The Beginning of Us (142 page)

When I woke up, Stosh was already out of bed. I could hear him in the bathroom and saw him walking out without any clothes on. I wasn’t sure what turned me on more; knowing what we’d done in the tub, or what we could be doing right at that moment.

He climbed onto the bed and leaned over to kiss me. I could taste the toothpaste on his lips. “Good morning, beautiful. Are you up for breakfast with my parents?”

My eyes must have seemed like they were going to pop out of my head. “What? No!”

He laughed and nodded. “Yes! You need to get up. My mom wants us there in a half hour.”

I took a pillow and put it over my face, so I could scream in it. “This can’t be happening. They’re going to hate me, just like my parents. Can’t we just stay here, in bed?”

He pulled the pillow away from my face. “As much as I would love to be naked in bed with you, we have other, more important things to do. Besides, I know you’re tired of dealing with all of this. This gets us one step closer to being able to be accepted. You said you trusted me last night. I need you trust me right now.”

“I do trust you. I just don’t trust anyone else. They’re going to hate me. I’m a home wrecker.”

“You are not! They will love you because I love you.”

I finally stopped fighting to keep the pillow between us. “Fine, since you’re so sweet, I will get up and get ready. When they ask me to leave, I hope they are at least polite. I don’t want your mother chasing me out of there with a frying pan.”

I walked into the bathroom, so he talked louder. “I love how your imagination works, Will. I’m pretty sure my mom has never even considered chasing someone down with a frying pan. I think you watched too many cartoons as a small child. Perhaps we should prevent our child from turning out like their mother.”

I had his toothbrush in my mouth when I peeked my head out the door. “Shut up! I learned a lot from Scooby Doo.”

“Like how to be stoned?”

“No, smartass! I learned about solving mysteries and being good friends. I also learned what foods I would never mix together to make a sandwich.”

We could joke around all we wanted, but the fact was that Stosh was throwing me right into the lion’s den. I wasn’t sure I could handle more rejection.

As reluctant as I was, I still got myself ready and agreed to give it a chance. Stosh seemed so certain that I wondered if he’d already told them everything. I wanted to ask, but it didn’t matter. They were going to hate me if they wanted to.

When we pulled up at his parent’s house, it was just like old times. We’d studied in his basement and watched movies in the room off the kitchen. I remember his parents being away and us cranking the music up as loud as it would go. We kept the pizza joint in business that year.

We were sitting in the car outside of his parent’s house. He reached over and ran his hand up my thigh. “I have a good feeling about this.”

“I’m glad you do. I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

He climbed out of the driver’s seat and I just sat there. After a few minutes, he shook his head and came over to my side of the vehicle. I pushed the lock down so he couldn’t open the door. “Willow, come on.”

I shook my head. “Let’s just go home.”

“No!” He looked so serious. “Open the damn door. You’re being ridiculous.”

“I am not!” I gritted my teeth. “You’re still married to my sister. I’m being reasonable.”

There was no way around the weirdness. Nothing could ever change the fact that they were married. Even after time, I’d still be the other sister. It made me feel like shit.

He pressed his head against the window. “I want you to do this for me. If you feel uncomfortable, I promise we can leave. I just need you to try.”

I opened the door and got out. “Couldn’t this at least wait until things get better? I don’t want to be the other woman.”

“You’re not!” He corrected. “You’re THE woman. You always have been; even when we weren’t together.”

I hated when he said the sweetest things when I wanted to be mad at him. It made it hard to hold a grudge.

He didn’t knock on his parent’s front door before he opened it and walked right in. I followed behind him like I’d never been in the house before. For the most part every room looked the same. There were new elements that had been added, but not much.

Stosh grabbed my hand and pulled me into the kitchen, where we could hear the clattering of pots.

His mother looked up and smiled. She pointed right at me. “You, come here, right this minute!”

I turned around and looked at Stosh before walking in her direction. From the look on her face, I was sure she was going to smack me. With fast reflexes, she grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. “Willow, I am so sorry for what has been going on. Charles and I have heard all about it from Stoshua. It pains me to say this, but I never did trust your sister. She’s never made him truly happy.”

I kept my arms around her, feeling like her support was giving me strength. “Thank you.”

“I knew my son was hot for you back in high school. It never made sense how he ended up with Ivy. She wasn’t his type what so ever. Then when all of this stuff started happening, I had to question my son. Things just weren’t adding up. After he was arrested, he sat us down and explained everything. I’m very sorry for believing her, Willow. I do hope that someday you can forgive me for that.”

I started sobbing. “I already do. You don’t know how much this means to me.” I pulled away and wiped my eyes. “I trusted her and all this time she’s been living her life with a goal to destroy me. I love your son. I always have.”

“Please dry your tears. It’s going to be alright, child.”

I shook my head. “Everything that I’ve ever known about my sister has been a lie. I loved her as much as I loved myself and she never cared about me at all. She’d rather see me dead than happy. In fact, she’d do just about anything to see me miserable.”

Emotions were pouring out of me at this point. I couldn’t control them. So much pent up anxiety had caused me to lose it finally.

“Yesterday, when we got the call that Stoshua needed our help, you can imagine how much we wanted answers. Once we brought him home, he told us all about your sister. Forgive me for being blunt with you, Willow, but you’ve really been dragged in the muck for long enough. I’m not one to use profanity, but that little bitch has messed with the wrong family. We had no idea about any of this. I never would have accepted her into my family, otherwise.”

Even though a weight was being lifted off of me, it still didn’t change the mess that my sister had managed to make of my life. We’d forever be judged for our relationship. Still, I wrapped my arms around the woman. “Thank you for saying that. It’s been difficult to take in, so I can understand how confusing it all must be. Had I known back then, things would have ended up differently.”

“And your parents are not angry with her over this?”

I pulled away and looked down at the floor. “They think I’m the bad guy in all of this. In fact, they think I pretended to be my sister to seduce Stosh. She told them lies about me, and about him. Now we’re just trying to figure out a way to be together without her finding out about the bab…” I realized what I said and just froze.

She was looking from me to Stosh. “You’re pregnant?”

“I…”

Stosh stepped between us. “We’re having a baby, Mom.”

She put her hands over her mouth and just kept looking at us. Stosh looked at me and winked, but I was scared that everything the woman had told me was going to be retracted. “I’m going to be a grandmother?”

He began to laugh. “Yes, you are. I wanted to tell you yesterday. We just can’t let Ivy find out about it.”

His mom seemed alarmed by his comment. “Why?”

This time, I didn’t care about keeping my feelings bottled in. “Ivy didn’t just set me and Stosh up to get caught. She found out she couldn’t get pregnant. I guess it also occurred to her that she’d never have Stosh’s heart, so she did her research and found out when I’d be ovulating.”

I saw that she was lost. “Come again? What are you saying?”

“We’re twins, so my baby would be the closest thing she’d ever get to having one of her own. She wanted to steal my baby.”

She looked at her son. “You knew about this?”

He held his hands up. “Yeah, I did.”

“How could you?” She slapped her son right in the face. “You were raised better!”

He didn’t back away from her. “Mom, I can explain.”

“You’d better start!”

Stosh spent the next hour telling his mother the details that he’d left out before. Even I could tell how disappointed she was in him, even if his intentions were out of desperation.

When it was all said and done she turned her attention back to me. “Willow, I am awfully happy about being a grandmother, but I wouldn’t blame you for being angry with my son. I don’t approve of his actions.”

“He wasn’t the only one who lied. I told him I aborted the baby. I had gone back to town and just wanted to forget what had happened. Regrettably, I did make the appointment, but the idea of giving up a baby was just too much for me to handle. Besides, I think in my heart, I just wanted to have a part of your son, even if he didn’t want that with me.”

“So you were never going to tell him?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

She shook her head. “This is like something I read in my novels. I didn’t think this kind of stuff happened in real life.”

“Apparently, it does.”

She pointed at both of us. “So, where do you stand now?”

He put his arm around me. “We’re together; where we should have been all along.”

“And Ivy?”

“We don’t know where she is.” I announced.

“So you could be in danger?”

“I will keep her safe.” Stosh informed her.

“You’ll stay here with us. I’m not having that girl come anywhere near my grandchild.” She was adamant.

The last thing either of us wanted to do was stay at his parent’s house, but we knew it was a safe place to be before we could get everything else figured out. The next few weeks were going to be hectic as Stosh would be looking for a new job and a place for us to live.

Since his father wasn’t around for the conversation, he had to sit down with him later that night and explain it all again. He was as flabbergasted as his wife, but ended up being just as supportive.

Before bed, Stosh held me tightly in his arms. I felt safer than I had in days. “I’m going to see your mother tomorrow.”

I sat up and looked at him. “What?”

“It’s time she starts listening, Will. This shit has been going on long enough. Instead of running from Ivy, we’re going to fight her. She’s going down and I’m going to do my damndest to make sure that it’s slow and painful.”

“Fine by me.”

He kissed me on my nose. “Get some sleep. You’re coming with me in the morning.”

Chapter 24

Say What?

I didn’t want to face my parents, especially since they’d just written me off without hearing my side of the story. I get how things looked, but I still deserved the chance to plead my case, whether I was having an affair or not.

His parents stayed up pretty late, asking a million more questions. I got that they were confused. Hell, I still didn’t fully understand the complexity of everything that had been happening. One thing we all knew was that my sister was sick. She needed help.

As much as she’d done to me, there was still this small part of me that felt like I was the only one that could get through to her. Contrary to her accusations of hating me, I felt like she must love me enough to want to be me so badly. Against my better judgment, I walked out onto Stosh’s parent’s terrace with my cell phone.

Before I changed my mind, I quickly dialed my sister’s number.

You have a lot of nerve calling me.

You have a lot of nerve saying that.

What do you want, Willow? Are you calling to brag about how you got the guy, because I don’t care anymore? In fact, I’m totally bored with it all.

I’m calling because I want you to tell Mom and Dad the truth.

Fat chance, sis.

You owe me, Ivy. After trying to ruin my life, it’s the least you can do.

I owe you nothing!

Ivy, please. We’ll leave town and never bother you again.

I’m not giving you the satisfaction of being the favorite again. Mom and Dad are eating out of the palm of my hand. They just gave me a hundred grand to start a new life. You really think I’d fuck that up?

You’re using them!

Of course I am. Just because things didn’t work out with you, didn’t mean that I hadn’t come up with a backup plan. Things couldn’t be working out better. Mom and Dad are feeling so sorry for me that they are bending over backwards to make me happy. They think you’re the worst person on the planet. I love it! I know for a fact that they changed their will. I get everything.

They’re going to find out the truth someday, Ivy.

They won’t find out. I’m making sure of that.

What are you going to do?

Goodbye, Willow.

The call had been ended.

I was immediately petrified of what was going to happen next. Without regard for what time it was, I dialed my parent’s house number.

Hello?

Dad, it’s Willow. Listen to me, please. Ivy is up to something and you might be in danger. I need you and Mom to leave town for a couple of days.

Willow, how did you get out of jail? Tell us where you are. You need help, honey.

Dad, no! Please!

Willow, you need to stop this.
  You need to get help. Your sister has been through enough trauma.

I hung up the phone, realizing that I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him. I’d have to prove it to them, somehow.

Looking back, I should have woke up Stosh and asked him to go with me, but I was too worried about what my sister was planning to do. For some reason, I felt like my parents were in serious danger.