“Fly here then. You are definitely going to want to stop by,” he says.
“What’s going on, man?” I ask again.
“Maya is here. She wants to talk to you. Just get here as soon as you can. We’ll be waiting,” he says calmly. When I don’t reply, I guess he takes my silence as an okay and hangs up on me.
“What’s going on?” Collin asks.
“Maya is at Callie’s. She wants to talk,” I say, still feeling shocked.
“Let’s go meet you daughter then,” he says, trying to make me feel better. For some reason, I just feel dread. If those pictures are real, then how do I really know that little girl is mine? I guess there is only one way to find out.
I turn my truck around and head back toward our home town. I punch the gas and pray I can get there before she changes her mind and runs from me.
A little over an hour later, I finally pull up to Ash and Callie’s house. Collin opens the door and hops out of the truck while I just sit back and stare at the front door. I want to go in there, and I want to grab Maya, and I want to meet my daughter, at least one part of me does. The other part of me wants to run in there grab Maya by the neck and demand to know what the hell has been so important the past five years that she couldn’t have shown up on my doorstep sooner with my daughter.
I finally force myself to get out of the truck and head up the steps to face my past. I walk up the front steps and open the front door to find Callie standing there.
“Hey,” she says quietly. “She’s in the living room.” I smile and nod my head at her before pulling her into my arms and giving her a quick kiss on the forehead.
“Thanks for being you and getting her here,” I whisper. “Do you really think she’s mine?” I ask quietly. I had completely given up on the idea of ever having kids. If I couldn’t have them with Maya, there was no one that would ever be good enough in my eyes.
“Yes, I think she’s yours. Just so you know, Ava’s not here.”
“What do you mean, she’s not here?” I ask, starting to get mad. How can she show up here and still keep my daughter from me?
“Maya said she needed to talk and explain some stuff and she didn’t want Ava to hear any of it. Leighton took all the kids to mom and dads,” she says. I don’t know if Callie realizes what she said or not, but that is the first time she has referred to my parents as mom and dad. I’ll have to remember to tell them about that. I’m starting to understand what that would mean to them. “I think she may be in some kind of trouble. I don’t know what’s going on, but she has a serious obsession about keeping Ava safe and she says that’s why she came back.” Great, what has Maya done now? I need to ask why she thinks Maya is in some kind of trouble, but a movement at the doorway keeps me from saying anything. I look up and straight into eyes that I never thought I would see again, but have imagined every day.
“Hi,” Maya whispers.
“I’ll be in the living room,” Callie says, walking out of the room. I completely ignore her and continue staring into the most gorgeous green eyes I have ever seen, eyes that I used to get lost in daily. I have imagined this day every day for the past five years. What I would do, what I would say if I ever got the chance to confront her about what she did. I know I should have asked a long time ago, but I was so hurt, I just wanted her gone and because of that decision I have missed out on so much of my daughter’s life. That little bit of anger is the only thing stopping me from running straight to Maya, pulling her in my arms and pretending the last five years never happened, especially when I see the tears pooled in those eyes and watch them spill over onto her cheeks.
“Hi,” I whisper back. “Are you in some kind of trouble?” I watch her eyebrows scrunch up while she gives serious thought my question.
“I don’t know yet. I have some questions and I need to tell you where I’ve been the last five years,” she says.
“Then I get to meet my daughter,” I say, knowing it sounds more like a question than I meant for it to.
“Of course, I never wanted to keep her away from you. I want all of you to be a part of her life or I wouldn’t be here, but it’s complicated and you’re not going to like it and I am sorry for that, but I was alone and scared and I was having a baby. I did what I had to do in order to survive,” she says, with more tears falling. What has she been up to the last five years? Whatever it is, I know I’m not going to like it, but I also know it’s all my fault.
I can’t stop myself this time when I walk over to her and pull her into my arms. I know I should be mad, at me and at her, but right now I just want to hold the woman I have always loved more than anything in this world. I walk over and pull her to me. I feel her stiffen briefly before she throws her arms around my waist and starts sobbing into my chest, breaking what little was left, of my heart.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, pulling back away from me. “We need to talk. I want them to hear too. No secrets and honestly I’m not sure what’s going to happen after tonight, but I need to make sure Ava is safe.” I keep wondering why she doesn’t seem to think Ava is safe here. What has Maya been up to?
“Let’s go talk,” I say, leading her into the living room.
We walk into the living room to find Brody, Ash, and Callie sitting on the couch quietly talking to each other. Callie looks up and smiles at Maya, making me so thankful she came into our lives. Maya walks over to sit in the chair across from them and I sit on the other couch with Collin.
“I have a question,” Maya says, starting this long overdue conversation. I look at her and nod.
“Did you tell anyone about those pictures?” I want to ask her what pictures. Now that I know there were two sets and they were completely different. From her expression, I’m assuming she is talking about the first set.
“My family, no one else knows about them though,” I say calmly.
“Did you tell Trent about them?” she asks, not looking me in the eyes.
“No,” I reply.
“Are you sure, it’s important.” I’m starting to get angry now. Why would she want to talk about Trent? He’s the reason for all of this.
“I’m sure. I remember that day very well,” I say through gritted teeth.
“So you didn’t confront either of us. You took for granted that the pictures you saw were real. They weren’t, I never cheated on you,” she says, with tears streaming down her face.
“The pictures are real. I had them checked today. They are legit,” I say watching her close. “And I did confront him, if that’s what you want to call it. I found him that night. I beat the crap out of him and I haven’t seen him since. I figured he knew why I was doing it without me describing the pictures to him.”
“That’s impossible,” she whispers, before sobbing again. “I don’t understand.” It’s killing me not going over to comfort her, but something is off. I am trained to figure out when people are lying, and while I actually believe her right now, there’s still something way off. “Can I see them?” she whispers.
“I don’t have them. I left them at the lab to see if they could get prints off of them. I want to know who sent them,” I say.
“I think I already know,” she says, finally looking me in the eyes.
“Who?” She shakes her head at me.
“I need to tell you about what I have been doing the last five years first and you aren’t going to like it,” she says. Wiping her eyes one more time, she turns and starts telling me a story, a story I have always dreaded hearing, a story that makes me want to hunt that man down and kill him this time, a story that completely shatters my heart.
Maya
I take a deep breath and start to tell a story that I know is going to completely break Jaxon and probably completely break me. It’s also a story that I know has to be out in the open if we are ever going to figure out what happened five years ago.
“That day you kicked me out, I was running late because I had gone to the doctor. I hadn’t been feeling very well and I ha
d taken a pregnancy test. It was positive, but I didn’t want to tell you yet, because I didn’t want you to be disappointed if it was a false positive. So, I called and got an appointment so they could confirm it for me. They told me I was around five weeks and everything looked perfect. I was so happy. I couldn’t wait to come home and tell you.” I purposely leave out how scared I was something was going to happen to the baby. We had tried for months to get pregnant and I know I was going crazy wanting it so badly. “But when I got home, instead of my happy husband I found my suitcases on the porch and you telling me to get the hell away from you. I had no idea why you were so mad. I also had nowhere to go. I got a hotel for the night and tried to get some rest, I also tried to call you a million times. You never answered,” I say, glancing at Jaxon who is staring straight ahead.
Most people would say he is emotionless, impossible to read. Me though, I can read him like a book. I know right now he is feeling all kinds of guilty for treating me that way. I also know that this story is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
“I ended up staying in a hotel a few days. I called my parents to see if I could stay with them for a while. You can probably imagine how that conversation went,” I say, not wanting everyone to know how horrible my parents really were. Jaxon can probably understand though. They never approved of him and always thought I was marrying beneath me. He didn’t have enough zeroes in his bank account in their opinion. He knows all of this, so he should have known I had no one.
“I finally decided I was just going to have to start over somewhere else. I had a baby to support soon and I needed to make sure I did everything I could to protect it. I checked out of the hotel and headed out of town. I just started driving. I had no idea where I was going. I got a couple of hours away before I had to stop for gas. I pulled into a gas station and had a complete meltdown. I was sitting in my car sobbing and screaming and no telling what else when someone tapped on my window.” I stop talking and think really hard. I was so glad to see someone I knew that I never questioned how he found me. Have I really been so blind these past few years? I’m deep in thought when I hear Jaxon’s voice.
“Maya, I said who was tapping on the window?” I take a deep breath and I look straight into his eyes and then I say the word he knows I’m going to say.
“Trent.” He looks back into my eyes and I can see a million different emotions on his face right now. I can pretty much tell what he’s thinking.
“Did you sleep with him?” Jaxon asks quietly.
“No, never,” I whisper. “I never really thought about why he was there or how he found me. I just felt relief that I finally had someone on my side, someone to talk to. He looked awful, now I know why. I asked him what happened and he shook it off and said it was nothing. He never said you two got into a fight. I told him everything that had happened and how confused I was. He never mentioned anything about you talking to him.”
“I didn’t talk to him. Like I said, I beat the crap out of him.” I ignore him and keep talking.
“He said he had gotten transferred to Atlanta and was on his way there. He said I could come with him until I figured things out with you and so I wouldn’t be alone. I had no one, so I went and that’s where I have been the last five years. In Atlanta with Trent,” I say, before letting a breath out.
“Are you with him, with him?” Jaxon asks quietly.
“No,” I whisper shaking my head. “He’s my friend, my only friend for the past few years. He loves Ava and she adores him. He was with me for all of her firsts and he was with me when I started my business and he was with me every time I cried for you,” I say with a sob. “I know he thinks we are going somewhere, but we aren’t. He’s a friend, that’s it.” As soon as the words are out I realize why he has never been more than that to me. Because only one person will be more than that for me and I will never have him again. With this realization, I lose it. I put my head in my hands and I cry over everything we have lost the past few years. I don’t think I can cry anymore when I feel Jaxon put his arms around me and lift me before sitting me down in his lap. I bury my face in his neck and continue to cry for I don’t know how long.
“We will figure it out. It’s going to be okay,” he whispers.
“No it’s not,” I say, lifting my head. “I think Trent’s the one who sent those pictures.”
“Why do you think he sent the pictures?” he asks quietly. I sit up and try to remove myself from his lap as much as possible in this chair. I had almost forgotten we weren’t the only two in the room.
“After I met Callie and Leighton and learned about the pictures, I called Trent to tell him. I told him you had never seen the pictures of Ava because you had seen pictures of the two of us and thought they were more of those. I didn’t say what the pictures were because Ava was in the car and I didn’t want her hearing anything even if she wouldn’t understand. He slipped though. He said just because you had pictures of us in bed together didn’t mean you shouldn’t want to meet your daughter. I never told him what was in the pictures. So if I didn’t tell him and you didn’t tell him, how did he know?”
“I don’t know. But Maya, those pictures were real. Even if you don’t want to admit it, you were in bed with him,” he says, making me lose it again. How can you be in bed with someone and not even remember it.
“I promise, I was not with him. I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Do you think he drugged you?” Callie asks, speaking for the first time.
“Wouldn’t I remember that?” I ask, watching her shrug her shoulders.
“I have no idea,” she says. “I believe you, but Jaxon has proof and that’s hard to overlook. Is Trent dangerous?”
“I don’t think so. I know he would never hurt me or Ava, but he is going to be furious that I’m here. He’s expecting me home tonight. I just couldn’t after my last conversation with him. Something is definitely off.”
“You can’t take her away from me. I want to have her in my life,” Jaxon says. I’m trying not to focus on the fact that he only said her. I know I lost my chance with him a long time ago.
“I know, I would never keep her from you, but my life and job is in Atlanta,” I say.
“Where do you work?” Callie asks, probably trying to change the subject.
“I own my own photography studio.”
“Wow, that’s great. Maybe you can take some pictures of the girls while you are here. I haven’t had their picture made yet,” she says, sounding very sincere.
“Sure, I would love to.” I’m about to ask Jaxon when he wants to meet Ava when my phone starts ringing. I pull it out of my purse and look down to see Trent’s name on the screen. This can’t be good.
“I should probably take this,” I say, trying to stand up. Jaxon grabs me around the waist and pulls me back down.
“He can wait,” he says, taking the phone from me. “We need to figure out what you are going to tell him. Ava is not going anywhere near him until we figure out how he knew about those pictures.” I nod my head at him and grab my phone back.
“I think I should just tell him I am staying here a couple of days. He’s not going to like it, but I don’t think I can go back, not yet.” As soon as the words are out of my mouth, my phone starts ringing again.
“He’s persistent,” Jaxon says, looking down at the screen.
“I’ll be right back.” I get up and walk back into the kitchen.
“Hey Trent,” I say, trying to sound somewhat normal.
“Hey babe. Are you home yet?” he asks. I don’t know why he calls me babe and baby all the time. He just started one day and I never stopped him. I guess I have been leading him on all of this time just by not doing anything to stop him.
“No, I decided to stay a couple of days.”
“What do you mean? Maya, come back home, now,” he demands, sounding angry.
“I can’t. Ava has a right to know her father and her family. I’m not taking that away from her.”<
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“Are you crazy? He didn’t want her, Maya. I do, though. You know I think of her as mine and I miss her and you. Please come home.” he says, trying to hold in his anger.
“He didn’t know about her,” I say, trying to keep my cool.
“You have got to be kidding me. You have always been so blind when it comes to him. He left you when you were pregnant and had no one. He hasn’t tried to contact you in five years,” he screams. “Come home now or I will come get both of you.”
“Okay, we will come home. I just have one question. Did you send those pictures?”
“What pictures?” he asks.
“The ones of us in bed together. How did you even get them? I never slept with you.”
“Why would you think I sent those? I didn’t even know about them until this morning. Just come home, we will talk about this like adults when you get here.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Did you send them?”
“Come home, Maya.”
“How could you do that to me? What did I ever do to you?” I say, not understanding why he can’t come up with some explanation of what happened.
“I said come home, now Maya.”
“No, you knew about those pictures without me even telling you about them. How did you get them? I never slept with you,” I scream at him.
“If you aren’t home in the morning, I will come find you and take back what is mine. Do you understand?” he asks.
“Stay away from her, she is mine,” I say. Jaxon walks in the kitchen and looks at me suspiciously.
“Maya, you know I think of her as mine and you can’t cut me out of her life. I will not stand for that. I don’t know what he is telling you, but you need to get the both of you home now. I’ll see you tomorrow and we will talk about this like adults.”
“Why did you send the pictures?” I ask again letting a sob come out.
“Tomorrow. Don’t make me come find you,” he says before hanging up. I can’t take it anymore and my legs give out and fall to the floor sobbing. In no time Jaxon is sitting on the floor with me with his arms around me and his face buried in my hair.
Forgiving You: A Switched Series Novella (The Switched Series Book 3) Page 3
