If you look above at the video, it’s clear as day these two are crazy about each other. They’re so lost in each other, they don’t even care that their bodyguards are in the same space as them. However, it seems maybe the two guards are used to this type of affection from the couple.
Cooper posted a picture on his website last night of his new wife holding his winning Grammy awards with his arms around her. (See Below) He captioned the picture: “This is just the beginning. With her by my side, I can win, and do anything. She’s my everything.” Also posted was a picture of the two at one of the after parties.
All we have to say is we’re happy for the couple, who found their way back to each other. Congratulations to Cooper on his Grammy wins.
My phone rings on the nightstand and the caller ID lights up with my mother’s name. I send the call to voicemail. She calls several more times before I turn off my phone. She hasn’t called me in weeks and I don’t want to hear anything she has to say.
I know it has everything to do with the article and nothing to do with congratulations.
Cooper’s phone rings next, and he groans. “It’s my mother.”
Bet she's going to say how un-classy the video of us in the elevator is, or maybe ask what happened to the Peacock-Barney dress.
Whatever it is, neither of us need to deal with it.
“Just turn it off, and let me show you again how proud I am of you…”
NINE
May 30th, 2002
Cooper
I t's been six months since she left. I haven’t been the same since the day she said goodbye—the last time I saw her face. The letters and the phones calls aren’t nearly enough to keep me going. I need to hold her, kiss her, touch her, love her. Once she turned eighteen I was hoping to run off with her, marry her, giving our families the big fuck you. Then four days ago everything came to a screeching halt.
Sitting in my mailbox was a letter, not from Vi, but from her mother. Amber sent me pictures of some guys scrawny arm wrapped around my Violet. She went to prom with the fucker and didn't even tell me.
Amber attached a letter with the pictures telling me she’d moved on and I wasn’t to contact her anymore, per Violet’s wishes. I read the letter a hundred times, not wanting to believe the words on the paper. I tried calling her, wanting to hear it from her lips that it was truly over, but I got nothing but voicemails. I left message after message hoping she would give in and call me.
Then yesterday, my mom told me Amber called her, reinforcing I was to stop calling their house. Vi no longer has a cell phone because her mom didn’t want to pay the bill, which makes getting in touch with her even harder.
But I can’t, I won’t believe it ‘till I hear it from her.
She loves me. This is going to work. I know it.
Which brings me here, outside her house in Arizona. I woke up early this morning and drove the six-plus hour drive to see her. My mother has no clue I drove out here. I wouldn’t hear the end of it if she knew. Turning off the car, I grab the lavender and violet roses I bought from a flower shop I found along the way. The colors of the roses are cliché as fuck, but they’re her favorite.
I make my way up the porch, pushing my shoulders back, ready just in case her witch of a mother answers the door. I ring the doorbell twice before I see the doorknob twist.
The door flings open and I come face to face with Amber’s beady brown eyes. “What the heck are you doing here? Didn’t you get the hint that she doesn’t want to see you?” she sneers.
I try to stand taller, holding my ground. “I want to hear it from her. I’m owed that.”
“You are owed nothing. She made me do it for a reason. She’s in love with someone else.”
Like a dagger jabbed straight through my heart, the words suck the life from me, and I stumble backward.
In love? With someone else? No.
I shake it off, and plant my feet to steady myself. “I won’t believe it ‘till I hear it from her. I’ll wait all night ‘till she comes back.”
“You need to leave. She doesn’t want you anymore.”
“Come on,” I plead, “you know what it’s like to love someone. If it was over with your new husband, I’m sure you would want to hear it from him rather than in a letter from his mother.”
Her eyes darken and narrow at me, her own pain hinting through. Maybe I got to her, but when she opens her mouth again, she snarls, “You need to go, Cooper. Move on. Goodbye.” She moves back in the house and slams the door in my face.
Fucking Bitch.
I bang my fist on the door, heartbroken and frustrated, before trudging back to my car. I’m going to wait ‘till she comes home, even if I have to wait out here all night. I’m going to talk to her.
Hours tick by when a maroon sedan pulls into the driveway. The headlights turn off and Violet hops out of the passenger side. She looks beautiful, wearing a pair of cutoff jeans and a tank top. Her strawberry hair is slightly longer and it falls down her back in a ponytail. I hear her laugh, and watch someone step out of the driver’s side.
The guy from the prom photos.
He says something to her as he comes around the car and she throws her head back humored by whatever the fucker is saying. The pictures are now live action playing out right in front of me.
She’s moved on. Without me.
My eyes close painfully as they walk to the house with his hand on her back. He’s touching my girl. I’m doing everything in my power not to bust out of this car, beat up the limp dick, and demand answers.
I need to know why. I want to know how she could give up on me.
Though when he goes into the house with her, something I was never allowed to do unless Amber wasn’t there, my heart shatters into a million pieces.
It’s over.
My biggest fear has come true. I came here needing to hear her tell me to my face it was over, but now I don’t think I could handle the words. I was really hoping this whole thing would have a completely opposite turn out and we would go run off to L.A. like we were always supposed to.
Now, I feel like I've been kicked in the balls and stabbed in the heart.
I should’ve come sooner, visited her more—letters and phone calls weren’t enough to save us.
Maybe if we were eighteen I would kidnap her and force her to marry me. Remind her how good we were together. She’s mine—always.
And she promised she would say yes.
But if she's happy without me, I have to let her go. Her happiness is more important than my own.
It makes my heart twist and my gut clench knowing I'm not the guy to make her smile or make her laugh again. A deep lamentation comes from my chest, from the agonizing pain retching through me. Before I know it, my cheeks are wet, and I’m crying like a giant sissy.
I've only cried like this one other time, and it was after we lost the baby.
The tears rain down on my steering wheel to my lap. I feel like a complete loser crying like this. Guys aren’t supposed to fucking cry. But that’s bullshit, especially if their heart had just been ripped from their chest, and they’d lost everything good in life.
She was that.
My everything.
And now she's gone.
June 17th, 2006
Violet
O ne week after the Grammys, Cooper and I walk hand in hand inside Vibiana where the charity event, Granting Hope, is being held. The charity grants dreams to kids who are in long-term hospital care. Tonight’s theme for the event is ‘A Very Fairytale Ball’. To go with the theme, I’m wearing a floor length, pale pink princess gown with a corset back. The front of the lace appliqué is ruffled to my left hip with stunning embellishments that sparkle in the light. I truly feel like a princess here, and on Cooper's arm. Who happens to look dashing dressed as Prince Eric from the Little Mermaid.
They delivered the dress I picked out with no hitches this time.
“I feel like we’re going to prom.” I brush my finger alo
ng the fringe of Cooper’s epaulettes attached to his white tailcoat.
“If we were going to prom in a Disney movie, sure.” Cooper snorts. "I think mom over did it this year.” His eyes dart around all the scenery.
“I think it’s kind of perfect in here.” I admire the ballroom which looks like a fairytale come to life. Flowers of all different kinds dangle from the ceiling and walls. There’s even a huge wooden castle on the stage for the kids to play in.
Evelyn Reid had started this charity twenty years earlier with fellow Pediatric doctors. It began small, with only the ability to fund dreams at Riverside Children’s hospital, but expanded over time. Now it’s a countrywide charity organization. Cooper is a sponsor and uses his name to help drive people to donate.
I’m glad to see Evelyn giving back to a good cause. I only wish someone who could do something so kind could cut me—her son’s wife—some slack.
“It’s not a prom unless someone is losing their virginity or getting punched,” Brody retorts from behind us dressed like Prince Charming. On his arm is Alexa wearing a strapless, baby blue, princess gown. I worry about what’s going to happen with Alexa and Brody when the tour starts and they won’t be able to see each other as easily. They’re all smiles and kissy faces now, but I know distance can be a killer.
“Can I get a picture Cooper?” a man from of the media outlets covering the event asks us, his camera ready to click away.
Brody and Alexa tell us they’ll see us in a bit and wander off to the bar.
“Sure. What’s another picture in the paper, right?” Cooper pulls me closer to him.
Since the video and the picture’s Cooper posted after the Grammys were published, the paparazzi have been going insane, more than before. It seems people are nuts about our second chance romance. I guess it’s normal for fans and media alike to go ga-ga over celebrity love, but is it really that exciting?
While the man takes a couple shots of us, I spot in the distance my mother dressed in a black ball gown wrapped with floral lace sleeves.
The wicked witch has arrived. I better warn the kids.
Dustin had called Cooper letting him know his mom invited my mom to tonight's event. If that’s not a screaming neon sign that the two are up to something, I don’t know what is.
I wish they would just give up and get a clue. There’s nothing they can do that will tear us apart again.
But I do wish Dustin was going to be here. I need all the Reid’s I can get on my side.
“She’s here,” I grit out grabbing Cooper’s attention away from the photographer.
His eyes dart around the room and I spot my mom who is now walking over to talk to some older white-haired lady in a crème dress.
“Fucking-A,” Cooper mutters and places his hand on my face concerned.
“Thanks guys,” the photographer says, but we pay him no mind as he walks away with however many hundreds of photos he took of us.
“Just stay close to me tonight. I won’t let her near you.” He places a kiss on my forehead.
“I wasn’t planning on leaving your side anyways. I don’t know a single soul in this place.”
“Well let’s change that. Plus, it gives me a chance to show you off to the people who run this. You’ll like them.” He clasps my hand and we stride over to where Brody and Alexa went.
“Wait. Do you think we can get a drink first? Or fifty?”
After what seemed like hours of walking around and shaking hands, I’m beat. Though the people I’ve met have been amazing. The doctors who run this non-profit never pull the funds for these events away from the charity. Everything I’m looking at is donated and supplied by the supporters, from the food to the decorations, to the bands. The costumes for the kids were also donated and or made. And those supporters still donated the same amount of money in every year.
I’m glad Cooper is a part of this and I really want to do my share. Well, if I don’t have to work with Evelyn. We have a lavish dinner served for Royalty; chicken, steak with wine sauce, potatoes au gratin, and some kind of risotto. The kids, of course, got hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, or specialty dinners made for their diets.
I’m stuffed.
The dance music has started again and the lights dim while colorful strobe lights display Disney characters on the floor and ceiling.
Two little girls run past us towards the dance floor in princess dresses and crowns, giggling. They’re about five or so and have the biggest smiles on their faces. My heart constricts watching their happy, little faces, knowing it’s about how old our child would have been now.
Cooper’s arm wraps around my shoulder and he kisses my temple. “You okay?”
My eyes drift away from the kids and turn to the curious eyes of my husband. “Yeah, I was thinking how cute all these kids are and how much fun they’re having,” I lie, not wanting to ruin tonight with unpleasant thoughts.
Cooper looks at me skeptically. He’s about to ask me something when thankfully Andrew comes along and claps his son’s shoulder, drawing Cooper away from questioning me.
“Hey Coop, come with me to get a drink.”
“Do you want to come with me?” Cooper asks, no doubt not wanting to leave me alone.
“No, I’m good. My mom has stayed in her corner all night.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. You haven’t had a chance to talk to your dad tonight.” I kiss his cheek and he stares at me an extra second before heading to the bar with his dad.
Alexa excuses herself to the bathroom while Brody and I remain at the table. Across the way I see Evelyn looking at me as if I was gum on her shoe. I give her a wave with a fake smile before she turns her head away. I’m thankful I didn’t have to share my meal with that attitude.
Brody catches where I’m looking and shakes his head.
“Aren’t you guys best friends yet?” he teases, picking up his glass of water and chugging it down.
I snort, “It would be so much easier if we were. I’m trying to ignore and deal with her because I’m not in the mood to come between your mother and Cooper, or you for that matter.”
“He knows how she is. We all do.”
“I know, but she’s still your mother.” I pick up my champagne and drink down the last sip. “You love her, she loves you.
“Yeah, but…”
“No buts. I think of it this way: I now consider myself out a parent and I really don’t want that for Coop. He shouldn’t have to pick sides, and if he did it would affect you, Dustin, and your dad. I don’t want that.”
Brody gives me a small smile. “He’d choose you in a heartbeat, but I get what you’re saying. Hell, I was hoping his speech, the one heard around the world, would make her lighten up, but…” he trails off and his eyes go wide looking at whoever is behind me. “Shit…”
I spin my head and see my mother coming towards me. I guess I should’ve gone to the bar with Cooper after all. But I didn’t think she would approach with Brody here.
“Violet!” my mother’s voice grates on my nerves.
“Hello, Mother,” I grit through clenched teeth. “Glad they could valet the broom for you.”
“Don’t be smart. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for weeks.” She sits down in the chair Cooper had just vacated, pretending to look poised.
“Do you want me to get Coop, Vi?” Brody asks, eyeing my mother.
“No, I’m fine. Could you give us a second though?”
He turns to look at me and I know he’s tempted to say no. I just need to say my peace again, and pray afterwards she’ll leave me the heck alone.
“You sure?” I nod. “Alright. No bloodshed, okay?” He gestures at the children. “Little eyes.” He gives me a wink before getting up from the table.
“Why are you here, Mother? Did you decide to give the hush money to a good cause after all these years? Oh, I guess you couldn't since you’ve spent it all now,” I hiss quietly, trying not to draw attention to myself.<
br />
“I came to see you. You won’t return my calls and I’m your mother, we should talk.”
“Some mother.” I roll my eyes at her persistence. “The only thing we have to talk about is you getting a clue that I don’t want to talk to you. You’ve done nothing but hurt me—over and over again.”
“Violet, come on. Everything was fine with us until he came back in your life.” I bite the inside of my cheek, pissed that she could even think we were fine. “I did what I thought was right at the time. Was it a mistake to take the money? Yes, but it's over now. Time to move on.”
“You know it’s not just the money, Mother. How about the fact it seemed you stopped caring about me after you and Daddy divorced. You shitted on my relationship every chance you got, then took me away from Cooper for a man who ended up being a creep. You didn’t care how much I hated Arizona, and the only way I survived was because I had my friends. You’re meddling caused me a broken heart and instead of doing right—whether or not you agreed with us being together—you could have healed it. I tried over and over again with you. Wanting to do everything I could just to get along with you because you were my mother. I needed you, though you seemed to never care about me. You played games with my broken heart to try and prove to me you were right all along. I think that sums up just some of the scars you made, Mother.” I collapse back in my chair feeling winded. She stares at me blankly, my words not even grazing the outer layer of her cold heart.
“You’re overreacting. What I did with Cooper was so you would open your damn eyes. You were always so damn blind when it came to that boy. You needed to see how easy he would give up on you. Which he did, and he’ll only do it again, Violet.”
I shake my head and wrap my arms around myself. I’m trying not to cry, but my head feels like it’s about to explode from the pain she keeps trying to inflict on me.
I Found You Page 20
