INFLUENCED: A Good Girl, Bad Boy Love Story

by Keyes, Janae

  Parking the car in my normal spot, I sighed when I saw Megan’s was not next to me. I hoped that maybe someone had given her a ride home and her car was still at the office, but the dread filling me already clued me in about what I would potentially find when I opened the doors to our home.

  Even anticipating that she wasn’t there didn’t stop the hurt from spreading when I entered our house and she was nowhere to be found. But the pain went far deeper when I looked around and found no physical trace of Megan. Her scent wafted through the air, making my heart pump wildly, but everywhere I looked, all evidence she had ever lived here was gone.

  The few photos of the both of us from the wedding were gone, and her closet was empty. In the bathroom, all of her toiletries had disappeared, even her toothbrush wasn’t in the holder. The flowers I had brought to her this morning, accompanied with a bagel from her favorite deli, were in the trash in the kitchen.

  I reached my hand down and plucked them from the receptacle, only to be delivered another astonishing blow. She hadn’t taken the wedding photos with her. No, here they were, in the garbage.

  I couldn’t stand it anymore. Digging in my pocket, I pulled out my phone and pushed my speed dial for my wife. It rang once and then went to voicemail. My wife had effectively bitch buttoned me. Three more times I tried, and three more times, she sent me to her answering machine. Frustrated, I tried one more time, with the intentions of leaving her a voicemail she probably wouldn’t like. This time though, it didn’t even ring. She’d turned her phone off.

  With my back against the cabinet walls of the kitchen, I slid down to the floor, and sat, at a complete loss as to what to do. I could go over to her house and demand she speak to me, but knowing Marian and Dexter the way that I did, I knew I’d be slapped with a trespassing lawsuit faster than I could say my name.

  I knew I could reach out to my parents, and the idea was still on the backburner, but I was an adult now. It was my responsibility to clean up my own mess, without having to introduce mommy and daddy to the mix. I just had to figure out how to get ahold of my wife before Marian brainwashed her any further.

  That’s it!

  I ran out of my front door and jumped back into my car. It was only four thirty, which would give me just enough time to get back to work. Hopefully, Marian was back in her own office. It was obvious she had taken Megan to our house to collect her things, but Marian would never dip out of work early. She was too OCD to do that. In fact, she would probably stay later than normal, making up for having to take Megan home. I was going to confront my monster in law, and put a stop to these charges once and for all. Megan was my wife, God Damn It, and no one was going to fucking take her away from me, not even her own mother.

  * * *

  “What is the meaning of you barging into my office uninvited, Spencer Grant?” the dreadful woman in front of me hollered, rising gracefully to her feet.

  “You know why I’m here, Marian, don’t act stupid.”

  ‘Don’t you dare speak to me like that, you ungrateful little shit,” she hissed at me. “I’m protecting my daughter from a pair of twin rapists.”

  Her words shook me to my core, and my anger surged through me at lightning speed. I was bull headed, stubborn, and a total ass sometimes, but I was not, and would never be a rapist.

  Before I could respond, my phone vibrated from my pocket. I wanted to ignore it, but given the slight possibility it was Megan, I reached for it instead.

  Megan: I want an annulment.

  The breath in my lungs expelled out of my mouth like a hurricane. An annulment? My wife wanted an annulment. It was worse than a divorce. A divorce implied there was a marriage that just didn’t work out. An annulment meant there never was a marriage to begin with.

  I could feel my eyes prick with tears. This was not supposed to be happening. With trembling fingers, I typed out my reply.

  Spencer: You can’t mean that, Megan. Can we please just talk? Please, I’m begging you.

  “So, you think it’s ok to just waltz in here, insult me, and then play on your phone? What kind of childish game are you playing here, Spencer?” Marian’s voice echoed around the room.

  “The only game that’s being played here is by you, you spiteful, evil bitch,” I spat, no longer able to keep my emotions in check. “You know that case was dismissed because there was no evidence. You know I didn’t do it, and yet, you continue to hurt your daughter by making her believe it’s true. Don’t fucking talk, Marian,” I yelled, holding up my hand to stop the interruption from escaping her mouth.

  “You’re a pathetic excuse for a human being, and an even worse mother. Megan deserves so much more than you. When we have children, we will do right by them, and that includes keeping them away from your ugliness and your lies. Megan didn’t have a choice in who her mother is, but she chose me as her husband. She is my soulmate, and nobody, not you, her father, or the devil himself will keep me from her. She is my wife and she deserves the truth.”

  Turning on my heel before she could spit her evil, I marched to her door and pulled it open, but not before delivering one more childish blow.

  “Go to hell, you rotten bitch.”

  I slammed the door and calmly walked to my father’s office. I probably wouldn’t have a job in the next few minutes, but I didn’t fucking care. My rant had taken about ten years off my life and a hundred pounds off my shoulders. I’d always wanted to put that woman in her place, and now that I had, it felt better than I could have imagined.

  I knocked once, hoping he didn’t have any clients.

  “Come in,” he shouted from just inside.

  His eyes spoke for him, holding a mixture of anger, and sorrow.

  “Oh, Spencer. I’m so sorry, son,” he whispered as I shut the door. My mom stood behind him, her hands splayed on my father’s shoulders, as she stared off into space. She had been crying, that much was obvious, but the hatred shining out of them scared me.

  “Mom?”

  She blinked back more tears and found my eyes. Hers immediately softened when she finally took me in. In a flash, she was out from behind my father’s chair, and rushing into my arms.

  “We didn’t do a horrible job, did we Spencer? I thought we were pretty good parents, under the circumstances.”

  I patted her head as she sobbed into my chest.

  “You were a great mom. You’re still a great mom. Don’t listen to that witch. Marian wouldn’t know a great parent if it jumped up and bit her in the ass.”

  She chuckled into my chest before looking up and smiling.

  “Oh, Spencer. What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know, mom. She won’t answer my calls, and she just texted me that she wants an annulment. I can’t just show up at her house, as much as I’d like to. I don’t know what to do. What do I do?”

  “Is there anywhere you can talk to her that’s not her parents’ house or work?” She asked.

  I thought about it for a second before the idea clicked in place.

  “She has dance tonight. Maybe I can catch her there?”

  “Go on then, son. Go win our girl back. We know you didn’t do it, Spencer, so go prove it to her,” my dad said, joining us and clapping me on the back.

  “What if she doesn’t believe me?” I whispered.

  “She loves you, Spencer, honey. She’ll believe you. You just have to get past that wall she’s erecting,” my mom responded.

  “You can do it, Spencer. We know you can,” my dad piped up, taking my mom around the waist and pulling her to his side. “Good luck, son.”

  “Thanks dad, but I don’t think I’m going to need luck. I think I’m probably going to need a sledgehammer for that stubborn wall.”

  As I descended down the elevator to the lobby, I thought about all the things I wanted to say to my wife. She wouldn’t have her mom there to fill her head with nonsense. If I could create a hole in her defenses, I knew I could knock them down long enough for her to hear me. All I needed
was a little patience and a whole lot of love.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Megan

  With my butt firmly planted on the porcelain, I tried to not believe anything that happened the last couple months, it was a dream, all a dream. No, I hadn’t fallen in love with my childhood crush and no, we didn’t get married and our love was NOT this explosion of everything we both needed. Finally, no, I hadn’t been brave enough to stand up to my parents because of him and be the strong woman I knew I was.

  The thing was, it wasn’t a dream and now, my heart was shattered into a million pieces. My husband, whom I’d loved since I was a preteen, wasn’t who I thought he was. He’d lied to me about doing the worst thing in my eyes.

  Mom had taken me home, where I got my things. I’d trashed the memories of Spencer and I’d gotten rid of the evidence. To the outside world, we would have never existed as a married couple.

  I wiped my tears away, I’d cried all afternoon and now was being delivered the blow I hadn’t been expecting to the entire situation.

  For the past few days, I suspected it, when I hadn’t been feeling my best, and when my period never arrived. I’d been on birth control, but in the whirlwind of everything happening, I’d become irresponsible and frequently forgot to take my pills.

  The white stick on my lap told me everything I knew to possibly be true and it was, I was pregnant. Spencer and I had created a child together and now, even though I wanted to be done with him, I’d be tied to him for the rest of my days.

  I looked down at my currently flat stomach and imagined what it would look like when I was further into the pregnancy. Would I waddle around my parent’s house with a huge belly awaiting the birth of my baby?

  No, I needed a better plan. I would have to get my own place and stand on my own two feet. That scared me, but after living with Spencer, I knew I could care for a place of my own.

  Law school was already a thing of the past and I would be letting my parents down, but now, I was going to be a single mom. It hit me hard. I had an idea for my future, but it was all slipping away from me and a new future stood in view.

  My cell phone rang from the counter. I’d only turned it back on in order to use the timer for the pregnancy test. Spencer had called me a million times already. I had nothing to say to him and I’d told him I wanted an annulment. I wanted no trace of a marriage.

  With a sigh, I was ready to deny another call from Spencer when I saw, instead, it was my best friend calling. I grabbed the phone to answer her call. I’d sent her an earlier text message while riding in my mom’s car, telling her that Spencer wasn’t who I thought he was and I was leaving him.

  “Hi,” my voice said weakly as I answered the call.

  “Moe, what is going on? I was at work and got your message, along with a million from Kyle who said shit went down with Spencer and you left him. I’ve been calling you with it going straight to voicemail. Where are you and what is going on?” Joe was frantic as she spoke a million miles a minute.

  “I’m at my parent’s house. I--I don’t know. I’m lost-- and nothing is making sense to me,” I confessed to her as a new onslaught of tears started to flow.

  Should I have let Spencer tell me his side of the story? I had court documents that showed the charges, charges that were dropped, but that didn’t mean he didn’t do it. My mom was a brilliant defense attorney and I’d seen her get murderers off without a single scratch. It was possible for Spencer to get out of the charges with the right talent behind him.

  “I’m coming over. I’m about fifteen minutes out,” Joe told me and I nodded as if she could see me, my eyes landing on the pregnancy test and a pit formed in my stomach.

  Joe must have driven at the top speed her car could go, because she’d made it to my parents house in only ten minutes. Lucinda let her in and she ran straight up to my bedroom where I sat in the middle of my bed, pillow cradled to my chest, and the pregnancy test in my hands.

  “Joe,” I squeaked through my emotions. I held up the test for her to see and her eyes went wide before she joined me on the bed and pulled me to her chest while I cried.

  “Does Spencer know?” she asked as she rubbed my back. I shook my head.

  “I just found out, after everything. God, it has all gone so wrong.”

  “What happened, anyway?” she asked as she let me go.

  “Mom had me come in her office and she gave me court records from Malta, where Spencer mainly lived while overseas. The records showed rape charges and the victim was his ex, Chloe. I confronted him and he said that he was charged with rape. I don’t know what to do. I broke things off and told him I wanted an annulment, but now, I find out I’m pregnant. Everything is crashing down on me at once. I don’t think I can handle it.”

  Telling Joe the entire thing, I thought about the look in Spencer’s eyes when I called him a rapist, I thought about how I saw his heart break through his sapphire eyes. The man that had held me together, he’d crumbled before my eyes, and I hurt for him.

  “He’d told me about Chloe, but conveniently left out the rape charges. I don’t let anyone in, and I let him in. I fell in love and married a rapist.”

  “You said there were charges, but he wasn’t convicted, obviously. Maybe you jumped to conclusions,” Joe reasoned, but I was already convinced. Nothing would change my mind, at least at the moment, nothing would change my mind on Spencer and Chase, the rapist twins. I think Joe knew it wasn’t time to try and change my mind and dropped it.

  My eyes found the two pink lines on the pregnancy test and I ran my hand over my stomach. The evidence of the love Spencer and I had found in one another grew in me and I would be raising it on my own. Joe spotted me touching my belly and gave me a soft smile.

  “Even with everything, are you excited?” she asked.

  “I’m more scared than anything. My life is over. Everything I had planned, my dreams and goals, they are all never going to happen. I suppose I’m dropping out of law school.” I felt everything closing in on me before Joe snapped me out of it.

  “Who says?” she snapped, her hands on her hips. “Just because you’re having a kid doesn’t mean your life is over. I’m speaking from some fucking good experience. Yeah, things are taking a little longer, but I’m doing what I’ve always wanted, I’m teaching dance and I’m in school. You’ve got a degree already and from fucking Yale, you’ll get a good job and law school might take longer, but nobody says your life is over.”

  “I know,” I said quietly.

  Joe was superwoman. When she got pregnant and her baby daddy left her, she went into superwoman mode to do what she needed to do. I didn’t have it in me to be like her. Joe held down multiple jobs, she taught dance for free, she went to school, and she raised one badass kid. I could never be like her.

  “It’s different, you’re an amazing mom and I don’t think I could ever do a good job on my own. I understand why my mom nearly had an abortion with me, she wasn’t ready and right now, with everything, I don’t think I’m ready,” I openly confessed to my best friend.

  “Maybe because it isn’t how you saw it. Honestly, I think you’d be the best fucking mom on the planet. You know what it takes and, because you’ve had such a terrible example, you know how to not do that.”

  “That’s the thing, people always say that they turn into their mothers, what if I end up just like her? What if I treat my kid the way she treated me? What if--”

  “Shut up, you won’t be like her. You’re different, you’re amazing, and you have this,” Joe insisted as if I was talking crazy and maybe I was.

  I sighed and peered down at my sparkling wedding and engagement bands, and the infinity symbol that they made together. Spencer and I had promised a forever that only lasted a couple weeks.

  Had Spencer actually raped Chloe? Was Spencer the monster the documents and my mom made him out to be? I prayed he wasn’t, he was the father of my child.

  “I love him so much,” I said softly.

&n
bsp; “If you love him, you should give him the chance to explain the entire story,” Joe suggested with an innocent shrug.

  “Right now, I can’t. There is so much I need to process. Today was a nightmare and I’m ready to dance it off.” I stood from my bed and reached into the box where I had my dance things packed from my quick move away from the house I’d shared with Spencer.

  Under my clothes, I saw a familiar raggedy teddy bear. I picked it up and held it to my chest, it smelled like Spencer after having been packed away with his things for years. Like that bear, our relationship would be buried away.

  * * *

  Dance, as it always did, helped clear my mind. I felt a freedom that came over me with the music. I let my cares go into the movements. I allowed the beat to be my heartbeat, and I let the lyrics be my story.

  Saying my goodbyes to the students, I picked up my things. For the first time in weeks, I wouldn’t be going back to the house where I’d shared a bed with Spencer, but I’d be going back to my parent’s house. My summer hadn’t been the summer I anticipated and now, my life had taken a similar turn.

  I threw my bag over my shoulder and said bye to Joe before I headed outside. Summer was beginning to wind down and, as it was mid-August, the nights were still warm and the sounds of the night were filled with the songs of crickets.

  Approaching my car, I looked up to see someone leaning on the driver’s side door, it was Spencer. He looked terrible. The confidence he seemed to carry with him was gone and the strength that had been my pillar was a weakness of brokenness.

  “What are you doing here?” I spat to him angrily.

  “Megan, we need to talk, please. I know you don’t really want to talk, but I’m not leaving this spot until you hear me out. I can’t lose you. I told you once before that you’d become the person that allowed me to continue day by day. Without you, I don’t know how the fuck I can live.” He paused, tears dropping from his eyes. “Megan--I’m begging you. You mean the world to me and I will fight for us. I’m here, fighting. Please.”