Domesticated (37 page)

“But, all that stopped when you were, what, around ten?”

“They didn’t stop. They never stopped. I stopped. I stopped begging for you to listen to me. You never heard me.”

“You’ve always been like this, Kendra. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”

It was pointless. She still wasn’t hearing me. I had planned to tell her how she was the one that hired Adriana to take care of me, and how it was all part of a well thought out plan. Adriana was there to take her husband. I wanted her to know my childhood would always follow me. It was all pointless. She wouldn’t hear me anyway.

“My lawyer will email you the details about the money you owe me. I think a month is plenty long enough. Sylvia,” I spoke, giving up. The only thing that was going to hurt my mother was taking what was rightfully mine, the money.

“If you’ll sign right here, Judge Davis,” Olivia stepped in with the relinquishing of her rights. “This states that your name will no longer be on anything to do with the Brannigan fortune. Kendra will be in charge of her own money from here on out.”

“I need time. I can’t just sign this. I don’t work that way,” my mother stated, trying hard to recover her dignity, long drowned out by fact. She was finished and she knew it.

“Go ahead take all the time you need. I would like the attorney’s name you plan on working with however,” Olivia said, squashing the dignity for the last time. “I’m sure this will be hot off the press in a matter of hours.”

I didn’t even try to hold in the smile while Olivia placed her papers back to her professional briefcase. My mother took the pen and scribbled her name with a look of pure hatred and vengeance. That was enough. That was all the closure I needed from my mother. I could move on with that. I was never expecting a reunion anyway, and she just boldly stated what was more important to her. It wasn’t me.

“Oh my god. I need a bathroom. Where’s the bathroom?” Olivia exclaimed as soon as the judge’s chambers were behind us. I followed her into the public restroom and waited for her to get sick.

“You were amazing. You were a freaking rock in there. Damn, Olivia. You made me proud,” I boasted.

Olivia rinsed her mouth, splashed water on her face, and stared at me through the mirror. “I thought I was going to pass out.”

“It didn’t show. You were fucking awesome. I’m going to take you out and show you New York tonight. You’re my hero.”

That’s exactly what I did. I took Olivia to the stupid library, and to five hundred other places she just had to see. I say that like it was the worst thing ever, but it was really the best. I needed a night out like that to stop thinking about Sam. The Sam that had already given up on me.

Olivia and I ended our night by crawling into our amazing, comfortable, five-star, hotel beds. I was exhausted, but not too exhausted to take care of business. I wasn’t even going to try. Olivia moaned a, relieving groan when she laid in her bed three feet from me. Yes, that was intentional. We could have had separate rooms. I didn’t want them. My perversion was looking forward to playing with my pussy right across from Olivia.

“I’m going to masturbate,” I warned with my fingers already sliding through the elastic of my panties.”

“And you have to do it out here?”

“Yeah, you can do it, too, if you want. I know you have to be getting frustrated.”

“Actually, I’m fine,” Olivia said turning her head away from me.

“I need you to watch, Olivia.”

“What? Why?”

“It turns me on. I don’t want to do anything with you. I just want you to watch.”

“You’re a freak. Just so you know that,” Olivia accused, pulling herself to her elbow to watch me play with my pussy. I could tell by the expressions on her face that she was sort of into it. I tossed back my covers and removed my panties, needing her to see me. Olivia stayed to the side of me. She couldn’t really see anything, but she knew what was going on, not to mention you could hear my wetness.

Of course, being the sex freak that I was, that wasn’t good enough for me. I waited until I was ready to come and came to my knees. I turned toward Olivia and spread my lips with my fingers while three fingers on my other hand, frantically rubbed my coming nub. I slowed when I witnessed her hand moving beneath the covers.

“Let me see, Olivia,” I coaxed.

“No, I’m too embarrassed. We’re not even gay.”

“So what, we’re both aroused. I want to watch you. I’ll pretend you’re Sylvia,” I teased.

Olivia tossed her own covers and showed me her bald pussy. “Do what I do,” I directed, wanting her in the same position. I wanted to see what she was seeing. Olivia and I faced each other and rubbed our pussies to orgasm. It was hot as hell. She didn’t take her eyes from my fingers dancing on my clit, but I did. The erotic pleasure on her face was enough to tell me she was going to come. And once again, she surprised me.

Olivia dropped to her ass and rubbed her pink little nub, calling out in pure ecstasy while I did the same. It was exactly what I needed after the day I had, and she owed it to me for dragging me all over the city.

After going to the bathroom, all was back to normal between Olivia and me. She was reading and asked me if I had read Benevolent yet? And then went on, swooning over some guy, Link. I downloaded it, too, and we read in quiet, only I couldn’t keep my mind on the book. Sam wouldn’t leave my mind long enough to know what the hell I was reading. He gave up. He did exactly what I expected him to do, exactly what I wanted. Sam gave up on me.

“Oh my god, Olivia. What is that?” I asked, snarling my nose as soon as we unlocked the beach house.

“I’m going to say it’s the trash. Did you take the trash out before you left? I told you there was seafood scraps in it.”

“Don’t blame it on me. You work for me, remember?”

“Yes, I remember. I should have taken care of it myself.”

“I liked it better when you were kissing my ass,” I assured her. Olivia would have never spoken to me like that before.

“I liked you better then, too.” My heart stopped when I heard his voice.

“Sam,” I exclaimed, turning to him standing in the opened door.

“I’ll just leave you two alone,” Olivia offered, heading to the beach.

“You promised you wouldn’t go to the prison without me,” Sam alleged, sliding his hands in his pockets. My hands scanned his tanned body, down his leisure, gray shorts, and to his flip flops. Damn.

“Yeah, well I’m sure we both said things we didn’t mean,” I smartly replied, crossing my arms over my breasts.

“What the hell happened, Kendra?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are we really going to do that?”

“Do what? We had an amazing summer together, you’re going to be back in school in another week or so, and I’m going to stay here for a while.”

“Here in Malibu?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Come with me.”

“No, I’m good,” I said, turning to take care of the stinky trash. I couldn’t stand it anymore. It had to go.

“Kendra, you can at least tell me what I did. One minute you were fine, and the next you just left and won’t talk to me. What the hell did I do?”

“You know damn well what you did, Sam, but I’m glad you did it. I don’t want to be with someone like you,” I said, pulling the smelly trash from the can. Sam moved me with his body and took over my trash duty while I let it all flow. “Do you know why I don’t watch the news, Sam? I’m scared to death of seeing a story about a little girl being sexually abused. I can’t handle it, my heart breaks for them like you wouldn’t believe, and I think it about it for days and days. I don’t read the newspaper for the same reason.”

“I’m sorry,” Sam said, dropping the trash bag. “I am so sorry, Kendra. I’m such an ass. I didn’t mean to make you feel like that. I’m not going to lie, the thought crossed my mind. Not that I don’t trust you. It wasn’t that. It was my daddy shield kicking in. My protected barrier over her. I knew as soon as we hit the sidewalk what I had done. I’m sorry, of course I trust you with my daughter. I trust you fully, Kendra. Please give me another chance. I was an idiot, an ass. I love you. Will you just talk to me?”

I was doing just fine until Sam decided to touch me. He just had to go and break me by pulling me to him. “We might talk if you get this stinky trash out of here.”

Sam kissed me, finishing me off. I was spent. I would have followed him anywhere at that given moment. Anywhere.

“Let’s take the boat out and watch the sunset, okay?” Sam asked, pulling away. I didn’t want him to do that, I was rather enjoying that kiss and my pussy wanted kissed, too. The rest of it was in slow motion. Like an outer body experience. I knew it was me watching, but it was surreal, unbelievable.

Sam picked up the trash and the bottom ripped right out of it. I was fine getting him a new bag, it wasn’t that part that was so implausible. I froze when Sam picked up the test strips, and then the little record book that came with the fertility monitor. He looked at me puzzled, and then flipped the pages, glancing through our readings, right to the big heart I had drawn that said my baby girl.

“Did you lie to me?” he asked, looking at all the incriminating evidence.

“No,” I replied. I didn’t know what else to say.

“Was this all just a bunch of shit? You made up the whole thing. There never was some off the wall procedure, was there, Kendra. You faked this whole thing so I would get you pregnant.”

“What? No, Sam. It’s not like that. I did have it done, but it’s over now. It only lasts five to seven years. I can carry a baby.”

“You need, fucking help. You set me up,” Sam accused through a tight jaw.

“No, it wasn’t like that, Sam. I swear. I wasn’t trying to get pregnant.”

“Then explain this. Explain all of this, Kendra,” Sam retorted.

“Sam, I know what this must look like. But, I swear to god, I’m not lying.”

“Then who was this for? All of this?”

“It was for Olivia.”

Sam snorted and shook his head. “She needs to do this while her fiancé is away for a year. A little early planning, wouldn’t you say?”

“Sam. Please,” I begged throwing myself at him.

He jerked my arm away from touching him and looked at me with the most hate I had ever seen in his eyes. How could I get him to see this wasn’t what it looked like? There wasn’t a way.

“Stay away from me. Go back to your dweeb of a husband and your money where you belong. If I find out you’re carrying my child, I’ll take it from you. You won’t come near any of my children. I’ll make sure of that, so help me god. If you even think you could be pregnant with my kid. Get rid of it. You’ll never raise it. I promise you that.”

“Sam, she’s telling the truth. This was all for me,” Olivia tried next from the door. Sam turned and looked at her with just as much vengeance.

“You’re as sick as she is. You both need your heads examined. Stay away from me.”

And just like that. He was gone. Sam walked out of my life—again. This time was the last. He was furious, but there was no way for me to get him to believe me. He would never think it was all for Olivia with me being the one pregnant. And even if he did believe it, trying to get Olivia impregnated with his sperm didn’t sound any better than me.

“Well, I wanted him out of my life, there you have it,” I said looking to the curtain, flowing in the opened door. Sam was gone. For good this time.

“Give him time to cool off. He’s just mad.”

“With good reason. There’s no explaining away evidence that’s right in front of your face. If I tell him I’m pregnant now, he’s going to think I set him up, and lied to him about Dr. Delgado.”

“He already thinks that,” Olivia admitted, pouring more salt on the open wound.

I just went from falling right back in to Sam’s arms to him hating me in two point seven seconds. What the hell just happened here?

Within a few days, I was fine. I was over Sam and continued on my list of aspirations. That’s what I told myself on an hourly basis. I was fine. Paris was easy to find, too easy. She was one of those people that posted what she had for breakfast, her new sunglasses, her girly drink at a restaurant, and a whole slew of college photos. Paris was quite the little party girl. She looked more and more like Adriana the older she got. I hadn’t looked at her profile in at least five years. I think she was still in high school when I friended her as Jenny Black.

My mind stayed occupied on other things, as many things as I could shove inside it to keep Sam out of it. It worked for the most part. Alone at night is when it was the worst. Some nights I held my stuffed mouse and cried for him, and other times I brought myself to an orgasm, visualizing his face between my legs. Sometimes I held the moon necklace in my hand and told myself it had power. If I was happy, I would be happier.

Olivia was my rock. That one, I would have never guessed. Had it not been for her, I wouldn’t have done half the things I set out to do. She wouldn’t let me say forget it. We followed through with every last thing I told her. Right down to my mother paying up.

Judge fucking Davis didn’t even have the nerve to call me, text me, or email me, Nothing. I learned about the first three million dollar deposit from her by an alert on my phone from my bank account. Olivia and I opened it especially for her. She could put money in, but she sure as hell wouldn’t be taking it out.

“Send her a thank you,” Olivia urged.

“No! Screw her.”

“Kendra, do it. It’s all part of the plan, remember? We’re doing what we set out to do.”

I sent the text message, ‘Thank you for my money, I’ll be expecting more.’ She didn’t respond, but Olivia did show me where her six million dollar condo was for sale on Park Avenue. I almost felt bad that she would have to commute now to go to work. No. Not really. Not at all. I hoped she had to walk. I knew she would never be broke, but she wouldn’t live the way she had gotten used to, not with my money.

Olivia stayed on top of things. She knew exactly what was going on by following the news, reading articles on her tablet, and searching my mother’s name. With it being election year, there was new news every day. My noble mother was now into charity work. Olivia joked about people being so stupid, and how if they would do their research when voting this country wouldn’t be in the shape that it was in. It seems my mother was into charity every four years. As soon as she won the election, her mission to save the world came to a halt and she never followed through.

This year’s endeavor was, shutting down a homeless shelter that had opened up in an upper-class part of town. She would help in finding a new location. Those kind of people shouldn’t be there. It wasn’t good for the businesses.

Olivia drove my new Ford Edge, and we set out on our next adventure, finding Paris. We knew where she was, and could have flown to Purdue, but believe it or not, I sort of liked driving. At that point in time, I didn’t know anyone else I would rather spend my time with than Olivia. Who would have thought? She didn’t mind the drive, either. Olivia hated flying.

“What do you think about a small town in Tennessee?” I asked Olivia, looking at real estate on my phone while she drove us to our destination.

“I think it’s crazy. Stay at the beach. You love it there.”

“No, Sam has family there. He’ll come back next year.”

“So, buy a house on another beach where Sam isn’t. You hate the snow in Connecticut,” Olivia reminded me, and I swiped my finger more west then south. “This town looks nice. Port Pemba, Florida.”

“Never heard of it. Where is it?”

“Close to St. Petersburg. Look at this Victorian house. It’s surrounded by other homes and lots of little shops.”

“Sounds like a tourist trap.” 

“What’s wrong with that? I love to watch people. Who knows, maybe that’s where my next Sam is,” I teased. “Look they do all sorts of community things, and look at this elementary school. That’s the kind of place I want to raise my little girl.”

“You keep saying girl, but it could very well be a boy, you know.”

“No it couldn’t. I wouldn’t know what to do with a boy. I’m sticking with the girl. Let’s go there after we go see Paris.”

“I’m game. I have ten months before I’ll see Jackson. As long as you’re paying the bill, I’ll drive you all over the United Sates.”

After tuning the satellite radio to Sam’s favorite classic rock, I researched the small town a little more. There were three Victorian houses for sale around the same area. I wanted a nice size yard for my baby girl to play in, but nothing where I was out by myself. I liked the location of all three of these homes. Especially the one, two blocks from the little school. My fascination with this little town froze when I heard the next song start. The screen in the center of the dash told me the Eagles were singing the song Sam had sang to me once while we were making sandwiches at three in the morning. He had asked me something about my family and I told him I didn’t know.