by Ashlee Price
“So I saw Maya several times last week.”
“Maya, yes, the woman that you met from the online site, right?”
I shook my head and told her that Maya was the one.
“You warned me not to get my hopes up because she was married.”
She looked confused, and then I saw something else in her eyes. “Yes, well, I just don’t want to see you get hurt. I was not meaning that it can’t work because she’s married. So how did your meetings go?”
“They went well.” She seemed to have a completely different outlook on it today. Where was the doctor that was warning me about it so much the week before? What had changed? Or did she just see how much it meant to me and was as hopeful as I was?
“It went great, actually. After our talk last week, I had a lot of stuff on my mind. It was hard for me to think about her with her husband, and I wanted to know if she was ever going to leave him. I found myself saying more than I’d originally planned to.”
“And?” She encouraged me to go forward. The interest was back. I wasn’t just there to give her my sob story. I wanted her to hear some good news as well. My life was changing in such exciting ways. I was in love.
“Well, I told her that I didn’t want to share her anymore, and I told her how much I cared for her.”
“Good for you, Dylan. That’s good that you’re becoming so open with how you feel. How did she take it?”
The doctor was nervous, and I wanted to prolong it a little bit more. I wanted her to know that it was okay, but I liked the idea of making her sweat a little.
“Well, I don’t know. It was weird to say it all out loud, but I think it worked out, because she ditched her husband for me.”
“Oh?”
Now she was surprised, and that made me smile.
“What, are you surprised that she would leave her husband for me?” Why was I getting so defensive about it all?
“No, it’s just not what usually happens. You’ve been coming to me a long time, Dylan, and it’s hard for me not to care. I want you to be happy. You deserve it, after everything you went through with your wife. I’m just more realistic, I suppose. I’m glad that what you have with her is more than the average relationship. I want you to be happy.”
“Do you think it’s wrong that I want to be with her even though she’s married?”
Camilla stopped and pushed the short hair back from her face. She readjusted her glasses, and I could tell that she was really thinking about it. “Well, I know that morals are subjective. There’s obviously something going on in her marriage that makes her want to leave it. I don’t know what that is, but there could be trust issues later, I would imagine. With any relationship, though, there are always obstacles. Maybe you can look at it as: at least this obstacle you can see coming.”
She’d changed her tune on all of it completely, and I had to wonder what had gotten into her. It wasn’t like Camilla to be so wishy-washy about her moral guidelines. That was part of the reason that I kept going, but now I had to guess what had changed her.
“So you think it’s okay?”
“Like I told you last week, Dylan, there’s no judgment here. You’re a client that I care about and I just want you to be happy. You can understand that, can’t you? I’m not her doctor, I’m yours, so I’m automatically on your side.”
“Whether I’m wrong or not?”
“Wrong is never that easy. If you’re happy and you’re going in with your eyes wide open, that’s good enough for me.”
“What has gotten into you?”
She shrugged and just kind of looked off. “I don’t know, Dylan. I guess I’m learning that everything isn’t as black and white as it appears.”
There was something else, but I wasn’t in a position to press her. I spent the rest of the time talking about Maya and how everything was perfect. I didn’t have time to wonder what had changed Camilla’s mind so completely. I was wrapped up in my own little world at the moment, on a cloud that I never wanted to get off of.
Chapter 4 – Zane
“Well, I’m here for you whenever you want to talk. If it’s before our scheduled meeting, Dylan, just give me a call.”
“I will. Thanks, Camilla. I don’t know what I would do without you. If I hadn’t told her what was on my mind, I would have let it all go in the wrong way. That or I would have driven myself crazy.”
“You’re fine, Dylan. Everyone has some doubts. I didn’t mean to give you anything to second guess. I was just trying to help.”
“You have, Camilla, more than I can ever tell you. The last couple of years have been the worst in my life, and you were always the shining star that got me through.”
I heard her giggle a little. It wasn’t the same as it was with Tyler, but it still bothered me just as much. I didn’t like to hear her make that sound, and I made a mental note to say something to her about it later. She was my woman, and she was going to have to be more professional when it came to her clients. They might not have known what she was thinking, but I did, and I didn’t like it.
Waiting until the man she called Dylan was gone, I decided to call her and see when I was going to see her that evening. We now were seeing each other every day, but since I’d been working most of the day, I hadn’t heard what the rest of her day was like. I didn’t know who was on her patient list for the day, something that I was going to remedy next time I was in there. There were only some of her patients whose conversations I wanted to hear, and Tyler was one of them.
I’d learned a lot about the man, and the comments that Camilla made about married men and cheating had me perking up. She’d made out like she wasn’t that against it, and the first thing I thought of was billionaire Tyler. He was married to a beautiful woman, but for men like him it just wasn’t enough. He wanted Camilla too, and I was going to make sure that it never happened.
Rewinding the tape from the day, I went through and tried to find everyone who’d been there. After a couple of weeks, I was now able to identify most of her clients by the sound of their voice. When I pushed stop and played a segment from earlier in the day, the voice I heard had me pausing. It was Tyler. I made a note of the time. Camilla was so precise with her schedule that I knew exactly when to listen from and to. She always kept everyone on time, and even the rakish rich man was taking the appointment seriously.
I listened for a while, but every laugh and innuendo that was pushed back and forth made me mad. It made me want to wring his neck and teach Camilla a lesson. She had to know that she was mine and there was no getting out of it. I wanted her to know that I was watching her and everything she did was on my radar. I saw and heard everything.
“Hello?”
“Doc, good to hear your voice.”
“I’m busy right now, Zane. I have another client coming in.”
“She’s running late, so I think you can take a minute and talk to me.”
There was a pause. I turned the sound down on the live recording so that it wouldn’t be heard on her side of the phone.
“Of course, Zane. How is your day going? Did you solve that problem you had with the code?”
She was pretending to be interested, but I knew that it was to keep me misdirected. Every breath she took was a lie as far as I was concerned. The woman was so deceitful.
“Haven’t done much, just wondering how you were.”
“I’m fine. Just working.”
“Who did you see today?”
“You know that I can’t tell you that, Zane. It’s confidential and I’m their doctor.”
“But you’re mine, Camilla. That’s what matters.”
“Just the same old clients. I’ve had them for a long time, nothing new.”
“Did you see Tyler today?”
The silence on her side of the phone was deafening, and I had to wonder what she was thinking. I wanted her to be filled with guilt for what she’d done to me and to our love. I wanted her to sweat, guessing if I knew or not. I wanted her to b
e bothered.
“How do you know about that?”
She didn’t even try to deny it, and I was going to take that as a step in the right direction.
“I told you before, Camilla, I know everything.”
“Are you watching me again?”
“I never stopped.”
It was her turn to be shocked by the truth. I wished I could see her. I could hear her breathing get a little harder, and I made a comment about it. Camilla still assumed that I was on the phone hearing it. She still didn’t know that I was really listening to everything she said.
“Why are you doing this, Zane? You tell me that you love me, but then you go out of your way to scare me. What does this prove?”
“It proves that I’m in control. I want you to give up this idea that there’s another way. I want you to see that your only choice is me.”
“This is not how a healthy relationship works, Zane.”
“Don’t lecture me, Doc. After the advice you were giving today, you should be ashamed of yourself. It’s good to know that you feel so little about marriage.” I hadn’t even gone through the audio of Tyler all the way. It was hard to hear, and I’d needed to reach out to talk to Camilla. I didn’t want to hear her admonishment right now.
“What do you mean, Zane? How do you know what I said to a patient?”
“You aren’t paying attention, Camilla. Let me help you out. Turn your phone over on your desk.”
There was noise on the phone and through the speakers in my sound room. I knew that she was doing as I told her. I couldn’t wait to put in real cameras that would make it possible for me to see her and to see her reaction. This was one of those moments when I would have given anything to have already had that in place. I wanted to see the look on her face when she realized that I’d heard everything. Then would I receive some well-deserved guilt and an apology?
“What’s this?”
“Don’t touch it, Camilla. It’s a bug that lets me hear everything you say and do in there. Leave it there. I just wanted you to know it was there. I know everything.”
“I don’t understand, Zane.”
“You’ll understand it all soon enough, Camilla. I promise you that. You’re going to be mine. I’ve said it before. I don’t think you quite get how far I’m willing to go to make sure it stays that way. No one and nothing is going to get in our way.”
Part 8: Reveal
Tyler Hudson discovers the truth about his wife. He knows that Maya is straying, and with a little investigation, he finds out the man’s name. With his own affairs quite public because of the shooting, Tyler doesn’t know how to move forward. His marriage is in shambles and the happy façade that they built up over the years is peeling back to reveal the ugliness underneath.
Dr. Camilla is another problem that he doesn’t have a solution for. One kiss has turned his mind upside down, and he can’t focus. At first he doesn’t see the man standing in front of his car, the same one he bumped into when he went to his session.
When he does notice him, it’s too late to do anything. Tyler sees a gun, and his first thought is that he’s getting mugged. But the stranger knows his name and doesn’t want his money.
Nothing after that makes sense.
Chapter 1 – Maya
“Tyler, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to go to dinner tonight. Something came up and I was hoping that you could give them my regards.”
It was a long shot, but I’d had enough of playing the perfect wife. I didn’t want to talk to his parents about how well their son was doing. He had some serious problems, but they weren’t the type of family that brought up anything unpleasant. Tyler wanted to pretend that everything was okay, and it wasn’t, and I just didn’t have the energy to keep up the charade. I could hear the pleading in my voice, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting the night off from something that I dreaded.
“You can’t do this, Maya. I don’t ask much of you as a wife. All I ask you to do is go to one thing a week. You already ditched me on the charity thing. Don’t do this tonight.”
He sounded like he was rattled, and although I wanted to ask him what was wrong, I knew that I wasn’t going to get more than some rude answer. He wasn’t in the mood to tell me what was going on. He hadn’t been for a long time. That part of our marriage was over, and now it was on to the deceptions. It was the part that I liked the least.
“I just can’t go. I feel horrible and I just can’t do it. Tell them that I’m sick, whatever you want to tell them, but I’m not coming.”
“So the discussion is over?”
“Yes, it is. I’m sorry, Tyler, but I just can’t do it tonight. I’ll be there next week like the good little wife that you want me to be. Tonight I’m just going to take care of me.”
He snorted on the other end of the line. I wasn’t stupid enough to ask him what he meant by that. I knew that it didn’t matter anyways. He was always a little upset with me. Today was going to be no different. I had plans to see Dylan, and while I’d known what tonight was, I’d made them anyways. I was ready to get on with my life, and that didn’t include another stuffy dinner with the parents that he’d turned into.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this. I ask so little of you.”
His words were grating on my nerves, and I could see the look on his face without even being there. I knew that his face would be red and he would have a sneer on his lips. That was hard to forget. He was disgusted with me, and I was becoming disgusted with the whole situation. I’d asked myself more than once how in the world I’d gotten myself into this mess. How had a marriage that was so promising in the beginning turned into this?
“I’ll see you when I get home. We have a lot to talk about.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to be home tonight.”
“Figures.”
I didn’t ask him what he meant by that either, because I didn’t really care what the answer was. He was upset that I wasn’t going to go with him and he was going to lash out. It was far from original, and his was nothing that I hadn’t seen before. This was my husband’s MO, and I didn’t even bat an eyelash when he hung up on me.
Taking a deep breath, I called Dylan and asked him what time he wanted me to meet him. I was still a little shaken from the conversation with Tyler. I wasn’t sure why, but I felt like I’d crossed a line with him. I was going to start picking me more. I wasn’t going to do what he wanted me to do, not like I had before. Today was a new day, and the first person I wanted to see was Dylan. He loved me and I knew that I was always going to feel loved with him. It had been a long time since I’d felt that way in my marriage.
“Maya, I’m glad it was you that called.”
“Are you having a bad day?” He sounded rushed.
“No, just a long one that’s already getting better now that I’m talking to you.”
“You’re so sweet.”
“This isn’t bad news, is it?”
I kind of giggled a little and told him that it wasn’t. “Why?”
“Because I just can’t take any more bad news right now.”
“Well, I was just calling to see how the night was shaping up. We were going to meet to go out to dinner, remember?”
“I haven’t forgotten, Maya. How could I? I’ve been looking forward to it all day.”
“We saw each other yesterday.”
“I know. I just want to see you every day, wake up to you every morning.”
He was going down a road I knew well, and I had to stop him. It wasn’t the time for this. I had to get ready, and I knew that he was busy as well.
“Just give me a time and I’ll go get ready.”
“Give me thirty minutes and then meet me here if you want.”
“Okay, Dylan. I’ll see you soon.”
“I can’t wait, Maya.”
***
“Okay, you’re making me nervous, Dylan. What are you doing down there?”
“I want to ask you somet
hing, but I want to make sure that I do it the proper way.”
I shook my head and told him again to get up. We’d shared a bottle of wine and I was convinced that he was just drunk. He didn’t know what he was doing. How could he?
“I’m going to ask you, Maya, before I lose my nerve.”
Covering my face, I looked away and then down at the man in front of me. What in the world was he doing?
“Maya, you know that I love you, right?”
I nodded and told him that I did. I knew that he loved me, even if it manifested itself in this way. “Yes, I know that you love me, so can you please get up now?”
“Why are you so intent on stopping what I’m going to say?”
Because I was already married and I was still under the impression that Dylan had had a little too much to drink.
“I just don’t want you to say anything that you’ll regret tomorrow.”
“If I don’t ask you, I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life.”
“Dylan…”
“Marry me, Maya. You know what I’m going to ask, and it’s the only thing that I can think about. Marry me and make me the happiest man in this world. I’ll cherish the very ground that you walk on. You’ll never have to wonder if I care or where I am. I’m yours, Maya, so why can’t we make it official?”
He looked up at me with the most endearing look that I could imagine. His green eyes held such hope that I didn’t have the heart to bring up the reality of it all. All I could think to do was answer in the way that I wanted to. The devil was in the details, but I didn’t want to think about that tonight.
“Yes, Dylan. I’ll marry you.”
He crushed me in his embrace and I felt tears springing to my eyes. What had I just agreed to?
