His Ever After (Love Square) (20 page)

One day at a time, and one step at a time.
My sister’s words echo in my head. I wish I had been shrewd enough to listen to them sooner.

My decision to confront Aiden did not come lightly. After reading through all the heinous things that Brooke and Aiden did to me, I knew the best revenge would be to take away everything that he holds dear. Even if Sam chooses to wash her hands of both of us, I’ll be able to sleep easy knowing I at least tried to right this wrong.

After dressing, I grab my keys and head out to Murphy’s. I chose to meet Aiden in a public place because if I didn’t, I might be tempted to kill him. At least this way, we’ll be more likely to act civil to each other.

I walk into the bar and breathe a sigh of relief that the place is slow since it’s a Tuesday. The last thing I want is a large audience. I find Aiden standing at the bar with his back to me. As I approach, he turns and gives me an arrogant look.

Maybe I’m not as put together as I thought I was, because that one look causes my restraint to snap.

“You son of a bitch!” I shout as my fist connects with his jaw.

He stumbles back with the force of my punch, and I plow into him with my shoulder, pushing him until he hits the wall. I rear back and punch him again, this time hitting his eye. His head cracks against the brick wall.

Aiden swings and hits me with a right hook, before swinging again. This time I duck and miss his fist hitting my jaw by mere inches. His reflexes are faster than I imagined, and he dodges my next swing, while landing a punch to my ribs.

I go at him full force again, knocking him to the floor. We continue to pummel on each other. The only sound I can hear is the blood rushing through my ears. I’m sure everyone else can hear the sickening sound of flesh pounding flesh. It’s no holds barred between us right now. Neither one of us wants to give up. We’re both fighting for the same girl.

Out of my peripheral vision, I can see a ring of people has formed around us, watching us and egging us on.

We continue to scuffle and hit each other until security grabs each of us and pull us away. My chest is heaving, and I can feel blood trickling down my cheek. Aiden struggles against the hold that the bouncer, Moe, has on him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Jacob?” Mike, the bouncer holding me, says.

“I’m fine. You can let go now,” I spit out, as I pull myself from his hold.

“You two going to be cool if we let you go, or do we need to kick you out?” Moe says, while still keeping his hold on Aiden.

I nod my head and look to Aiden. “Yeah, we’re cool,” he says as he wipes at the blood around his nose.

The bouncer pushes Aiden away from him, and we both sit down in a nearby booth. Laura, the waitress on duty, brings each of us a beer, and we sit in silence while wiping at our faces.

Aiden’s eye and jaw are bruising and there is a ring of red blood around his nostrils. I can only imagine what my face looks like. It wasn’t the brightest idea, immediately starting a fight, but it felt damn good to hit him.

“What do you know?” Aiden finally asks me with a blank look on his face. I would bet money that he is really good at poker.

“I know that you paid Brooke to sleep with me in order to get me away from Sam.” I rest my arms against the table and lean towards him. “What I want to know is why you sank so fucking low. What kind of a
real
man would do something so underhanded?” Seriously, he had to sneak around and pay someone in order to get his wife back. A real man would have let her come back to him because she loved him, not because she was manipulated.

He studies my face for several moments. He is still a blank canvas, showing no emotions.

“I couldn’t let you take her from me. She’s my world, man. You can’t imagine what we’ve been through, the highs or the lows. You waltzed in with your carefree life and tempted her. While I was working my ass off to give her the life she deserves, you were weaseling your way into her pants. Don’t you see how fucked up that is? To knowingly steal another man’s wife?”

I inwardly sigh. We could go back and forth and argue about this all night, but it’s not going to change anything. He’ll continue to think what he did was right, and I’ll continue to think he’s a piece of shit.

“I’m not going to argue with you on that point. I should have waited until she left you before I made my move. And I have no doubt with the lack of attention you were paying her, that she would have left you. I was able to give her the love and passion that you either wouldn’t or couldn’t. But you ripped the love of my life away from me. Do you have any idea what my life has been like since you inserted Brooke into it?” When he shakes his head, I decide to lay it all out for him. I don’t want him to feel sorry for me. What I want is for him to realize the widespread disaster his cowardly and callous actions caused.

“First she seduces me. Fine. I should have kept my dick out of her. Then she tells me that she’s pregnant, leading me to tell Sam that I can’t be with her. I make the decision to stick by Brooke and support her while she has my baby. Only she doesn’t have my baby, because she has a miscarriage the night she catches Sam and me together. Are you aware of the night Sam decided to get revenge?” He nods his head and his face twists in agony thinking about his wife and me. “So now that my child is dead, I’m dealing with a highly emotional woman who is fragile and ready to break at any moment. She convinces me to marry her and then she convinces me to let her move in. All the while, I’m telling myself this is my penance for killing my child. That for the rest of my foreseeable future, I’m going to be taking care of this emotionally unstable person.”

I pick up my beer and chug it. Rehashing all this mess is fucking with my head again.

“Then to make matters worse, Brooke finds a box I have with letters and pictures of Sam. She then proceeds to lose it. And when I say lose it, I mean completely. She killed herself. Brooke’s gone.” It’s getting easier to say she’s gone, now that the guilt isn’t tearing me apart inside.

Aiden’s eyes widen and he looks as pale as a ghost. “Are you fucking kidding me? I had no idea. I haven’t spoken to her in months.”

“No, I’m not fucking kidding you. I came home from work to find my dead fiancée in my bathtub. And then I spent the next two months beating myself up over the fact that I killed her. Even after I learned she suffered from bipolar disorder, I knew I ultimately drove her over the edge. I should have predicted that after the miscarriage, and her being faced with the knowledge that I still had feelings for Sam, things wouldn’t end well. That she wouldn’t be able to take it. But the real shitter is when her old roommate brought over these journals she found. Journals that outlined all the sick and twisted shit she did to keep Sam and me apart. She accepted payment from you. She lied about the baby. She lied about the miscarriage. She harassed and tormented Sam, and she schemed to get me to marry her. I’m surprised Sam would ever be married to such a depraved son of a bitch. One that would allow all that fucked up shit to happen.”

I lean back in the booth and finish off my beer, watching his face. He looks shocked, which is a good thing. Part of me was suspicious that he was involved in all of the bullshit, a true partner in crime, from start to finish. Another part of me really hoped that Sam didn’t have a child with the devil reincarnate. Because that is exactly what someone who would do all these fucked up things is like, the devil. And now when I picture the devil, all I can see is Brooke’s face.

“Listen man. I didn’t know any of that. The only part of that story I know anything about is where she accepted money to seduce you. I would never condone any of that shit,” he says looking disgusted with everything I just told him.

“I hate to admit it, but I believe you. You know what, though? I don’t give a fuck. The only reason why I brought you here tonight was to tell you that I know what you did, and that you have one week to tell Sam, or I’m going to do it.” I smile at the look on his face when he realizes I’m not going to let him off the hook.

Tsk, tsk, Aiden Parker. Did you really think I was that foolish?

“I’m not fucking telling her a damn thing. It’s not my problem that you slept with a psychopath!” He spits out, his jaw locked and his teeth grinding.

I watch in silence while Laura puts another round of beers on the table and clears out the empties.

“Maybe not, but I’m sure Sam would love to read word for word the chain of events that
you
set in motion.” I point at Aiden with my bottle and wait for him to realize that he has no choice but to give in to my demands. I hold all the cards here. He isn’t winning shit. Go ahead and try to call my bluff fucker. You’ll live to regret it.

“Even if I tell her, it’s not going to make a difference. You’ll never be with her again. You’re only setting yourself up for more heartache.” He leans towards me threateningly. I almost want to laugh at him. You can’t threaten someone who has nothing to lose. It’s a cardinal rule.

“I know that. I just love Sam enough to want her to know what kind of snake she’s sleeping next to at night. Even if I never have her again, I’ll at least know I tried and that I did it without stooping to your level. You have one week.” I stand up and walk out of the bar. The only thing left for me to do is wait.

***

Aiden

I walk into the house and am immediately greeted by an enthusiastic dog. The last thing I feel is enthusiasm. My stomach is churning at the very prospect of telling Sam all the shit that’s gone down. She isn’t going to be happy whatsoever.

After I give Hugo, our St. Bernard, a rub down, I head into the family room and find Sam playing with Tessa on the floor. I was really hoping that Tessa would be asleep already.

“Hey, daddy!” Sam greets me without looking up. “Someone wouldn’t go to sleep until she got to see you. Can we say daddy’s little girl?” She lets out a little laugh, shaking a rattle in Tessa’s face.

Sam looks up when I don’t answer her, and the smile that was gracing her face is now gone. She studies my bruised and bloodied face intently.

I take a deep breath and say, “We need to talk.”

She nods and picks Tessa up off the floor. “Say goodnight to her, and I’ll go feed her and put her down. You can clean up your face while I do that.”

Sam heads upstairs to the nursery and I follow her, turning into our bedroom and stopping in the master bathroom. I get the first aid kit out from under the sink and start cleaning out the cuts on my face. Deciding I got them as best as I could, I jump into the shower to kill some time while I wait for Sam.

The whole time I’m washing up, I feel crippled with the fear that my past actions are going to ruin the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I always knew in the back of my mind that there was a chance that she would find out one day. I guess I should be grateful that she’s hearing it from me rather than someone else. Of course, it isn’t going to look good that I’m only telling her after my fight with Jacob. She’s going to know I was pressured into confessing my sins.

I get out of the shower and put on a pair of boxer briefs and a white undershirt before putting a butterfly bandage on the cut over my eye. I walk into the bedroom and sit on the bed, staring at my feet, trying to put together my speech. Sam walks silently into the room and stands in front of me. I can see her orange painted toes between my feet. Her hands sit softly on my shoulders, and I look up into her face. Her gorgeous, loving, trusting face. I don’t know if I can do this.

“Aiden, honey, what the hell happened to you tonight? I thought you were working late?” Sam asks, worry etched clearly on her face.

“I met Jacob Matthews tonight.” She gasps and covers her mouth with both hands.

“He did this to you? Why? I thought this was all over and done with.” Sam starts lightly poking and prodding the aftereffects of my run in with Jacob.

“Sam, you need to sit down. I’m about to tell you something that you aren’t going to want to hear. I just need you to promise me that you’ll let me finish before you say anything,” I say while pulling her hands away from my face and lowering her onto the bed beside me.

“I’m not sure I can. You’re scaring me,” she replies worriedly.

“Please. I have to have your promise,” I plead with her.

“Okay. Tell me.” She nods and holds my hand while I begin to tell her the whole sordid affair, from start to finish. I tell her about Dale, Brooke, the money, the pregnancy, all of it. Every last detail. And just as I predicted, halfway through, she pulled her hands from mine and made me watch as I broke her heart. When I finish, I ask her to say something. I need to hear her yell at me, cuss me out, anything. I can handle those emotions. It’s the distance and indifference that I can’t handle from her. Passion and emotion show that you care. Those are the feelings I want to evoke in her, even when she is angry.

“I don’t think I can. This is just too much to take in. I feel like I’m in a really bad dream. I can’t believe you are capable of that. Capable of ruining lives, Aiden. You played God with my life, Jacob’s life, even Brooke’s life. I… I’m at a loss for words.”

I reach for her, but she backs away from me. Tears fall freely from her eyes. All I want to do is wipe them away and make it all better, but I’m the reason she’s crying.

“I think you should go sleep in the guest room. I can’t be with you right now. I need some space,” she says in between little sobs.

“No. I’m not leaving. We start the day in this bed together and we end the day in this bed together. Remember? We vowed that to each other,” I argue with her.

“That was before you told me what a monster you are,” she yells in my face. “Do you even feel any remorse for what you’ve done? A woman is dead because of your actions!”

I feel like she just stuck a knife in my heart and twisted it repeatedly, mincing every fiber of it, before flushing it down the toilet. I can’t stand the way she’s looking at me right now, like I’m the monster she just called me.