Had dinner with them last night. They spent half the night making jokes at your expense. Liam says you’re a “fucking coward” and Aubrey said she never fucked you because you have a small dick.
“How would she know he and I never slept together?” asks Aubrey.
I shake my head, unsure. But we find our answer in the next email, which was dated before the previous email and from Jake to Julianne this time. It’s a long, rambling rant about how badly he wants Aubrey back and how much he deserves to be the one to claim her virginity and how wrong she was to leave him. The whole email gives me the creeps. Aubrey closes it without a word and moves to the final email. This one is from Julianne to Jake again.
He’s going to be separated from her in the courtroom. You could get her alone. Threaten the mother and she will come. I guarantee it. You’ll have your shot at her if you take it now. Call her right at noon.
“She put him up to it,” I say slowly. “The fucking bitch actually went that far? She was willing to risk your life and my mom’s life to get money from me?” I shake my head, looking down at the bed as a new, hard certainty settles over me. “She’s dead to me. No more. No fucking more. I’m done hoping she’ll change. I’m done trying to protect her. You’re all Sophie needs now. She’s strong enough to move on. The fucking gloves are coming off, so help me God. We’re going to bring Julianne’s ass down, no matter what it takes.”
Aubrey takes a deep breath, meeting my eyes and nodding.
18
Aubrey
The final day of the trial starts out like the rest, but I know Liam met with his lawyers and told them to do whatever they could to win this case. For my own part, I have a plan to help make this easier for Sophie. We haven’t technically been allowed to talk to her during the week of the trial, but I managed to catch her in the women’s restroom alone. I asked her if she would trust me and pretend to be sick when Liam’s lawyers presented their cases today.
She saw through me right away and asked what I didn’t want her to hear. To my surprise though, she trusted me and agreed. I’m sure she won’t be protected from the full force of the truth forever, but it’s a small comfort to know she doesn’t have to hear it here, like this.
Liam’s team managed to have the emails “accidentally” forwarded from Julianne to Liam, which made them admissible evidence, even if the timing was unusually convenient, there wasn’t really anything they could do to prove it, so the evidence stood. The power of those emails rocked the jury. It was clear even from a glance.
If that wasn’t enough, they were able to get Linda McCroy to testify that Julianne was blackmailing her into twisting evidence against us. Apparently Julianne had made some kind of investment in Linda’s home fashion design business and Linda had blown the money in a few months, but Julianne refused to budge and forgive the debt unless Linda managed to get custody of Sophie taken from Liam.
In the span of a single day, the power shifted. It was clear from the faces of Julianne’s lawyers that they had lost, even before the final verdict was read the following day.
Not only was custody awarded back to Liam indefinitely, but formal charges were pressed against Julianne for blackmail, fraud, and reckless endangerment. According to Liam’s lawyers, whether the charges panned out or not, even being charged with such serious crimes would likely prevent Julianne from ever making a case for custody again.
Jake was also charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder. Linda McCroy was stripped of her position with child protective services as well, and the claims she made against Liam were removed from record.
Liam, Sophie, Roxanne, and I all sat in Liam’s cinema room with bowls of popcorn. Sophie’s legs are draped over mine, and mine are over Liam’s as we all sit back in the comfy chairs and watch the third Schwarzenegger movie of the night.
“You know,” says Sophie in a low whisper. “He has never liked a girl enough to show her his Schwarzenegger collection.”
I grin. “I’m honaaaahd” I croak in my best Schwarzenegger impression.
“Naht Baahhhd” says Liam in a perfect Arnold voice.
We all laugh, and it’s just one of countless moments that night and for the nights to come that make me stop and wonder how I got so lucky. Sophie pulls what must be a warm piece of lettuce from her pocket and feeds it to the small turtle in her lap. She winks at me when I look over to watch.
I smile, knowing I can never tell her how I literally had to get on my knees and beg her father to get her that turtle. I can’t tell her because I wasn’t begging with words, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Over the weeks since the trial I’ve begun to wonder how I went so long without sex. Granted, Liam seems to have a mastery over his body and my own that I can’t imagine any other man possessing, so maybe I should rephrase. I’ve begun to wonder how I went so long without having sex with Liam.
More than that, I don’t know how I lived without him. It may sound melodramatic, but being with him has made me realize that I was a shell of a woman. I have everything I could ever want now. Even though Roxanne will always remind me of my mother, I’ve found an acceptance in her passing I never had before. She has moved on and she’s in a better place. I don’t know if I could really believe that until now, and I don’t know what flipped the switch. But I feel it with a rock-hard certainty.
Liam was also nice enough to give Donna a job cleaning his pool. Of course, she knows next to nothing about cleaning the pool, and he still pays for a professional service to come by once a week. In reality, it was just a way for him to give her money and give her an excuse to come over and spend time with me. Neither of us are complaining about the arrangement.
It makes me feel a little cruel to say, but I’m also immensely relieved to have learned that Jake wound up in prison. When they went to arrest him, he resisted and tried to stab one of the officers, which landed him an immediate sentence of fifteen years. When he stands trial for the other charges against him, he could end up in jail for the rest of his life, too.
Julianne was found guilty of all the charges against her, and is now serving a ten year sentence. It turns out her boy-toy, Pierre, was also embezzling money from her, which got him thrown behind bars too. For her part, Sophie is taking it all better than expected.
I pull her aside on a warm afternoon while we’re out by the pool, sitting down so our feet can be cooled by the water.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Yep,” says Sophie, who sets her turtle down and watches him scuttle into the water and start paddling around.
“I mean, like, are you okay with everything?
She shrugs. “Yep. I know daddy tried to protect me from seeing what Julianne was really like and what she thought of me, but I knew a long time ago. I think he wanted to fix her for me, but I never wanted that. Does that make me a bad person?” she asks with a sudden sincerity. “I didn’t want him to fix her. I didn’t want to forgive her. Not ever.”
“No,” I say carefully. “I think it’s your right to decide who you forgive and who you don’t. Sometimes people can really suck. You can think you know them and they can surprise you in the worst ways. When that happens, I think it’s okay to decide not to forgive them.”
“Are you talking about Jake, too?” she asks.
I laugh, surprised, as usual, by how perceptive she is for such a young girl. “Maybe, yeah. Maybe a little.”
“Thank you,” she says. “You’re always honest with me,” she says the last sweetly and casually, kicking her toes in the water and watching the waterfall trickle down the rocks leading to the pool. “Aubrey?” she asks.
“Yeah?”
“When you and daddy get married, would it be weird if I started calling you mom?”
Tears well in my eyes and a smile pulls at my mouth. I put my arm around her shoulder and she rests her head against me as I let the tears fall down my cheeks. “No, sweetie. I would love that.”
Epilogue
Three Months Later
&n
bsp; Aubrey
Liam let me pick all the details of our wedding and even though I knew we could have had some kind of extravagant affair, I chose to keep it simple. Having our ceremony on the little beach where Liam proposed for real is perfect. We took a family cruise to get back to the Keys, and it was every bit as special as the first time, if not more-so. Linda McCroy and Jake were notably absent this time, which, I have to say, was a clear improvement. The only new addition to our party is Donna, who is sitting across from me in one of the ship’s dining halls. Liam is coordinating some sort of super secret with Sophie and Roxanne that I’m apparently not allowed to know anything about, so Donna and I have the afternoon together, just like old times.
“Donna,” I say, looking at the plate in front of her. “You know no mortal being could possibly eat that much food, right?”
She scowls. “Hey, have a little sensitivity, brat. My best friend is pregnant. Do you have any idea how hungry that makes me?”
I smirk. “At least you still consider me your best friend,” I say, instinctively pressing a hand to my slightly swollen belly. It’s still early and I’m not really showing, but I can feel the beginning of the bump forming. I’m in the awkward stage of pregnancy where it just looks like I’ve taken up a sudden ice cream eating hobby and don’t plan to slow down.
“Why wouldn’t I?” she asks before shoving a mini tuna sandwich in her mouth.
“I don’t know, because I don’t spend as much time with you anymore?” I ask.
“Girl,” she says, swallowing her mouthful. “First of all, I’d bitch slap you for implying we’ll ever not be besties, but you’re pregnant, and if I have one rule to live by, it’s to never hit a man with glasses, a pregnant woman, or a person in a wheelchair--I mean, unless it’s your scary mother-in-law, because I think she could take a bitch slap like a champ.”
“That’s big of you,” I mutter.
“Secondly,” she says, raising her voice to drown me out. “If you were spending as much time with me as before even though you are sleeping next to the billion dollar cock--”
“Please don’t talk about Liam’s cock,” I say, smirking.
“Aub,” she says dryly. “This is purely hypothetical cock. I’ve obviously never seen the thing, but if you wanted to fill me in with a description, maybe a police sketch or something so I know what we’re dealing with--”
She stops short when I lob a wet noodle at her forehead. It bounces off and lands on her plate, leaving a smear of italian dressing on her forehead. She raises her eyebrows, looks down at the noodle, pops it in her mouth, and then wipes her forehead. “Well,” she says in a falsely dignified voice. “If I had known I was going to have lunch with a chimpanzee, I wouldn’t have bothered to wear pants.”
“All I’m saying,” I say, “is that I’m really happy we’re still friends. Best friends,” I add.
“Me too,” she says, looking down at her plate with a grimace. “You might have been right. This was way too much food. Why didn’t you stop me? You know I can’t be trusted to make responsible decisions when this much food is involved.”
I grin. “That’s part of being your mommy,” I say sweetly. “I’ve got to let my little girl make her own mistakes and learn from them.”
“Oh, you’re my mommy now?” asks Donna. “Because I make a special exception for hitting family members who wear glasses, are pregnant, or are in wheelchairs.” She stands up quickly, rushing toward me.
I run away, laughing and not caring that everyone in the dining hall is staring at us as she chases me around, catches me from behind, and starts play slapping my cheeks while I try to kick free.
Liam
I stand on the beach where I proposed to Aubrey and it’s exactly how I remembered. The day is warm and sunny even though it’s November. I told Aubrey she could have whatever kind of wedding she wanted, and she wanted it to be here, with as few people as possible. I only brought Sophie and Roxanne, while she just brought her friend, Donna.
I stand beside the pastor, who wears casual clothes as he holds his bible, smiling as we wait for Aubrey to emerge. Donna waits a little ahead of me in her bridesmaids dress, waiting patiently.
We had a tent set up by the rocks for her to make the final touches to her hair, makeup, and dress. We also had a beautiful wooden archway set up where flowers are hanging. Sophie drew a little path in the sand for Aubrey to walk from the tent to where I’m waiting for her, and she lined the entire path with the shark teeth she found.
Aubrey took my breath away the first time I ever saw her, and she takes my breath away now when she steps from the tent. Her brown hair is done into curls that bounce over her shoulders as she walks toward me, smiling wide. She wears a simple white dress that looks impossibly beautiful on her, and I swell with pride when I see the slightest bulge in her stomach and know our baby is growing there.
Before Aubrey can walk by herself toward me though, Sophie pushes my mother’s chair beside her and starts to follow Aubrey down the path. Aubrey takes my mother’s hand and smiles down at her, tears brimming in her eyes as she realizes my mother is standing in as her family member and “giving her away” to me. I thought it might make today more special for her, and it seems I was right.
My mom stops her chair a few yards away from me and Aubrey leans down to kiss her cheek. Sophie and my mother hang back a little, watching and smiling as the pastor begins the ceremony.
He walks us through our vows while we hold hands and gaze into each other’s eyes. When he asks Sophie to come forward with the ring, I’m surprised to see two rings in her hands. She looks uncertainly to Aubrey, who smiles back at her, clearly confused about what’s going on. The pastor gives a knowing smile to Aubrey and my mother though.
“Aubrey,” says Sophie, holding up a simple silver ring. “When you marry my dad you’re kind of marrying us,” she says, motioning to my mother. “And I think some kids might be mad about that, but um--” she fumbles with the ring and holds it out toward Aubrey. “Grandma and I are really happy, and I wanted to give you something because we say yes too.”
Aubrey bends down and hugs Sophie tightly, letting the tears fall freely from her cheeks. When she pulls back, Sophie slips the ring on her finger and hands me Aubrey’s wedding band before going back toward my mother, whom she high fives discreetly.
The pastor motions for me to put the ring over Aubrey’s finger. We say our “I do’s” before we kiss, and then we have a small dinner with the five of us. It all passes in a blur of smiles, laughter, and happiness. It’s a kind of happiness I never thought I’d find. A happiness I never thought I’d deserve. And every time I look at the woman beside me, I know I’m the luckiest man alive, because nobody should deserve to have the life I have now, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to give any of them up.
19
Bonus Extended Epilogue
Aubrey
I begin what has become my morning ritual ever since the wedding. I watch Liam King, my husband, get ready in the morning and enjoy every moment of it. I run through the list of unbelievables. He’s mine. Every single scorching hot inch of muscle and charm and arrogant swagger is all mine. He loves me. I love him. Best of all, his baby is growing inside me. Our baby.
I think maybe if I keep going over these little facts every day, they will eventually start to seem real, and the distant fear that I’m going to wake up and realize this was all a dream will fade.
The only sour note in our honeymoon is how much I already miss Sophie, Roxanne, and Donna. I’ve never been out of the country, let alone away for more than a few days, and we’ve already been gone a week.
I’m four months pregnant now, and definitely showing. We had to rush a little to take this trip before I was so pregnant that I’d be into the sore back and swollen feet stage, but so far it has been perfect. My last episode of morning sickness was weeks ago, and other than occasional hot flashes and some minor mood swings, I’ve been blessed with an incredibly easy pregnancy so far.
“I have a little surprise for you today,” says Liam.
“Last time you said that, the surprise was not little,” I say, eyeing the outline of his cock against the briefs he wears.
He smirks, “Now, if my sweetheart wants that kind of surprise, I think we have time.”
I quirk an eyebrow at him, leaning back on my elbows. I haven’t had a whole lot of practice as the whole seduction thing, and I clearly still need work, because Liam chuckles.
“Tell you what,” he says. “I’m going to fuck you today, but not here. I’m going to take you when you least expect it.”
I bite my lip, feeling an immediate surge of heat rush to my core. “That sounds kind of scary.”
“Yeah?” he asks, crawling onto the bed and planting his strong hands on either side of my head. “You probably should be scared, because I already know where I want to have that tight pussy of yours.”
I blush, unable to look away from his gorgeous green eyes. “Let’s get going then,” I say, “I don’t know how long I can wait.”
“Twenty two years a virgin and now you can’t even wait a couple hours?”
“Hours?” I groan.
He pulls me up to a sitting position and kisses me tenderly, but the tenderness quickly turns ravenous. My hands grip his back and explore his broad shoulders. I try to pull him back down to me but he straightens, grinning obnoxiously. “Nice try, sweetheart. If you want to fuck, you’re going to have to play along.”
Europe is more beautiful than I expected. We’ve already passed through Italy and Rome, and last night we stayed at a little bed and breakfast in Germany. We’ve been traveling around by train, and it turns out long train rides in private rooms with Liam are every bit as enjoyable as I might have guessed. I’ll grant that I don’t have much experience--okay, any experience--in this, but Liam seems to have an abnormally high sex drive, which suits me just fine.
Bad for the Billionaires: A Bad Boy Billionaire Bundle Page 62
