Deceitful Vows (7 page)

“Is this what you wanted?! Huh?! Tell me you want it!”

Smack!

The smacking of the ass cheek caused it to jiggle just like Mark liked. This turned him on even more and caused him to go deeper.

Mark was pounding her from behind and enjoying every minute of it. He didn’t know how he got here.

Actually, he did. He knew that meeting her at a hotel was a bad idea, but a part of him needed the release as bad as she wanted it. He still had no idea what picture she was planning to send his wife nor did he care at the moment. He was only concerned about the orgasm building inside of him. Not being able to control himself any longer, he released himself in the condom and slowly pulled out of her. Collapsing on the bed, he couldn’t move if he wanted to. The two had been in the hotel room for hours, going at it. He missed all the wild freaky things she would do to and with him, but mostly he missed having sex without a belly in the way. He had to apologize to her for catching him with Monica to get the special attention he craved. He even went so far as to tell her that she was the best he’d ever had so she would lighten up. To his surprise, she forgave him and said she’d known that it was because she was gone for months. He made a mental note of the “gone for months” part but decided not to push it. Finally getting up the energy to release his bladder, he grabbed his cell phone on the way to the bathroom. He had thirty-seven missed calls and nineteen text messages. He opened the first one and saw it was from Monica.

Your wife came here. I think she knows. Call the office.

He shook his head, confused as to why she would think that. For the life of him, he couldn’t imagine why she would think Kayla knew about them. He was always so careful, and they never talked outside of work. Quickly dismissing Monica’s text, he opened the messages from Kayla. It was several of them, but the first one caught his attention and had him racing to get out of the hotel room.

“What the hell happened?!” she asked out loud as Mark sped by her.

One minute he was going to the bathroom, the next minute he was throwing his clothes on and running out the door. He didn’t even give an explanation. He just said he would call her later. She lay on the bed and wondered what was going on. The ringing of her cell phone interrupted her thoughts. She thought about not answering, but then decided that maybe the caller could help with her recent thoughts.

Her suspicions were confirmed when Kayla screamed, “I’m in labor! Please come down here!”

Rolling her eyes at Kayla’s dramatic yelling, she took her time getting up and showering before heading out of the hotel. She was in no rush to get to Kayla, but at least she knew where Mark rushed off to.

Screaming was all you could hear as Mark stepped off the elevators at Mercy Hospital. The messages from Kayla caught him off guard completely. She was only seven and a half months, so the baby wasn’t due yet. To the best of his knowledge, she wasn’t being induced, and the pregnancy was normal, so he couldn’t understand how or why she was in labor. The fact that she had been trying to reach him for hours was unnerving. He had no business being in that hotel room with Stephanie and to know that he was there with her while Kayla was having his son made him feel horrible. If anything happened to either one of them, he would never forgive himself.

Making his way to the nurse’s station, he couldn’t control his sweating or his hands from shaking. He was not only nervous about the delivery, but also about becoming a father and what would happen to his marriage. The walls were closing in on him, and he didn’t know which way to go. After getting directions from the nurse and being escorted to a scrubbing area, he cleaned himself up, according to the directions he was given, and was escorted into the room just in time to see his son come into the world. Kayla was crowning when he walked in according to the nurse. There was so much commotion in the room that nobody seemed to notice his presence. Kayla was laid back on the bed with a nurse holding her hand while another one was wiping the sweat from her forehead and a slew of doctors and nurses standing by calling out numbers and directions. Mark’s feet were glued to the floor and he had no idea what to do or say. In a matter of minutes, he began to see his son’s body slide out of Kayla while she was screaming bloody murder. He wondered if she had gotten that epidural thing he’d heard women talk about. The way she was screaming was as if she was going cold turkey. The second Mark Anthony Barnes Jr. was out of her womb, the doctors started yelling things that he had no idea what it meant. All he noticed was that baby Mark was blue and something wasn’t right. Parental instinct guided Mark, as his otherwise glued feet sprang into action and he was rushing to the doctors and nurses who were ushering his son out the room. Desperate for someone to say something, he grabbed the arm of the doctor who performed the delivery and asked what was wrong with his son.

“I’m sorry, sir, but he’s crashing. We have to get him into emergency surgery.”

And just like that the doctor rushed out the room leaving Mark behind.

Kayla didn’t know what to do or say. There she was lying in a hospital bed after she’d just given birth to her son almost two months early. She went to see Dr. Gallant as scheduled, with thoughts of Mark’s affair on her mind still. After examining her, Dr. Gallant informed her that her blood pressure was too high and the baby was in distress. She told Kayla that she had to induce her and deliver Mark Jr. today or he was in danger. Kayla immediately began calling Mark, but couldn’t get a hold of him. She even called the office and told Monica what was going on and told her she needed to get a hold of Mark. Monica could not offer any information since there were no details on his calendar about where the meeting was or who it was with. Kayla thought that it was weird that Monica didn’t have any information, but she didn’t want to assume that she was so heartless that she would keep Mark away from her while she delivered their baby. Kayla also felt better knowing that Mark wasn’t with Monica so she assumed Kayla’s reasoning it was on the up and up.

Stephanie strolled into labor and delivery an hour later and gave the nurse Kayla’s name. After being informed that she’d just delivered and wasn’t taking visitors yet, Stephanie had a seat in the waiting area and began reading a magazine. She was in no mood to be mushy over a baby that was conceived by accident, but she would do her best at pretending for Mark’s sake. This was the first time they’d hooked up in months and she didn’t want to ruin the chance to pick back up where they’d left off. Besides, she didn’t understand why Kayla called her anyway. They hadn’t spoken since the day she came to pick up her things from her house. Thinking about that pissed Stephanie off even more. It’s been months since they spoke to each other. Not a single text message or phone call. Yet, the second she has a crisis, she asks for Stephanie to be there for her once again.

She couldn’t wait until Mark left her needy ass for good. She would be right there to rub it in little Miss Perfect’s face that for once she got the man and the happy ending and then she would see what little Miss Psychology would do then.

Mark didn’t know what to say to Kayla. She had just given birth to their son who was off having emergency surgery. Little did Kayla know, but he’d missed the beginning of her labor because he was in a hotel room banging her best friend.

Mark kissed Kayla on the top of her head. “You look beautiful. You did a great job.”

Instead of smiling or squeezing his hand, she erupted in tears. Not knowing what to do, Mark stood up to go get some air. Before he was out the door, Kayla’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

“I know you’re sleeping with Monica,” Kayla said slowly before she began crying again. “I want a divorce.”

Mark couldn’t get on the other side of the door quick enough. Not only was his adulterous ways catching up to him, but the truth about one of his flings’ identity was out in the open.

“How in the hell did she know that?” he said, not realizing he was talking out loud.

“Know what?” Stephanie asked with a smirk on her face.

“Nothing, nothing!” Mark quickly said trying to avoid telling Stephanie the truth.

Of course, Stephanie had already known about Monica. After all, she walked in on the two of them at his office. He just didn’t feel comfortable talking about what had just happened between him and his wife with Stephanie.

Monica wasn’t the only other woman that Stephanie knew about it, though. The two of them had shared women before. It was Stephanie’s idea, but he was glad he’d gone along with it. Having two women please each other in front of him was every man’s fantasy, and Mark had enjoyed it on more than one occasion.

Stephanie had a free sexual spirit. And although he enjoyed that about her while they were together, he knew it was also one of the reasons that he could never be with her exclusively. His dad had always told him that the woman that you make your wife should be as pure as possible. What Jack didn’t tell him was that his wife would probably be as boring as possible too.

Mark knew he had to get away from Stephanie before he said something he would regret, so he made up a lie. “I have to go get Kayla something to eat.”

Apparently lying had become his new favorite hobby, and he was getting better and better at it.

Stephanie eased into Kayla’s room, still confused by what she’d overheard Mark saying in the hallway. She stood back to watch him, hoping that the mumbling he was doing meant they had something in common, and he had “people” telling him what to do as well. It would be perfect if he did. Then they could live happily ever after, and finally they would have no secrets between them. But once she got closer to him, she could tell something had just happened between him and Kayla, and that it was bothering him.

She walked over to a crying Kayla, and surprisingly she was genuinely concerned; not for Kayla, but for herself. She was hoping that the tears meant that Kayla was leaving Mark, and she was closer to getting him all to herself.

Sitting down next to Kayla, she was curious about the tears and faking her concern, “What’s wrong, Kayla?”

Kayla stopped crying long enough to tell Stephanie about Mark’s affair with Monica. “It was right in her face all along! I had no idea what was going on. I’m filing for a divorce as soon as possible.” As she wiped her face, she turned and looked Stephanie in the eyes. “Steph, I just want to say that I am so sorry. I know we have been a little distant, and it’s been months since the last time we spoke. I just want to say thank you for being a true friend to me. When Mark and I started having problems in our marriage, you were right there when I needed you. I can’t thank you enough for letting me bend your ear and for holding my hand.”

All kinds of things were going through Stephanie’s head. She couldn’t believe her ears. Kayla was divorcing Mark, and soon enough she would have him all to herself. She also made a note to take care of Monica. There was no way she could keep her around after the divorce. She knew her and Mark had history, but that was all they were going to have if Stephanie could help it. She didn’t sit around in the wings this long waiting to have someone else come in and swoop Mark from up under her again. Stephanie had finally gotten her man after all these years, and nobody was going to get in her way of her happily ever after.

Vivian helped Kayla get out of the car and into her house while William carried a sleeping MJ in his baby carrier. A week later and they were finally released from the hospital. Kayla felt fine, but Vivian insisted that she still had to be sore. William constantly expressed his disbelief that his baby girl had had a baby. Judging from the look in his eyes, as he admired MJ, one would think that MJ was his first and only grandchild. However, what he truly couldn’t believe was that Mark had been cheating on his daughter. When she came to visit months ago, he knew something was wrong the moment he laid eyes on her. He never wanted to pry or insert himself in either one of his daughters’ relationships unless they asked him to, so he made it a point to wait until she wanted to talk about things. When he got the news that she was pregnant, he had mixed emotions. He knew Kayla would make a terrific mother, but even then he was worried about the state of her marriage. When a few months went by, and he never heard anything else, he assumed that she and Mark had worked through their problems like he and Vivian had dozens of times before. Now here he was arriving at the hospital after she had had her first child, to find out that not only was their marriage not on the right track, but that they were getting a divorce. After William had seen Mark a few times at the hospital, he had to fight back the urge to confront him. He promised Kayla he wouldn’t, but deep down he really didn’t understand why Mark would sleep with his assistant behind Kayla’s back. He also fought the urge to ask why Mark appeared to be so uncomfortable around Stephanie. From what William knew, they were all supposed to be close and good friends, yet Mark made it a point to be nowhere near Stephanie while in the hospital and Stephanie made it a point to keep her eyes glued to Mark no matter where he went.