The Billionaire's Promise

by Holly Rayner

  “Cecile, I’m sorry you’re having a bad day, I really am. But I was just on my way out, Holly’s expecting me.”

  “She’s making dinner for you,” she said.

  Confused about how she knew that, I said, “Yeah, she is. How did you know that?”

  “I ran into her earlier today at the Whole Foods Store. It was actually the beginning of my bad day.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because she was…really rude to me.”

  “Holly was rude?” I kind of doubted that. This was the sort of thing I was tiring of.

  “Yes, I know you don’t believe me, but I try so hard to be nice to her. I guess it seems intrusive to her when I try and give her tips to help with Eric, but I’m only trying to help. I just warned her about the germs on the shopping carts. The baby was chewing on the plastic piece where people put their dirty hands every day for crying out loud…”

  I sighed. I can only imagine Holly’s response to that. She was always telling me that Cecile went out of her way to make it look as if she were a bad mother. “What did she say?”

  “She told me that I was intrusive and that she didn’t want or need my input. She also said that you would tire of me soon and Mark and I would both be out of your lives. She said that one son was enough for you and I needed to try and stop forcing one that wasn’t even yours on you.” Cecile was in tears at that point. I could hear background noises…traffic. I suddenly got worried about her driving around like that. I didn’t really believe all that she was telling me about Holly, but I didn’t want to see her get in an accident over it.

  “Where are you, Cecile?”

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “Look at the street signs, where are you?”

  “I’m at Fifth and Baldwin right now.”

  “Is there somewhere you can stop safely? A business or something you can pull in to?”

  “There’s a diner here on the corner.”

  “Go in there and calm down. I’ll be there in a few minutes. I can’t stay long, Cecile. I have to get home at a decent time tonight, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said with another sob. “I’m sorry.”

  “I’ll be right there,” I told her again. I hung up and thought, “Damn!” I needed to call Holly but if I told her why I was going to be late, it would ruin our entire evening before it even got started. I decided that if I fibbed a little now and told her the truth and why I lied when I got home, it would be better overall. I called her and said, “Hi baby.”

  “Hey, are you on your way home?”

  “Not quite, I’m sorry.”

  “Oh Aiden, you’re not going to cancel on me, are you?”

  “No baby, I promise. I just need about an hour. I have some things that I absolutely have to wrap up. Then I will be there with bells on. I can’t wait to spend the evening with you. I’ve thought about it all day.”

  “Me too, and I’ve been cooking all afternoon. Please don’t disappoint me,” she said.

  “I won’t, I promise. One hour.”

  ~

  Chapter Six

  ~

  Holly

  Two hours after I spoke with Aiden on the phone, I was tucking the baby into his bed. A half hour after that, I was putting away the food I’d made for us that was slowly wilting. Another half hour after that, as I sat on the couch getting angrier by the minute, he walked in the door. He looked disheveled and nervous.

  “What the hell, Aiden?” I was so angry I didn’t even give him a chance to speak. I really didn’t want to hear his excuses. “You said an hour over three hours ago. That was bad enough, but the fact that I didn’t get a call or a text in between is not acceptable at all.”

  He sat down and ran his hand through his hair. It was a habit he had when he was upset. I noticed then that he had his jacket off and his tie was all askew. “I know,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”

  “What is going on, Aiden? Why do you look so…agitated? What happened?”

  “I messed up, Holly. I screwed up so bad.” His eyes were filled with water. I almost thought he was going to cry. It was then that I got worried.

  “Aiden, you’re scaring me. Please, just tell me what’s wrong.”

  “I kissed Cecile,” he blurted out. It wasn’t at all what I expected to hear him say. I was in shock. I didn’t even know what to say back. He was looking at me, waiting for a reaction. I didn’t have one. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I needed to get out of there. I felt like he was sucking all of the oxygen out of the room.

  Instead of speaking, I stood up and went down the hall to Eric’s room. I picked him up and tucked him into his baby seat. He was still asleep and he didn’t even flinch. Then, I grabbed his bag that I always keep packed for emergencies and took only my coat. As we passed Aiden I dropped the manila file that the P.I. had given me down on the table in front of him. Then I picked up my purse and Eric and I walked out. Aiden didn’t say a word, and he didn’t come after us.

  AIDEN

  I hadn’t meant to blurt that out like I had. I needed to tell her, if I hadn’t, it would have eaten away at me. I’d found Cecile at the diner earlier where I had told her to go. She was still distraught and all I wanted to do was calm her down so that I could send her home safely and go spend the evening with the woman that I love. I listened to her cry, she said she didn’t have any friends and that she’d thought she and Holly could be friends but Holly acted like she hated her. She talked about feeling all alone and although she had Mark, she felt lonely and afraid most of the time.

  I’m not a stupid man. I know that Cecile can be a very manipulative woman when she wants to be. I don’t know how much of what she was telling me was grounded in truth and how much was designed to play on my emotions, but her sobs got to me and I finally went to her side of the booth and put my arm around her. There was no sexual intent there, no desire. I just thought of it as one friend comforting another. We sat there like that until she was finally able to stop crying. When she did, she looked up at me with her eyes all red and swollen.

  “Thank you, Aiden. You’re the only one who cares about me. I wish that I could go back in time and do things right. I lost the best thing I ever had when I lost you.” The next thing I knew, she had her hand resting on the top of my thigh. I know I say I have no desire for her, and it’s true, in my head. My body however is male and no matter which adult female is touching you there, it’s likely you’re going to have a physical response. I did and the next instant, she was covering it with her hand and her lips were on mine. It all happened so fast that it took my brain a few seconds to respond. As soon as it did, I jumped up out of the booth, away from her.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  She actually smiled at me as she said, “You can’t deny you want me.” Her eyes fell below my belt line and then came back up to meet mine.

  “You’ve lost it, Cecile. What you just did could be considered assault.”

  She smiled wider and said, “Are you going to have me charged?”

  I threw a twenty on the table and said, “No, but this is never going to happen again. I’m going to talk to Jake about seeing Mark. Holly’s right, this is all a game to you.”

  I didn’t realize she’d followed me out until I got to my car. She was behind me as I pulled open the door and she said, “Holly is your cheap thrill, you’ll tire of the mousy little waitress soon enough. When you do, call me, and don’t bother calling Jake, he’s not going to give you permission to see Mark.”

  I didn’t say anything else to her; I just got in the car and came home. I wondered the entire way how I was going to tell Holly. I was afraid that if I didn’t Cecile would. I’d started thinking that Holly had been right all along and Cecile was just trying to break us up. When I saw Holly’s face, the worst, most overwhelming sense of guilt I’d ever had came over me. I hadn’t meant to blurt it out like I did, but I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

  After Holly left I finally reached and pi
cked up the folder she left in front of me. I looked at the 8 by 10 glossies of my ex in bed with an old man and the ones of her in the bank, stuffing a lot of cash in her purse. I looked at the documents where Jake’s signatures were circled in red and the affidavit that Jake signed, stating it wasn’t his signature. Then I read the report and Jake’s interview. I threw it all back on the table and leaned back into the couch. My head was throbbing. Holly had been right all along and as usual, I’d been an idiot.

  I sat there, frozen for a while and wondering how I could have taken such a great life and screwed it up so badly. Holly left and she took our son. I had no idea if she would come back. If it was me and the tables were turned, I doubt that I would.

  HOLLY

  After I walked out on Aiden, Eric and I drove to my mother’s house. When she opened the door and saw my face, she didn’t say a word. She just helped me carry Eric’s stuff in and she went to make some tea while I tucked him into his crib.

  When I came back out she said, “Need a hug?” On the verge of tears, I nodded. She wrapped her arms around me then and the floodgates were opened. I let my mother pet my head and hold me like I was a young child and I cried until I couldn’t cry any longer.

  “I’m sorry about that.”

  “Are you kidding?” she said. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m so happy that I’m finally the kind of mother that you can come to. Do you want to talk about it?”

  I told her everything the investigator had told me and then I said, “I was so happy. I went home and started making dinner. I got dressed up…I was so looking forward to spending a romantic evening with Aiden. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve. Then on top of it, I had the goods on Cecile finally. Not only would she be out of our lives, but it also sounded like Jake would be willing to let Aiden still spend time with Mark. It was the answer to all of our problems.”

  “That all sounds great,” Mom said. “What happened to ruin it?”

  “Aiden told me he’d be an hour late. He showed up over three hours later. Then, he told me he kissed Cecile.”

  Mom took in a sharp breath. She was as shocked as I had been when Aiden spit it out. She really liked Aiden, and she’d been pulling for us from the start. Confusing me, she suddenly said, “Why?”

  “Why what, Mama?”

  “Why did he kiss her? Did he say?”

  “No, Mom, and I didn’t ask. It doesn’t matter why he kissed her. He shouldn’t have kissed her at all. A betrayal is a betrayal no matter why he did it. ”

  “You’re right, of course you are. I was just wondering about the situation. You told me that she manipulates him.”

  “She does, horribly. But that’s still no excuse.”

  “Excuse no, but at least an explanation. Sometimes that at least helps assuage the pain in the heart just a little bit.”

  “Maybe, but you know what I can’t stop thinking is: Now, how am I supposed to trust him again?”

  My mother didn’t say anything at first, but once again I could tell by the look on her face that she had something to say.

  “What Mama?”