Before CE O : Includes the Complete CE O Trilogy

by MT Stone

  She laughs and nearly shoots latte out of her nose. “Don’t do that when I’m drinking something!” She coughs a few times before getting everything under control. “I’m sure that won’t be the last traumatizing diaper you see, so you’d better buck up, buddy.” She giggles once more before taking another sip of her latte.

  “No, if you want four kids, I’m sure that is the first of many nasty surprises in my future.” I cringe at the thought while cracking a couple of eggs into the pan. “At four thirty this morning, I was thinking about how crazy it is that I’m going to be married with children. I used to swear that it would never happen to me.”

  “Last Friday, I was partying and getting laid in a sex club. Now five days later, my nipples hurt and I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck from being up nursing half the night.” She shakes her head with a bewildered look. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of it too.”

  “Yeah, I knew this was coming, but it all happened so fast,” I reply, knowing exactly how she feels. “But doesn’t it feel right?”

  “It totally feels right. It already feels like he’s my own son,” she says with glistening eyes.

  “That’s because he is your son,” I reply, walking over to give her a good morning kiss. “Sorry, I forgot to give you one earlier.”

  “Yeah, good morning kisses are too important to get lost in the shuffle.” She smiles before giving me another one. “We have to make sure we always make time for each other, no matter how crazy things get.”

  “I agree, and these aren’t just for him,” I tell her, softly running my fingers over her nipples. “I love them too.”

  “I know, and once they toughen up, there will be plenty for both of you,” she assures me with a sorrowful look in her eyes. “But today, they’re sore as hell… so leave them alone.” She turns away with a laugh and goes back to her latte.

  “Sore nipples and burning eyes. That’s what our life has become,” I mumble, going back to finish the sandwiches. A thought pops into my head about being sixty years old by the time our last kid finishes college. I’ll be my father’s age since Felicia wants them all to be two years apart. That’s why life goes by so quickly. You find the right woman, you have a few kids, and by the time you get your freedom back, you’re in your sixties. That’s why I’m determined to enjoy the ride, no matter how many bumps there are in the road. The phrase life is a journey, not a destination pops into my head. It’s something I first heard in Psych 101, and it’s definitely true. You never know where you’re going to end up, so you’d better make sure you have some fun getting there.

  Halfway through my sandwich, I hear that stupid phone buzzing once again in the drawer. “Jessica called last night and again this morning telling me that she feels that I took advantage of her while she was under the influence of an epidural.”

  “You talked to her?” Felicia asks, sounding surprised.

  “No, I just read the voicemail she left me.” I take another bite of my sandwich, which is now ruined by the thought of her. “I’m sure that’s her calling again. I sent Mom a text asking if she would talk with her.”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” she replies, raising her eyebrows. “You two have never had a pleasant conversation.”

  “Which is why I don’t understand why she won’t just walk away and leave me alone,” I tell her, feeling exasperated by the woman. “I mean, just get on with your life and I won’t send you to jail.”

  Felicia walks over to the drawer and opens it, retrieving the phone. I watch her facial expressions turn dark as she scrolls through something. “Did you see the message she left you this morning?”

  “I think the one I read was from last night,” I reply, getting up from my chair and bracing myself for another round of bullshit.

  “Well, you’d better take a look at this one,” she says, giving me a disgusted look.

  Reading her latest message, I can literally feel my blood pressure rising. “I’ve had enough of this bullshit. If you guys are okay hanging out, I’m going to have my attorney meet me at the office and we are going on the offensive. I’ve had enough!” I repeat, grabbing both phones and heading back to the bedroom to change into some ass-kicking clothes. “By the end of the day, this shit is going to all be put to rest. People shouldn’t fuck with me when I’m this tired. I’m going to fuck both her and Richard up before the day is through.”

  Felicia

  Rex is always so laid back, but it seems he reached some sort of breaking point this morning. That threat from Jessica was the final straw. No matter what she knows or has access to, there is no way a court would find her to be more fit to raise this child than Rex and me. I look down at my little blue-eyed boy and can’t imagine going back to a life without him. In hindsight, we have made some foolish choices since we got together, but none of it could hurt anyone except maybe ourselves. For someone to use it against us and to drive a wedge right through the center of our new family would be simply heartbreaking.

  I cradle him in my arms and go to the comfort of an old wooden rocking chair that Joyce brought over a couple of weeks back. It’s the one that she used to rock Rex when he was a baby. It fits perfectly, and the smooth rocking motion does seem to settle the nerves. Everything will work out. I have faith. If not, life will be hard for a while, but we’ll fight our way through it. “Don’t you worry, little man. I’ll always be here for you.” I click on the TV, looking for a distraction. I click the channel button a couple of times and a music video pops onto the screen. The first words I hear are, It ain’t my fault. How fitting. I’ve never listened to much country, but I kind of like these guys. They must be the country version of Nickelback. Brothers Osbourne is their name, so I pick up my phone and search for them on Spotify. My favorites playlist now contains a country song as I add It Ain’t My Fault to the list.

  My mind drifts to my father. I should try his old cell number just to see if he’s still reachable. It would be kind of nice to let him know that I’m getting married and he’s now a grandfather. I’ve already decided that I’m not going to invite him to the wedding, though. That would just ruin it for Mom. Since it’s already been a turbulent morning, I decide to send him a quick text instead of calling. Give me a call sometime, I simply tell him, thinking that if he doesn’t bother calling me back, I’m not going to tell him anything. At this point, my life is probably much easier without him. Mom has never forgiven him for how he simply abandoned us, so it wouldn’t be much fun having the two of them in the same room. I sigh, turning the channel to E! for a little mind candy. “We have to see what the Kardashians and Miley Cyrus are up to,” I tell Michael, who simply blinks at me with those innocent eyes. “You’re too damn cute.”

  I pick my phone up again, scrolling through my recent photos for the cutest picture of him. I haven’t posted anything to Facebook for months, so I think it’s time to shake things up with a picture of my little man. It should generate some interesting comments if nothing else. I choose a picture that Mom took of the three of us last night. After thirty seconds of debate, I type, The Beginning of Our Family and click to upload it. Within a matter of minutes, I have several likes, a couple of loves, but mostly wows. The first two comments are: What?!?! and WTF??? Pretty much what I expected. I close the Facebook app and set my phone face-down on the side table, content to let everyone speculate as to what’s going on. If anyone actually calls or texts, I’ll be happy to tell them the whole story. None of my girlfriends liked Kip, so over the past couple of years, I’ve fallen out of touch with most of them. In the end, I guess they were right. Maybe it’s time to mend some fences.

  “Are you getting hungry, little man?” I ask one of the few people who actually matters to me. It’s been a few hours since his last feeding, so I automatically assume it’s time to feed him again. The way he latches onto me lets me know that I was correct. Hmm, what a simple life this is. Feed, change, sleep, and repeat. I know things won’t stay this simple, so I’d better enjoy it
even though I might need to start napping once in a while.

  By the time I finish with Michael, my phone is blowing up. Between Messenger and text messages, I have a couple of dozen to reply to, so I compose my explanation, then paste the reply to each one. If I were to truly explain the last few months, it would really be a crazy story, so I just cover the highlights. I got a new job and fell in love with the boss. I find myself struggling to explain the baby, so I keep it a little vague. I don’t think anyone really needs to know all the details anyway. After spending more than an hour going back and forth with old friends, I realize that I need to do more to keep in touch with some of them. I tell them that I’ll be in touch and maybe we’ll have a reception sometime after the wedding. It would be good to see some of them again. Setting down my phone, I realize that I haven’t heard from Becca. I scroll back through my old voicemails to listen to the one she left the other day which I had blown off at the time. I click to listen to it.

  “Hi, Babe, I just wanted to say that I’m pissed about what you told Kip, but I also deserved it. If I can figure out his phone code, I’ll erase that video for you. If you never speak to me again, I’ll understand. I just want you to know that I miss you. Even though we’ve had our ups and downs, I always considered you my best friend. I’m sorry I was always jealous of you. You’re pretty hard to compete with. Love you.”

  I swallow the lump that’s forming in my throat and decide to send her a message.

  Me: I’m not ready to talk to you, but I honestly want to thank you for what you did. It literally pushed me into Rex’s arms, and that’s something I’ll never forget. I’ve done some crazy things since I started dating him, but I’ve also fallen in love for the first time. Not to mention all the incredible sex… WOW! I hope you’re doing well and I wish you the best. We’ll catch up someday soon. XO

  I click Send and turn my phone to vibrate mode. It’s time for a quick nap before the little man wakes up.

  Chapter 15

  Rex

  Somehow, Jessica got ahold of our latest video and is threatening to use it against us to prove that we are unfit parents. She claims that by signing the contract under duress and prior to knowing about our foray into pornography, our contract is no longer valid. After a lengthy conversation with my attorney, we decide that a well-written letter from him that is delivered by Certified Mail is the best way to deal with her. We simply lay out how things will go if she decides to make waves. First and foremost, I’ll be pressing formal charges against her.

  Hopefully, we won’t have to go down that road since my attorney says there have been mixed results with such cases. According to him, since she took the sperm from discarded condoms and used a fertility clinic, our chances are good for prevailing in court. The fact that I used condoms demonstrates the fact that I had no intention of impregnating her, and the fact that she had to use a fertility clinic proves that it was completely intentional on her part. Even though it seems to be a clear-cut case, my stomach churns at the thought of getting into a nasty court battle. I know the press will have a field day with something like this. Then when our videos come to light, it will really turn ugly.

  There is little doubt in my mind that money is once again behind her actions. She must’ve regretted settling for fifty grand after her epidural wore off. The way she blows through money, she most likely realized that fifty thousand wasn’t going to get her very far. It’s sad. If she would’ve behaved like a normal person, she would’ve done just fine in this world. Instead, she’s choosing to go down the same path as her mother.

  I decide to push her out of my mind and move on to the next pressing issue, finding where Richard is working from. I call several of my contacts and get ahold of one who will work with me from the largest porn streaming network. The owner knows that someone uploading underage content to their servers is a liability for them as well, and they don’t like attracting that type of attention. Within minutes, I receive a text message from him that he has his chief technology officer working to isolate where the videos are coming from. I give Brix and Daphne a call to share the news.

  “You two should come to my office,” I tell Brix as soon as he answers. “We should have Richard’s current location shortly. I’ve given the guy over at one of the porn sites everything he needs to track him down.”

  “If they track him down, I want to watch them arrest him,” Daphne replies over the speaker phone. “He’s made my life miserable the past two years.”

  “Why didn’t your mom break up with him?” I ask, wondering if she had actually confided in her.

  “Well, he hadn’t really done anything,” she admits, sounding defeated. “He just kept on complimenting me in uncomfortable ways and giving me looks like he wanted me or something. I know he was just waiting for me to be old enough. I could see it in his eyes.”

  “Did you ever discuss it with her?”

  “Yeah, but she just thought I was imagining it.” She huffs. “She actually accused me of being jealous one time. Really? Jealous of my mom having a boyfriend?”

  “Okay, well obviously, he’s been crossing the legal line for the past few days, so we’ll do our best to bust him,” I assure her before ending the call. “See you guys in a bit.”

  I check in with Felicia, and everything is going well other than the fact that I’m falling behind in my diaper changing duties. “You’ll have to go somewhere tomorrow, and I’ll take care of him,” I offer. “The nurse said it was okay to use formula part of the time.”

  “We’ll see. I want to keep that to a minimum,” she says in a defensive tone. I like the fact that she’s every bit as protective of him as me. She’s going to be a great mom.

  “Okay, I have to take this call. Hopefully, he’s tracked down Richard. Love you!” I tell her before clicking to the other line. “Hello. This is Rex.”

  “Hey, Rex. I just wanted to let you know that the most recent videos were uploaded from a coffee shop downtown,” the guy says, sounding a bit defeated. “So, there’s not much of a chance of his still being there.”

  “Does your system notify him if a video is deleted from your system?” I ask, still trying to figure out a plan to snag him.

  “It normally doesn’t, but I can. Why?”

  “Delete the video and have the system send him something. Then we’ll see if we can catch him in the act,” I suggest.

  “I think if we get the authorities involved, we’ll have a better chance,” he replies, making perfect sense.

  “That’s true, then they can dispatch someone in the area,” I agree. “I’ll call in and have a conversation with someone about what’s going on. I’m going to have to wait until the two who are in the video get here though. I don’t want them to feel like I’ve blindsided them.”

  “You know these two?” he asks, sounding stunned.

  “Yeah, the girl was only seventeen when it was shot,” I tell him. “She had a fake ID, so he had no idea.”

  “Wow, she doesn’t look that young,” he says with lust in his voice. “With a couple of calls, I could get these two a feature contract. She’s old enough now, right?”

  “She is. I’ll mention it to them when they get here. Just keep me posted on where the next video is uploaded from, and I’ll pass it along right away,” I tell him before hanging up.

  After waiting for more than twenty minutes, I decide to call the police department and get things set up. I knew it was only a matter of time before the tech guy called back with another location. After explaining the entire situation to officer McGuire, she assures me that they can go after Richard without putting Brix or Daphne at risk of getting in trouble. The fact that Daphne had run away from home because of Richard was a definite hot button for her. “I want you to call my cellphone directly when you get his location,” she instructs me. “I’ll pass it on to dispatch if I’m not in the immediate area.”

  “Okay, that sounds good to me,” I tell her just as Brix and Daphne come through my office door.

/>   “The highway was all jammed up getting here. I think everyone was checking out the eclipse,” Brix says, explaining their tardiness.

  “We should’ve had some of those glasses,” Daphne adds, rubbing her eyes.

  “You don’t even have to tell me that you were trying to look at it without any protection,” I reply with a laugh.

  “I had sunglasses on and they say 100% UV right on the bow,” she says, pulling them from her hair and showing me. “I still see the sun every time I close my eyes.”

  “It’s probably burned into your retinas.” I laugh before moving on to the topic at hand. “We’re getting the police involved up front to catch Richard,” I tell them both, which catches them off-guard. “I’ve already explained everything to the officer, and she said nothing will be pursued against either of you. She’s only interested in getting Richard.”

  “Well, I’m keeping my distance just to be safe,” Brix says, immediately taking a step backward.

  “What could I get in trouble for?” Daphne asks with a little attitude.

  “Really? You had someone make you an official driver’s license that says you’re five years older so that you could do porn.” I simply glare at her. “You don’t think there’s anything wrong with that? If Brix gets in trouble, he could go after you for entrapment.”

  She looks over at Brix. “You wouldn’t do that. Would you?”

  “Well, if I’m headed to prison, I would rather take you along. He reaches over and squeezes her ass. “If you know what I mean.”

  “I think it might be easier to have conjugal visits if I’m not actually in prison,” Daphne says with a huff. “It’s not like we would be in the same cell or anything.”

  “Anyhow,” I interrupt, getting things back on track. “The tech guy is going to let me know when the next video is uploaded and then I’m going to call officer McGuire, and things will roll from there. If you guys want to see Richard taken down, you can ride with me. Otherwise, you can stay here.”