Denouement (10 page)

“I’m worried about you,” he said his voice laden with
concern.

“This is how I deal. We can push it back if you want
to, but this is how I deal with this kind of stuff. I built a career on an
emotional pit. I’m kind of unstable but—”

“We are all unstable, kid,” McKenzie piped in.

“Speak for
yourself
, old man,”
Tobias put in.

 
Marietta
noticed that he was going to try her way of dealing, but doubted he would be
able to handle it. Just by looking in his eyes she could see that he was on the
verge of a break down. He needed the kind of support that she didn’t. Marietta
wasn’t sure that she would be able to provide that for him.

“Maybe we should push it back a month. Besides, set
equipment doesn’t seem to like me lately,” she joked. She saw Tobias’
expression relax, but everyone else seemed tense. Marietta knew what they
wanted to ask, what they wanted to say. But they had been gagged by Tobias’
instructions. She decided to break the gag, “I’m sorry you won’t be able to
meet your grandson.”

Marietta heard Elizabeth gasp just before she took her
hand. “It’s okay I heard what your son said to you. We can talk about it if you
like.” But when they didn’t take her lead she went on, “He wasn’t that big,
because he wasn’t full term. But he was hiding somewhere inside my body. I bet
he would have looked just like his dad.”

“I don’t think so,” Tobias muttered.

“You look like your dad,” Marietta said.

“I think his dad is cuter,” Jessie put in.

“I bet he would have looked like his father but had
his mother’s brains.” Edward spoke for the first time.

“I agree,” McKenzie put in, “but he would have
definitely had his mother’s beautiful eyes.”

“Your five minutes are up.” Tobias announced as he
ushered everyone out of the room.

Marietta felt the tension that suddenly appeared
between them. She could see he was angry but he didn’t say anything. Instead he
settled at her side and held her in his arms. Marietta didn’t want to cause him
anymore discomfort so she lay at his side and didn’t speak for the rest of the
night.

****

Six months flew by and Marietta still found herself
staring at her belly in the mirror. There was no evidence that there had ever
been a baby in there and plus she had nothing to show for it. She had been
pregnant but didn’t have a baby in her arms. A baby’s cry didn’t fill the
corners of her house and there wasn’t a single toy in sight. She had been
pregnant and the only thing she had to show for it was a grave and a tombstone.
The baby hadn’t been given a name so the marble stone read, ‘Parks Harden
Spencer.’ Tobias had insisted on it, a remembrance of some sort. But Marietta
didn’t want to remember the child she lost. It was too painful

The other man in her life wouldn’t leave her alone for
more than an hour. Before he could only go without seeing her for a couple of
minutes and gradually the restraints were loosening up. During shooting he
always had to have a direct view of her. If she wasn’t in his line of sight he
would go into a panic.

Marietta wondered why he stayed around, no baby meant
no
obligations. But Tobias had moved in with her and
although they slept in the same bed he was reluctant to have sex with her. At
first Marietta didn’t mind, her body felt like it had been rolled over by a
tank. But knowing that he was more terrified about getting her pregnant once
again didn’t settle well with her. Marietta hadn’t had any plans to have a baby
but once her son died she became more open to the idea. Although the motivation
behind it was to fill the void that had been left inside her, she was looking
forward to staring into the face of a little person, a face that had a bit of
Tobias and her in it.

She stepped into the hot shower hoping to shed off the
tension that had been building in her body the past couple of days. Closing her
eyes she let the light spray beat against her face. The warmth of the water
reminded her of the other kind of warmth she missed, Tobias’ arms wrapped
around her, his hot kisses sprinting down her neck and lower. But since the
miscarriage he was too afraid to make love to her. Her mind floated back to the
days when all they both wanted was to fill each other’s sexual needs. Marietta
could almost feel his arms around her, thankful for her vivid imagination.

“You are so soft,” she heard Tobias’ voice rumble in
her ear. That was when she realized that it wasn’t her imagination.

A grin formed on her lips as she leaned back into his
strong arms. She had missed feeling him like this, his naked hard body pressed
up against hers. Something else she had missed was his hot arousal pressed
against her flesh.

“I was wondering when you were going to join me,” she
snickered.

“I was standing on the outside looking in, watching
you. Then I realized how lonely you must be in this huge cubicle and I decided
to join you. You being naked only helped me make up my mind faster.”

Standing under the pounding water Marietta felt Tobias
trail his lips down her neck while his hands held her firmly against his body.
His large hands massaged her shoulders, and arms, and made their way down her
thighs. Then moving upwards his hands covered her breasts and kneaded slowly.
She gasped at the feel of his needy hands against her flesh. Tobias grunted in
approval then spun her around to claim her lips. Marietta pulled away to catch
a breath, she skimmed her eyes down his statuesque form moving down to his
manhood as it seemed to respond to her. She moved against him trying to ease
the ache that had been building inside her all this while.

She almost cried out in sheer pleasure when he picked
her up, stepping out of the shower and settling her on the vanity her legs
stretched apart as he stepped in between them. Tobias sank a thumb inside her
and moaned in approval when he found her wet and ready. Positioning himself at
her entrance he pushed into her. Marietta cried out as she felt her whole body
quake, threatening to release. She had missed feeling him like this, his long
length stroking inside her, flesh pounding against flesh, his muscles stiff as
he focused all his strength to one organ. She held onto him as tightly as she
could as her orgasm rushed through her almost making her slide off.

Tobias tightened his hold on her thighs and settled
her back, as he rocked within her. She found herself
panting.She
didn’t bother trying to mute her cries. To hell with whoever heard, she was
ready to shout the glory off the roof top. Her cries seemed to spur Tobias on
and when he stopped all of a sudden she whimpered in disappointment. Tobias
wrapped her legs around his waist, locking them at his back. He lifted her off the
vanity and carried her into the bedroom. He laid her on the bed and stared at
her. Marietta blushed under his intense gaze, but the embarrassment was soon
lost when she saw the frown in his eyes.

Tobias lowered himself over her, but first his hand
smoothed over her belly and his lips kissed the tiny scar left from the
caesarean. He looked up at her and their gazes locked. Marietta saw the sadness
in his eyes but the desire was still there, a desperate need he wanted to
quench. He moved to her lips and kissed her deeply. Marietta wrapped her arms
around him as she felt him hook her leg around him. The shock of him thrusting
inside her made her throw her head back as her satisfied cry escaped her lips.
She dug her fingers into his back as her muscles stiffened and she climaxed
again. As she tightened around him, she heard him grunt then felt his body
shiver as he pounded his release into her.

Marietta traced the muscles on his chest as he wrapped
his arm around her waist. She was trapped against him and it was the best
feeling ever. She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep, relaxed from their
coupling. She felt Tobias jostle her awake. In protest she turned away and
tried to slap his hands off.

“Marry me.” It came off sounding more like an order
than it did a request.

Marietta lifted her head so that she could look into
his eyes. She supported her weight on her elbow and watched him for a couple of
seconds then said, “No!”

“No! What do you mean no?”

Marietta was taken aback by the anger in his eyes. Her
lips lifted in amusement. “I don’t cook or clean. I am not going to do your
laundry or help Peter with your scheduling. I will not read or help you pick
your scripts. Basically what I am trying to say is that I am not wife
material.”

“I already know that. I’ve been living here with you
for three months and you have never picked up any of my socks or offered to
make me coffee.” He grinned back at her.

Marietta had always wondered what their lives would be
like intertwined. But she knew there were parts about herself that no one would
be able to handle, “I’m not emotional. I don’t talk about my feelings. I’d
rather write about them. I am independent. I don’t give people the burden of
being loyal to me. In the end I know they will betray me. I don’t expect much
from people that is how I manage to interact with the human race.”

“I want you to expect those things from me. I want to
soak in all your emotions and I will not force you to rely on me although I
hope that one day you will.” Tobias flopped back on his back and sighed. “I
have already made up my mind. We are getting married.”

“What?” Marietta laughed. “You are crazy.”

“You aren’t so sane yourself,” he teased back.

Marietta traced her fingers along his broad chest.
They would get married then what. She needed to know that they would at least
be able to be together long enough to build a future together. “Why do you want
to shackle yourself to me for eternity?”

“Because, I love you.”
He
turned to face her and pulled her closer to him. “I tell you so every single
day, but I don’t think you believe me. It’s not just about the baby we lost. I
love you and I want a future with you. I want you to be the one I wake up to
and yours to be the last face I see before I sleep. I want you to be the mother
of my children. I love you.”

“Fate has a way of taking the people I love away from
me. I have lost so much, I barely made it last time, I don’t know what I would
do if I were to lose you.” She ran her fingers through her hair but stopped
when
asparkle
caught her eye. She had a ring on her
finger, a large diamond with a platinum band. “When did you slip this on?”

“Your attention was occupied elsewhere.” He brushed
his lips against her and kissed her desperately. “I am going to marry you, and
no one will take you away from me.”

Marietta sighed as she looked at herself in the
mirror. Would
he
have liked this dress, she thought. Her hands smoothed
down the white gown. It wasn’t the traditional wedding dress but the short
notice didn’t give her time to buy a fancy dress or plan the wedding. They were
going to be married at Tobias’ parent’s beach house hours after he had
proposed.

“Are you ready?” Chris poked his head into the room. A
gasp escaped his lips as Marietta twirled around.

“How do I look?”

“Beautiful.” He took her arm and just before they
walked out he asked, “Are you sure about this? I know how you feel about
marriage…”

“I’m sure he’s the one. If he needs to sign a piece of
paper to make him feel like my husband I don’t mind,” she took in a deep breath
and jumped up and down, shaking her curly hair as she did. Flexing her
shoulders she brought her hand up to her face again, staring at the gigantic
ring. “I’m ready.”

“You do know that you aren’t headed into a boxing ring?”
Chris teased.

“That’s where you are wrong. Life is an eternal fight
and tying myself to Tobias means I have to fight his battles for him too.” Her
lips lifted in amusement at the stunned expression on Chris’ face, “I’m ready.
Let’s do this.”

*
* * *

“Let’s do this!”

Tobias laughed as he heard Marietta’s voice float from
the house and into the beach air. He looked around at their guests. There were
only five of them and Chris made six. Marietta had wanted it this way, just
family. Tobias had to remind his mother not to ask about Marietta’s parents.

Tobias looked up when the harpist began to play.
Marietta appeared at the end of the aisle and although she was standing there
with Chris, she was the only one he could see. He burst out laughing when he
watched how she half dragged Chris down the aisle.

“Are you sure?” Tobias heard McKenzie call from the
back row.

“Can it, old man,” Tobias shouted back.

“Seven is a lucky number,” the man said once more.
“Remember, I am the one who got you two together.”

Her heart warmed at the memory of their first kiss.
McKay was responsible for that. “Thank you for that, but I prefer being number
one.” Marietta said when she took her position next to Tobias.

***
*

Marietta woke up, dazed. She looked around the room
and wondered where she was. Other than Tobias she didn’t seem to recognize her
surrounding, “Where are we?”

“Home, we are at our home, in our bed,” he said as he
planted kisses on her back, “and you are my wife.”

Chapter
Seven

Present
time…

“Our home, our bed,” Marietta gasped out.

For the past three years this was what she had known
this place to be. It was their sanctuary, her and Tobias’ that was why she
didn’t understand the picture in front of her. What the hell was going on?

Marietta never thought that things would escalate to
this. They had been fighting, but their fights always revolved around the same
thing. Tobias wanted a baby and Marietta at the time had been unable to give
him one. After countless doctors’ appointments, six IVF treatments, she had
given up. Her body wasn’t ready and emotionally she wasn’t either. But Tobias
wanted to push on. He had witnessed how her battered body was being affected by
all the treatments but having a baby seemed so important to him. He was
desperate.

She hadn’t seen him for a couple of weeks, she had
been excited to share the news, but here she was faced with an image she was
sure would stay with her forever. Tobias jumped to his feet and dragged his
pants up as he threw a cover over his naked female companion. He turned to face
her and took slow steps towards her, as if he stalked towards her. Her chest
heaved as her hand flew to her mouth and her belly. The overpowering feeling to
hurl came over her. Marietta dropped her bag and ran into the toilet.

Marietta felt as if her guts were spilling out of her.
She felt a cool towel being placed on her neck as someone held onto her hair.
At that moment she was grateful for the help. She turned around and ended up
staring into Tobias’ apologetic eyes. She looked closer and saw a tear glisten
in them. Marietta wanted to wrap her arms around him and comfort him, tell him
everything would be okay but she couldn’t. She could feel the bile rise up from
her belly once more. But this time she didn’t want to throw up.

“How could you?” She turned her head toward the bedroom
as a thought dawned on her. “Was that—” She scrambled to her feet and marched
into the bedroom despite Tobias trying to hold her back. Her jaw dropped as she
watched the woman get dressed on her bed. “Sarah! Get out of my bed!”

Marietta was sure that she had finally gone insane.
She leaped on the bed as she tried to get her hands on the home wrecker. Sarah
yelped as she tried to duck away, but Marietta had managed to get a firm grip
on her blonde locks. Marietta felt the hands rain down on her as they tried to
loosen her grip on Sarah’s hair. This moment could only be described as that of
a rabid dog gone wild on her foe. Marietta snarled at them as she pulled Sarah
out of the bedroom, tossing her and her clothes out of the house.

“Get out! Get out! If I see you anywhere near my home
or my family…so help me God, nothing will save you,” she roared then banged the
door closed.

“You need to calm down, Mattie,” Jessie said as she
moved to Marietta’s side.

Marietta knew she had to calm down. But she couldn’t
bottle up the rage that was boiling inside her. With Tobias nowhere to be seen
Marietta sat down quietly for a moment, dealing slowly with the building anger.
But when Tobias emerged from the room fully dressed Marietta shot up to her
feet and lunged at him.

A bit of steel slipping into her tone, she pounded at
his chest as she wailed, “I hate you. I hate you so much.” A shadow crossed
over his face and his expression immediately closed. Marietta restrained
herself from catching the tear that rolled down his cheek. “I’ll catch every tear
that falls out of your eyes. I’ll kiss the pain away, my arms will be your
source of strength and solitude, my heart a place for our love to grow, my love
the only truth that I know, my life a loyal submission to yours.”

“Why are you telling me my wedding vows?” Tobias’
voice cracked with emotion as he stared at her with heavily lidded eyes.

Her voice almost as low as his she said, “You promised
and now you broke that promise. And I hate you for that. I told you the one
thing I cannot forgive is betrayal. I trusted you.”

“Mattie, you need to remember what the doctor said,”
Jessie said once more.

A twist of fear wrenched through her as her hand
dropped to her belly. Her heart closed at the very thought of going through
that terrible ordeal one more time. She took a couple of deep breaths and tried
to settle the nerves raging through her. Marietta looked up at him and studied
the hard planes of his face. They were supposed to be celebrating and not
fighting, but the fates seemed to be having a laugh at her expense once again.
Words of anger sat on her tongue, making her throat thicken, but she had to
prioritize.

****

“What’s wrong with you? What did the doctor say?”
Tobias knew Marietta to be a very passionate person, even in her anger. Nothing
could stop her from her path of fury, so seeing her calm herself in a second
was strange. He had been thinking of how he was going to explain his betrayal
but he came up empty. ‘I was drinking and it happened’ didn’t seem like the
appropriate explanation, even though it was the truth. But now knowing that
there was something wrong with her made his insides chill from fear.

“Will someone please answer me?” Tobias barked out in
anticipation.

He watched as Marietta tiptoed and moved her head
forward, her face close to him. Her hand seemed to caress his neck then her
palm rested on his chest. She brushed her lips against his, and a strange eddy
of fear, pain, excitement and desperation fizzled inside his chest when he
heard her say, “I’m pregnant.”

As she tried to move away from him, he grabbed her
arms and pulled her body against his. “Don’t play with me. How far along are
you?”

“Four months.

“How long have you known?”

“Twelve hours. For three years we have been praying
and waiting for this baby. You didn’t care that all those doctors’
appointments, hormone treatments and the fact that I was a pin cushion bothered
me.” Her voice remained calm although the emotion behind it made him cringe.

“I did, I did care. But we wanted a baby.” For years
he had wanted to fill the void the loss of their first baby had left in his
heart. He thought it had been his duty to both of them to make sure that they
didn’t give up. So he pushed a little too hard but he always managed to
convince himself that they would celebrate the effort once the baby was here.
His hand brushed hers aside and he laid it on her belly. The baby was there, he
could feel his heart leap in celebration. But he had screwed everything up. His
depression had led him to the bottle and the bottle to Sarah. But he had a
baby, he finally had a baby.

“Now we have a baby. You knocked me up and out of your
life.” Marietta clapped sarcastically. “Congratulations.”

“We are pregnant.” He couldn’t restrain the hope in
his voice. But that was soon crushed by the steel in her voice.

“No, I’m pregnant. You just happen to be the guy who
knocked me up.” Marietta chuckled and the sound of it was like an icy tip
piercing through his heart. A horrible dread tugged at his gut and lower,
dragging him down. “I told you I always lose the people I love, my mother,
brother, the baby and now you. But I won’t lose this baby it’s the only thing
that is keeping me sane right now.”

“We need to fix our relationship before the baby comes,”
he pleaded.

“I have nothing to fix.” Marietta pulled out of his
embrace. How could she fix this?
He
had cursed her the first time
he
touched
her. She hadn’t thought about
him
for three years, but her life was
unraveling and it was
his
fault. How could she expect anyone to love
her?

Tobias let her
go,
afraid
that restraining her or aggravating her further would have an impact on the
baby. “You can’t keep me away from my child.”

“I would never do that. I know how it feels to grow up
without a father and I wouldn’t do that to our baby. You are going to be a
great father but I should have listened when you said you weren’t a
relationship person.” He listened to the tremble in her voice and he loathed
himself for being the cause of her pain. “We can’t be together. When I’m close
to my due date, I’ll come back.”

“Come back, what do you mean come back?” Tobias followed
her into their bedroom. “Where are you going?”

“I can’t stay here. This isn’t my home anymore. I
don’t have a place here.” Marietta fussed with the safe, groaning each time she
came up with a wrong combination. She steadied her hand and paused before
having a go at it again. When the safe door opened she sighed, grabbed her
passport, and headed for the door.

“Please don’t leave.” She froze when he stood before
her, the picture of a broken man.

“I’ll be back.”

“Five months from now. I cannot go that long without
seeing you.”

“This is how it has to be for now.” She knew she was
supposed to hate him but she couldn’t. It hurt her more that she was hurting
him. The fault was on his part but al she wanted to do was to wrap her arms
around him and tell him everything was going to be okay. But she couldn’t. She
didn’t know where they could go from here. She needed to leave if not to save
their marriage then to save their friendship. Staying around the scene of his
infidelity would only make her loathe him even more. “I can’t stay here. I don’t
have a place here anymore. Besides, we have been fighting for so long.”

“That was only because we couldn’t get pregnant, but
now…” Tobias said.

She shivered when he touched her belly. She took a
step back to clear her head from the mixed emotions running through her.

“We need the separation. What you did here—” Marietta
shrugged, “—just gave us the opportunity.”

She forced herself to be more brazen, stopping only to
place a kiss on his throat before walking out. Marietta picked up her suitcase
and half ran half walked out of the apartment. She turned a deaf ear to Jessie
and Toby as they called out for her. She needed to deal with this and she
needed to do it alone.

Tobias watched helplessly as the love of his life and
his child disappeared from his sight.

****

Marietta looked around as she felt as if a millions
eyes were on her. No doubt some of them would recognize her. Before Tobias she
was just another mind behind a script. Now she was Mattie Harden on the cover
of magazines, standing at the side of one of Hollywood’s best. Marietta missed
her somewhat quiet life, especially when she didn’t have Tobias at her side to
help her through the flash bulbs. She was in no mood to interact with anyone,
not even her loyal fans. She pulled her hair out of its tight bun and the
thickness of it framed her face, and her shades did the rest.

She stood in front of the departure board. She could
go anywhere she wanted in the world. Marietta stared at the passport in her
hand, but wondered how far she was willing to go to get away from her husband.
‘Not too far’ a small voice said inside her. She still wanted to be able to get
to Tobias just in case anything happened. The memory of losing her first baby
haunted her and the fear almost crippled her. She was going to need to be close
just in case.

Marietta fished her phone from her purse, all the
while keeping her head low. “Where are you?

****

Marietta sighed with relief when she caught sight of
Chris waiting for her at the airport. At first she just marched straight at
him, trying to concentrate on not breaking down. But little did she know that
tears had already started rolling down her cheeks. The emotion that was
surrounding her was too much. She felt her body drop into Chris’ hands and her
heart into her stomach. She was back in Minnesota, where all the nightmares had
begun and where they were apparently going to go on.

She felt Chris hold her tightly against his frame as
he marched her to a waiting SUV. Marietta was relieved, there were no paparazzi
there to document her arrival, and she didn’t want Toby to know where she was.
Although she was grateful he was giving her time to think, a little part of her
was disappointed that he didn’t bother to chase after her. He did say he
couldn’t go five months without seeing her and yet he just watched her as she
walked out of their home.

Marietta stared out the window, seemingly counting the
trees as they zoomed past. She lost count a couple of times when her thoughts
went back to Toby, but she started all over again in the hopes of distracting herself.

“Jessie called me.” Chris said, breaking into her
soothing mantra.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She bit on her lip as
she mused over a thought. “Does he know where I am?”

“Jessie promised not to tell.”

“I just need a few weeks,” she whispered.

“Are you actually going to deal with this or are you
going to
deal
with it?” Chris asked
as the car pulled into his driveway.

“There is no use weeping over spilled milk.” Marietta
forced a smile to her lips but it was obvious that Chris wasn’t buying her
façade.

This was how Marietta operated. With Tobias the
question of her distant emotions and how she dealt with things was never asked.
She always seemed to be able to preoccupy him with sex. But in Chris’ case
there was no chance of that. Fortunately he understood her need for
privacy.He
was the only one left alive who understood her
need to withdraw from her emotions. Chris and her father, that is.

Her eyes roamed around the small neighborhood as a
chill ran through her. Usually thoughts of her father didn’t affect her, but
she was usually thousands of miles away. Being here a few blocks from where all
the nightmares started, she felt terrified.