by Kyra Lennon
“How long am I supposed to wait before I completely freak out?” I asked, although there wasn’t much room left for panicking further. My voice had calmed but my insides were still vibrating from the frantic beat of my heart.
“Give him an hour. If he isn’t back by then, call me and we’ll figure something out. But try not to worry, Leah. He would never do anything to put Jessica at risk.”
He already has. But I didn’t say it out loud. I knew Deanna was as concerned as I was and only trying to placate me. What else could she say? What else could either of us do?
“Okay,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
As I hung up the phone, I kicked off my shoes, something I hadn’t actually gotten to since I’d got home. Everything had happened so fast. I sank down onto the sofa and tucked my legs underneath me – my favourite position in my favourite seat. I glanced around the room, my eyes drifting over the pristine glass coffee table in the centre of the room that held a vase of fresh flowers. Flowers. There was something about that centrepiece that made me giggle inwardly, because I never thought I’d be a fresh flowers on the coffee table kind of girl. Of course, I never thought I’d be a living in LA with a famous soccer player kind of girl either. My background was simple, normal. Even after so long, I often took a sharp intake of breath as I realised how fortunate I was. That house was the kind of thing I’d seen in magazines, with celebrities showing off the luxury they lived in. It might have been Radleigh’s officially, but between the two of us, we’d turned it into a home and anyone looking in would have taken one glance at the enormous TV screen and plush furnishings and thought our life was perfect. And it had been for the most part. But suddenly the place felt huge. It was always a tad too big for the three of us, and it was sure as hell too big just for Radleigh, and without him and Jessica, I felt… small. Lost.
The sound of the buzzer snapped me out of my thoughts and I frowned. Who the hell was pressing the buzzer at this time of night? There was a list a mile long of friends who had the code for the front gate but none of them would have just dropped by so late without calling first, so who had got through the gates and managed to reach the front door? The buzzer sounded again and with a hammering heart, I stood, reminding myself the police were only a phone call away if I needed them. When I reached the front door, I pressed the button on the intercom and said, “Hello?”
“Erm, hi. Leah?”
The voice was female and unfamiliar, and my finger hovered over the panic button. Who the hell would be crazy enough to find a way onto my property at eleven and press the buzzer? An image of Taylor flashed into my head. God, I hadn’t thought about her in forever. But she was gone now, and crazy as the situation with Radleigh had made me, it was highly unlikely Taylor’s ghost was coming for me. And if she was, she wouldn’t have needed to press the damn buzzer; she could have just floated her spooky ass through the walls.
“Who is this?” I asked.
“Can you open the door?”
“How did you get in here?”
“I… I slipped through the gates after Radleigh left.”
So… the mystery woman had just been standing outside the door for thirty minutes? Or had she been scoping out the property? My palms began to sweat; who the hell was this?
“Okay, well, I don’t know or care who you are, but I’m calling the police if you don’t leave right now.”
“No, wait!” the woman shrieked. “Please. I need to talk to you.”
“And that would be great if I knew who you are. But since I don’t, I’m gonna need you to get the hell off my doorstep. This is your last warning.”
“You don’t know me,” she said quickly. “But I’m sure you know who I am. I’m Jen. Jen Winters.”
I swear for a second I blacked out. This had to be a joke. Jen? Radleigh’s Jen? No. Way.
“Leah, please. I don’t want to cause any trouble. I just want to talk to you.”
Now I knew who she was, I wanted her on my property even less. Christ, I’d have preferred a freaking burglar. That’s how bad her reputation was.
But suddenly, with alarming clarity, Radleigh’s mood made sense.
I shook my head. In spite of my concerns about what Radleigh had been doing lately, I knew there was no way he would have been gotten tangled up with her. No way he would have cheated on me with her. But he knew she was here. That was why he’d been so stressed. What did she want?
Although my brain screamed at me not to, my body moved almost mechanically towards the door. I made sure the chain was firmly in place before turning the locks and opening the door.
And there she was. Perfect Jen. I recognised her, because like every modern day girlfriend, I’d Googled her to find out what my man’s ex looked like, and there was no shortage of photos of Jen Winters online.
She was just as stunning in real life as she was in the photos. Minimal photoshopping needed on such smooth, silky skin. Her lips were full and blood red, and her figure was perfection. She’d had two kids, but she looked better than me, with the kind of curves even Bree would have envied. Her blonde hair tumbled past her shoulders in soft curls, and even though she was only dressed in jeans and a low cut red top, she looked like a teenage boy’s fantasy come to life.
I tried not to glance down at my extremely casual appearance. My hair was scraped back in a messy ponytail and although I knew my make-up was still just fine, it looked amateurish and dull compared to Jen’s.
Her blowjob-friendly lips curved up into a smile. “Wow. So you’re the famous Leah. It’s good to meet you.”
I eyed her suspiciously. She sounded genuine, and a more naïve person would have been easily fooled by her pleasant tone. But I was looking into her eyes. They were blue - a deep, stunning blue - but she was obviously sizing me up too.
“I don’t mean to be rude but…” I trailed off. Because actually, if I’d finished the sentence, I’d have been just as disingenuous as her. I kind of did mean to be rude; she’d just materialised at my house without warning and I wanted her as far away as possible. Back to wherever the hell she’d come from. The shock of her arrival hadn’t left me yet. “I really don’t think we have anything to talk about.”
She smiled again, as if understanding my feelings, but again, her eyes didn’t quite match up to the image she was trying to portray. “So, Radleigh didn’t tell you I’m back.”
Back? A shudder ran through me. “Back? You mean… you live here now?”
A soft, girly laugh escaped her lips. “Well, almost. I’m going to be in town for a few weeks while I look for a place.”
“And you want to talk to me because…? I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I’m not an expert on local property.”
Her eyes glimmered, as if my snark was a challenge for her, but outwardly she chuckled. “That’s not what I need to talk to you about.” Jen sighed and her expression grew more serious. “Look, I don’t want to make trouble.”
This time it was me who giggled – but internally. Did she really think I’d believe that? A person who didn’t want to make trouble would have kept far away. This woman had trouble written all over her.
“What do you want?” I asked, bluntly.
“Can I come inside? I really don’t want to do this out here.”
“No. Either tell me now, or leave.”
“Leah, please. This is important. It’s obvious Radleigh hasn’t told you why I’m here, or that I’m here at all, and you need to know why. This is… it’s going to affect you.”
No shit. You being here is already affecting me. It’s been affecting me all week and has led to him hurting me and running out on me with our baby daughter.
Time was ticking away and he still wasn’t home yet. I could just picture the look on his face if he walked in and found Jen and me sitting on the sofa together. The bitchy side of me thought he deserved to be freaked out by that particular scenario after the strain he’d put us under, but when it came down to it, no matter what he’d
done, I’d still trust him more than her.
“If that’s the case,” I said, “maybe you should respect that he’ll talk to me when he’s ready.”
“Oh, please!” she snapped. “If you waited until he was ready nothing would ever get done.”
The slip of her oh-so-innocent mask made me stand straighter. She was talking about a man who no longer existed. Perhaps that was her experience, and maybe mine once, but not now. Not until she reappeared.
“You need to leave,” I told her. “Now.”
I started to push the door closed but she slipped her high-heeled foot in the way. I winced, not at the fact I might have hurt her, but at the small scuff mark on the side of her red Jimmy Choos. Not that she couldn’t afford to replace them, but still, if Bree had seen that she’d have held a funeral for them.
I glared at her through the gap in the door and her eyes widened, almost pleading with me. “Leah, you have to listen to me! Aren’t you even a little curious as to why I left New York to come all the way back here?”
Curious? No. Worried? Absolutely. I didn’t want the love of Radeigh’s young life anywhere near us and I certainly didn’t want to spend any more time talking to her. There was something about her that chipped away at my insecurities and awakened a part of me I thought I’d long since buried. Mostly, I could see right through her little act and I knew, whatever she said her reasons were, her intentions were anything but good.
“I don’t care why you’re here, I just want you away from my family.”
She smiled, her façade falling fully this time, her inner bitch beaming brightly. “Well that’s the thing, Leah. We’re gonna be family.”
Chapter Seven – Forty-Eight Hours
It was almost twelve a.m. when I barged through Deanna and Mitch’s front door, rage burning at my insides. The house was as silent as my own had been, and Radleigh sat in Mitch’s armchair with his head in his hands. Mitch stood rather awkwardly beside him and Deanna stopped behind me where I seethed in the doorway. Radleigh didn’t look up but I knew he knew I was there. He took deeper breaths but his eyes remained fixed on the floor.
Jen’s words bounced around my brain, threatening to shatter my skull with their severity. I needed to scream at him. I wanted to, but I couldn’t figure out where to begin. When Deanna had called me to tell me Radleigh was at her house, I’d barely managed to force out the word okay before hanging up the phone. I’d been rendered speechless over Jen’s revelation; the only thing inside me working overtime was fury. Fury that Radleigh had been keeping this huge, life-altering secret from me for two days.
God, suddenly everything made so much sense. The need to try and control me. The need to be around Jessica. The reluctance to look at or talk to me, because if he had, he knew he wouldn’t be able to hide it anymore. He’d have cracked and told me the thing he’d been trying to hide.
I swallowed, readying myself to form a coherent sentence. “Where’s Jessica?” I didn’t trust myself to say anything else just yet. A red mist clouded my vision but thinking about Jessica grounded me for long enough that I didn’t launch myself at Radleigh and start pummelling him.
“She’s asleep,” Deanna said. “I’ve put her in her room for now. If you want to take her home, you can, of course. I just thought maybe she’d be better to stay here tonight since she’s only just settled.”
As much as I wanted to take her, I knew Deanna was right. She’d had enough disruption for one night. At least when the yelling started she was far enough away from it in this huge house that it wouldn’t wake her up again.
“Thanks, Dee.” I glanced back at Radleigh who still hadn’t moved, then back to Deanna who shrugged. “Can you give us a minute?”
“Sure.” Deanna gave my shoulder a quick squeeze and she jerked her head in the direction of the door, gesturing for Mitch to leave Radleigh and me alone.
Once they’d gone – door closed behind them – I slowly approached him and knelt on the floor in front of him. I said nothing. I did nothing. I just waited. Eventually he raised his head, and the second his gaze fell on mine, he knew. I didn’t know exactly what my stare portrayed, but it was as if he’d read my mind. Like he could see everything I was thinking.
All words died in my throat with his eyes on me. They seemed to stare right through me, and everything I’d wanted to scream at him fell away because for the first time in days, I had my man back. The one who always told me the truth. The one who was honest. The one who would have walked through fire for me.
My body trembled as the silence started to deafen me, and he reached out and took my hands in his. He ran his thumbs across my knuckles, his jaw twitching a little as he appeared to be searching for the right thing to say. Eventually, he licked his lips as if to moisten them, and said, “What happened?”
I drew in a slow breath. “You tell me, Radleigh. You tell me right now why your ex-girlfriend showed up at our house after you’d gone. Like she knew you would go.” A horrible thought suddenly hit me like a freight train. “Oh my God. Was she… did you let her in while I was at Freya’s?”
Radleigh shook his head, his eyebrows drawn together. “No. I didn’t even know she knew where we live.”
“So, what? She was just lurking outside in case you left?”
I hated the suspicion in my voice but it made no sense that she’d have been outside our house if she hadn’t expected something to happen. Again, I was reminded of Taylor. The similarities between the two were uncanny, from their stalking habits down to that evil glint they both got in their eye when they hit you with a painful truth.
“I don’t know.” Radleigh let go of my hands and sighed, his eyes leaving mine, and silently telling me he did know something.
A lump was forming in my throat, though I couldn’t fully explain why. Maybe because Jen being back in L.A had always been my worst nightmare. I knew how much Radleigh had loved her, how her cheating on him had ripped him apart, and how it had taken him a long time to consider being with someone else - trusting someone else. That person. The first person you ever truly love. They leave a mark on you. Sometimes it’s just a little scar, something that will always be a part of you, and sometimes it’s something deeper. A wound that, although healed, has the potential to burst open when faced with reminders of the past. Jen was a wound. A deep, threatening wound I’d done my best to mend. Suddenly, I was no longer sure I’d done enough.
“What did she tell you?” Radleigh asked.
“I want to know what she told you. I want to know how long you knew she was here, and how often you’ve seen her, and why you didn’t tell me. I want to know why she was the one to approach me when you should have told me the second you first saw her.”
When Radleigh still wouldn’t look at me, I raised my hand and shoved his shoulder back, my hand slapping against his hard muscle, hoping to get a reaction. He didn’t even flinch. I waited a moment to see if he would respond, and when he didn’t, I pushed him again.
I hated it. Hated how he’d shut down from this already. That instead of explaining, he expected me to do the talking.
“Dammit, Radleigh! Talk to me!”
I clenched my fists, ready to pound them against his chest, but he grabbed my wrists to stop me, his fingers curling painfully around the wrist he’d injured earlier. I didn’t care that it hurt, I wanted to inflict some of the agony inside me on him and I fought hard to get free of him, my arms attempting to flail out of his grip.
“Let go!” I snapped, struggling without success to get him off me. “Get. Off!”
After one almighty tug I managed to get one hand free and I wasted no time in thudding my fist into his chest, still trying to get my other arm free too. “How could you not tell me?” I screamed. “How could you keep telling me everything was okay?”
“Leah, stop!” He grabbed the hand that was hitting him and forced both hands down by my sides, using his full strength. I had no choice but to stop struggling and when he was sure I was done fighting him,
he let go, leaving me shaking with the rage I’d been forced to suppress. My head pounded, threatening to crack my skull, and I turned away from him, unable to take his silence.
“She’s lying, Leah. Whatever she’s told you, she’s lying.”
I took some long, slow breaths. Because, yeah, of course there was every chance she was lying. In fact, I really hadn’t fully considered the repercussions if she wasn’t. I wasn’t angry about her bombshell; I was angry that he hadn’t told me himself.
“How long have you known?” I asked, my voice dangerously low. “When did she tell you her eldest son is yours, Radleigh?”
Saying the words out loud made vomit rise in my throat, and I swallowed hard, breathing deeply again. When Jen had told me… when she’d revealed her reasons for returning to Los Angeles, it was as if I’d been temporarily paralysed. “Jayden is Radleigh’s son.” That was all I could hear while the rest of my body shut down. Numbness overtook me so much I barely noticed the smirk of satisfaction she gave me before she left.
“She told me on Tuesday.”
Two days ago. Forty-eight hours. And all that time I’d had to deal with him stomping around the house, snapping at me, when he could have just told me and this wouldn’t have felt like so much of a betrayal.
“Two. Days. Radleigh… why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s not true.”
I spun around to face him. “Really? You just decided it’s not true so I didn’t need to know?”
“I was going to tell you. I was going to tell you tonight, but you were late back and I overreacted, and Jen-”
The bark of laughter I let out stopped him mid-sentence.
“Look, she might be a manipulative, cold-hearted bitch, but don’t think for a second about blaming what happened tonight on her. It was your lies that led to this.”
