Small Town Secret: Mayfield Springs Book 1 (6 page)

I sighed thinking about what Chris had done to me four years ago. When the wife no one knew about turned up in town, he made a pretty speedy getaway. How he thought he'd get away with having a relationship with me when he was already married, I have no idea.

Chris wrote me a letter after he returned to Hollywood. I kept it for ages before burning it one night when I was feeling particularly fragile. In it, he told me that he had never been in love with Stacey. His marriage to her had been one of convenience: she needed a green card, he needed to be seen with someone who had connections, and he never believed that she would have a problem with him seeing other girls as long as he was discreet.
 

I never knew that I was the 'bit on the side'; he never told me the truth about his marriage; and whether he truly loved me or not, he still tossed me aside to pursue his 'connections' and his career.
 

Apart from sending me that letter which I hadn't responded to; in four years he hadn't come looking for me once. And now here he was back in my life again and looking like he wanted a relationship. If I was going to get involved with Chris again, I needed to be realistic that it would be a bit of fun for the few days he was here but probably nothing beyond that. I just didn't fit into his world.
 

"Mommy?" a little voice came from behind me.
 

"Hello, sweetie," I said, kneeling on the floor beside my little girl. "What have you got there?"

"It's a drawing. I did it for you."

"Oh that's lovely sweetheart, let me see."

I took the sheet of paper from between her tiny fingers. As always with Bella's artwork, I had no idea what I was looking at in her painting.
 

"It's brilliant! What is it?" I asked.
 

"A dinosaur princess," she replied proudly.

"Wow! You're quite the artist Bella," I said.

She smiled as though it was the best thing I'd ever told her.
 

"In fact, you've done such a good painting; I think you deserve some ice cream."

"Yay!" she shrieked, running out of the room towards the stairs.
 

"Honey, don't run down the stairs you'll hurt yourself," I called out after her.

She gave me a cheeky one-eyed look through the gap in the banister and giggled before holding onto it as tightly as she could, taking one step down at a time.
 

"That's it. Good girl. I'll be down in a minute."

That girl melts my heart. Sometimes Bella is just so cute I want to bake her into a cake and eat her up. Still having no idea what to wear, I slipped on my dirty sweatpants and made my way downstairs to get Bella's ice cream. As I scooped out the mint chocolate chip, I noticed that Bella was uncharacteristically quiet. I looked up to see what she was doing and found her staring straight at me with a quizzical expression on her face.
 

"Everything ok?" I asked, placing the bowls down on the table with a clunk. "You want chocolate sauce?"
 

She nodded her head but said nothing.
 

"You've gone very quiet sweetie. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, digging her spoon into her ice cream.
 

"Now, Mommy doesn't like it when you tell lies, does she?"

"Nope," she shook her head as she placed the spoon in her mouth.
 

"So... are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

In a rather grown up fashion, she placed her spoon back in her bowl and pushed it away from her, imitating my mannerisms. It took me aback while amusing me at the same time.
 

"Sophie," she announced gravely.

"What about her?"

Bella met Sophie at playgroup. They grew close over a mutual love of Barbies and in some ways, they were just like Cassie and me at the same age.
 

"Sophie wants to know where my daddy is."

The words hit me in the gut. I always knew the day would come when she would start asking questions. I never for one minute, though, thought it would come so soon.
 

"Well..." I started, realizing that I hadn't thought through what to say when I was asked this question.
 
"Why don't you tell her that er..." I trailed off and started to dig into my ice cream instead of answering the question.
 

"Your daddy," I began again, as I fidgeted with the lid on the chocolate sauce bottle. "Your daddy is a very important man, and because of that, he has to work all over the country, and he can't come to see us."

"Oh... Then why can't we go with him?" she asked.
 

Again her innocent words penetrated me deep down. There were tears in my eyes, but I held them back.
 

"Because Mommy needs to be here with Grandma and Grandpa," I responded, thinking it was time to change the subject.
 

"Ok Bella, we can talk about this later on when we have more time," I said brightly. "Right now though I have to get you ready to see Grandma."

"I love Grandma," she said with a smile. "She loves me so much. She comes here every day to put me to bed."

Again, her words cut through me. It seemed as though the more I tried to look after Bella and provide for her, the less like a good mother I felt. I wished I had better working hours and could spend more time with her.
 
As I cleared the table I made a vow to myself. Things have got to change.
 

After putting Bella into her pajamas and settling her in front of the TV, I went back upstairs to try on more dresses that used to fit and apply makeup I hadn't worn in years.
What happened to me?
I thought as I looked around my dim and dismal bedroom.
Bella deserves better than this. I deserve better than this.

For a moment, I wondered if I should move home with my parents. It wasn't as if they didn't want me to move in with them. In fact, most weeks Mom dropped subtle hints about how much Bella would enjoy the garden or how I could have more fun cooking in a larger kitchen. But my independent nature gets the better of me at times. I wanted to live my life, out of the shadow of my parents and so I'd been stubborn and dug my heels in.
 
"No Mom," I'd said. "We'll be out of here soon. Just as soon as I save up enough money." Except there never was enough money. In fact, there was barely enough to cover the bills, let alone create a savings account.
 

But it wasn't the time to be worry about that now because in forty-five minutes I was supposed to be at the rehearsal dinner and I had to look my best. I combed my hair and pulled a too tight, black dress down over my body. It was about two sizes too small for me, and it made the tops of my breasts burst out of the top.
 

"Oh God," I said as I turned around to see what my bottom looked like in the dress. "It'll just have to do."

CHAPTER 9

AMY

Cassie and Daniel were having their rehearsal dinner and their wedding reception at the Mayfield Springs Resort. No surprise really, it was the only venue in town that would come close to the standard they'd expect in New York. And even then, I knew it would probably fall way short. My friend Jesse, the hotel manager, had told me that they'd brought in their own chef with their own menu, and the waiters didn't understand what half the food was. I could just imagine.

As I pulled into the parking lot in my beaten-up car, I could see everyone mingling on the front steps. Great. I'd hoped to make a quiet entrance. Guess that wasn't going to happen.
 

Cassie waved frantically and screamed out my name, "Amy! Everyone - Amy's here. It's time for you all to meet the maid of honor. You'll love her," she shrieked as she ran down the stairs towards me.
 

I gave her a tight hug and kiss on the cheek. "You must be so excited. Your big day's almost here!"

"Daniel, come and meet Amy," she said, dragging her fiancé from his conversation over to join us. "Daniel, this is Amy, my bestest friend in the whole world. Amy meet Daniel - possibly the hottest guy I've ever met." Cassie giggled and smiled flirtatiously at him.

Daniel reached his hand out to shake mine, engaging me with a dark look that said I'd be best to keep my mouth shut. "Nice to meet you, Amy. I've heard do much about you, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you better. Maybe we can have a dance later on?"

Eugh! He was just something else. He couldn't even shake my hand in front of his fiancée without introducing some level of sexual innuendo. Cassie hadn't noticed though. She grabbed my arm and started leading me through the crowd to introduce me to her other bridesmaids.
 

The first thing that struck me about the bridesmaids was how impossibly glamorous they all were. Standing next to the NYC 'It' girls, I couldn't help but feel unsophisticated and out of place. They were the quintessential high school debutantes with their lithe limbs, thousand dollar dresses and bright, vibrant smiles, and then there was me.
 
I felt completely out of my depth as I sat down at their table.
 

They were all gathered at one end like a gaggle of supermodel witches, worshipping at the coven of Dior and Chardonnay. If I were a more paranoid person, I would have assumed they were gossiping about me behind their raised, gel-manicured hands. Whispering to one another, they took the occasional, furtive glance in my direction as they flicked their long, blonde hair extensions.
 

I sipped on my drink and hoped I'd loosen up soon. It was going to be a long night.
 

Eventually, the girls pulled away from each other and looked at me in unison. It seemed they had a ring leader, a skinny blonde with crystal blue eyes and cheekbones that could cut glass.
 

"So," she leaned forward across the table, "I'm Nicky, and you must be the maid of honor," she said, eyeing up my outfit, and focusing on my breasts.
 

"I am," I said proudly. "I'm Amy. I've known Cassie my whole life."
 

"Her whole life? Really?" Nicky turned to her friends. "Because she's like, never mentioned you before."

That hurt. That really hurt and Nicky knew it. She sat back in her seat with a smug expression on her face, pleased that she'd humiliated a small town, country girl.
 

"Well, she's never mentioned you either," I retorted. "It would seem that Cassie likes keeping secrets."

"Hmm..." she smiled falsely at me. "It would seem so."

The girl beside Nicky rolled her eyes at me as if she wanted to disassociate herself from Nicky's comments. She stood up out of her seat and came and joined me at the other end of the table.
 

"Amy, I'm Claudette, I'm pleased to meet you," she said holding out her hand towards me.

"Don't mind Nicky," she smiled. "She's a royal bitch sometimes."

"I can see that," I replied.
 

"Nicky's always been that way but... if it's any consolation, I know her husband's having an affair."

"Wow," I said as this information was thrust upon me out of the blue. "That's terrible."

"Not for him, it's not," she winked. "I honestly think Nicky knows, and that's why she's so jealous of how happy Cassie and Daniel are."

My God, who are these people? Is this what Cassie's marrying into, a life of superficial friendships and infidelity?
Increasingly, I wasn't envious of Cassie at all. I was worried for her instead. The Cassie I knew wasn't one of these girls. She was every bit as beautiful as them but deep down she was a sweet girl who cared for people.
 
One who used to raise money for the local cats and dogs shelter because she loved to see that animals were well fed and who used to volunteer in the local charity shop. I couldn't imagine these girls doing any of that. But maybe Cassie had changed more than I had realized?

Claudette wasn't finished telling me all her dirty secrets.

"You see that one there? Suzanne her name is," she pointed a sharp fingernail at another girl. "She's not so innocent either."

"Really," I said flatly, trying to make it as obvious as possible that I wasn't interested.
 

"Suzanne's just been promoted but it's because she's sleeping with her boss, and everyone knows it," she explained in her east coast, plummy drawl.
 

"So tell me," I asked, "Why does Nicky think she's so much better than everyone else?"
 

Claudette laughed, "You mean you don't know her? Everyone knows Nicky," Claudette hesitated as if to allow me a moment to correct myself and acknowledge that I really did know who Nicky was.
 

Claudette continued, "She's in the society pages, all the time, just like Cassandra."

Cassandra, the name seemed weird. So that's what Cassie's known as these days. Cassandra. I chewed the word over in my mind.
 

"I don't read the society pages," I told Claudette.

Her eyes opened wide as if I had just told her something totally unbelievable.

"Oh? So, what do you read then?"
 

"Books," I replied, looking her dead in the eye.
 

CHAPTER 10

AMY

The room was suddenly alive with shrieking bridesmaids and Claudette used the opportunity to move away from me to the other side of the table.

Nicky clapped her hands dramatically to her cheeks, "Oh my God! It's Chris Taylor!"

"Hi Chris!" another girl called to him waving her hand like a mad woman.

"Hey girls," Chris said casually walking past without even really looking at them before he sat down next to me.
 

"Hi Amy," he said, giving me a peck on the cheek.
 
I felt as though I had a hundred burning eyes on me as the girls looked utterly infuriated at the attention I was getting.
 

"Fancy seeing you here," he winked.
 

"Very funny." I poured a glass of wine and pushed it towards him.