Bailee Johnson was sick of always being second best. After her husband cheated on her and lied during their divorce, leaving her and her daughter with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the small business she had worked so hard to start, Bailee shrugged off everyone’s suggestions to put him in her past and move forward. Oh, she was going to, but not until after she took him down, even if it meant using his business rival to do so. Unbeknownst to her, that business rival just so happens to be her brother’s best friend, the first man to have ever broken her heart. The closer she gets to him, the more feelings resurface from their past, and the harder it is to lie. She wants revenge, but at what cost?
View MoreALEXANDER I scowled as I stared at the back of the bottle, reading the dosage as Bailee turned on the bath in the adjoining bathroom. “How much do I owe you?” She asked, and I looked up to see her leaning against the door frame, staring at me stone-faced. “For the medicine, how much was it?” “You don’t need to pay me back.” “Well, I don’t want to owe you anything.” She snapped, and I lowered the bottle to my side. The little girl was sitting on the bed, playing with the unopened boxes, and I felt uneasy. I was unsure if she should be playing with them or if I should take them away. If I did, would she just start screaming again? “You don’t owe me. It’s a gift.” I said, and she held her hand out, palm up, careful not to touch me when I placed the bottle in her hand. Pushing off the door frame, Bailee grabbed the syringe from the box on the bed, opened the bottle, and filled it without needing to read the back like I had. She knew exactly how much her child needed off the t
BAILEEMy phone ringing startled me awake, though I hadn’t intended to pass out on the couch. Usually, when Brinley was sick, I would sleep in her room to ensure she was okay.I jumped for the phone to keep the ringer from waking Brinley.It had been pointless, though, because I cursed loudly as my knee connected with the coffee table, and my arms flailed as I tumbled off the couch and onto the floor with a 'thud.' My vision was still blurry from sleep, and the room spun from the quick movement, but I managed to grab my phone and answer the call, unable to see the number on the screen as I blinked rapidly to moisten my eyes. “Hello,” I said breathlessly, rolling onto my back and pulling my knee up to my chest. “Ms. Evans,” A man said, and my eyes shot open as a jolt of excitement went through me at hearing my maiden name. I had no clue who it was, but it was the first time since the hearing yesterday that I had been called Ms. Evans without me having to correct them to it from Mrs.
ALEXANDERI was a fucking idiot. Since the day I met her as a kid, Bailee Evans had been the only one who could get to me. Whenever she was around, all my control snapped. Now, I had to deal with the fallout of my actions once again. Only this time, it was worth it because it was for her. After what I did to her when we were younger, the way I hurt her, I deserved everything about to come my way. My mugshot would be on every tabloid and news channel first thing in the morning, and I would take it with a smile.Still, even if I damaged my reputation and lost clients, she was worth it. She deserved to have someone fight for her.“How did you get out of jail?” Bailee asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she popped her hip out. At least she still had a fire in her after everything she had been through. I used to love bickering with her and hearing her sass. We would banter back and forth until I couldn’t take it anymore and had to lean in to kiss her, to press my body against
BAILEEBy the time we pulled up to my brother’s house, one way too large for only one person, Brinley’s forehead had cooled, and she was dozing in and out of sleep. I had held her to my chest tightly, terrified that we would be in a car accident and she would be sent flying without a car seat. “Baby, we’re going to stay in Uncle Ben’s house for a little bit,” I whispered, wanting her to know where she was even though she was falling asleep. It would be terrifying for her to wake up in a strange place in the morning.“Uncle Ben?” She asked, her excitement muffled by her exhaustion. “Let’s get you into bed, and we’ll see Uncle Ben soon,” I said as Bash unlocked the door and gestured for us to enter first. The house looked sterile; not a single thing was out of place. It would probably bother him to see the kind of mess a toddler can make within a few minutes. Ignoring my concern for invading Ben’s space, I walked down the hallway, checking multiple doors, before I found a guest room
ALEXANDER I stepped forward, moving around Bailee as Caleb dropped the bag with a huff of anger. For several years, he had done everything he could to take down my company but had never grown the balls to address me directly, so I hadn't bothered wasting my time and resources on him. Knowing he had been with, married, and had a daughter with Bailee just moved him to the top of my enemy list. “What’s going on here?” I asked, keeping my eyes on Caleb but speaking to Bailee. I didn’t trust him not to make a move if I turned my back to him, and I felt a weird tugging sensation in my chest at the thought of turning to face her and seeing her with a kid. Her kid. I knew she wanted kids, but I had only found out about her actually having one a couple of hours ago. I hadn’t been given a chance to come to terms with the fact that she had a kid with another man yet. When I had demanded that Ben never mention Bailee to me again, it seemed that in doing so, he had kept it to himself that
BAILEEMy body was moving on autopilot as I slowly poured the cup of water over Brinley’s hair. Her cheeks had lightened to a soft pink, and I was optimistic that the medicine would kick in soon. Pregnant. Lorna was pregnant. Internally, I was fuming, but my body felt numb.How could he have the nerve to have another child when he had just thrown away his first one? He wasn’t fit to be a father. He couldn’t even take care of himself. He had expected me to clean up after him, cook for him, and serve him like his personal maid. But maybe that dynamic was exactly why Lorna and Caleb could work together. She was his assistant. She already waited on him hand and foot. Brinley lifted her head from my chest, reaching for one of the bath toys, and I sighed in relief that she was feeling better and wouldn’t need to go to the emergency room. Either the bath had brought her temperature down, or the medicine had started working, but her eyes looked brighter, and she looked better.“Bailee,”
BAILEEBrinley moaned as I pulled her from the car seat. Her cheeks were pink, and her clothes were damp with sweat. “Come on, sweet girl. Let’s get you some medicine and into a cool bath, then bed.” I whispered, pressing my lips to her forehead as the Uber driver pulled away. “Wait! My car seat is in there!” The back door closed from the movement as the driver peeled away from the curb, and I couldn’t help the uncontrollable laugh of disbelief that left my lips. It was just another hit. Just one more thing to add to my list of signs from the universe that I had pissed off the wrong deity. The driver had been rude from the second he saw me carrying the car seat out of my building to strap it into his car. Then, once we picked up Brinley and he noticed she was sick, he had been muttering about catching COVID, even though it was just the flu, and how he would sue me if anything happened to him or his family. Still, there was nothing I could do right now. I would contact Uber and dea
BAILEEThis day just kept getting worse. Alexander. Fucking. Kingston.That wasn’t his middle name, but that was how I had said his name in my head for the past seven years. No one on this Earth, including Caleb, had caused me as much pain as Alexander Fucking Kingston. This man had taken my virginity, told me he loved me, and then tossed me aside like I had been nothing more than a piece of trash on his way out of my life. I had been young and in love. I had cried over him for months. Getting over him was one of the hardest things I have ever done until today.Now, at the lowest point in my life, he just had to show up again. It was a cruel joke.Seeing him made me feel like I was cursed. It was as if higher forces had looked down at me and said, “Did you think this was over? Buckle up, sweetheart. Things are about to get a whole lot worse.” I had to have done something horrendous in my previous life for this to be happening to me.Alex stood from his barstool, his eyes narrow
“I’m telling you, Alex,” Mason said, slapping his hand on my shoulder as he shook me back and forth. “This is the best news we could have gotten in a long time. A wife? That’s gold! He must have been hiding her for a reason! She could be the key to everything.”I lifted the glass of scotch in my hand in acknowledgment, not taking my eyes away from the large flat screen over the bar. Every other television in here had one game or another on, but not this one. At my insistence, this one had the evening news playing the recap of the day, and I sat up straighter when they showed the front of the courthouse. “Turn it up,” I demanded. Even over the noise of the crowd cheering on their favorite teams, the snap of someone starting a pool game, and the music playing through the surround sound, the bartender jumped into action, nodded, and grabbed the remote.“Yes, Mr. Kingston.”“You think they are going to show her face this time?” Mason wondered, but I didn’t bother answering my best fri
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