Betrayed (8 page)

24-
         
Molly

It’s Easter Sunday. I haven’t went to church for five years, ever since my life took it’s dramatic turn I have shied away from religious gatherings. I’m not saying I don’t believe in God, but we just aren’t really on the best of terms. Seriously, I know it all was part of his plan. I’m not stupid. There is a higher power that rules over all of our lives, but I’m not happy about it.

Tatum mentioned last night that this will be the first year ever he wasn’t home with his family for Easter. It is hard for me to believe a family like the Savage family is a religious family but apparently this is one holiday that his mom expects everyone to be home. I feel bad that he won’t be there, but he never mentioned anything about wanting to be. He told me not to feel guilty and that he was right where he wanted to be. Wanted. He chose that word instead of ‘needed’. I really am starting to think he means it when he says he’s here with me for good.

Though we don’t have an Easter dinner planned, he did go through the trouble of grabbing some of the best pastries in town from the bakery downtown. I ate about five too many for breakfast, but I can’t stay away. I have gained at least 5 pounds since Tatum and I have been together. Unfortunately the recent revelation that my shorts were getting too snug wasn’t baby weight, but ‘Molly eats too much’ weight. Tatum says he loves my curves, but the more I get the worse I feel about myself.

Today is one of my good days. I have had good and bad since the incident in Washington, most bad for the last couple of days considering everything I’ve been through, but today I have hope. Today I feel things getting better between us. We are spending the day in our sweats, not leaving the house. I’m still sore, but the doctor said it may take a while before I feel back to normal. Snuggled on the couch with our coffee and one of my favorite movies, I look over and notice him asleep. Now, some girls would get mad that their boyfriend fell asleep during their favorite movie but not me. I love this. I love being able to add to my memory each line on his face, each hair, each scar. He has a rough one right above his eyebrow and another on his chin. I know he used to be in the business of roughing people up so I’m sure those scars were par for the course in his job. I still can’t believe this beautiful man is all mine. The strong jaw, the full head of hair. To be a thirty year old man with a full, thick head of hair is something that isn’t seen much these days. At least in Illinois. Add in the insane body and he is a package straight out of heaven. He stirs while I’m watching him and before I can turn away he catches me staring.

“Are you eyeballing me?” he says sleepily. I laugh. Eyeballing? Who talks like that?

“Nope. Not me. Never.” I answer as I continue to watch the movie that I suddenly have no interest in.

“Good. Nothin to look at anyway.” He closes his eyes again and wraps his arm around me tighter. God this man is everything I thought I ever wanted. Everything I thought I’d never have. Even after all the bad that has happened to us, I feel like the luckiest woman alive to have him by my side. We are a team, now, and I feel like superwoman. Nothing can break us.

25-
         
Tatum

If someone would have asked me a year ago what I’d be doing on Easter Sunday the answer would have been the same as always. Spend the entire fucking day at my parent’s house, listening to my dad and uncles fight about something, then finding a chick at a bar to fuck-n-dump, preferably at her place so I didn’t have to kick her out of mine. Had someone told me I’d spend this Easter cuddled on the couch with the woman of my dreams, not letting any of the outside world drama into our perfect bubble I probably would have thought they were drunk. Nate Savage didn’t do…this. Cuddles, sweat pants, chick flicks? Nope, he definitely did not. Yet, today has been one of the best days of my life.

              We need this. We need to be able to sit on the couch and not worry about anything. The boxes aren’t going to unpack themselves, the dishes and laundry are definitely not cleaning themselves, but neither are we. We made a pact when we got up this morning that we wouldn’t do any work today, and so far we have stuck by this rule.

              Molly loved the pastries that I got from the bakery as I knew she would. I love that she isn’t reserved when it comes to eating around me. Most woman I used to surround myself with would have been appalled that I brought them so many carbs, but not my Molly. She downed five of them in just a few minutes, and you better believe she had me racing to keep up just so she didn’t eat my favorite ones! I need to get a gym membership if this eating style keeps up. Not that I don’t love it, but I don’t want to become one of those out of shape husbands whose wife doesn’t find them attractive anymore. No way in hell that’s happening here.

              After the movie was finally over it was almost dinner time. We had no plans to go out so we ordered pizza delivery and waited. We talked about non pressing issues all day. No one mentioned the Delany family, nor the wedding, nor the blanket or note. Nothing that would add any stress to our day was mentioned and it was wonderful.

              When the knock on the door came shortly after we ordered our pizza I didn’t think anything of it. When I answered the door, however, I didn’t see anyone there. No pizza on the porch, no car in front of the house. It was a little unnerving to say the least. These mind fuck games had to stop.

              “Who is it babe?” Molly asked as I returned to the porch. Shit.

              “No one”

              “What do you mean?” She looked at me with worried eyes.

              “Nobody was at the door, Molly. There was no car, no pizza, no person.”

              “Huh...that’s creepy.”

              I agree. Fucking creepy. Soon after the pizza was delivered and all doors and windows in the house were locked, we were back on the couch trying to enjoy the rest of our night. I had a hard time focusing on anything else but what had just happened. I had a bad feeling about this.

26-
         
Rob

What a whore. These last few days of getting to know her without having him staring at me were great. I really thought he was out of the picture. I thought he had taken himself out of her life. I was starting to actually feel something for her. Obviously nothing more than physical, Lord knows I’m not one for vanilla relationships. Hell, I knew she went to the hospital without him, I knew he had been out of her life, and all I could think about was how great it was going to be when I finally fucked her. Maybe I’d video it and send it to him. He was out of the picture, but I could still fuck with him.

Now, seeing them on the couch all fucking day, then him answering the door like he owned the place really pissed me off. He doesn’t deserve to be happy. A man like him doesn’t deserve to be enjoying himself. I had to knock on the door. It was dangerous, but it was an easy mind fuck. One that would keep him on edge. Soon, Nate. Soon you will know what it feels like to have your world ripped away. It’ll be unfortunate for poor Ms. Ward….but sometimes there are no better options.

27-
         
Molly

It’s a bad day today. Ever since the knock on the door last night I can’t help shake this feeling, and unwelcome thoughts keep running through my mind. I’m trying to stop them, but I can’t help it.

He hates me. He hates what I did to our baby, and he hates that he’s stuck with me.

But he did come back for me.

But that was before he knew my body betrayed us.

I couldn’t stop the swirling thoughts, going back and forth. He said he’s here for good. That he’s not going anywhere. He spoke the words, but now that he knows I can’t have his kids, does he mean them still? I need to stop thinking for a little while. I know we need to talk, Tatum knows we need to talk. It’s just, I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to say the words out loud. I don’t want to hear that he feels stuck with me. I don’t want my heart to break again. Instead, I throw myself into the only thing that has never let me down: my business.

The Delany wedding is four days away. I have four days to finish preparing things, which luckily are almost done due to my awesome dedication (and lack of anything else to do when Tatum was absent last week). After these four days, I’ll be shooting the biggest wedding of my career, creating the most beautiful pictures for the bride and my portfolio. Hopefully things will settle down a little after this wedding, but right now I’m turning all of my attention to the big show.

              On Monday I wake up and start to get dressed for the studio. Tatum rolls over and looks at me with tired (and sexy as hell ‘how did I get so lucky’) eyes.

              “Where do you think you are going, missy?” he asks, his still sleepy voice present.

              “Work. I have a lot I need to get done to catch up from missing the weekend. The wedding is in just four days. Are you coming in to help out?” I ask, hopeful that he does. If anything just to be near him, so when I have one of my inevitable breakdowns that I know will happen he will at least be there for me.

              “Uh…what?” he looks incredibly confused for a man that just woke up looking incredible sexy two minutes ago. “You aren’t still shooting the wedding this weekend, are you?”

              I laugh. Loud. We are not having this fight again.

              “I am. I need this Tatum. More now than before. I will be keeping you on as assistant this weekend, though, whether the Delany’s like it or not. I need you there with me, supporting me.” I pleaded.

              He ran his fingers through his hair and sighs loudly. I know his brain is working pretty hard right now since he just got up and I threw a curveball at him before he was fully awake. I waited there, at the side of the bed as he thought.

              “Molly sit. I need to tell you something.”

              His voice gave me a hint I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.

              “Listen, I was going to wait to tell you all of this until I had it figured out, but with you still doing the wedding I think you need to know. Stay here.” He said and he walked out of the room. A few minutes later he came back with a box.

              “Open it” he ground out, then walked to the other side of the room as I was left sitting on the bed next to the mystery box. I opened the flaps and looked inside. A tiny blue baby blanket was folded inside. It was dirty and there was a note card setting on top. I pulled the note out and read both sides, chills running through me as the meaning of the card set in.

              “What is this Tatum?” I whispered as he stared out the bedroom window.

              “It’s my son’s baby blanket. The one he died in.”

              I gasped and pulled the blanket out of the box. It was light blue with tiny darker blue stars and incredibly soft.

              “Why?”

              “I don’t know, exactly. This showed up on the porch last week. The night you stayed late at the studio. I don’t know who it is from but I have my guesses. Molly, this blanket along with everything else from the time in my life was ordered to be destroyed. I didn’t want anything to remember it. It sounds cold but I was hurting. It shook me to the core when I opened the box. Then when I found the note I was actually spooked. I don’t do mind games well, and someone is obviously playing one with me.”

              He then filled me in on the Delany connection to him, why he thinks Rob hates him so much, and why he believes Rob is in the lead for prime suspect. He doesn’t trust him, that’s for sure. I could hear his voice pleading with me to back out of the wedding and take myself out of the connection to the Delany family, but I couldn’t do that. Not with four days left, they would never find someone able to do it on that short of notice.

              “That’s a lot of speculation, Tatum, without any hard proof that it was actually him. I can’t back out of the wedding now.” I said, shaking my head at the mess that we were in.

              “I realize that, and I don’t think you need to. I honestly don’t think he’d ever hurt you, you have formed a friendship with him. Just know that from here on out I will not be leaving you alone when there are Delany’s around.”

              I was okay with that. After all, I was starting to get the feeling from Rob that he wanted a more personal relationship with me. He did stop by quite a few times when Tatum was gone last week, and most of his visits didn’t have a real reason. I had also caught him on more than one occasion looking at me like a piece of meat, and it was unnerving.

              “Fine. That’s all I can ask of you. Now get dressed. We have a very demanding Delany to deal with this morning.” Oh I knew he was going to be pissed that Tatum was still on board. Hell, by the way he was looking at me last week he was going to be pissed that Tatum was back in the picture at all.

***

We grabbed a coffee on the way into the studio. I was in the front grabbing some folders when Rob walked in and smiled. He obviously didn’t know Tatum was here.

              “Hey you. How are you feeling? You gave everyone a scare last week. That’s decaf coffee, I hope.” He said as he glanced at the cup in my hand. How do I respond to him? Does it matter if he knows or not? The truth shall set you free, I guess.

              “I’m not pregnant anymore, Rob. Thanks…though..” I said awkwardly.

              “Oh. God Molly, I’m so sorry to hear that.” He said as he came over for a hug. Of course, that had to be the time that Tatum walked back up front from the storage room. Of. Fucking. Course.

              “Need another one of those eyes blacked out, Delany?” he growled as he casually set down the boxes I had him bring up.

              Rob laughed and backed up.

              “Well. Back in the picture are we Tatum? Shame, Molly. I thought I had you pegged for someone a little smarter than that.” He was such an ass. Before the two of them could get in another macho man match, I spoke up.

              “Actually Rob, I am glad you stopped by. I have been wanting to tell you that I will not be in need of your assistant’s services this weekend. A photographer is only as good as their right hand man. Mine is Tatum. Take it or leave it. I don’t shoot the wedding unless he is there.”

              There. It was said. I’m holding my ground on this one. He glared at Tatum for a moment, then looked those piercing black eyes straight at me.

              “That’s a very bad decision, Molly.” He said through gritted teeth.

              “Then find another photographer.” I was done playing him games. I didn’t need them money that badly, and the public knows how difficult it is to deal with a Delany, so my reputation wouldn’t get hurt too bad. Hopefully. I stood there, hands on my hips, ready for a verbal lashing from the second hottest man I’ve ever laid eyes on. Instead, his lip turned up into a half smile, and he nodded his head, then turned and left. Whatever he came here for must not have been that important.

              I smiled to myself, pleased that I was able to stand up to the infamous Robert Delany, especially with those eyes staring me down. I glanced over at Tatum and he was watching me with so much love in his eyes I could have burst.

              “My God, Molly. You are one amazing woman.” He said, and finally started walking towards me.

              The butterflies that I had been missing the last few days finally came back when he looked at me with those eyes. The connection between us right now was unbreakable. He was radiating love for me. That I could tell just by his body language. He cupped my face and tilted my head up to look at him.

              “I love you so fucking much it hurts when you aren’t near me. You make me want to be a better man for the rest of my life. One day I will show you how much you mean to me. Words alone aren’t enough. One day, Molly. God, I love you.” He said, and his lips slammed into mine, causing me to grab his arms as I kissed him back.

              Good Lord it felt like it had been a lifetime since he has kissed me like this. I was really starting to believe he didn’t want me anymore, but this kiss just blew all other kisses in the history of lip locking out of the water! A mixture of urgency and tenderness, his lips danced across my skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps along the way. When he broke the kiss I almost fell into him. His hands began running up and down my arms, as he looked down at our connection. This man would be enough for me for the rest of my life, child or not. He’s all I need in this world.