“You must be out of your mind!” Helen yelled, but I didn’t spare her a glance. This wasn’t between her and me…even though she wanted it to be.
She thought the world revolved around her, the perfect senator’s wife. She loved putting on her over-priced, costume-looking jewelry and acting like she was the queen. Yet, her favorite pastime was picking fights, throwing little digs at me, and insisting everything I did was wrong. Much to her dismay, this was between Caleb and me, and I refused to let her be involved this time. He had dragged her into everything else. Mommy’s little boy. Only, he looked stunned as he stared at me, dumbfounded that I would be so bold as to bring up divorce myself, especially in front of his parents. “Don’t be foolish, Bailee!” Helen spat. “You have a child together! Divorce is not an option! That’s just lazy. You are lazy!” I glared at her, knowing that if she had heard her son throw it in my face like he loved to do, she would have supported and agreed with him instead of calling him lazy and foolish like she did to me. Since the day he introduced me to his family, Helen Johnson had hated me. She threw little digs at me every chance she could, even referring to me as ‘Fatass’ behind my back when she was telling the rest of the family just how horrible I was. One could only be civil for so long. “And our child deserves better!” I snapped back before pointedly making eye contact with my husband. He had been neglectful since the day she was born, refusing to cook for her, bathe her, or help me with her when she was sick. As she got older, he would yell in her face for her to leave him alone when she wanted to play with him. He would shake her little hands off him when she tried to get his attention and go back to whatever he was doing on his phone… probably sexting Lorna, now that I think about it. “You worthless tramp!” Helen said, stepping forward, but George touched her shoulder to stop her. “I knew from the moment he brought you home to meet us that you would be trouble. I said it! I told you back then that she wasn’t worth it!” Helen had turned to face a stunned Caleb, who continued to stare at me, but my gaze was glued to Lorna, who was wrapped around his arm. He hadn’t even pulled away. She smirked at me knowingly, like the cat who caught the canary. It was a smirk of victory. Caleb cleared his throat, shaking his head back and forth. I wasn’t sure why I expected him to defend me for a moment. He never had before. “Bailee,” Caleb let out an uncomfortable laugh. “You can’t be serious. This isn’t time to be dramatic.” “Oh, I am very serious. Almost as serious as you were about leaving me and your daughter home so you could come here to fuck your assistant.” I raised my eyebrows at him challengingly. “How dare you!” George Johnson snapped, his voice low and deep as he moved to step in front of his wife. He became a senator because he was good with his words in front of the camera and made the people love him, but in private, he was…he was a monster. “Your job as his wife was to satisfy him, and you failed. That doesn’t mean you get to take the easy way out. This is part of being a man. As his woman, if you can’t satisfy him in the bedroom, what he does outside of it is not your concern.” “Learn your place!” Helen shouted after him like the good little supportive bitch she was, leashed to his side to perform at his command. “You’ll see the doctor first thing tomorrow, and then you will come over, and we will put an end to this behavior. You need to learn how to act like a Johnson. You are a disgrace to the Johnson name, and I won’t allow you to damage it anymore than you already have.” “I won’t be going to see anyone tomorrow, not the shrink you’re paying to try to manipulate and control me, and certainly not you! Besides, I think your son is a big enough disgrace to the Johnson name on his own. I’m just doing you a favor and giving you one less ‘Johnson’ to worry about.” I said, knowing I was just digging my grave further. “Enough of this!” George’s eyes darkened, and he gestured with his head for me to follow him down the hallway. “We will have this conversation in private. Get back in the room, Bailee. Now.” Dread and fear filled me as I shook my head. I wouldn’t be going in there again. Not after what I had witnessed there, especially knowing I would be the target of George Johnson's anger. Caleb had done a magnificent job becoming just like his father over the years, but while Caleb yelled and screamed when he was angry, feeding off of people… off of me cowering from him, George was a politician. He stayed calm as he promised to make people suffer. Unlike Caleb, his father had power with the police, press, and his trusty and deadly bodyguards, who I was certain were waiting for him downstairs as we spoke. He could destroy someone’s entire life within minutes if they wronged him. “No,” Caleb said, brushing Lorna off of his arm. “Everyone, just calm down. Even Bailee wouldn’t be so stupid as to file for divorce.” Even Bailee? As if I were some ignorant school girl, living with my head in the clouds? “This is between me and my wife, and we will work through this together in private. Come on, Bailee.” Caleb moved toward me, and his father’s face turned red in anger at the disobedience. “Bailee’s just overreacting, like always,” Lorna said, and my teeth snapped shut, my molars squeaking as they ground together. The elevator dinged, and two security guards stepped out as the door opened. “Senator Johnson,” One of the men said with surprise as he looked around at the five people blocking the hallway. “We didn’t realize you were here. We got a call about a disturbance from Ms. Nichols.” Lorna gave them an innocent smile, shaking her head. “I’m sorry to have bothered you. I thought it would be best to call before coming out here. I was just looking out for Caleb.” “You called security?” I huffed out a breath of annoyance before letting my tongue run over the front of my teeth. “Ma’am, are you a guest here?” The guard asked me. I shook my head, prepared to tell him that I was just leaving, when he cut me off. “I will have to ask you to leave the premises.” “I would love to!” I said with exasperation, knowing they could see the tear streaks on my cheeks and bloodshot eyes. “Now.” He snapped, and my head snapped back as I stared at the angry man with confusion. “I’m going,” I said before looking back at Caleb once more. Only that second of eye contact was too much for the guard, and he grabbed my arm tightly and yanked me back. “What are you doing? Get off me!” “If you won’t leave on your own, we will have to remove you by force! We can’t have you harassing our guests.” “We don’t want any trouble! It was terrifying, having her break into our hotel room, but we don’t want to press charges!” Lorna cried with fake concern, covering her mouth with one hand as she watched them drag me away. “Let go of me!” I said, trying to pull my arm away from the security guard, but he tightened his hold. “You’re hurting me!” I stumbled forward as I was shoved into the open elevator, but the guard held me upright with his grip on my arm. “Quiet!” He snapped. “Good luck with that. She never does what she’s told.” Helen muttered with disdain, and I looked up with a glare. Helen, George, Lorna, and Caleb all stood together, coupled off like a picture-perfect family, and it made my chest burn with humiliation and anger. “We will discuss this in the morning,” Caleb said. I was flooded with disbelief that not only had he just dismissed me and was letting security throw me out of the hotel, but he was going to go back to his evening plans with Lorna. “You’re going back in the room with her?!” “Don’t make me call the police for breaking and entering! I said, be quiet!” The guard yelled in my face as I watched Caleb turn his back on me through the closing elevator doors.I went home alone that night. The backstabbing nanny was already fast asleep, and as much as I wanted to confront her for what she had done, I moved past her room and into mine. I was hurt, angry, and exhausted. After a long, hot shower, I had curled up in my empty bed and muffled my sobs with my pillow, so I wouldn’t wake Brinley, until I fell asleep.The cold sheets sent a chill through me as I rolled over in bed, my head pounding from crying myself to sleep.I was so angry at myself for letting it get this far, so angry at him for not even trying to make this work, and for throwing away our family like it meant nothing to him. There had been signs and red flags throughout our relationship that should have had me packing up and leaving.But I was stubborn, refusing to give up on the years we had spent together. I fought to make things better, over and over again, ignoring all the ways Caleb had mistreated me and ran straight toward that bitch like a bull. My eyes were thick with
My assistant trailed behind me as I stormed into my office, pulling off my suit jacket and rolling up my shirt sleeves. “Sir, we couldn’t have seen this coming.” My assistant, Nathan, said. “I did.” I spat through clenched teeth as I moved to the glass wall of my office that looked out over the city. “Sir?” I knew something like this would happen eventually.Caleb Johnson had been doing everything within his power to compete against my company. He had been planting moles amongst my employees, releasing fabricated stories to the tabloids, and had even hired a private investigator to trail me. He had been quiet for the past few months, and I had hoped he was going away, but I should have known better. Pests never left on their own. Now, he was poaching my clients.I knew for a fact that Justin was already stressing about his upcoming contract with the Rangers. Yet, he was about to pay us millions to break his contract to join a newer competitor, one who wouldn’t be able to negotia
“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
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
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
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,”
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
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