by BM Hardin
He’d been good to me and good to my daughter.
What more could a woman ask for?
Just as I’d thought, a few minutes later, Silas came into the bedroom and sat down beside me.
“Your sister noticed that you weren’t wearing your ring and asked if there was trouble in paradise.”
I hadn’t worn the ring in so long that I didn’t even know where it was.
Hell I should have taken it to the pawn shop since he’d taken all of my money, but I hadn’t seen it in a while.
Just as the last thought crossed my mind, he pulled out another one, a bigger one, out of his pocket.
It was the ring fit for a queen; one that his money could have afforded from the start had he not been trying to hide who he really was.
“Let me see your finger,” he ordered.
He had been a lot more aggressive lately so I did what he said.
I wasn’t scared of him, but I recognized that I really didn’t know him or what he was capable of.
Through other conversations, he’d definitely hinted at the fact that he just might seriously hurt me if I really tried to leave him.
It was the way he said it and the look that he had in his eyes while he was saying it.
Mama hadn’t raised no fool.
So, I let him put the ring on my finger.
Plus, with the pawn shop idea still on my mind, I definitely knew what I would do with it if I needed to.
Silas still hadn’t given me my money back or even hinted as to where it might be.
I’d searched the house from top to bottom plenty of times, and it wasn’t there.
He must’ve taken it somewhere.
And I had a feeling that he really wouldn’t give it back unless I really gave us another shot and even then he probably wouldn’t.
So, the year plus that I’d spent on the thirteenth floor had been for nothing.
I stared at the ring on my finger and then back at Silas.
At the end of the day, life doesn’t get any better than what it was with him.
Or what it could be with him I should say.
With all of the lies on the table, most of them anyway, maybe we could get past it.
“I slept with Nolan,” I said to him.
I don’t know why I said it, but it just came out.
Maybe I wanted to hurt him.
Or maybe it was that I felt that if we were going to start over, that was something that he needed to know.
“I know. I paid him to go away.”
What?
What did he just say?
“What did you say Silas? You paid who?”
“I paid Nolan to go away. It was all a set up. I’d put his fake husband on the thirteenth floor so that he could order you. I gave him the whole gay, jealous husband angle. They aren’t married. The man is actually one of Nolan’s family members, or maybe he was in a relationship with a family member. I can’t really remember. But I paid him to pretend and paid Nolan to go away. I knew you were sleeping with him. A blind man could see it, not to mention all of the flirting at Horizon’s birthday party that time. So, I approached him with the proposition, money, and told him to disappear. I paid them both up front. The only thing about it was that I had no idea that he was going to try to take the baby. He’d agreed to let you have him. He wasn’t supposed to keep him. He was just supposed to disappear. We were to keep the baby and he was supposed to just vanish. But he hadn’t kept his word. After that, I wanted to take care of him in my way, but it was too close to home, so I couldn’t do anything but to try to get you legal help on the matter. I’d even managed to get him on the phone once. Nolan argued that he kept his end of the deal by leaving you alone, but he refused to give back the baby. And then, suddenly, the baby just up and passed away. He hadn’t lied about the baby’s death. The reports showed that everything was the truth. The coroner on the scene is a personal friend. But that’s what happened. I just didn’t want him to take you away from me.”
I stared at Silas.
I didn’t know what to feel about everything he’d just said, but I’d been right about one thing.
Nolan wasn’t gay!
I knew it!
There was just no way that he could have been. Everything had been set up and played to the tee.
From the thirteenth floor visit, to the restaurant pop-up, and all the way to Nolan’s behavior before stealing the baby; it had all been planned.
Everything and everyone had played their part so well.
And like everything else, Silas had been the master mind behind it all.
And Nolan taking the baby hadn’t been a part of the plan, but I’d always known that it was his way to get back at me.
Bastard!
But I was confused about one thing, and instead of biting my tongue, I asked Silas about it.
“Nolan made a comment at the gravesite. He’d said that taking the baby was “his” idea. But you said that you didn’t include the baby in the plan right?”
“Right. Maybe he was trying to say that the plan to disappear was “his” plan. Referring to me of course, but you took it as pertaining to the baby. I wanted the baby. I never would have wanted him to take him. I’d always wanted a son and he was the closest thing to it,” Silas said.
I took a deep breath.
Well, I definitely wasn’t going to start thinking about my nephew.
I already had enough on my mind and I didn’t have time to be caught up in my emotions.
We chatted for a few minutes more and by the end of the conversation, I’d agreed that maybe giving things another try wouldn’t be so bad.
I’d already lost everything so…what else did I have left to lose?
**********************
Chapter THREE
It was Valentine’s Day, and I have to admit that Silas had been laying it on pretty thick.
The whole house was filled will long stemmed, red roses and balloons that he’d had delivered and not to mention the diamond earrings, necklace and bracelet set that had been waiting for me when I woke up this morning.
He’d said that he had a few errands to run, so I was home, with Horizon, answering the door every thirty minutes to receive new roses and balloon deliveries.
It had been about two months now since everything had taken place at the hotel and since I’d found out the truth about Silas.
Day by day, things were returning back to normal and half of the time I would forget that I was supposed to be making him work for it and taking things very, very slow.
We were learning to trust each other all over again and he didn’t pressure me for sex.
I was definitely overdue and I figured that he was probably going insane, internally, sexually, but he didn’t show it.
I’d been following the news with the hotel and had even run into one of the previous executive maids.
She’d been told that she was probably going to get off with probation for a few years since she didn’t have any prior convictions or history of trouble. And she said that she was also going to have to pay one hell of a fine.
She’d also explained how she’d been interrogated for hours about information concerning the things at the hotel and the head men in charge.
Of course I played along as though I’d gone through the same thing. She didn’t seem suspicious or anything so, I was sure that she had no idea that I was involved with bringing down the thirteenth floor.
I’d also been following the news, I’d seen quite bit on the two gentleman taking the fall and even information on celebrities and people of power that had received charges.
Their wives were divorcing them left and right, and they were being kicked off of teams, losing contracts, getting fired, and the whole nine yards.
They mentioned that they were still looking for more people involved with thirteenth floor business from the hotel but had yet to make any more arrests.
I’d already known that I hadn’t gotten them information on everyone involved. I
had left plenty of papers behind and by the time that they’d gone in to make the arrests and since Carmen had known that something was soon to come, she’d completely cleaned out her office.
There wasn’t a piece of paper in sight when the arrests were made.
So, some of those clients and sponsors had better considered themselves lucky, because they too had dodged a bullet.
But the one person that I hadn’t heard or seen anything about was Carmen.
And that just couldn’t be a good thing.
The doorbell ranged and I headed towards it with a smile on my face.
What the hell were we going to do with all of these balloons and flowers?
I opened the door expecting to see a flower man but instead there was no one there---just a box.
I looked around but didn’t see anyone running away or even a car passing by, so I grabbed the box, and hurriedly went back into the house, locking the front door behind me.
I peeked out of the window, just to see if someone would appear, but they didn’t.
I headed back into the living room to join Horizon.
She was watching TV and singing along to the cartoons, so I sat on the couch with the box.
It was beautifully decorated, and I could only assume that it was from Silas.
I smiled at the tag that said “Open” with a smiley face.
Eager to see what was inside, I ripped off the wrapping paper and opened the box.
Confused, I picked up the pictures.
They were pictures of Silas and a man.
No, they weren’t doing anything inappropriate or anything.
Thank Goodness.
But it seemed as though they had been having some kind of meeting, conversation or something.
They were sitting, talking, and then shaking hands on a few of them.
Apparently someone had been looking on and taking the photos.
Hmm, I wondered if this box was intended for me or for Silas.
Immediately I wondered who had taken them.
Who was the man in the photos with him?
And who had them delivered to our home?
I took the photos and the box to our bedroom.
I hid the photos in one of my many purses and then destroyed the box.
I didn’t know what the photos meant or if they were meant for me to see them at all, but something in me told me to keep them.
If Silas was expecting them, he would have to ask me for them, and then I could question him about them.
The doorbell ranged again, and I headed back to the living room.
This time it actually was the flower man, but instead of the roses being red, this time they were white.
I accepted them and then read the tag attached to them.
I frowned immediately.
These roses weren’t for me at all.
They were for Silas.
And they were from Carmen.
Was she out of jail?
And why was she sending Silas flowers?
Angry, I called Silas’s phone but just as the phone started to ring, he walked through the front door.
I reached him the flowers and then folded my arms across my chest.
He looked at them and then read the tag aloud.
The tag had the number 713 written on it.
I knew that it meant something so I waited for him to explain.
“713 means that the police aren’t as convinced as they should be. It doesn’t mean that they are on to us or anything, but it does mean that they are still asking questions and still looking for whatever they could find. But it’s nothing to worry about. The sponsors and clients definitely don’t know much of anything. The men won’t fold and neither will Carmen. The men and Carmen owe me everything. Everything will be fine,” Silas assured me as he headed to the trashcan and tossed the flowers inside.
I didn’t like that he said things that couldn’t exactly be explained.
He said just enough and I knew that I didn’t have a choice but to take it for what it was.
But if Carmen knew all of this, I could only hope and assume that maybe she was still in jail too.
Maybe her little plan to get off on the charges hadn’t worked after all.
I really hoped that they didn’t.
With Carmen out of sight and out of mind, I could truly see the difference in my relationship with Silas.
She had definitely been a problem and I was hoping that the problem was gone, and hopefully gone for good.
Or a few years at least.
Silas handed me the bags that he’d been carrying, told me to get Horizon ready, and then told me to be dressed when he got back home.
I hadn’t asked where he was taking her.
Knowing him, he had already worked things out with Josephine and was probably meeting her half way so that her oldest daughter could babysit.
I knew that he had something special planned so I tried to forget about the roses, the pictures, and Carmen, and headed to get myself together.
The all white dress that Silas had purchased was so tight that I could barely move.
But I liked it.
It hugged my body in all of the right places and my hips and my booty looked bigger than ever.
Silas ordered me to put on the diamonds that he’d given to me as a gift that morning and the Louboutin all white, red bottom pumps, sprinkled with diamonds and rhinestones, made me look better than the woman of any man’s wet dream.
I looked damn good.
Looking at myself in the mirror, reality whispered in my ear.
This is what my life was going to be like with Silas.
This was my future.
A life that I’d never so much as imagined was in the palm of my hand.
I would be a fool not to let the past go and move forward.
And because of the things that I’d done in my past, it was only right.
Silas returned all of two hours later.
I was surprised to see that he was already dressed when he enter the house.
He was wearing an all-white suit, and looked as sharp as a razor blade.
“You ready?”
I smiled and nodded my head as he reached for my hand.
We headed out the door to the all-white, stretched Hummer limousine.
I entered it to see that it was also full of red roses and what had to be a hundred gift boxes and bags.
I smiled at him and felt like a kid in a candy store.
Once Silas was settled beside of me, I kissed him.
I kissed him because I still loved him.
I kissed him because he’d always been good to me, despite not saving me from the hotel.
I kissed him because I knew that I would never meet anyone else like him and I was positive that no one would ever truly want me as much as he did.
But most of all, I kissed him because at that very moment, I truly, and fully, decided to forgive him.
We rode for a little while until we came to a boat dock.
I got out and Silas led me towards a boat.
As we walked, women in all-white as well, were lined up and they each handed me a single rose along the way, until we were directly in front of a big white boat with green letters.
I smiled as I noticed that the boat’s name was “Horizon”.
“This is another one of your gifts. This boat is yours. Not mine. Not ours. But yours.” Silas said.
I kissed him again and took a deep breath as we got onto the boat.
As soon as my feet touched the floor of “Horizon”, immediately the pampering began.
For the next few hours the boat took us far away from the world while we enjoyed each other’s company.
I can’t really describe what it was that I was feeling.
I was overwhelmed.
I was filled with joy.
Happy.
Yes, that one word described it all.
I felt happy.
“I love you so much Envy. You
are the apple of my eye,” Silas said as a waiter appeared and handed me a fake white apple.
I looked at it as Silas waited for me to figure out how to open it.
Once I did, I saw the fake apple open up and there was a key inside.
“This is the key to my heart, and it is yours forever. Our and it’s also the key to your new white Porsche,” Silas said.
I started to blush but I knew that he wasn’t done.
“I love you because you are genuine and caring. And because you’re as sweet as can be, most of the time,” Silas laughed as another waiter brought me a box of strawberries that had been dipped in white chocolate.
“But most of all, whether you know it or not, I love you because you have changed my life. And you have truly given me something to live for. You are my angel,” Silas said, as one more waiter carried a big box over to me.
I opened it to find that it was a white angel; but it was more like a picture frame. It had spaces for individual pictures and each of them already had a picture inside of them. A picture of Silas, Horizon and I were in the slot directly in the middle, and all around it, there were pictures of my family; of my parents, all of my sisters, my nieces and nephews, including Tia’s son that had passed away.
My heart started to melt and I wondered how he had gotten some of the photos. Some of them I had never seen, so he must have taken them on his own.
And some of them should have been burned down with the house, but I was sure that maybe he’d thought to get them out prior to, and just hadn’t said anything.
The gift really touched my heart and I couldn’t do anything but look at Silas with love.
Things like this is why he’d gotten me, and these were the same type of things that were also going to ensure that he was able to keep me.
Who would do all of this if they didn’t really love someone?
Who would go to such extremes if they really didn’t care about the person?
I was convinced.
Even though our definition of love may not have been the same and even though I would have liked to have thought that I would have done things differently had the shoe been on the other foot, as much as he knew how to, and to the best of his ability, I was sure that Silas loved me.
And no one could ever tell me anything different.
We continued to sail as we made our way to the bottom level of the boat, where a bed was waiting for us.