He approached the hostess counter and gave them his name. She searched for the reservation. “It’ll be just a few minutes,” she told Derek politely.
“Thank you,” Derek responded.
“I don’t follow you,” Peyton said, picking the conversation back up.
“Let’s wait until we’re seated to finish this,” he said, speaking low and almost in her ear.
Peyton was quiet. She couldn’t wait to be seated so she could hear Derek explain what she thought was absolute nonsense. Their marriage wasn’t the greatest but it wasn’t the worse either, so for him to take their son and leave her like she was the world’s worse wife and mother was unwarranted.
“Hudson, party of two,” the hostess called.
Derek and Peyton walked up to the hostess.
“Follow me please,” she said.
She took them to their reserved seat. Almost as soon as they sat down, a server approached asking for their drink orders. Derek and Peyton gave their orders. After the server left, there was silence at the table.
Derek felt like the night was not going to be as fun and upbeat as he had anticipated. Leave it to Peyton to dampen the mood and ruin what should have been a relaxing, enjoyable time. He hoped that maybe this would be the start of them working on their marriage again, but he had immediately had a change of heart when Peyton refused to own up to her insatiable thirst for alcohol being the cause of their marital problems.
The server returned with their drinks and then requested their orders, which they gave her. Again, when the server retreated, the silence between them deepened until Peyton spoke up.
“I’m tired of being blamed for everything that’s wrong in our marriage and family. You’re not exactly Mr. Perfect you know.”
Derek sighed deeply, looked around and then across the table at Peyton. “You know this is exactly what I’m talking about. We can never go anywhere or do anything without having to deal with bullcrap.”
“Bullcrap?! Talking about the survival of our family is bullcrap?”
“You know darn well I’m not saying that. That’s another thing; you’re always twisting my words. You have a problem admitting certain things, namely your alcohol problem.” Derek spoke with anger. He was becoming more and more fed up with the situation between him and his wife.
“And you don’t give me credit for anything. You’re talking about I don’t admit this and I won’t say this or yadda yadda yadda! Have you forgotten that I said I was going to rehab, that I was going to seek help for my drinking? Can’t you encourage me and show your support for me at least making a start? I haven’t had a drink in days now. What do you have to say about that?”
“So what makes this time so different, Peyton? How many times have you promised to quit throwing back vodka like its water only to get worse? How many times has your son seen you drunk as a skunk, or had to help you to your bed? How do you think that makes him feel? So yeah, it’s not the matter about Breyonna and Carlton. It starts and ends with you!”
“I am not going to sit here and let you put everything on me.”
The server brought their food and they immediately stopped their heated conversation. When she left they resumed the conversation at hand.
“You know what, Peyton. Do what you do. All I’m saying is don’t sit up here and act like you’re some helpless victim because you’re not. And as for Liam, not once have you tried to talk to him about this whole situation. You’ve just resigned yourself to being the pitiful, poor, mommy whose husband moved out and took their son. Well, if you loved him so much you would be reaching out to the boy. He’s not some toddler who can’t understand or recognize what’s going on. So what do you have to say about that? Huh. Have you tried calling him? Have you tried seeing him? Hell, no! You haven’t cause Peyton is being treated so bad,” Derek said, changing his voice to sound like he was whining.
Peyton reached over and slapped him with full force then immediately regretted her actions. “I’m sorry. I…I didn’t mean to do that.”
“I suddenly don’t have an appetite. You can stay and I’ll call Uber for you or I can take you home. What’s it going to be?” Derek said, pushing back from the table and standing up.
Peyton did the same and proceeded walking off. Derek went to the counter and requested their ticket, paid for the meal, and stormed out of the restaurant. Another night ruined.
Chapter 17
“It isn't always a change of scenery that’s needed to make life better. Sometimes it simply requires opening your eyes.”
Richelle Goodrich
What started out to be a good night had ended terribly. But then again that was the story of Peyton’s relationship with Derek. They never seemed to be able to get in a good place, not for long that is.
The drive home was done in total silence. When Derek pulled up to their house, Peyton opened the car door and slammed it shut without saying a word.
Derek pulled off before she could barely step away from the car. He was fed up with trying to make his marriage work. For him, tonight was the final wrap. For her to slap him, that was unacceptable. Had he done that to her, he would have been locked up and behind bars rather than back at the rental house with his son.
“How was dinner with Mom?” Liam asked when Derek walked into the house.
“It was all right. Everything straight?” he asked the teen as he headed to his room.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Well, I think I’m going to get a little shut eye. Don’t stay on that game all night.”
“Okay.” Liam paused then called his dad. “Dad?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” Derek stopped and looked back over his shoulder at his son.
“If Bishop Porter is my biological father, what then?”
Derek walked back to where his son was standing and placed one hand on his shoulder. “It’s not going to change what we have, if that’s what you’re asking. I adopted you when you were just a toddler. You know that and I’m glad you know that because now you’re old enough to understand exactly what that means. I adopted you because I wanted you. I wanted you to be my son, and I wanted it to be done legally so that no one would ever be able to take you away from me. So you see, no matter what the DNA test says, I’m your father. I’m not saying Bishop Porter isn’t a good man, because he is. And he’s going to want to be part of your life, I’m sure. He told you that. It just means you’ll have more people who love you.”
“Thanks, Dad.” Liam looked partially satisfied.
“Is there something else?” Derek asked, noticing the questioning look on his son’s face.
“And Mom?”
“You know your mother loves you and misses you. She wants us to come back home.”
“If that’s the case then why haven’t I heard from her? It’s like she’s totally forgotten that she has a son. I know now that I’m not her biological kid, but if what you say is true and she really does love me, then I don’t understand why she doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“It’s not that she doesn’t want to talk to you, Liam. She just wants to give you time and space. Plus, she’s working on becoming a better person so she can be a better mother. Look at what she’s had to face for what she did when you were a baby. She risked everything to get you out of the environment you were in. Yes, she lied about a lot of things in order to do it, and she’s paying the consequences now, but everything she did, she did out of her unconditional love for you. So I don’t want you to ever question or doubt that she loves you. You understand?” Derek explained.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Now, I’m going to shut it down for the evening.”
“It’s still way early, you know. You sure you don’t want to take me to get a pizza.”
Derek chuckled. “Take you to get a pizza? You can order a pizza. But what I think you’re saying is that YOU want to go get a pizza while I sit on the passenger’s side, huh?” Derek smiled.
“Uh, something like that,” Liam agr
eed, and laughed.
“Okay, let’s do this. I’m starving anyway,” Derek said.
“You and Mom didn’t eat?” Liam questioned.
“Let’s just say, I didn’t eat enough, and I always have room for pizza.”
Ω
Peyton stormed inside the house furious and hurt over how the night had turned out. Derek blamed her for everything that was wrong in their marriage. He always managed to turn things around and make her the one at fault. Sure, she admitted that her love of alcohol contributed to their troubled marriage, but she wasn’t the total blame. Couldn’t he understand the secret she had to keep hidden about Liam all these years? It troubled her all the time and, yes, maybe she had turned to drinking as her vice. It helped her cope. Drinking helped her forget about her past. She was always the fat chubby kid, the butt of kids’ jokes. She was the one pointed at, stared at, laughed at, when she was growing up and she still battled with her weight. But when she drank, all of her problems disappeared, albeit temporary. It was her coping mechanism. Liam had saved her life. Yes, she was a successful pharmaceutical salesperson back in the day, and good at what she did, but she was still troubled even back then. Until Liam. It was a blessing in disguise to hook back up with Breyonna because she received her blessing in the form of a little boy all because of the drug addicted Breyonna.
Peyton went to her bedroom and for a moment she stood inside the door and surveyed all of her manifold blessings. Beautiful, expensive home, top of the line ride. She walked into the bedroom and to her master closet or it could have been called ‘master room’ because it was just that large. “Look at this. Designer clothes, shoes, purses. The best of the best.” She flipped through the rows and rows of clothes as she walked slowly through the massive space. She circled back and then walked back into the bedroom. “God, you’ve blessed me,” she said out loud. “And you keep on blessing me even when I don’t deserve it. But I’m tired of fighting against myself. I’m tired of hating myself. I want to love me but it’s so hard. And if it’s hard for me to love myself, how can I expect for Derek and Liam to love me,” she cried. “I have all of this and yet I’m empty inside.” Peyton walked over to her bed and sat on the edge of it and with her head hanging, she wept.
After crying until she felt like she was running on empty, she got up and went downstairs. The only thing that could soothe her was a good stiff drink of Vodka. “I promise God that this time will be my last, for real. I’ll be going into rehab anyway so one drink won’t hurt.”
She walked to the bar and it hit her like a ton of bricks. Elsa had taken away all of the alcohol. Peyton rummaged through the cabinets, hoping that Elsa had overlooked at least one bottle of anything. Peyton didn’t care what it was – wine, a beer, whatever. But there was nothing to be found. She opened the refrigerator. Nothing. She became somewhat in a panic as she began jerking open cabinets and pulling out pots and pans, searching for a bottle.
“There has to be something,” she talked out loud.
She ran out of the kitchen bar area and went to Derek’s man cave and looked in the bar there. Nothing.
“Dang, all I need is one drink. Come on, now.” She was in a panicked state. She ran upstairs, grabbed her purse and keys. Running back down the stairs, she bolted out the front door like a mad woman on a mission. She drove to the liquor store several blocks away, the place that knew her because of her frequent visits.
Inside the store, with red and swollen eyes from crying, she purchased a pint of Ciroc. Dashing out of the store, like the drunk she was, she opened the bottle right there on the parking lot. With fresh tears pouring down her face, she took several deep swallows. “Ahhhh. Now things will be better. I’m going home and everything will be better in the morning.”
After taking one more swallow of the liquid poison, then another, and another, she finished the pint of liquor. She pushed the ignition button, put the car in DRIVE, and sped off the parking lot.
Chapter 18
“Every relationship has its own problems. But sometimes what makes it perfect is if you still wanna be together, when things go the wrong way” Unknown
Eva watched as the two movers gathered the last of her belongings. Just as quickly as Harper had paid to have her things moved into the Setai Hotel, now he was paying to have them moved back to their home.
Avery, Peyton, and Meesha would call her a fool when they found out that she had moved back with her husband, and maybe she was. But they hadn’t lived in her shoes. They hadn’t walked her path. Harper rescued her from a life of poverty and lack. Harper made things better for her family. Every month he sent money to her parents so they would be able to have food to eat and clothes to wear.
When Harper came to Bolivia three years prior, she was working for literally pennies as a receptionist at the community center turned makeshift hospital. Harper was part of a missionary group called Matters of the Heart. They were a group made up of Christian doctors and heart surgeons that freely performed heart surgery on some of Bolivia’s poorest. They fell in love. He married her and she came to live in the United States. Harper took good care of her, provided for her, gave her any and everything she wanted. Who was she to cheat on him with his son all because Harper wasn’t at home at her every beck and call? It was who Harper was, a man of integrity, a man who cared about others. How selfish she realized she had been all because he wasn’t in their bed every night.
As she watched the men pack her last remaining items, she looked around the luxurious fourteen hundred square foot suite. This hotel room alone would make ten homes in the area that she once lived in in Bolivia. If it wasn’t for Harper, her
parents and her siblings would be living in the same two room shanty. She owed him a lot and if it took the rest of her life, she was going to show him just how grateful she was. If she never had children, if Harper didn’t have the vasectomy reversal, she told herself that she could still have a happy life without children.
Harper walked into the hotel suite. “You ready?”
She looked at him and smiled. He was the same Harper. Harper with the thick black eyebrows, broad shoulders, cinnamon toast complexion and the winning smile. She owed everything to this man. A man who she had betrayed by committing the most vile act of betrayal, yet he was willing to forgive her and take her back. The one prayer she begged God to answer was for Harper to never find out that it was Seth who she had shared her bed with.
“I’m ready,” she said.
“Then let’s go home,” Harper told her, reaching out to take hold of her hand.
Ω
When she walked into the house, she stopped and stood inside the doorway. It felt good to be home. She walked slowly, as if she was in an unfamiliar place, looking around and taking in her surroundings. There’s no place like home.
A familiar aroma filled the house. Eva looked up at Harper and smiled. From the aroma, she knew it was her favorite Bolivian meal, silpancho, a dish made up of rice, golden potatoes, beef, fried eggs and topped with onion and tomato salsa.
“Marissa,” Eva called out to their live-in housekeeper just as Harper disappeared and went back outside.
“Oh, señora, señora,” Marissa exclaimed, appearing from around the corner. She moved as quickly as she could with Eva meeting her the rest of the way. “I’m so glad you’re back home,” the older Hispanic woman, who didn’t speak English very well, greeted. A big smile covered her face as she spoke.
“And I’m glad to be home,” Marissa,” Eva responded, speaking in her and Marissa’s native tongue, which they did often when it was just the two of them. The two women hugged each other tightly.
Harper smiled when he walked in and saw the women embracing. He sat the kennel down then opened it to release the dogs. They dashed off and started running through the house as soon as he lifted the latch and opened the kennel door.
“Looks like they missed home too,” Eva laughed while talking and looking up at Harper. He met her laughter with a kiss.
> After dining on the delicious meal Marissa prepared, Eva and Harper sat outside on the spacious outside lanai. This time spent with Harper reminded her of when they were first married.
“Let’s go for a swim,” he suggested after the sun had set and the stars filled the summer midnight sky.
“Okay, let me run upstairs and change. I’ll be right back.”
Harper stopped her as she got up. “You don’t need a swimsuit.”
Eva looked at him curiously. “But don’t you want to go for a swim?”
“I do,” he said, standing up and stripping down to absolutely nothing. Eva turned a shade darker, somewhat surprised and embarrassed at Harper’s brazenness. “Take off your clothes” he spoke, in a sensuous, sexy, alluring voice. “I miss you. I miss all of you.”
She slowly came out of her clothing as Harper watched with eager anticipation. When she was done, they walked hand and hand and stepped into the warm salt water of the custom infinity pool. The stone work around the pool along with the soothing water fountain gave the area an oasis feel. That was just the beginning of Eva’s magical night.
The magic of Harper’s hands, the sensual heat of his naked skin combined with the soothing water, drew her to a height of passion she’d never known before.
“I missed you,” she told him, barely able to speak as his mouth smothered hers.
Chapter 19
“Secrets are festering parasites to a relationship, devouring their hosts from within, leaving behind an empty hollow husk of what once was.” Mark W. Boyer
The following morning, Eva lay in her bed, recalling the night spent making love with Harper in her own bedroom. She turned over and rubbed the empty space where he had laid.
The Real Housewives of Adverse City 2 Page 10
