Risking Fate (25 page)

“This is all fucked to Hell, Man. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this secret from her. It’s ripping me apart inside.”

Conner had told Miranda he was meeting me, but it didn’t stop her from texting me.

Is everything okay? – M

Just a bad day at work, Baby. Will be home soon. I love you. – Ty

“Ty, I don’t know what to tell you. That bitch took advantage of you and whatever happened wasn’t because you wanted it to. You need to remember that. You didn’t willingly cheat on Randa. I don’t
believe
that for a second.”

I appreciated his trust, but it still killed me knowing what did happen.

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 walke
d
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 k
ids 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 goo
d. 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
’
r
e
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 sur
prised. 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.