Risking Fate (19 page)

Conner parked the car and took Izzy inside. He nodded at me, giving me a warning to work shit out. I opened the door and leaned on it, hoping Miranda would step out. She stayed in the car, avoiding eye contact with me. I knelt down on the ground next to the car and tried to grab her hand. She pulled away quickly. “Don’t touch me.”

“Nothing happened.”

She looked at me with such hate. “Why? Did she finally tell you she didn’t want you? Did you finally get rejected, Ty?”

I shook my head and grinded my teeth. “No! She didn’t fucking reject me. I never wanted her. I went to her house to track down her brother. I explained what I needed and after she got in touch with him, I left. I can’t fucking stand her, Miranda. How can you look at me and think so quickly that I would cheat on you?”

“You’ve done it before. With her!”

“Not with you. I’ve never even looked at another woman since we’ve been together. I don’t need to.”

She put her hand up in front of my face. “Save your bullshit excuses. You lied right to my face. I asked you and you lied.”

“You asked if I cheated and I told you the truth. I never fucking cheated on you, Baby. I swear.” Once again I tried to grab her hand. She pulled away.

“If you had nothin’ to hide, then you wouldn’t have had to keep it from me.”

“I kept it from you because I knew you wouldn’t have let me go through with it. Do you honestly think if I had another choice, I wouldn’t have taken it. You know how much our daughter means to me. I had to do this, even if I did it behind your back. Saving her was my first priority. If you hate me for that, then I’m sorry. I love you more than I have ever loved another woman. I’m not interested in anyone else, ever! I would fight for you every single day and give my life to make sure you and our children were taken care of. I know this hurt you, but how do you think I feel sitting here seeing you doubt me? It fucking hurts Miranda.”

“You fucked up, Ty, not me.” She got up and started walking away from me.

I chased after her. “You’re right. I fucked up. I don’t regret it though, because it may have saved our daughter.”

“Our daughter Ty, not your daughter. The decision should have been both of ours.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Tell me what to do? How do I make this better?”

She opened the door to the house and put her head down. “Leave me alone, for starters. I’m not ready to talk to you and I’m not sure what to even say.”

“Baby, please. I’m sorry
.”

She slammed the door, leaving me standing there. I knew walking into the house would have just pissed her off, so I headed toward the barn. When I couldn’t find Harvey, or his alcohol stash, I sat down on a bale of old hay and just sulked.

I should have known Heather would sabotage my life. Her lies had caused a wall to be
put up between me and my wife
. Hell, I didn’t even know if
she would ever trust me again. It hurt so much.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out, hoping it was Miranda.

Hello?

Ty, it’s me, Van.

Guess she called you.

Please tell me you didn’t do it.

I never touched that bitch. I swear to God. I’m not that person anymore, Van. Heather’s a lying bitch. I needed her to get her brother to help me. I swear.

I was hoping you would say that, because I already told Miranda to forgive you.

You what?

You’re not the same guy from college, Ty. Your love for them is beautiful and I can tell that they mean the world to you. I don’t think you should have kept it from her, but I get why you did it. You just need to understand that she’s hurt right now.

Does she know you’re talking to me?

Yeah, she loves you Ty. She’s just pissed. Give her some time and everything will be okay.

I’ve been sitting here wondering how I was going to live if I lost her.

When you really love someone, you get past it all. Just let her breathe. You know you get all clingy.

Don’t hate on my kindness.

Don’t worry, I still think you’re an asshole. An asshole that I love very much and don’t want to see fighting with his wife over a dirty skank
.

I love you too. Thanks, Van. I really appreciate you being here for both of us.

You’re my family. We stick together, no matter how tough it gets, right?”

Right.

Call me tomorrow and check in.

K, bye.

Shortly after hanging up with Van, I heard the barn door creaking open. Miranda came walking in toward me and I got up and met her halfway. “Did Van call?”

“Yeah.”

She sat down across from where I stood. “I want you to tell me everything.”

I sat down and started from the beginning. I told her how I knew what Heather’s brother could do. I explained how I wanted to tell her I had to talk to Heather, but didn’t want to get her worried about nothing. I even told her everything I talked to Heather about at her house. When I finished, I looked up at her and saw she was just looking at me. “It’s the truth, Miranda. I never touched her.”

“You have to understand how she made me feel, Ty. It’s a wife’s worst fear to be called out in public like that. If you would have told me, I could have been prepared. Now she did exactly what she wanted. She caused problem
s
between us.”

I rushed over to her, grabbing her hands into mine. “Baby,
please forgive me. I won’t keep anything from you again. I swear I won’t.”

I laid my head over her stomach and finally felt her release my hands and run them through my hair. “There won’t be a next time Ty. No more secrets. They ruin marriages.”

“I promise.”

Chapter 13

Miranda

After hearing Heather’s side of the story, Amy called to check on me. It didn’t take much to convince her that Heather was a liar. Apparently, it was old news to everyone in town. Knowing that it really got to me, Amy gave me the next two days off of work.

The night of our fight, Ty was quiet. His sarcasm was replaced with
sincerity
and a lot of kissing up. I’m pretty sure he would have licked the toilet seat if I asked him to.
I wasn’t purposely trying to make him suffer, although there was a small part that wanted him to feel bad to insure he wouldn’t do it again. The thing was, I got why he did it and I even understood why he didn’t want to tell me.

I loved my husband for wanting to protect me, but it still hurt either way. I never wanted to doubt him and the fact that I was so quick to judge, made me mad at myself. Ty’s devotion to me was something he displayed every day. Except for that one night, I knew where he was every minute.

Still, Heather was someone from his past; someone that wa
s in love with him and after
years
had passed
, still might be. It worried me about the lengths she would take to get Ty.
Obviously
, the bi
tch had no
regard for me being very pregnant with Ty’s babies. What kind of woman would try to break up a marriage when the man is happy and expecting a child.

Maybe she hated him that much. Perhaps she finally realized that she never meant anything to him.

After Ty insisted on doing the dinner dishes, and got Bella to bed, he quietly retreated to our bedroom. I waited for a few minutes before heading in behind him.

The shower was running and I could hear that he was already inside. I needed to brush my teeth so I headed in to do so. Ty was leaned up against the shower wall. He was looking down and not saying anything. I set the toilet seat down before sitting. He looked so tired and I couldn’t blame him. I was exhausted from crying for half the day. I don’t know whether he had shed any tears, but it had definitely drained him. I also think he was punishing himself. His avoiding conversation with me was a dead giveaway.

“Ty?”

I looked toward the shower and saw him jump at the sound of my voice. “Shit! I didn’t know you were in here, Baby. You okay?”

“Can I come in there with you?”

He opened the shower door. “That’s a question you never have to ask.”

I removed my clothes while Ty watched me. He wasn’t giving me the look like he wanted to have sex. He missed me as much as I missed him. It had been only a day, but he was my very best friend and I hated not being close to him for only a minute.

When I finally got undressed,
he grabbed my hand and helped me i
n the shower with him. Strong arms wr
apped around my waist as I slid
mine behind his back. “Do you really think this guy can doctor the test?”

He grabbed the shampoo and started washing my hair. “I do. Look, the
lawyer’s
office just needs that piece of paper. They have no reason to believe any different and with Tucker not being ali
ve to argue, nobody would ever
question that we weren’t together before. It doesn’t matter
to me what our family thinks, I know they want Iz to be with us. They would never mention that it wasn’t true. This hospital documentation will prove without a doubt that I am her father. They will submit it to her lawyer and it will all be over with.”

“You make it sound easy.” I set my head against his chest.

“None of it’s been easy. It’s
slowly
ripping me apart inside. I’m trying to be tough and not let it show, but I can’t stop worrying about it.
If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what I will do. I just can’t lose her, not any part of her.
”
He cupped my face with his hands again
and
kissed my forehead.

Ty’s lips pressed against mine and he kept them there as the water ran down our heads. “I won’t let you. No matter what happens, I won’t let anyone take that from you.”

“
You keep saying that, but there are no
guarantees
.” He kept kissing me, even though I knew he was far from relaxed. “Tell me you forgive me. I need you so much.”

“Promise me it will never happen again.”

“I already did.” He never hesitated.

“One thing I am sure of, is my love for you. We need to stay strong and deal with this together from now on, Ty. I forgive you and I love you for tryin’ to protect me.”

Ty still didn’t relax, even after we went to bed. He held me tight in his arms and kept waking up, which in turn, woke me up. I was off of
work, so it didn’t bother me, but I knew he needed to
rest
to be able to function.

Bella woke us around three in the morning. She was screaming from her bedroom. Ty and I sat up and my heart felt like it jumped out of my body. Ty went running to her bedroom. I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I followed him. By the time I reached them, he had Bella in his arms. She was crying.

“Shhh, just tell Daddy what’s wrong.” He kissed her head and waited for a reply.

“You and Mommy were fighting and we had to move away like Johnny in my class.” She made no sense, so I sat on the bed for more information.

“Honey, what are you talkin’ about?” I asked.

“Johnny’s Mommy and Daddy fought and they got diborced. Now he only sees his Daddy on the weekends. I don’t want you and Daddy to fight. I don’t want Daddy to have to move.”
She cried harder against Ty’s chest.
The way she said divorced was cute, even though it was a
cryptic conversation for a four and a half
year old.

I felt bad for my daughter, but part of me wanted to laugh that she assumed that would happen. She obviously never saw Ty and I arguing and it really made her upset. Ty looked to me with worried eyes.

I sat closer to him and rubbed Bella’s back. “Sweetie, Daddy and I are
n’t gettin’
a divorce. We lov
e each other and aren’t fightin’
. Mo
mmy just got sad about somethin’
and Daddy didn’t understand at first. Everything is fine now. I promise.”

Ty kissed her little head. “Iz, I will never leave you, I promise. Daddy will never leave you.”
I reached my
arm inside of his as he held our
daughter.

She peek
ed
around him and looked at me, before climbing off her bed and standing i
n front of both of us. “Mommy, d
o you still love Daddy?”

Ty put his arm around me even before I could answer. I turned to him and smile
d
. “Yes, I love him very much. Even when he makes me mad or sad, I still love him.”

“Promise?” Her sad little voice made me want to cry.

“I promise. Now how about we try to go to bed. Princesses need sleep to be beautiful, you know.”

Ty picked Bella up and started carrying her out of the bedroom. “She’s coming with us, Mommy.”

For the first time, she started laughing, like her normal self. I totally got why Ty wanted her to sleep with us. One thing he never wanted was for that child to doubt his faithfulness to her. I followed behind them shaking my head.