You will pay for this, bitch! 4 страница

Chapter 47

It took a few hours for everyone to relax. Melissa and Branch turned all of their attention to B while I helped out in the kitchen. Brooks and Walt ran out to get her a swimming ring for the pool and a new bathing suit. We were also running low on diapers. It was funny to me knowing that two grown men were shopping for a little girl.

While I sat watching B’s new uncle and soon to be aunt swoon over her, Danica handed me some vegetables to cut up. “You know, I’ve never seen Branch around a small child before. It’s quite entertaining. Although I always knew Brooks would be a good father. He’s always been nurturing, caring about others and ignoring his own needs.”

“Trust me when I say, Brooks dropped everything to be with us. There hasn’t been a second that he’s not working where he hasn’t been with us. It’s wonderful.”

“Keep telling yourself that when it’s years down the road,” she teased.

I handed her what I’d cut up and she tossed it all in a bowl. “Nah. I think we’re different. I’ve already loved him for more than twenty years. Now that we’re finally together, I don’t see myself loving him any less. I hope you’re okay with that. I mean, after everything that’s happened, I want to be honest.”

She dried her hands and hugged me. “Katy, I’m thrilled to have you home. Thank you for your honesty. Without that there’s nothing to go on. You can always trust me with anything. You know that?”

I nodded my head but felt terrible because I was keeping secrets that could make them all hate me. I had to give it to Brooks for going along with it. He had nothing to worry about, but hiding my asshole husband wasn’t exactly a normal kind of favor.

I looked out into the family room and decided to break the ice with Melissa. If we could just have a normal conversation everything would be easier.

She saw me coming and stood up as I approached. Right away she hugged me. “I really did miss you, Katy. You know on the way here I tried to call you. I wanted to talk things out so it would be so weird at first.”

I thought about the phone that I’d purposely thrown away. “I lost my phone before we came. I haven’t replaced it yet.”

“Oh, that explains why you didn’t answer my messages.”

“Sorry about that.”

We sat down on the couch, while Branch lifted B up and pretended she was an airplane. He was making all sorts of sounds as they flew around the room.

“It’s okay. I guess you have a lot of questions. Branch said you wanted to know how long we’d been together.” She looked down at the carpet and I could tell she was ashamed of the answer. For some reason I didn’t care anymore. It was good that Branch had someone, because he was never going to have me.

“You know what? It doesn’t even matter. You’re getting married and things are the way they are. It’s nice to know that you two had each other.”

I could tell she started to relax more. “I love him, Katy. I really do.”

“Mel, I have a child with Brooks. It doesn’t bother me that you’re with Branch. It’s sort of weird, but I get it.”

She hugged me again. “You should probably not listen to your messages, because I may have gone into detail explaining everything.”

I laughed and became curious as to what was said, thinking that maybe Brooks and I could listen to the messages together in bed later. He liked to be entertained.

“Yeah, I will erase them,” I lied.

It was a good thing that Brooks and Walt came back when they did, because I’d already run out of things to talk about with Melissa. Every day B was becoming more attached to her father. She saw him walking in and went running for him. “Daddy.”

I liked that she called Brooks ‘Daddy’ and Bobby had always been ‘Dada’. I wondered if she considered them to be two different things. No matter what, I was grateful that her real father was already recognized for his part in making her. I knew that as time passed there would never be a question about him not being around. She’d never know a time when he wasn’t everything to her.

Thinking about that reminded me of my father. I remembered being little and waiting at the window for him to pull in the driveway. I always knew that when dinner was cooking, he was on his way home. When I got a little older, I’d watch him pull up and run into the kitchen to make him something to drink. He’d always come in with a smile, no matter how crappy his day had been. At dinner we’d talk about our day, and though mine was filled with fun and games, he’d made his job sound so interesting that even I wanted to do it.

Brooks caught me staring off into the distance and started waving. I finally came back to reality and laughed at myself. “Sorry. I was thinking about my dad.”

He walked over and kissed me. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Branch watching us. I grabbed Brooks’ hand as he started to walk away. “How’s your arm, babe?”

I never called him babe and he’d caught on immediately. He pulled me close. “My arm’s fine, babe.”

Judging from the smirk on his face, I’d say he was amused. He kissed me and walked back over to where B was waiting for him. She was going into the bag, trying to pull out her new swim suit. When she succeeded, she swung it around and started jumping. “Put it on. Put it on.”

Brooks scooped her up. “Let’s go get pretty and show everyone that Daddy knows how to shop.”

I laughed out loud watching them go around the corner until I heard him climbing the stairs.

While waiting for them to come back down, I started carrying everything out to the pool patio. The sun was shining and it was the perfect evening for a cook out. Branch carried all of the meat out to the grill, and although I pretended not to notice, I caught him looking at me again. It was uncomfortable, but not enough to bring up at the dinner table.

Brooks came out with our daughter in his arms. She had on a little red bikini with ruffles on the bottoms and his giant sunglasses over her eyes. With one hand on her hip, she walked up to her Grandmother, who’d just walked outside, and tapped on her leg. “Yook at me. I pwetty.”

Danica acted extremely excited, getting a reaction out of our sweet girl. She giggled and went running back to her father so he could scoop her back up. They walked over to me and I knew he was proud of himself. “What do you think? Is she not the cutest kid ever?”

How could I deny him the truth. “She is. You did good.”

He spun her around. “B, let’s go out and learn how to swim.”

We’d been swimming a few times already over the summer and B did well. She knew how to kick and hold her breath under water, but she still used a little ring, more for her own confidence. I knew Brooks would have her swimming like a fish in no time at all. He was determined to go about teaching her everything possible.

I watched them going up to the pool. He was blowing up her float and took it out of his mouth to let her try to blow it. What touched me the most was watching him take that slimy mouth piece and put it up to his lips without even wiping it.

I knew it was the smallest of things, but it showed me that his love for her was unconditional. She belonged to him and somehow, already, she knew it.

Brooks pulled off the glasses and her flip-flops and hopped into the pool before holding out his arms for her. She jumped right to him, letting out a scream when her body hit the cool water. I crossed my arms over my chest and smiled, feeling like life couldn’t be more perfect.

In a week’s time, everything had changed. I’d been given another chance, and even though it felt surreal, I knew it was really happening.

Danica came up and startled me when she put her hand on my shoulder. “Sorry.” She waited for me to catch my breath before she continued. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to tell you that Brooks promised Dad that you’d be back for Christmas. I know it’s going to be the best holiday and if it’s okay, I’d like to spoil my granddaughter with anything her little heart desires, starting with a special piece of jewelry. If it’s okay with you, of course.”

I turned to Danica and smiled. “I try not to spoil her, but I think it’s time she discovers what it’s like to have grandparents. I’m sure she will love whatever you get her. First we need to celebrate her birthday. I’d like you to come down to the house and stay when we have her party.”

She hugged me immediately. “Thank you, Katy. Thank you for being a good mother and allowing my son to be a part of his daughter’s life. I know you kept things from us, but I’m just so glad that he knew. I can imagine it helped him knowing that he had something to come home to when he was in Afghanistan.”

Immediately I turned away, avoiding the look of shame on my face. This woman didn’t even realize how off she was. Not only had I hid it from Brooks, up until almost two weeks ago, but I’d married another man. “I’d never keep something like that from him. He knew, but he also knew he couldn’t come home to me. We spoke through letters often and when he finally came home, we were able to reconnect right away.”

ALL LIES.

I hated myself.

She grabbed my hands and made me look at her. “I’m just glad that we know now. The past doesn’t matter as long as we can all move forward. This family means everything to me.” She started crying. “You don’t understand how hard this has been for me, and for Walt. Katy, one day you were all here and then next you were gone. I didn’t know if you were okay, or if you were hurt. Every time I watched the news I prayed that you weren’t involved. For the first couple of months I didn’t even sleep. We worried and worried. Then Brooks stopped talking to everyone. We knew he was halfway around the world and there was nothing we could do about it. I’d gotten to the point where even seeing Branch was hard, because he reminded me so much of the both of you. When Brooks came home and he reached out to us, it filled some of the void, but it wasn’t until you came walking through that door that I finally felt at peace again. Whether you marry Brooks or not is irrelevant. You’re like a daughter to me and you always have been. Nothing can ever change that. No matter how you think I’ll feel, remember that a parent doesn’t give up on their children. No matter what they do, even to each other, we love them. I will never give up on you. I love you all so much.”

I hugged her tight and felt tears streaming down my cheeks. When I looked in the direction of the pool, I saw Brooks smile at me. He was happier than I’d ever seen him.

All baggage aside, I’d found my happy ending and it was like a dream come true.

The only thing left to do was get that divorce.

Chapter 48

Believe it or not, I’d made it through the entire night without wanting to commit a violent act on Melissa or Branch. It was probably due to my being so infatuated with my own new relationship to even care about them. Every moment I spent watching Brooks and our daughter bonding made my heart bigger. She was so drawn to him, as if her little brain just knew exactly who he was. A month ago she would have been asking for Bobby. Since Brooks came into her life, she’d never once mentioned him or looked out a window for his vehicle. After his last episode I was grateful.

It was a blessing, knowing that the next few months were going to be difficult. I’d spent some time using the family computer to look up divorce laws in South Carolina. They were pretty much the same as everywhere. I’d have to be separated for a certain amount of time before I could lawfully file for a divorce. In the meantime, I’d just have to keep that life a secret from this wonderful family that had opened their arms and let me back into their lives.

While sitting up in bed waiting for Brooks to come and join me, I thought about them finding out the truth. I knew that in time they would forgive me, but it would also come with me losing their trust. I didn’t want to be dishonest to them, but it sure beat telling them all of the wrong decisions that I’d made throughout the way.

Brooks came in and pulled off his shirt. I spotted his tattoo and saw him smiling at me doing it. “If I would have known that you’d be so into it, I would have sent pictures with my letters.” He climbed on the bed and rested his head on my thigh. “What are you in here thinking about?”

I unfolded my hands and looked down at them. “I don’t know. Life, I guess. It’s just hard to believe that I’m here, with you, in your bed. It’s surreal, you know? Us being together and everyone being okay with it?”

He grabbed one of my hands and folded our fingers together, before sitting them on his chest. “To be honest with you, even if they had a problem it wouldn’t change us. We’d still be together, Kat.”

He was right. I wouldn’t have cared what anyone thought, because after getting him back, I knew I couldn’t possibly begin to let him go. Not again.

“I love how you just know what you want, Brooks. I want you to know that I looked up what I need to do to get a divorce. It should be easy, since we don’t have children or belongings together. Bobby can walk away with his home and business, while I keep my house and all of my money.”

“He doesn’t have access to those accounts?”

“No. I put them in Brooklyn’s name as soon as she was born. Only she and I will be able to draw money out of them. Bobby doesn’t even know how much I have left. He thinks I used almost all of it on the house.”

Brooks looked surprised. “How much did they leave you?”

I let out a laugh, seeing as it was so easy to tell Brooks anything he wanted to know. “Eight-hundred fifty four thousand-two hundred thirty dollars and fourteen cents was how much I got when I was able to finally access the account. I memorized the amount because, at the time, I was so hard up and needed it. The house cost me three hundred grand. I gave my friends that helped me twenty five grand and I bought everything new for inside the home too.”

Brooks sat up and stared at me. “You have half a million dollars hidden from your husband and he never knew?”

I flashed him a guilty look. “Yeah. I wanted Brooklyn to have the best life. I knew that after I built the house, I wouldn’t have to work to afford a mortgage. I could be home with her, where I wanted to be.”

“I can see where he wouldn’t even ask. Look, you know I don’t care about that money. Your parent’s house and the life insurance was for you anyway. That money isn’t for me or for your husband. I just have one question for you.”

“Anything.”

“When can I move in, because me living on the base isn’t exactly going to work for me when my girls have that nice big house and I can’t be with them.”

“I told you already that you’re going to live with me. I thought you knew that I meant now.”

He sat up and got right in my face. “I’m teasing you. Do you really think I’d spend one night without the two of you? I’ve literally been to Hell. I’m in this for the long haul, woman. There’s pretty much nothing you can do about it, either. I hate to break it to you, but you’re stuck with this forever.” He motioned to his body.

I giggled. “I’m pretty sure I can live with that.”

He pulled me on top of him. “You sure I’m what you want? I mean, there’s no going back this time. We’re either in it together, or it can’t happen.” His face was conflicted. “I can’t lose you again, Kat, not now that I finally have you.”

“You won’t,” I assured him. “We’re in this together.”

He flipped over. I could smell the chlorine from the pool on his skin. “I’m going to go get a shower. It’s late, so nobody would notice if we were in there together.”

I’d always been semi-modest with both Branch and Bobby. Neither of them gave me that self confidence that every woman looks for. Sure, both told me I was beautiful, but I never felt like it meant enough.

“I’d love to get a shower with you.” Brooks knew me inside and out, and for that reason, making decisions such as showering, was easy.

He pulled us off of the bed, and started leading me into the hall bathroom. The hallway was dark and we could see the dim light from underneath Branch’s room, letting us know they were still up. Once inside of the bathroom, Brooks shoved me against the wall, pinning my hands above my head. “I think it’s time to pay back my brother for all the nights I knew you two were together. What do you say? Do you feel like expressing yourself a little louder than usual?”

Those baby blues were showing the seriousness of what he wanted from me. Brooks wasn’t just wanting to get in the shower. He wanted Branch and Melissa to hear every detail of it.

I bit down on my lip and mimicked his wicked-evil grin. Loudly, without even agreeing to it, I moaned my answer. “Oh, yes. Give it to me, Brooks.” So what if we were being juvenile. I missed my old life and being in that house made me feel like a teenager again.

Being bad shouldn’t have felt so good, but there I was ripping off my clothes and watching Brooks doing the same. He leaned over and turned on the water, while I watched his ass and licked over my own lips.

For a second I remembered back to years before, when I thought Brooks and Branch were both equally defined. Brooks appeared to have spent a lot of time working on his physique. Though he wasn’t big and bulky, his muscles were all defined, making him even more desirable to me.

When he turned around, he caught me staring. I got a once over look and a big ornery smile. “You were just eyeing me up, weren’t you?”

I put my hands up. “Guilty. Maybe you should punish me.” I put one leg up on the tub and faced my back to him speaking loudly. “Maybe you should spank me.”

Honestly, knowing my history, I didn’t think he would really spank me. His hand came across my ass causing me to let out a loud yelp. The sting of it was lingering as I felt his hand rubbing it back out. He leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Sorry. I always wanted to do that. Don’t be mad.”

I smacked him on the shoulder, still whispering. “Jerk. That hurt.” I rubbed my sore butt cheek. “Okay, I probably should have said I was playing around. I’m not mad at all, but you do know that you’re going to kiss every inch of that cheek until the burn goes away, and then you’re going to wash me, until you’re ready to burst from the buildup.”

His lips brushed over my face. “It will be my pleasure, but when I’m done, I’m taking you back to bed and fucking you all night long.”

Hearing him saying that word always gave me goose bumps. It was dirty and bad, albeit I wanted to experience both with him.

It’s exactly what happened, too. Brooks helped me into the shower and got behind me. He ran his wet hands up over my sensitive skin. The burn had already gone away, but I wasn’t about to share that with him, not when it felt so nice to be touched.

I leaned my head against the shower wall, when I felt him kissing me there, repeatedly. He sat down on his ass and began kissing the back of my thighs were my ass met my legs. I got goose bumps again and my legs began to shake. He played with my hole, running a finger full of soap over the opening. My legs were forced apart, where he first washed and massaged me and then played with it with his mouth. I felt him sucking on my most sensitive skin and all I could think about was that I’d been missing out on so much. I’d never been with a man; one that was more about pleasing me than himself.

By the time the shower was complete, every inch of my body was on fire. I needed him to satisfy my hunger and he knew it.

After wrapping me in a towel and one around his waist, he led me out of the bathroom. Branch came walking out of the bedroom in a pair of boxers. His scrawny build made me almost laugh, compared to his brother’s glistening wet skin.

“Hey, can you guys keep it down? Mel’s got a headache.”

Brooks being Brooks, turned and looked directly at his brother. “You may want to shove some paper in her ears, because we’re just getting started, bro.” He pulled me into his room and shut the door, like we were kids doing mischievous things.

“I can’t believe you said that,” I said as my towel was being pulled off.

“It wasn’t a lie, beautiful. Knowing it’s bothering him makes me want to go at it all night. I don’t think either of you thought about how thin these walls are. I could hear everything and Branch knew it. It’s time he gets paid back.”

I looked down at his arm. “How’s it feeling?”

He shrugged. “It’s manageable, why?”

I put my arms around his neck and jumped. He caught me and with ease my legs wrapped around him. “Because I also have reasons for wanting to piss him off.”

In reality, our lovemaking, or whatever he was calling it, only lasted about forty minutes. We were exhausted and knew B would be up as soon as the sun came up.

We’d proven our point, which was what we’d set out to do. It didn’t matter if we’d finished anyway, because when Brooks went out to use the bathroom, he came back with a very awake little girl.

I didn’t know whether we’d woken her, not that it mattered. Her bottom lip sticking out showed me that she was scared and it was good her daddy had heard her. He brought her in and put her right in the center of the bed. Since he had boxer-briefs on, and I was still in my birthday suit, I got up and put on underwear and a t-shirt.

In the time it took me to do that, she was already cuddled up against her father, sound asleep. Brooks was watching me, but smiling at her at the same time.

Our time apart hadn’t made him bitter. It had made him love harder. We had his eternal devotion.

I cuddled up next to them and closed my eyes, knowing that this was as close to heaven as I’d ever been. It was what I had dreamed of my whole life.

Chapter 49

For some reason being mischievous had paid off. I woke in a better mood about Branch and Melissa. In fact, after meeting her downstairs at the coffee pot, we started cooking breakfast for everyone.

“So, did you ever listen to my messages I left? I know you better than to think you’d actually delete them without listening.”

I laughed. “I didn’t.”

She took a sip of her coffee. “I was thinking that maybe you should listen to them. I spoke from my heart and I feel like if we’re ever going to get back to being friends, and hopefully sisters, that we shouldn’t have anything holding us back.

She handed me the portable landline phone. “Here, just listen to them.”

I rolled my eyes. “Do I have to?”

“Yes,” she insisted.

I sat at the kitchen table and started dialing the number to retrieve my messages. The last thing I wanted to hear, after I’d already made peace with things, was a whole spiel of reasons why I should forgive them.

When I finally figured out how to do it, I was confused when it said that I had no new messages. Bobby would have probably called several times since he’d been served papers.

I hung up and dialed again, thinking it gave me the wrong box, but got the same results. I hung up and looked at Melissa. “That’s funny. Are you sure you dialed the right number?”

“Danica gave it to me. You talked on the voicemail. I’m sure.”

“Well, there’s no messages.”

“Does Brooks have your passcode? Maybe he listened to them.”

Brooks didn’t have my passcode, but Bobby did. My eyes flashed fear and there was no way I could hide it.

“What’s wrong, Katy?”

“Nothing. Can you watch breakfast for a second? I’m just going to go ask Brooks if he listened to my messages. I’ll be right back.”

I hated waking him, but a message from Melissa talking about them coming to see us would tell Bobby where we were. He’d know I wasn’t home and I was petrified that he’d do something to my beautiful new house, knowing that nobody would be there to call the cops.

Brooks was in my old room with B. She was trying to put on her bathing suit. “Hey, you going swimming already?”

Brooks laughed. “She woke me up asking to jump in the pool. You know me, I give her anything she wants.”

“I need to talk to you about something. I’m kind of freaking out, right now.”

He touched my arm. “What is it?”

I explained the situation, that didn’t seem to bother him in the least. Still, I felt like he needed to know for when we went home. Bobby wasn’t just going to be pissed off when he got those protective order papers. He was going to lash out and since my phone was out of commission, he was going to find whatever means possible to cause me physical and emotional duress.

“What are we going to do if we go home and he’s trashed the inside of the house? I won’t be able to prove it’s him. His fingerprints are all over the place.” I started to cry and Brooks put both arms around my back, holding me and offering comfort.

“Kat, he can’t hurt us. He’s there and we’re here. When we leave tomorrow night, we’ll worry about it. If he’s done something, we can figure out what to do when we’re there. Please don’t let him ruin our last day together. Mom and Dad want to see us smiling today, like we don’t have a care in the world. Focus on Branch and Melissa. Talk about their wedding like you’re excited for them. Do whatever it takes to keep your mind off of that asshole, okay?”

“Asshole.” B giggled, like she knew it was a bad word.

“Daddy’s sorry. Don’t say that. It’s bad!”

“Asshole.”

I covered my face with my hands. “Oh my God. What else?”

“Asshole.” She giggled.

Brooks looked to me for guidance on the situation. Seeing him smiling was making it hard to be serious. “Don’t laugh at her. If we make a big deal about it, she’ll keep saying it. Let’s just go downstairs and ignore her.”

He picked her up. “Let’s go eat breakfast. Are you hungry, bug?”

“Asshole, Daddy.”

Brooks pushed me along, trying his best to ignore our potty mouth daughter. “For what it’s worth, she learned it from you.”

He then laughed as we walked down the stairs. “Yeah. Live and learn.”

Thank God, by the time we made it to the kitchen, she’d lost interest. Melissa snapped a look of worry at me and I smiled at her, as if everything was right with the world. I couldn’t let anyone see that inside I was scared out of my mind.

Our trip to be with the family again was a great reprieve, but as we neared the end I knew it was just a pause on what was to come. Assuming everything would be unicorns and sunshine wouldn’t have been realistic. I had a very angry husband out there that knew wherever I was, I was with Brooks. It didn’t matter to Bobby if I was in love, he was the father of my child, or even that I was happy. All that mattered to Bobby was that I wasn’t with him.

I’d seen and read so many stories regarding abused women. In my opinion, things hadn’t gotten so bad that I feared for my life. I’d been slapped around and threatened, but never beaten to the fear of losing my life, like other women. Still, knowing that he was willing to hurt me was enough to scare me for what might come.

Given the right circumstance, and if he’d been drinking, seeing me with Brooks could put Bobby over the edge. There was a chance that when I got home he was going to stalk and wait for Brooks to leave so he could hurt me and hurt him. I feared that in Bobby’s eyes, if he couldn’t have me, neither could Brooks.

I kept a smile on my face while in the kitchen with my family and pretended to be overjoyed with being home. I was overjoyed, but at the same time, I was scared; scared of them not knowing the truth and how dangerous it could be, and scared of what would happen if they ever did find out.

Needless to say, I had a lump in my throat for the whole time we ate breakfast and even as we cleaned it up. It was a blessing that Brooks was too infatuated by B to notice that I was falling apart inside. He was usually the first person to be able to read what went on in my head.

After breakfast was cleaned up, I retreated to our room to change into my bathing suit. Since I knew everyone in the house was downstairs, I took a few minutes to calm down before I was face to face with Brooks. After giving myself a pep-talk in my head, I walked downstairs determined to make our last day full of happy memories. After all, we were all reunited, even if there was still things to be worked out, we were on the right track.

Climbing in the pool and being greeted by my beautiful daughter and her equally handsome father was like instant comfort. My fake smile was replaced with real ones and I felt like life couldn’t get any better. I’d never felt so in love and happy to be where I was at.

Brooks pulled me into his arms with our daughter and floated us around together. B kept laughing when we kissed and telling us to do it again. She didn’t say the curse word again either, which was always a great thing.

Melissa and Branch were poolside, discussing some wedding plans with Walt about the hall they wanted to hold the reception in. One thing I noticed was that they were holding hands and neither of them were paying any attention to me, Brooks or even B.

They’d moved on together and I was at peace with that, as long as they were happy. I didn’t even care if they were secretly in love with each other when I’d been engaged to Branch. All I cared about was moving forward. Finally, my life had meaning and I’d do whatever I had to do to protect it.