by Blue Saffire
She turns to me with that love and trust that has me feeling even more like shit. “There’s nothing to do. They’re going to do a formal investigation into the accusations and then either fire me, or if I’m lucky, they will ask me to resign. I’ll have a chance to appeal.” She shrugs.
“Then do that,” I say feeling like this is the way out. “We will appeal. Maybe we can take a break from seeing each other until the appeal. I mean we could get Trisha to take back her statement.”
“We can’t.”
“Don’t just give up. We can try something.”
She only smiles at me, her eyes filling with tears. “We can’t. By the time the appeal date comes around, I’ll already be showing.”
I shake my head. “Showing what?”
Sienna snorts. “I’m pregnant, Dean. The doctor confirmed it this morning when I went to get my birth control. Even if we get out of this mess, in seven months I will have hard proof of what we’ve meant to each other. It’s a loss cause.”
For a moment all I can do is stare at her. There is no way. No way can I be having a child with this beautiful, amazing woman.
Sienna’s laugh brings me out of my thoughts. “Are you going to say something or just continue to stare at me?”
“Marry me,” I say before she can fully get her words out.
The smile wipes off her face and this time, it’s her with the look of surprise.
“You don’t have to marry me just because we’re having a child. Besides, you just got out of a—”
I place my hand at the back of her neck and pull her toward me. I find her lips with mine and I kiss her as if she’s my only source of oxygen. I wrap up all my love for her, for the child that’s growing in her belly and the son that I didn’t create but love as if I did—I put it all in one kiss.
When I pull away, she’s breathing heavy with that look in her eyes that I love. I lean my forehead to hers. “Don’t tell me why we shouldn’t get married. None of that matters. The only thing that’s important is us. Say yes, baby. Say yes.”
“Yes.” I capture her lips again.
In this moment, it doesn’t matter where I knew Sienna from, or where I met her. It doesn’t matter that she has a son and I an ex-wife. All that matters from this day forth, is us.
Epilogue
Ever After
Sienna
Three years later…
“Erica over here!” I call out to my sister who leads her husband and my nephew toward me. “Was it hard to find parking?”
“Girl, you would think we’re coming to a damn comedy show with all these cars out here. It’s just a kid’s baseball game.”
“It’s the little league world series, sweetheart. Not just a kid’s ball game,” Kevin says handing their three-year-old son a bottle of Gatorade.
Erica rolls her eyes at Kevin. “It’s too damn expensive is what it is. Fifteen dollars for a ticket and eight dollars to park. Nephew and brother-in-law better be happy I love them. You know I don’t do outside.”
I laugh at her complaints. She’s right about loving them. With Dean now coaching full time at the University—a job he got not long after taking Maddox and his team to their first Little League World Series—we spend most of our time on baseball fields.
Even though Dean is busy with his own team, he still finds time to help coach Maddox. He never misses a game and he tries to make all practices. Unlike Quentin. I look down the bleachers to where Quentin is sitting off to the left alone, once again his eyes are on me.
“Who invited fuckboy?” Erica asks when she notices him.
Dean and I got married three months after he proposed to me in his car. We had a very small ceremony that included both our small families. If anyone had an issue with us getting married so soon, no one said a word. After our marriage was final, I had a huge argument with Quentin when he showed his ass at my house. It seems all that talk about me not moving on was actually his problem.
“Leave him alone. He’s been on his best behavior since Dean threatened to whoop his ass that day he showed up at the house.” I’m not able to hide my laughter.
“Maddox doesn’t even deal with him anymore, does he?” Kevin asks.
Quentin glances over his shoulder at me and drops his head, before turning back toward the field.
“Not really, but Dean and I thought we should at least invite him to the game. Especially since he’s been so desperate to bond with Maddox now.”
“Well forget him, he should have done it before,” Erica sneers down at Quentin. “All of a sudden Maddox matters cause the precious cargo he was obsessed about turned out not to be his.”
Kevin winces. “That was pretty bad. The same day he found out his wife was cheating on him, he also finds out that the kid wasn’t his.”
“Well it served him right. He was a complete ass and he gave everyone his butt to kiss for her. Now, give me my niece,” Erica says reaching for my two-year-old sleeping daughter.
I hand over Madison. She’s Dean’s twin. Same gray eyes, same narrow nose and same ears that slightly stand away from her head. She’s the center of his world and her big brother’s.
I ended up resigning from my job and just a few months afterwards I received the letter that my license had been revoked. It worked out for the best. I had a few complications with Maddie and was put on bed rest quite a bit during the pregnancy. When she was delivered two weeks early, her father was a nervous wreck.
“How’s the book coming along?” Erica says cooing Maddie back to sleep.
A wide smile spreads over my face. I’ve been hiding the big news from everyone. Dean and I wanted to announce it at dinner tonight, but I’m too excited.
“It got picked up by a publishing house.”
“Oh my gosh!” Erica squeals.
“That’s great, Sie,” Kevin adds.
During my time on bed rest, my passion for writing came full force. I wrote two books. I was just going to place them with the other notebooks of stories, but Dean read them and encouraged me to try and publish them. I decided to shop my stories out to a publishing house, and lo and behold they got picked up.
“I told you, it would all work out, didn’t I?” Erica brags.
Who knew that taking the biggest gamble with my life would end up with me finding my happiness? I have my dream job; I was able to finally release myself from my relationship with Quentin and free Maddox from that toxic situation. And I also found love.
“Hey, Sienna, someone’s trying to get your attention,” Kevin leans over and says to me.
Out on the field, both my boys are waving at me. They told me they would. When I wave back, Dean blows me a kiss, and the crowd awws. I can’t help the blush that spreads over my face.
“Aww, my baby sister has her very own happily ever after.”
I roll my eyes at Erica, but I agree with her. If my life truly were a fairy tale, I would be the ugly duckling. Not because of my looks, but because just like that little duck, I had to shed some feathers to become a beautiful swan.
Acknowledgments
I first want to thank my readers. Without you guys, I’d just be a crazy person that hears voices.
A special thank you to my writing partners, Ivy Harper and KT Adler. You ladies were my backbone through this journey.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank the incredible, Verleiz Lattimore. You have been a true godsend. A listening ear, a friend, and a teacher. Thank you for seeing something in me and wanting to help cultivate it. You are REALLY amazing!
And always, last but never least, a special thank you to my babies. All I do, I do for you.
About the Author
Tiya Rayne is an avid reader and writer. She has an unhealthy relationship with coffee and is known to hide numerous bags of jelly beans around the house.
When she is not reading or writing—which is rare—she’s trying to master this thing called parenting. She is married to her high school sweetheart and they live in Arkansas w
ith their three—subjectively wonderful—children. Tiya also writes Young Adult Paranormal under the pen name KC Connor.
Thank You
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Red Revenge
K.T. Adler
Red Revenge
Wicked Prince Charmings
KT Adler
Perceptive Illusions Publishing, Inc.
Bay Shore, New York
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by KT Adler.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
KT Adler/Perceptive Illusions Publishing, Inc.
PO BOX 5253
Bay Shore, New York 11706
www.ktadler.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the address above.
Red Revenge/ KT Adler. -- 1st ed.
Red Revenge
Retelling of Little Red Riding Hood
Ethan
My name is Ethan Wulf and I’m a bad boy gone good. Well, not that good. I’m running for Mayor in the town I grew up in, Penndel Heights. Why? It’s an act of Revenge on Joel Huntsman. However, my image needs a 360 makeover and a dash of fairy tale innocence. Who can help me clean up my image and win?
Red
Amelia “Red” Huntsman. Amelia is an all around do-gooder. She’s the president of P.R.L (Penndel Rights for Life), she volunteers at the children’s hospital, she’s the spokeswoman of the Women’s Literacy Council, and the best apple pie baker of 2019. In other words, she is perfect for my plan. The only problem is I’m currently blackmailing her family and her father despises me.
Will this big bad wolf stay bad forever or will history repeat itself and banish my good forever?
Preface
Broken Promises
Amelia
Old Litchfield Manor, Penndel Heights, 2007
“Tell him the truth,” my father whispers in my ear as he walks past me.
The truth, he never means for me to tell him that. Scorn burns deep for the lies he wants me to tell. Ethan Wulf sits before me on his knees as my father’s henchmen restrain him—each holding an arm.
The candlelight that Ethan lit earlier, bounces off the side of his face. The bruises on his skin begin to set in. His left eye is swollen, his right eye, full of pain, is fixed on me. My heart feels like it’s about to explode in my chest.
We may only be seventeen and eighteen, but here in this old manor, we promised we would live together in our future. We would have children, three—one boy and two girls. We’d name them after our favorite places in the world—Rome, Brooklyn, and Sydney.
I was pregnant with one of them and now I’m not. I never felt so empty. A dark scream is clawing at my insides. I want to shout at my father, but right now, in this moment, he has all the power. Someday I’ll take my power back.
But first, I have to break Ethan Wulf.
“Red?” Ethan’s eyes soften as he looks at me.
“I had an abortion. I didn’t lose our baby.” Ethan clenches his lids shut as if he feels my pain. “I killed it.”
“How could you do that to her?” he shouts at my father, struggling to get out of the grip of the henchmen.
Ethan’s words seem to have an effect on my father. He stops his pacing and turns to storm toward Ethan with a raised palm. I step into my father’s path.
“Enough!” My father’s brow lifts; he inhales. “This is for me to do, Daddy.”
He swallows whatever he planned to say, and he nods before taking a step back. The pleased glee in his eyes turns my stomach. However, I have to bite the feeling back and get through this.
“Red?”
Turning back to Ethan, I try to quickly trace out his beauty in my mind, although his face is marred from the beating he’s taken. His thick mahogany hair—now matted with blood—hangs past his shoulders. Though one is swollen, his green eyes look at me waiting for an answer.
“The truth is, I aborted our baby, not my father. Me.”
“No, you would never—”
“Yes, I did, sweetie.” His brows twitch in confusing.
“I can never be with you, Ethan. Well, not truly be with you.” I kneel in front of him.
“Why not?” his nostrils flair.
“Ethan, you will always be the boy from the wrong side of the tracks.” I gesture with my hand in the direction of the railroad. “Beneath me, ghetto, white trailer trash.”
My brain yells against my words, but my heart knows doing this is more important than love. At least in this moment it is.
“Nothing about you is right for me.”
“What about us, Amelia?” he asks, he voice cracking with pain.
“There was never an us, Wulf. I was slumming.” I sigh.
“Slumming?” he repeats the word as if tasting the bitterness in it.
“At least you were a good fuck.” I turn to my father. “Sorry for the cuss word, Daddy.” He shrugs his shoulders proudly. I turn back to Ethan. “Sadly, the truth is, everything about you disgusts me. Your family, the stench of poverty that comes from you.”
I lift my wrist to inhale the scent of Chanel. I close my eyes and sigh. In truth, I’m suppressing a sob. No matter how sweet the smell, it doesn’t make this moment any more bearable.
“You loved my look,” he whispers, pain filling his words.
I lift the ends of his hair with my pink acrylic nails and smile. “I lied. You’re tattered. You look and smell homeless.” He sinks lower with each word I utter. “Did you really think I would’ve birthed your spawn?”
I throw back my head and laugh. My father smiles as if he’s pleased with me. His men hold Ethan tighter.
Still searching for a sign of love in my eyes, Ethan whispers, “Say you don’t love me.”
Our eyes lock, but I cover my pain with disgust. “I don’t love you, nor could I ever love your child.”
“So, you killed my baby.”
“So, I killed it. I mean, should I have kept it?” I smile and tilt my head to the side.
He starts to breathe harder, fighting against my father’s men. Touching his cheeks, I kiss his busted lip. Taking in our essence for one last time. “Leave Penndel and never come back, Ethan.”
“Amelia?” my father says as he stands behind me. I rise and take his hand.
“It’s been fun, Wulf. Ready, Daddy?”
I wrap my arm around my father’s and we walk to the black Jaguar waiting for us
at the back of the manor. I settle in the car seat, feeling life collapse and rebuild around me.
“I’m proud of you, Daughter. That Wulf will never come near you again.” His joy makes me sick to my stomach.
“Just hold your side of the promise.” Looking out the window, I see nothing but darkness and fog.
“I’m a man of my word.” I nod, my soul feels raw and tired. I need peace. “Where are you going tonight?”
“Granny’s house. I need rest.”
“I know you hate me now, but you did good, Amelia. I’m so proud of you.”
I’ll regain my power.
Chapter 1
Welcome Back
Amelia “Red”
Penndel Heights Auditorium, 2019
“Welcome to Penndel Heights’ introduction to mayoral delegates 2019.” Echoes through the microphone over the auditorium. I sit in front next to my best friend, Piper, as we and the rest of the people in the audience send a round of applause.
“I’ll never understand why we even have to attend this. It makes no sense,” Piper murmurs.
She’s right. Every four years in Penndel, no one ever runs for town mayor. If no one comes forth, my father will be serving another term in office.
