With the way she’s been acting, you’d think Dana’s sins were against her and not my wife and I. According to her, there’s nothing Dana can do in this life or the next to repay her for missing out on the birth of her first grandchild. And whenever she thinks I’m softening in my stance, which isn’t true, by the way, she reminds me of the hell my wife had to face on her own, alone and pregnant with my child.
So, mom has decided to make it her mission in life never to let anyone forget what Dana had done and how she’d betrayed my wife and I. As if to add insult to injury the way only a female could think of, she has asked Giselle to take Dana’s place on the charity board, something I’m wholeheartedly behind. But when she tried to talk my wife into coming to work for the company, I put my foot down.
Thankfully Giselle and I are on the same page when it comes to me keeping her barefoot and pregnant, something I’ve been working very hard at as well this past week. I haven’t spoken to nor seen Dana, and neither do I wish to, but Donovan has been keeping tabs on her, and last I heard, she’s checked herself into rehab. I’m still reeling at the fact that she’d kept a drug habit so well hidden all these years. I would’ve cut her out of my life long ago if I got even a whiff of that shit.
I still feel bad sometimes that I was the one who’d introduced her into Giselle’s life, that had it not been for me, her mother would never have found here after all the hell she went through to escape, but whenever I feel like that, I just seek her out and hold her, reminding myself that she’s safe with me.
Junior has been reaping the benefits of his parents’ love. Now that the anger and animosity between us were gone, we’re a family, and I couldn’t have wished for better for my son. Just an hour ago, I’d done my best to fuck another kid in her and won’t stop trying until she blossoms with my child. There’s a new kind of excitement building inside me these days, and I can’t wait to see her ripening with child, can’t wait to experience all that I’d missed with my firstborn.
My phone rang on the dresser across the room, and I eased her off my chest onto her pillow and hurried to answer before the noise woke her. She needs all of her strength because I’ve been in her every time she blinked for the past week. It’s as if something had opened up after all the past misunderstandings were out of the way, and we’ve been back to the newlywed stage like two horny teenagers who couldn’t keep our hands off each other.
I’m pretty sure Delores had complained to mom about our PDA because mom had shown up at the house midweek and commandeered my son while muttering about him being too young to see certain things and how it was grandparents’ day or some such crap. I’m not sure, though, because mom would find any excuse to hog the baby, and since he doesn’t seem to mind, I let her have her way until his mother, and I start to miss him and have to go get him back from her clutches.
“Hello?” I was surprised at the caller. Why was her grandmother calling me instead of her? The two of them have been spending part of each day together, and she was another one with baby fever. Sometimes I’d catch Giselle with this wistful look on her face when she thinks no one else is looking, and when I asked, she explained that she always felt bad that our boy would have no one but her his whole life. Now she’s overwhelmed at the amount of love he’s now surrounded by.
He’s the first great-grandchild on both sides, and his mother’s aunts and uncles have already started spoiling both of them. It’s fun watching from the sidelines as she gets reacquainted with her dad’s siblings and their children, her cousins. It’s also freaky as hell seeing other people who look like her since her features heavily resemble her dad and his side of the family.
“Hello young man, I bet you’re wondering why I’m calling you and not my granddaughter. I’ll answer all your questions, as I’m sure you’re also wondering why I didn’t allow that creature to be arrested that first day for what she did to my son. I will answer all of your questions very shortly. Bring your wife and my great-grandson to the estate tomorrow morning at nine; you will have your answers then.”
She hung up, leaving me to stare at the phone. It’s true I was a bit confused when she refused to have Ann arrested right away. I had the audio recording as well as the video, both edited, of course, to take to the cops. But when they were ready, and I alerted the family to what I was about to do, Giselle’s grandmother had stopped me without giving any reason at all.
I was a bit put out thinking that she was doing it out of some archaic need to protect the family name and reputation, but Giselle had asked me to obey the older woman’s wishes as she was old and frail and, as she put it, must have her reasons. Maybe there was more to the story; what the hell do I know? If it were up to me, I’d put that bitch under the damn jail.
Giselle stirred as I made my way back to the bed. It still hits me in the gut each time she opens her eyes on mine. I’d missed the hell out of her, out of seeing her in my bed. Two years of trying my damnedest to hate her has been vanquished in a handful of days. I find myself sometimes wondering if some part of me hadn’t always known, like my annoying ass mother, that there had to be a legit reason for her leaving.
I can think that now, but the truth is I was too hurt in the past to think clearly. I’ve been secretly beating myself up for not going after her for letting pride and ego stand in the way. When I think of what could’ve happened to her and my son had Donovan not seen them that day, my blood runs cold.
She held her hand out to me, and the sight of her bare fingers reminded me of something else I had to do. I’d planned on waiting until the renewal ceremony mom had hinted at to give her back her rings when Delores had brought them to me in the study earlier, but now I find that I don’t want to wait. “Give me a second.”
She frowned at my refusal to take her hand as I walked across the room, naked, to open the drawer where I’d placed the jewelry case. One of the things that had gutted me was the fact that she’d left these behind. It was like a slap in the face to find them with the letter she’d left behind with the divorce papers. I’d put them away with the intent never to see them again, but of course, it was one of the first things Delores had had cleaned.
The rest of her things, the shit that I hadn’t destroyed in my anger that had been stashed away in the attic, was being taken care of. It was mostly overpriced bags and shoes along with the minks that she was so fond of along with whatever else Delores had salvaged at the behest of my mother the sneak. She didn’t think I knew about that, but simp that I was, I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of everything of hers and now admit to myself that I was glad mom had taken the issue out of my hands.
I opened the case and looked down at the rings before looking back at her, where she waited for me on the bed. I removed them and climbed back into bed with her, and answered her questioning look with a kiss while putting her on her back beneath me. She was still wet and warm from our last fuck, so it was easy to slip my hardening cock inside her.
She spread her legs and went to put her arms around me, but I pulled the left one back around. I held still for a second before looking into her eyes as I took her hand in slid the rings back where they belonged. She opened her mouth to speak even as her eyes filled with tears, but I stopped her words with my tongue.
When she was breathless, and her pussy was squeezing the hell out of my rod, I released her lips long enough to give her a warning. “If you ever take these off again, it’ll be the last thing you do.” I didn’t give her a chance to answer but swallowed her tongue again as I fucked into her nice and slow. There was no rush this time, not after the three or four times I’d already had her tonight.
* * *
I didn’t tell Giselle about her grandmother’s all until the next morning at breakfast because once we started making love the night before, everything else went out the window. “Did she say what it was about? Not that I don’t wish to see her mind you.”
“No, she didn’t, but I got the feeling it was important whatever it is.”
W
e’d spent some time dealing with her inheritance, which seems to distress her, and so she’d asked me to handle that side of things. When I asked why she was having such a hard time with it, she explained that her dad’s death was new to her, and it was like reliving that day, seeing him get murdered right in front of her all over again.
The money the estate, all of it, felt too much like she was profiting from his demise. I plan to speak to her about putting it all in trust for our future children, but that can wait for later. My only priority right now is making sure that she’s okay and handling all this new information the right way. I’d suggest a therapist, but I’m not sure she’s ready for that yet, as introverted as she tends to be.
Mom brought the baby home in time for the three of us to leave after promising to keep her in the loop. I was nervous and didn’t know why as we pulled through the gates of the estate. Unlike the last time, no one was waiting for us outside, which I didn’t expect, but I was beginning to second-guess, bringing my wife and son here.
Ann hadn’t returned though I know where she’s been holed up for the past few days. I was right to worry about the Salvos, as she was still very much in league with them. It didn’t help my psyche much when Giselle let it slip that it was one of her mother’s cousins whom she’s given the slip when he came to pick her up at the boarding school all those years ago.
I took her hand in mine and carried my son on the other shoulder as we climbed the steps to the monstrosity of a house that her dad had inherited from his when her grandfather passed a while back. According to what I’ve learned, Ann had thrown the grandmother out the day after Sterling’s death since he’d kept his mother home with him.
Now that I’d met the older woman and had spent some time with her, I’m wondering how she’d allowed that to happen. She doesn’t strike me as the type to be strong-armed by anyone, least of all the woman she hated with such passion. The butler was waiting at the door as if expecting us with a smile for my wife, a stoic greeting for me, and a wistful look for my son. “They’re in the family room down the hall to the left; I’ll show you.”
I didn’t release her hand, and though I knew there was nothing to fear, I couldn’t fight the feeling that something unexpected was in the air. I knew as soon as I saw him and looked down at my wife, who took a second to catch on as she stared. “Daddy?” I barely caught her against my chest as she fainted dead away, and my son started to bawl, probably thinking something was wrong with his mom. “Fuck!”
Sterling Winthrop came across the room, “may I?” He asked before lifting his daughter and walking over to the settee to lay her down. A million different thoughts and emotions ran through my head at once, and I wasn’t sure what the hell to think. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions; I’ll answer them all when she wakes up.”
He spoke to me, but his eyes never left his kid. It was grandma who spoke up next while the others in the room secretly dried their eyes. “I didn’t know!” Gordon exclaimed when I looked at him. “I just found out too.” He wiped his eyes and pounded Sterling’s shoulder playfully while I tried to make sense of it all as grandma drew my attention.
“I’m the only one who knew. It was hell these past twenty-odd years keeping a secret, but there was nothing else we could do. Now you understand why I couldn’t have her charged with murder. After Sterling tells his side of things, then we can go to the police and have her charged with the correct crime.”
The old woman sagged in her chair as if the weight she’d carried for so long had finally made its mark. I can’t even wrap my head around what the hell her life has been like these last two decades. I walked over and sat down beside my wife, who was making noises of awakening after one of the servants had been dispatched to bring something to help wake her up. I thought that shit only worked in the movies, but hell.
Her eyes flew open, and she looked confused. “Calen, I saw… was I dreaming?”
“No, baby, he’s here.” She started to cry, and I wanted to punch her dad in his face. Not the correct response, I know, but it’s a knee jerk response. He made my baby cry.
“Hello, Kyns… I mean, Giselle, first thank you for choosing the name I gave you; it means a lot to me.”
“It’s the only thing I remembered, really. Hearing somewhere that you wanted to name me that, and she chose the other. How I saw, where…” She couldn’t seem to get her thoughts together, but he knew and walked over to take her hand.
“That day, when she shot me, she thought I was dead. I heard everything she said and did to you, but I couldn’t move. When I woke up in the morgue, which almost gave the poor technician a heart attack, I convinced him to call my mother. I was lucky enough that he obeyed and didn’t alert anyone else. He had integrity, thank heavens, and I didn’t end up on some social media platform as the man who came back from the dead.”
“That’s why that technician is now a doctor who never had to pay for anything in his life,” Grandma interjected, which I took to mean that she’s paid for his silence. “But that can’t be; I saw you, saw all that blood…” She shook as if reliving the moment.
“Your father is a hemophiliac, which worked in his favor that day. The amount of blood caused your… caused Ann to believe him dead, but he could’ve also bled out, so we got lucky there. In the end, it was little more than a flesh wound; the bullet barely grazed his head.”
Giselle looked at me with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Didn’t she say she cremated him?”
“About that, the man who was cremated was someone was an old vagrant who had no one to claim his remains. I guess we’ll have to have hiss records taken care of.” Her grandmother answered all of her questions.
“But why didn’t you say something? Why did you make everyone believe you were dead.”
“Because of you! She took you away, and no one knew where you were all these years. I refused to believe you were dead, but I had no idea where you were, and I knew the Salvos were helping her.”
“Where have you been?”
“Tibet, the mountains, that’s why it took me so long to get home after mom called. It took the messenger a while to get to me, but I never stopped looking for you. Mom and I have spent millions trying to find you over the years. Funny how we stopped looking close to home. I guess I just never thought that she’d bring you back here.”
“She knew that I wouldn’t stop looking for my grandchild, so she couldn’t take the chance. She hardly ever left the estate, and the people we had planted around her could never find anything. It was like you just disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“So why did you believe all this time that I was still alive?” She asked her dad, who rubbed his chest over his heart. “I would’ve known if you were no longer of this world.”
The two of them broke down, and I moved out of the way so he could sit beside her and hold her. I’m going to have to have a talk with him about making my woman cry, though, but otherwise, it’s all good.
* * *
REBECCA
* * *
Good, now that I’ve got Calen out of my hair, I can take care of business. I don’t know where my boy learned to be so soft. It’s all that gallantry training my husband drilled into his head as a child. All about treating women like the fairer sex and yadda-yadda-yadda. Hah, I’m one of them, and I know that’s a bunch of malarkey.
He can believe that Dana’s paid the price all he wants, but I’m not buying it. Being a country club maven, I know well the peccadilloes of their offspring, and checking themselves into rehab is high up on their list of things to do to fool the general public that they are on the straight and narrow.
As soon as I learned about her latest stunt, I hopped into action, and wouldn’t you know; she was planning to check herself out later today, less than a damn week. Since she wanted rehabilitation, as a longtime friend of the family, I’m going to see she gets it. I just saw a documentary about one of those high society trust fund babies crying about someplace in Colorado where sh
e’d been packed off to get her shit together. Sounds perfect.
I already made the necessary calls, and the jet is waiting to transport her. I had to pay a pretty penny to the attendant in charge of her to make sure she was barely cognizant when it was time for the transport, but it’s money well spent. I didn’t want her unconscious because I need her awake enough to know that it was me doing this to her and why. This way, when she gets out in two years, she’ll know not to come back to this town, or she’d get worst.
“We’ll wait right here, Gerard.” I didn’t let him in on what we were doing; he only knew we were picking up something here before heading to the airfield. But after years as my trusted servant, he knew how to keep his mouth shut. Some things my son and husband do not need to know. They brought her out not five minutes later, and I caught his look in the rearview mirror and nodded before he got out to open the door and help them load her in.
Her head lolled around on her neck, and her eyes widened with fear when she saw me sitting there. “Hello, Dana. There’s been a change of plans. That trip to Saint Moritz that you planned to hide the fact that you were no longer here will have to wait for say… two years.” She tried talking but whatever they’d shot her up with made her words come out sounding garbled.
“Yes, I know; as my son’s longtime friend, I think it only fitting that I help you with your drug addiction. This place where you’re going does a thorough job of things. By the time you leave there, you’ll be good as new. And while you’re there, keep this in mind. I know of worst places; think about what that means.”
“You’re not to contact my son ever or come near my family again. And in case you forget why I’m doing this, it’s for my grandson, and my daughter and the two years of her life that you stole. You’re getting off lucky; if there should be a next time, you won’t. We’re here.”
Dare To Love Again Page 19
