedding and that would be having the groom not see the bride until the day of the wedding.

  As they sat on the ferry, Dominique couldn’t help but tell Adam that she was feeling apprehensive about returning to Boston. She wasn't sure that Brandon had moved on. “But what if he hadn’t,” she asked, “What if he's out there lurking around?”

  “Dominique your being silly, Brandon Caruso, I mean DiNunzio wants nothing more to do with the Caruso family,” Adam told her.

  “I hope your right Adam, because I want nothing more to do with him, I want him to stay away from me and our baby.”

  “I am not going to let anything happen to you or the baby, I promise,” he said as they drove off the ferry and into Boston.

  They were meeting Jonathan and Muriel at a restaurant in downtown Boston.

  “This will be just great seeing your dad Adam, another thing for me to be anxious about,” she said nibbling on her fingernail. Dominique felt more and more vulnerable now that she was pregnant and showing, the anger and animosity she felt that December day back in the penthouse seemed to melt with every month the baby grew inside of her.

  “Dominique are you kidding? My dad cannot wait to see you; it’s because of you that he and mom are finally on their way to a decent marriage.”

  “Are you sure Adam? I just feel a bit strange, I don’t know, seeing him again after I tied him up and gagged him!”

  “You did what you had to do Dominique, and yes it was unorthodox and yes you surprised and scared us all but that’s over and done with. Now none of that matters anymore. Look, my dad holds no grudges against you Dominique, in fact he's grateful.”

  “Grateful? To me, why?”

  “Dominique, I don't want to dredge up old memories but my dad is grateful to you for not turning him in. He knows that you could have done a lot worse and for that he is very grateful. Not to mention the fact that you helped mom open his eyes to all of the hurt that he was causing her. So you see if it wasn’t for you, we'd all be at a loss. You helped save our family.”

  “Well if that's so, then it's quite ironic how I helped save your family and Brandon took mine away.”

  “Don't do that Dominique, you know if I could change things I would but I can't. So let's not travel down that road again. Everything is out in the open, there are no more secrets. Brandon will pay for what he's done and you know that.” Adam pulled into the restaurant parking lot and shut off the car. “Dominique I love you. I know you still think about the family that you lost, I wouldn’t expect you not to, but I also want you to think about the family that you and I are going to start.”

  “Adam, of course I am thinking of you and the baby, I’ve thought of nothing else. That's why I decided a long time ago to stop torturing myself. Thinking about what I was going to do to Brandon was tearing me up inside, you know this. Adam all I want to do now is marry you, have our baby and live happily ever after,” she said giving him a long lingering kiss.

  “I'm going to do everything in my power Dominique to make sure that we get our happily ever after.”

  “I have no doubt that you will Adam,” she said, gently squeezing his hand. “Now let's get inside, I’m hungry.”

  Adam was right about his father, Jonathan was not only happy to see Dominique, but he also spent most of the evening thanking her for helping to reconnect him with his wife. And to show his appreciation, he told them that the wedding was on him.

  “Dad you don’t have to do that, I can take care of everything,” Adam urged.

  “Son, it’s the least that I can do and besides, it's already taken care of so there's no use arguing about it.”

  Dominique had never seen Jonathan looking so relaxed and at ease. She was glad for that because it meant that her dear friend and soon to be mother in law was relaxed and at ease and she deserved every moment of it.

  “You kids decide whether or not you’re going to stay in Boston and raise our grandchild or live out on the island far away?” Jonathan asked.

  Both Adam and Dominique exchanged looks, neither of them had thought about it. Dominique thought she wanted to stay out on the island, but now being back in Boston and enjoying herself, she wasn’t so sure anymore.

  “We hadn’t really thought about it to be honest, but I suppose we should,” said Dominique looking at Adam.

  “Well let's get you two married and then we'll tackle the housing situation, but I must say, it would be very nice to have our grandchild within driving distance,” Muriel hinted.

  “Okay, okay Muriel, I read you loud and clear,” joked Dominique.

  Brandon had the perfect idea, he would take the ferry to Nantucket the day of the wedding and as the festivities were carried out he would lie in wait and once the opportunity arose and he was sure that it would, he'd make his move.

  He would take care of Dominique and Adam and get back on the ferry and home in Boston before anyone would know what happened. His father, Peter DiNunzio told him that if he was able to carry out his plan, it would greatly improve his standing in the family and he would instantly move up to the big leagues.

  For Brandon, that meant no more low level jobs. He was ready to move up, and taking care of Adam and Dominique would be just the thing to get him there.

  Dominique gave Adam a long kiss goodbye before heading back to the island with Molly and Neal.

  She had butterflies in her stomach and couldn’t believe just how nervous she was. “It's not like I haven’t been married before,” she told her bridesmaid Molly. Pam and Rob were also due on the island today and Pam would be the maid of honor.

  “Doesn't matter how many times you've been married Dominique, it’s natural for you to be nervous, I would think there was something wrong with you if you weren't,” she giggled.

  “Oh Dominique this is going to be so much fun, thank you for having me in your wedding.

  No one has ever asked me before and I want to say thank you for everything. Neal and I have been getting treated so well at the firm and it's all because of you.”

  “Molly, you’re welcome and I’m glad, I am so glad that it all worked out for you guys.”

  “Are you kidding? Things worked out for all of us. I mean you’re getting married to Adam tomorrow, you’re expecting a child, Adam's parents have reconciled and Neal and I will soon be following suit,” she grinned as she showed Dominique her newly engaged hand.

  “Molly! Congratulations, I am so, so happy for you! And congratulations to you too Neal!” Dominique hugged her two friends, “Oh my god you guys, this is wonderful. This is going to be a celebration for all of us!” She exclaimed to her friends.

  Adam felt lost; he had gotten quite used to spending his time with Dominique. He had wanted to go back with her but Molly and Neal assured him that they would take good care of her. He had no doubt that they would, but he missed her none the less. He also hoped that she would enjoy the gifts he had sent to the house a day earlier to ensure they would be there before she arrived.

  As the small group arrived at the cottage, Molly and Neal stood in awe as they gazed upon what looked to them to be far more than a cottage.

  “I thought the same exact thing!” Said Dominique as she led
them into the house where Muriel was anxiously waiting for them.

  “Welcome, welcome. Molly, Neal, it’s so good to see you,” she said hugging them. “Now Dominique get over here, our Adam has sent you some lovely gifts and I am dying to see what they are.” She squealed with delight.

  “I feel like a child on Christmas morning,” Dominique said as she tore into the packages.

  Inside one of the beautifully wrapped boxes was a sterling silver locket with an inscription on the back which read, Love Always, Adam. Dominique tried holding back the tears but she knew it was useless, these days she cried at the drop of a hat.

  The next box was larger and inside was filled with seven pair of her favorite style of pajamas, bedhead pajamas. The card enclosed read, these are for after the baby's born, not before. Dominique blushed as she read the card. The last box was small and contained a Pandora bracelet with several kinds of bridal inspired wedding charms.

  “Your gifts are wonderful Dominique, so thoughtful. I hope your taking notes.”

  Molly nudged Neal. “She's right Dominique, your gifts are wonderful!” chimed in Pam. Squeals of excitement escaped their mouths as Dominique hugged her friends, Pam and Rob. After Dominique introduced her friends to one another, she quietly excused herself so that she could call Adam. It was almost two hours later when Dominique hung up from talking with him. They had talked about everything and anything; it was as if they'd been apart for days instead of hours.

  While Dominique and her friends went about preparing for the big day in Nantucket and Adam prepared in Boston, Brandon prepared too, he threw a couple of necessities in a back pack and had decided to head out a day early, he'd reach the island by nightfall which worked in his favor. Not only would he avoid being seen, but he'd be able to get a closer look at things just to make sure that everything was where he remembered it being. It had been several years since he'd been on the island and although he despised sand and water he was willing to make an exception. One has to overcome these kinds of obstacles if they want to rise to the top, he told himself as he headed for Hyannis.