The Mitchell Family Series BoxSet 1-4.5 (89 page)

After a few more beers, I called it a night, while Conner insisted he was staying out for a little while longer. I thought back to that night where he had called me Amy. “Are you seeing Miranda’s boss?”

He cleared his throat, shocked that I just came out and asked. “Why would you say that?”

“You know my darkest secret. Just spill.”

“It’s complicated. As much as I would like to say that I am, I can’t. Am I spending time with her? Well, yeah, I am, but it’s hard to explain.”

I finished my beer and shook my head. “Whatever, Man. Don’t let Miranda know. She will flip out on your ass. That woman, Amy, has problems. Her old man is a drunk.”

“I know all about him. Don’t worry about me.”

We shook hands and I left him in the bar. I appreciated his friendship after everything and there was no way in hell I was going to tell my wife about him and Amy.

When I got home the lights were already turned out. The reflection of the television screen caught my eye as I walked in the door. Miranda was sprawled out on the couch, sound asleep. Even though it was quite difficult, I lifted her up and carried her to bed. About halfway, she wrapped her arms around my neck. “I left you dinner in the microwave. Are you mad at me?”

I tucked her under the covers and kissed her head. “I’m not mad at you. I love you with all of my heart, until my last day, I promise. Get some sleep.”

I wasn’t that hungry, but I ate anyway. Miranda would get upset if I didn’t. After I cleaned up my plate and showered, I finally climbed into bed next to her. Her body was so warm and I cuddled up closer.

I messed up getting the paternity papers again, this time permanently. We were going to have to fight this out in court. I should have never even tried this convoluted idea in the first place. To add insult to injury, I knew that somewhere down the road I would have to come clean about that night. My wife would leave and I would be without my children.

As I lay awake staring at the ceiling, I contemplated never telling her. My life could be full of happy memories if I could just get past the one bad one. We could give our kids a great life together.

Would I be able to live with myself to give them that life, or was I just being a selfish asshole, hiding from the truth and what I deserved?

Chapter 17

Miranda

The eighth month of my pregnancy went by so slow. I decided to rearrange all of the furniture in the house, and since I couldn’t move it all myself, I would text my brother to stop what he was doing to come help me. To say he was a bit pissed at me would have been an understatement, especially since I kept changing my mind.

For the past week, I had reorganized a bunch of things, put all of Bella’s old clothes in boxes and cleaned all the sheets in the house, including the already clean ones in the linen closet. I just couldn’t stop my madness. Ty came home each day to fancy gourmet meals and I insisted on doing the dishes afterwards.

I don’t remember nesting with Bella, in fact as far as my pregnancies went, this one was completely different. Aside from the Tucker’s mom drama, I was happy and safe. I wasn’t fighting with a lousy abusive boyfriend, or begging him to grow up and be a father. The father of my twins was the perfect man. He was everything a girl could ask for and more.

A sudden knock at the door startled me, because everyone on the farm just walked in. I walked out of the bedroom to see a familiar face staring at me through the glass in the door. My stomach dropped and I immediately got my hopes up that something good was about to happen.

I opened my door to Heather and expected her to just hand me an envelope with the papers in it and walk away. That’s not what happened at all.

“Heather? What are you doin’ here?” I looked behind her, hoping my brother was somewhere close in case things got ugly.

She walked into the house and started looking around. “I see Ty expanded the place to accommodate your family.”

I held my belly and motioned for her to sit down. “He worked hard to get it done.”

“He likes doing that.”

“Doing what?” I sat across from her, never letting my guard down. I felt like the she-devil was sitting across from me.

“Working hard to get what he wants. Doing what has to be done.” She crossed her legs and sat her purse down next to her.

I shook off her rude comment, knowing damn well I couldn’t get into a battle with her. My babies were far more important than some skank hoe. “Why are you here, Heather?” I looked around the vicinity of the room for my phone and it wasn’t anywhere to be found.

Heather startled me and stood up. I caught myself leaning back, as she passed and looked around my house. I stood up and followed behind her. “I can’t believe he did all of this for you.” She got to the kids room and just stared at it. “Took on a child that wasn’t even his. I mean, what did you do to make him want to change so much?”

“I didn’t do anything. He helped deliver
our
daughter and loved her since that day. It was never a question of what I did.” First off I didn’t want this bitch in my house, and second, I was feeling really uneasy, and pretty darn freaked out.

“Right.” She put her finger on her lips and kept walking. “I just don’t see him diving into a relationship for a crying baby. Did something happen where he felt sorry for you? Is that what this is? Does he feel obligated to stay with someone like you, because you can’t fend for yourself? I mean, obviously you have it made here. He goes to work and busts his ass while you sit here and lay around on your ass all day. It must be nice.”

I kept a hold of my belly to remind myself that I couldn’t let her get to me. Unfortunately, she already had and I wanted her gone, but I was afraid what she would do if I asked her to leave. “You don’t know anything about my marriage.”

She got right up in my face and reached out to touch my cheek. I pulled away from her fingers. “Oh Honey, I know more than you think. Your prince charming isn’t that charming at all. He’s still the same old Ty, just better at it.”

She walked toward my bedroom and I swear if there were a mop or a broom or any kind of object that I could have used to toss at her head, I would have. When she got to our bedroom door, she stopped. She turned around and pointed to the bed. “I had so many memories in that bed.”

This is where she was wrong. “The bed is new. I thought you would notice that first. Ty didn’t want the mother of his children sleeping where filth had laid. He bought us all new furniture, so that the only memories would be our own.”

Take that you wretched whore.

She continued into my bedroom and froze when she saw my beautiful master bathroom. “So tell me Miranda, what did you do to get all of this? Is it some kind of family thing?”

I could see my phone, blinking on my bedside table, but I was nowhere near it. Her eyes were scaring me as she looked where I was looking. “What’s wrong Miranda? You thinking about calling Ty?”

“No! Just tell me why you’re here Heather? What do you want from me? You knew Ty wouldn’t be here, so spill.”

She walked out to the hallway and stopped when she saw all of our family pictures. Ty and Bella looked so happy together in every single one. Van and I were alone in a couple and Heather pointed at them. She turned to catch my attention, not knowing I never took my eyes off of her. “I think I get it now. Since Ty couldn’t have Van, he picked the closest thing to her. Am I right? He gets his cake and eats it too? Tell me, have you caught them together yet? I’m sure it’s happened. I mean, how can you have a history like they do and not crave each other’s touch again?”

I clenched my fists, but kept my composure. She walked over to the couch and reached in her large bag. I tried to calm down as I sat across from her again. “Look, I know I am the last person you want to see. To be honest, I really don’t want to be here either. I’ve just been holding on to some things and I thought you should have them. I tried to be reasonable with Ty, I really did, but he’s left me no choice.” She pulled out a t-shirt and a small cinch bag. “Ty left these the night he stayed at my place.”

Yes, it was his shirt, but it meant nothing. Don’t doubt him. He didn’t cheat on you. He promised he would never do that.

When Heather didn’t get the response she wanted, she pulled out a zip lock bag and held onto it. “Having doubts?”

“No! Cut the shit now. There is nothing you can say or do to make me believe that Ty was with you that night. He came home without the paternity test papers and he was a wreck because he couldn’t fool you. Yeah, he was there to trick you the whole time. He never wanted your skank ass.” Heather just stared at me smiling. “I think you need to leave.”

“Oh, Honey, it’s just getting good. You see, I figured you would be so far up Ty’s ass that you wouldn’t believe me. I knew you would have to see it with your own eyes.” She took the zip lock bag and slid it across the table toward me. “Go ahead. Take a look at the man in those pictures. As you will find, he was exactly where he wanted to be.”

They were face down in the plastic and I swallowed the lump in my throat, preparing to see pictures from college, or some wild night they had in the past, but as I flipped the bag over and looked at the first one, my heart dropped.

The first thing I noticed was Ty’s short hair. He was sprawled out on a couch that I’d never seen and he was smiling.

Heather sat back and watched my reaction. “Why do you have theses? What are you trying to prove?”

She leaned forward. “Honey, I am just showing you the lying, cheating man that you’re married to.”

I clenched my jaw and tossed the pictures down on the table, ready to defend Ty’s faithfulness to me, but as I did, they spread out on the table and I saw something that stopped my heart.

Ty’s shirt was being pulled off by Heather. She was licking his nipple and I could see his Izzy tattoo over his heart. I grabbed the picture and put my hand up to my face to hide my shock
. “
Get out of my house,” I whispered, trying to hold back the tears.

At least ten more pictures sat there on the table, but I refused to look down. Heather remained sitting. “You still think your hubby is the best thing in the world? I don’t know why you’re so surprised. I mean, you’ve known him your whole life. Surely, you know he likes a variety of pussy. Let me just tell you, he was so worth the wait this time.” Before I could respond, she reached down and pulled out a certain picture. I don’t know how she managed to extend her arm out, but Ty was laying down and she was sitting on his face, naked. “He got so much better at this.”

Tears poured out of my eyes as the images burned into my brain. How could he lie to me like that? All this time had passed and I trusted that nothing happened between them. How could I have been such a fucking idiot? “Please get out of my house.”

She reached down and spread all of the pornographic pictures of my husband over the table, so I could see everyone. Each was worse than the first. When I finally looked back up at her she was smiling. “One day you will thank me for this. Ty needs to be free, not tied down to this superficial life. He needs to take what he wants when he wants it. The man you think you’re married to, is nothing but a con artist. You’d be wise to take those babies and get as far away from him as you can. It’s only going to get worse.” She grabbed her purse and headed for the door. “Once a cheater, always a cheater. Oh, I almost forgot, here’s the paternity test. It’s totally legit, but you may want to re-think who the bigger monster is in your daughter’s life. I mean, I know I wouldn’t want any child of mine calling someone like him ‘Daddy’.”

She left me there, staring at the coffee table. Looking at my husband doing things he only did to me. Touching her. Kissing her. Worse.

I ran to the bathroom and threw up. Everything about our love was a lie. How could that be? How could he do this? Why didn’t anyone see this coming?

My babies.

My daughter.

He was such a good dad to Bella. How could he have been living this secret life?

I wanted to say the photos were doctored, to give him the benefit of the doubt, but as I looked at them over and over again, I knew they were very real.

Before I knew what was happening, I started packing bags. It was two in the afternoon so I needed to hurry. I popped the trunk and started filling it with mine and Bella’s clothes, as well as enough clothes and baby items for the boys.

Oh my God, I am having his twins. Their father is a liar.

When I had the car jam-packed, I went back into the house. My cell phone was still on the bedside table, so I went in to retrieve it. I stopped and looked at my bed and around my room. So many beautiful memories were made in this room. How could they have all been lies? I felt our connection, the way he loved me like nobody ever had before.

They couldn’t be lies.

My heart shattered in a million pieces and I collapsed onto the bed. I let the crying overwhelm me and soon I found it had been a hour’s time I lost. Without wasting another second, I walked into the kitchen and wrote a note.

It was hard to write the words; to finalize a relationship that I thought would last for the rest of our lives.  As I cried through each one of them, the emotions rolled through me. I was hurt and I was lost. He’d betrayed me and that was the one thing I could never forgive. There was no way to get back what we’d had. We were over.

The ride to Bella’s school was full of more tears, but I got myself together enough to go in and sign her out early. Her father would go there to pick her up, but we’d already be long gone. I had a whole hour on him and he wouldn’t catch me. Once I was back at the ranch, Colt would keep us safe.

Ty was a fighter. He wasn’t just going to let me and the kids walk out of his life. He was going to make this ugly and as much as I was suffering, I knew it was going to kill Bella.

We no sooner got in the car, when she started asking questions. “Mommy, how come I had to leave school early? You know I have art in the afternoons and I didn’t get to finish my picture.”

“I’m sorry, baby. I planned a surprise visit to see Noah.”

I could tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn’t mad at me anymore, at least not at the moment. “Really? Are we picking Daddy up next?”

I didn’t look in the rearview mirror, on account of her seeing the tears pouring down my face. “Daddy isn’t comin’ this time, Sweetie.”

“Well, can I call him to tell him I love him and I will miss him?”

“Why don’t you wait until he’s off of work. You know Daddy leaves his phone in the Jeep.” I wonder if that was really the truth. Maybe he had a separate phone that he used to make booty calls, maybe there were other girls like Heather.

The more I thought about Ty touching another woman, the more I couldn’t see to drive. I had to calm myself down. I had other lives to think about. My phone was ringing, so I pulled over and lied to Conner, saying that I just ran out to go to the store. He bought it and hung up without letting him ask any more questions. I was afraid he had seen the pictures, but he must have just seen me pulling out of the farm.

The farm was my home. It’s where I wanted to raise my children. It hurt to know that I was never going to go back there again. What was I going to tell my daughter. I couldn’t keep her from Ty, even if I wanted to. She would hate me for it.

He may have done me wrong, but he never failed that little girl. Ty was a good father.
What was I going to do?

“Mommy, why are you crying?”

“It’s nothing. I’m just having one of my pregnant moments. You know it happens sometimes.”