Love Rekindled (Candle Light Book 2) (2 page)

Kristy, my beautiful baby sister would be alive, raising her daughter with the man she so terribly loved more than anything in the world. My big brother Morris would have a brood of his own and a lovely wife, leaving his bachelor—more like Casanova—life behind. And I, with my husband and wonderful son, and we would all spend the holidays and birthdays together. Like a real family.

And Uncle Ron...

I let out a sigh. Thinking of Ronald was never a good idea. It brought up too much confusion and anger... and painful ‘what ifs’.

But things aren’t as I wished they were. Kristy was dead, and her namesake daughter was being raised by her husband William, alone. I tried everything I could to get him to date again, but he just won’t bite. He keeps telling me true love exists only once and it can never be replace, so why should he accept a substitute?

Why indeed.

Morris on the other hand wants nothing to do with true love. After watching William suffer Kristy’s loss, almost losing his sanity and falling into a deep depression, I completely understand his fear. That and the fact his college girlfriend died of breast cancer at the age of twenty three. He wasn’t truly in love with her, but watching him stand by her side through each and every step of that dreaded disease eating her alive and finally killing her... It affected him more than he cared to admit. It broke him and she wasn’t even his soul mate.

I shivered. I understood that fear.  

But the thing is, I’ve never loved like William or Kristy, I’ve only loved like Morris.

Even that kind of love I’m not sure I’ve ever felt. But I thought I did.

Steve was quite a guy—a gentleman, patient, caring, attentive and always there when I needed him. I loved him before I met the real him.

Yes, I’m married, but it’s just a marriage of convenience.

Steve Hewitt, father of my son, a man I call husband for... I turned to the calendar. The gesture actually made me laugh—a sad and bitter laugh. Anyway, my husband for the past two years and one month only married me to save face.

He wasn’t particularly happy to hear I got pregnant after the first time we had sex. He thought I trapped him. He thought the three months we dated was my way of finding out what he was worth, who he was and how important his family was. And in those three months, I also did the unforgiveable by taking my time and with so much skill to lure him into my bed. He was so excited about finally getting some that he forgot to use a condom, which was obviously my fault.

He’s such an ass.

Did he really expect me to let him near my cookies on the first date?

I scoffed, of course he did. But, unlike all the other girls he’s dated I live by my own rules. I give myself three months to decide whether or not the guy earned the right to my cookies.

Well except for one guy... but that doesn’t really matter now.

I didn’t forget to use protection. I was on the pill for two weeks prior, and the damn thing didn’t work. I probably have grounds to sue. Not because of Eric, my baby is the best thing that has ever happened to me in years, but because I got stuck with the high and mighty moron Steve Hewitt.

He flipped out when I told him I was pregnant. After throwing a tantrum for like three hours he stormed out, only to come back the next day with a diamond ring.

I stared down at my ball and chain on the table. An eight carat diamond, with a platinum band, sitting beside my wedding ring—a thick white gold band. I’ve always asked myself why I agreed to this farce of a marriage but the answer was quite simple—Eric.

My proposal was not romantic. He didn’t take me to ‘our place’ to set the mood. He didn’t get on one knee and smile nervously up at me. He didn’t profess his love, singling out those moments he knew he loved me and wanted to make me his wife. He didn’t confess that the baby was the final push he needed to stop being a coward and finally propose, nor did he say the baby was the best thing that could have ever happened to us, our love child. He didn’t stay on his knee anxiously as he waited for me to stop weeping with joy and cry ‘Yes Steve, I’ll marry you!’  He didn’t dance for joy, pick me up in his arms and kiss me until I couldn’t breath, promising we would always be happy.

No, he didn’t do any of that. Instead, that day was the first part to this horror movie of a marriage. No the second part—his tantrum was too epic to sideline.

Instead, my fairytale proposal was a complete horror flick. He shoved the ring at me, and demanded we get married. I for one don’t respond well to orders. I said no, and he responded with ‘my dad is not giving you a choice in the matter’. Oh yeah, a thirty two year old man still took orders from his
daddy
in his personal life like he was ten! But that wasn’t the best part. I had two choices—either agreed to the marriage, or they would be the first ones to break the news to the society tabloids. They would drag my name through the mud for the duration of the pregnancy then take full custody from me.

I’ve never been so scared in my life. I didn’t have the means to fight one of New York’s royal families, especially the most powerful of the few black prominent ones. The Stanford name could have helped, but I’m not a Stanford and William had finally gotten his life back together, I couldn’t drag him into this mess. It was my mess. And so I took the coward’s way out and said yes.

I pretended to be head over heels in love in front of my family and they were so happy for me. Probably because I would be too busy with my new family to interfere in their lives. But I must admit it was a beautiful wedding. Morris got to walk me down the aisle too, like he did with Kristy. My new parents-in-law made themselves pests around William and Gloria. I always wondered if forcing this marriage wasn’t their way to get into the good graces of the Stanford’s.

But the one Stanford I wish had attended was Ron. He would have seen right through me, like he did at Kristy’s birthday party.

You are unhappy Sandra.

And how would you know?

I do know you, and marrying that moron was not a decision you willingly entered.

When he said those words, it took everything in me not to break down and cry. I hadn’t seen Ron in three years, and it took an hour in his presence for him to see through my smoke and mirrors.

He would have helped me fight the Hewitt family. But that was something I could never allow him to do, for the sake of the little pride I had left. I needed that little pride to finally write the last scene to this horror movie.

I heard the door open and close and I knew the time had finally arrived.

I stood up from my dinning table and walked to the living room. Steve was sited on the couch, his head leaning back against the back rest of the couch, his eyes closed and his lips spread in a Cheshire cat smile and I knew he’d been with one of his many mistresses. It sickened me. How could I have thought for one moment that I loved this man? It made me angry. Exactly the kind of emotion I needed to finally do this.

Kristy, be here with me
. I took a deep breath and blurted out, “I’m filing for divorce Steve, and there is nothing you or your father can do to stop me.”

*

“Why didn’t you tell us the truth Sandra?” William demanded, his face gaining a new shed of red. He’d been quiet the entire time I told him and Morris about my two years of marriage hell and how I got into it. Morris, of course had been pacing and cursing under his breathe the entire time but William waited until I was done to show his anger.

Seeing them so angry made me want to cry, but I wasn’t going to do that. I didn’t want their pity, I wanted their help.

“Don’t yell at me!” I returned with as much anger as I could muster—and it wasn’t much.

William turned to face me, his blue eyes growing darker with rage with each passing minute, “I’ll bloody well yell as I see fit! Two years, Sandra! Two wasted years of living with that moron! Those are two years you will never get back. Two years of happiness you could have had, you’ve thrown away!”

I looked at him and I then realized his anger was directed at me and not Steve. That just pissed me off!

“I not the villain in this story, I had no choice!”

Morris shook his head and pointed at me, “Oh no, this is your fault. It stopped being that asshole’s fault when you folded. You could have come to me and William and we would have fixed this. Hell, Ron would have taken Steve apart just for the fun of it!”

I felt a shiver run through me. The last person I wanted involved was Ronald Stanford. “Don’t say a word to him.”

William gave a dry chuckle, “During Kristy’s birthday he said something was wrong with you. I just chocked it up to him playing offensive in the feud you two have.”

Feud? If they only knew the truth.

“Your feelings about my stupidity have been noted. Can we please think of solutions that will end with me keeping my son?”

The divorce had been on going for a month now since my announcement to Steve and it was getting uglier by the day. Stories about me being an unfit mother were all over the tabloids and William and Morris had confronted me about my divorce then. I denied it of course but when Steve threatened to have false witnesses come forward, I knew it was time to fess up. Now here I am, not getting the reaction I wanted. I knew they would be mad but this, I didn’t expect this.

William huffed and dropped back into the chair he’d shot off a few minutes ago, pissed out of his mind. Morris sat next to him, his arms folded across his chest, his eyes in dark angry slits.

I let out a relieved breath. They were sitting down and weren’t yelling anymore, a good step to the right direction. But when their silence went on it agitated me. I felt like I had ants in my pants.

“Would someone please say something?”

“Don’t be this stupid ever again Sandra!” Morris spat out.

“Hey—” I began to protest but William cut me off.

“He’s right. You’re the only sister he has left, the only one I have.” He spoke above a whisper, and his voice was pained. “People with money lusting for power are dangerous and I don’t want a repeat.”

Kristy. My heart felt heavy just thinking about her. She’d gone up against a man with money and power and ended up dead for the effort. Fine, my husband had undesirable qualities but he couldn’t blink without his father’s expressed directions. He was not capable of murder.

“Steve wouldn’t do that to me.”

William cleared his throat, “That doesn’t matter. What matters is getting you out of this marriage alive and with your son.”

Morris rubbed his palms over his face and exhaled loudly. This wasn’t easy for him either. They both blamed themselves for not being able to protect Kristy and now me. I really should have told them the truth two years ago.

“There is only one thing we can do. William would have to throw his family name behind it. We’ll have to fight them on equal ground.”

“Good idea but, William isn’t exactly well known in New York society.” I said, hoping I didn’t offend him.

“Thank God,” he blurted out, rolling his eyes. “But I’ve had too make a number of appearances these past few years. Getting involved with my family’s investments in America was the only way I could earn an income and spend all my time with Kristy.”

That was news to me, but I had been living under a rock for the past two years. Steve wanted me to have very little contact with my family to maintain the farce. He wasn’t all too happy about moving a street away from William, but he was too happy to please his father. It was the one thing my father-in-law supported me in. But the more I think about it, the more I think I was some kind of pawn to get close to the Stanford’s.

“Why did you give up advertising?” I felt guilty asking this now, but, it was time to catch up with my real family.

He smiled, one of those ‘it’s not your fault smiles’. That lifted some weight off my shoulders and I smiled back.

“Mother thought taking the business responsibilities this side of the Atlantic will help convince Ronald it was time to settle down and take over the company and all its investments in Europe.”

I shivered again, Ron. Time to change the subject, “So, what are you going to do?”

“First, I’m going to pull out from the new venture with them and hire two of the meanest sharks I can find to back up the attorney you already have. If they don’t want a clean fight, I’ll make sure you leave with half of what Mr. Hewitt owns.”

I laughed, “Steve doesn’t own a thing. His father does.”

The edge of William’s lips rose, “That’s why I said Mr. Hewitt.”

Wow, altar boy got a mean streak! I liked it.

Morris scoffed, “I knew he didn’t have a backbone. That’s why I thought you could handle him just fine.”

I shook my head, “We are both being handled by his father.”

We all turned to Eric’s crying. I checked my watch—it had only been three hours since I put him down in Kristy’s room. His cousin had insisted on having him sleep in her room. She thought we were there to stay for the weekend. When in truth, Steve had decided since he bought the house, I should have been the one to leave.

I stood up, “I’ll go check on him.”

I only got around the table when Kristy appeared, her cheeks wet with tears holding a crying Eric tightly against her chest. “Aunty Sandra, something is wrong. Eric is very hot.”