A Price to Pay

by Angela Winters

  “Yes,” Julia said. “We’ll be happy to see Connor then.”

  Avery took Connor’s arm and waved it in the air. “Say ‘ ’bye Daddy.’ ”

  Connor said nothing, seeming bored with the situation. It was definitely time to go. Without a nap today, she was about to get extremely cranky.

  Avery never glanced at Julia as she left, but she felt Julia’s eyes on her. She wondered exactly when Julia had joined them and what she’d seen and heard. But she felt no guilt. It was natural for her to kiss Carter. He was the father of her child, and she had thought he’d died. They were both overcome with emotion for their baby. It was nothing more than that.

  “I’ve looked over your X-rays.” Leigh sat on the end of Michael’s hospital bed, her hand on his cast. “I told them I was your doctor. It’s a good, clean break. You’ll be fine.”

  “I’m already fine,” Michael said. “I wish you’d tell her that.”

  He was talking about their mother, who was sitting in a chair at the side of the bed, still looking apprehensive.

  “I’m fine,” Janet said. “I’m just worried about you moving, with that big thing around your middle.”

  “It’s just a standard pad,” Leigh said. “It’s the same thing he wore when he was a little kid in Jujitsu class.”

  “Daddy!” Evan ran over to the bed and began jumping in place. “Can I break my leg so I can get a cast too?”

  Michael laughed. “No, buddy. One broken leg in the family at a time.”

  “I’m next then.” He rushed away to the window to rejoin Daniel, who was playing with his action-figure toys.

  “On that note,” Leigh said, standing up, “I have to go. The clinic needs me.”

  After Leigh was gone, Janet suddenly remembered she had forgotten to update her on the plans for her birthday dinner. She promised Michael she would be right back and went after her daughter. The last thing on Janet’s mind when she exited the room was what was before her. If she hadn’t looked up in time to stop, she would have run right into Kimberly.

  As both women eyed each other, there was no misreading their reactions. Janet had hated Kimberly from the start because she was ghetto trash, and Kimberly had hated Janet from the start because she had done everything she could to remind Kimberly that she didn’t belong, every day since they’d met.

  Then there was all the other stuff. Kimberly had tried once to tear Janet and Steven’s marriage apart by bringing back an ex-lover of Janet’s and with him, very bad memories. But Janet had prevailed, and found some joy in the fact that it had fractured Michael and Kimberly’s marriage.

  Janet had hoped that Michael would tire of Kimberly and the iron-clad prenuptial agreement would assure she couldn’t take his money when he got rid of her. But he wouldn’t get rid of her. He was completely taken in by her exceptional beauty, and Janet would always blame Kimberly for almost bringing the entire Chase legacy into the gutter with her.

  And yet, she was still here. For some insane reason, Michael would not divorce her. He seemed to hate her, clearly hate her, but she was still here.

  Most encounters between Janet and Kimberly began and ended with insults and threats. A few times, they’d ended with straight fighting, hair pulling, and slapping. But Janet didn’t have the energy today. She had almost had her entire world destroyed.

  Kimberly caught Janet’s eyes just for a moment before looking past her and continuing into the room. In her dreams, this woman would burst spontaneously into flames. Janet had made her life a living hell, and every time Kimberly tried to break free or enact her revenge, she only made things worse for herself.

  Kimberly used the distraction of her sons running to her and pulling at her legs, to avert her gaze from Michael as she entered. But ultimately she would have to look at him and when she did, damn if she didn’t feel something.

  Seeing him there looking weak and vulnerable, she should be happy. She should want to take advantage of this. It wasn’t as if he didn’t do it to her every chance he got. The hate and resentment that had built up in her heart for this man over the last six months frightened her at times.

  “Daddy said I can break my leg next.” Evan took his mother’s hand and led her to the bed. It was as if he could sense she was reluctant to approach.

  It was moments like this, when she walked into that hospital room and he first laid eyes on her, that Michael was reminded of how devastatingly beautiful Kimberly was. He resented that beauty because he wasn’t sure he could live without seeing it.

  He smiled at her as she sat in the chair that Janet had previously occupied. She didn’t smile back. She just sort of looked at him with a kindness in her eyes that he hadn’t seen in what seemed like centuries. Or was it pity?

  “It’s nice to finally see you,” he said.

  “I’m here to pick the boys up,” she answered in a flat tone. She felt somewhat compelled to touch him, but resisted. She begged herself to remember how he treated her. “They have swimming practice in an hour.”

  “They can skip it today, can’t they?” he asked.

  “They’re competing in a few months, Michael. They have to practice now more than ever.”

  Michael nodded, not wanting or willing to resist. “I thought maybe when I come home tomorrow, we could have a nice family dinner out on the patio. Marisol can make one of her Mexican dishes and . . .”

  “What are you doing?” Kimberly asked.

  Michael tilted his brows, looking at her uncertainly. “I’m just trying to spend time with my family. I almost died, Kimberly.”

  “Don’t talk to me like I’m your wife.”

  “You are my wife,” he responded angrily. “Jesus, Kimberly. For one second can you just . . . I don’t know, pretend? I need to . . .”

  Kimberly was touched by the sense of disillusionment in his voice and regrettably found no joy in his pain. But she wouldn’t fall for it, either. He had made her cold and emotionless in his presence.

  “So you want me to pretend like we are happily married because you got a little boo-boo?”

  Michael leaned forward and looked into her eyes earnestly. “When that plane was going down, I thought of you and them. I was filled with regret and I . . . I know I can’t erase what I’ve become, but I just . . . You’re my wife, Kimberly.”

  Kimberly took a deep breath and looked away. Her eyes fell on her boys, who had stopped playing and were standing together at the end of the bed, watching them with blank expressions on their faces. Kimberly slowly reached out and placed her hand on Michael’s. When she turned back to her boys, they were both smiling now, and she smiled back. She would do this for them.

  But she still hated him.

  “Garrett. Garrett.” Haley pushed him away as his body pressed against her. “Stop.”

  “What is it?” he asked in between deep, quick breaths.

  He was on top of her and had been trying to get something going for some time. It was clear to Haley that he wasn’t going to get it done, so this was a waste of time.

  “Just get off,” she ordered.

  “Dammit.” He stopped moving and slid out of her before rolling onto the bed, by her side. “Dammit!”

  What is he mad about? Haley asked herself. She was the one whose time had been completely wasted. They were in bed at the Hotel Bel-Air in one of the suites where Chase Beauty placed investors and other visitors to L.A. Garrett had called her as soon as he left the police station. His wealthy parents in North Carolina sent one of L.A.’s best lawyers to represent him, and in the end, they didn’t have enough to hold him.

  Frustrated after her conversation with Sean and the whole ordeal with her brothers, Haley needed to have sex to release some tension. So she had agreed to meet him at the Bel-Air because he refused to go back to his apartment.

  “I’m sorry,” he said after a few minutes. “I wanted to, but . . .”

  “Let it go.” Haley sat up, looking for her clothes. “You’re gonna have to leave.”

  �
��Why?” he looked up at her with childish confusion.

  “Because I’m leaving,” she answered.

  “Are you sure I can’t just stay here one night?” he asked. “What’s the big deal?”

  Haley started getting dressed. “Do you think the place is bugged or something?”

  Garrett look worried. “Partly, but there are other reasons.”

  “You’re scared,” she said, finding his lack of composure disappointing. “Of who?”

  Garrett opened his mouth as if to speak, but instead just sat up with a pout on his face. “Just let it go.”

  “Fine, but you’re not staying here.”

  “I’ll get my own room, but I don’t want to pay with my credit card. Can I have some cash?”

  Haley almost stumbled at the words. She placed a hand on her hip and looked down at him with scorn. “No, you didn’t just ask me for money.”

  “I didn’t ask you for money,” he countered. “I asked you for cash. You know I have money.”

  “I don’t know anything about you anymore,” she answered. “From what I hear, you’re a murderer. So why wouldn’t you lie about everything else?”

  “I’m not a murderer!”

  Haley’s caution antenna went up. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, boy. I’m just saying what I heard. And that alibi of yours is total bullshit.”

  “If you just stick with your story, I’ll be fine.”

  “Do you think I did that for you?” She laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  “Just stick with it,” he called after her as she went into the bathroom.

  “I did it to stick it to that bitch.” She was brushing her hair into a ponytail when Garrett showed up at the door. “Not for you.”

  “All that matters is if you keep to yours, I keep to mine, and Taylor tries to cover up her lies, it will at the least be confusing enough to keep me out of the fire.”

  “I can’t take any hassles from the cops.” She brushed past him on her way into the bedroom. “My dad is mad at me because of this. It’s bad timing. If this starts to cost me more than it’s worth, which it clearly is about to, I’m out.”

  “I need you to help me,” Garrett said. “I’m not a murderer. I just . . . Look, the alibi is a lie. I paid Taylor to provide an alibi for me.”

  Haley wondered if Garrett thought she had bought his alibi before now. Was he that stupid? “How do you even know her?”

  “She works for the alibi guy,” he said. Garrett paused for a second as if he was suddenly remembering something. “Dammit! The alibi guy. If Taylor connects me to him, then . . . they’ll see my file in his system. He said it’s all encrypted, but . . . Dammit!”

  “Can you get dressed a little faster?”

  “This is all very complicated.”

  “But you know who murdered the guy, don’t you?” she asked.

  “I was there,” he said, plopping down onto a walnut-brown chaise. “You don’t want to know any more.”

  “For once today, you’re right.” Haley crawled across the bed to reach her vibrating phone on the nightstand. It was her mother, no doubt demanding she come home and play her role in the manufactured image that is the Chase family. “I don’t care what you did or didn’t do. I just care about it not getting connected to my family. My shit in Sydney isn’t tight yet and until it is, I need access to that trust fund.”

  “What shit in Sydney?” he asked.

  She looked him up and down with a smirk on her face. “You have your secrets and I have mine. Now get dressed and get out of here.”

  Michael was fuming and Marisol’s picking at him didn’t make things any better. The second he had gotten home, Kimberly disappeared. He was coming down from the pain medication and the boys were driving him crazy. Marisol finally showed up and tried to help him get back into bed after changing into his bathrobe and night shorts.

  “I’m fine,” he said, holding his hand up to stop her.

  “The sheets,” Marisol said. “I will just pull the sheets up and . . .”

  “It’s enough.” Michael hadn’t intended to yell, but could see that Marisol was offended. “I’m sorry, Marisol, but I’m fine. Go look after the boys.”

  “They’re asleep.” She stood up, hands on her hips, surveying him as if he was a project that she was unsatisfied with. “I can . . .”

  “Just tell me when my wife gets home,” he interrupted.

  As if on cue, Kimberly showed up in the bedroom carrying at least five bags with designer names on them. Both Michael and Marisol stared at her as she sauntered casually across the massive room and placed the bags down on the plush settee. When she turned to face them, she smiled as if the world was grand.

  “You’ve been shopping?” Michael asked incredulously. “You’ve been shopping?”

  “Just in time too.” She placed her Prada bag on the bed and sat down leisurely on the window seat pillow. “Sergio Rossi almost turned the lights off on me.”

  “What the fuck, Kimberly?” Michael hadn’t expected all hugs and kisses, but this was some bullshit.

  “Marisol, can you place these bags in my bedroom?” Kimberly kept a smile on her face as her maid picked up her bags and left the room.

  “I thought we . . .” Michael was seeking the right words. They hadn’t had a civil conversation in so long. “I thought we had an understanding.”

  “Thanks, by the way,” Kimberly said, leaning back. “Since you canceled all but one of my credit cards and put a five-thousand-dollar limit on the only one you let me have, I used your credit cards. Expect a bill for about seventy-five grand next month.”

  She stared at him, waiting and daring him. He wanted to be angry. She could see him on the edge of explosion. She was calling his bluff.

  Michael wanted to strangle her. He knew what she was doing. She was forcing his hand. “I don’t give a shit about the credit cards. You should have stayed home.”

  “Oh yes, that’s right. You had planned a dinner. Just the two of us. Where’s the candlelight?”

  “You enjoy mocking me,” he said with a nod. “So yesterday was bullshit.”

  “Yesterday was for my children,” she snapped. “You think I don’t know what you’re doing? You’re weak right now, physically and emotionally. So you have to pretend to be nice, so I’ll take it easy on you until you get your strength back. When you do, you turn into the bitch of the century again.”

  “I almost died, Kimberly!” He placed his right hand on his left rib as he winced in pain.

  “I’m going to hire you a nurse.” Despite the sharp tug at her heart at the sight of him in pain, Kimberly’s expression remained cold and untouched. “Between her and Marisol, you should be fine.”

  “I don’t need a nurse,” he argued. “I need a wife!”

  Kimberly leaned forward with a frank expression. “Well, you should have thought about that before you threatened to never let me see my children again.”

  Michael wasn’t buying it. “I know you, Kimberly. You still care about me. Somewhere in there you do.”

  Kimberly swallowed the emotion that tried to convince her it was there. “There was a time when I would do anything for you. You were my king; my savior. But you killed everything.”

  Michael felt desperation rush through him as she stood up and turned to leave. “That’s impossible! This is never going to die.”

  She turned back to him. “Everything dies.”

  He shook his head. “Not us. I felt it when that plane was going down. We can still . . .”

  “Shut up!” She came to his bed, leaning down toward him. “You don’t get to destroy my life and get your wifey back when you’re feeling a little vulnerable. You have treated me like a prisoner.”

  “You made my father hate me! You knew what Chase Beauty meant to me and now it will never be mine, because of you!”

  “Poor baby,” she mocked. “Daddy doesn’t wuv me anymore, so . . .”

  He reached out and grabbed her, pulling her
closer. “You’d better shut up.”

  Kimberly fell onto the bed, but was so consumed with anger she didn’t care. “What are you going to do? You can’t even walk. Look at you now. You’re cringing in pain.”

  “I don’t care.” He endured the excruciating discomfort he felt rip through his body as he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to him. “Everything about you is pain for me.”

  Kimberly tried to push away when she realized he was going to kiss her. “You disgust me.”

  With one hand, Michael grabbed her by her hair and turned her face up to his. “I know you feel something.”

  “I hate you!” With her free arm, she reached up and slapped him across the face. “I hate you!”

  “I hate you too!”

  His mouth came down hard on hers. As he tasted her bitter lips, he only became more determined to have her. Michael lifted her up a bit to put her on his lap. It hurt, but he didn’t care. Nothing, not even a broken leg or a bruised rib could keep him from having her. For so long, despite how he felt about her, he never stopped wanting her; he never stopped wanting to feel the way that only she could make him feel.

  Shocked at first, Kimberly was frozen when he kissed her. He’d tried to kiss her many times, but she’d always seen it coming and got away. But this time it seemed different. He wasn’t begging her. He was demanding and Kimberly was caught off guard by how much it reminded her of the good times; times when she ached for him to devour her, with no limits.

  She didn’t make the decision to kiss him back. She just did, and when she did, her body began to ache for him in the way it hadn’t for so long. She was hungry and grabbed at him, pulling him closer. She heard him wince in between moans and Kimberly found a sadistic satisfaction in causing his pain. She pressed harder and harder, her excitement only growing.

  Michael’s heart sounded like a freight train inside of him as it picked up its pace. Feeling her respond made him lose it. He reached for her blouse and ripped it open. Lifting her body a little, he brought her chest to his face.