Risking Fate (21 page)

“If I told you when I was doin’ it, you would have instinctively moved out of the way. I think you got what you wanted there.”

“Jesus Christ, this fucking hurts.” Conner s
tayed with me as I explained from
the beginning what had happened. He seemed to really want to help and I was going to need it. Something told me this wasn’t going to go as planned. Heather was a lot of things, but she wasn’t
stupid. She was going to know
I was bluffing if I didn’t do a hell of a job convincing her otherwise. The thought made me sick.

I didn’t go back into the
house
and kiss Miranda goodbye. Instead, Conner went in his truck and grabbed me a duffle bag. “What’s this?”

“It’s got a change of clothes in it. I’ve kinda been seein’ someone and I never know if I need a change of clothes.”

“Who are you seeing?”

He held his hands up and shook his head. “It’s not what you’re thinkin’. It’s not really a booty call kind of thing. We’re just gettin’ to know each other, I reckon’.”

“Okay, Mr. Secretive.”

“Whatever. You got your shit together? You down with the plan?” Conner handed me his truck keys.
He was changing the subject.

“Yeah, I have to pretend that my wife, that I love more than anything in the world, kicked me out and I need a place to crash where her brother can’t find me and beat my ass.”

He slapped me on the back as I climbed in the truck. “Go save your daughter, Ty.”

“This is fucked up in so many ways, you know that right?” I hated this.

“Yeah, but you’ve run out of options and I’d sell my soul to the devil before I let anyone from Tucker Chase’s family lay a hand on my niece. If this is what you have to do, then do it.”

I looked back at my carriage
house
, which had
doubled in size now. All of the
countless
hours spent making it a home for my family rushed into my mind. The hours that
I’d spent with Miranda dra
w
ing
out the design of ev
ery single room. The nights we
wor
ked until the sun came up. Izzy
seeing her room f
or the first time. Taking our first bath in the
new Jacuzzi
tub; p
lan
ning out the room for the twins;
h
aving our first meal when the house was all finished.

All of those beautiful memories
together
and I was driving to do something I said I would
never
do again. The thought made me sick. I didn’t know how in the hell, if it came to touching Heather, I could go through with it, not when my beautiful wife was sitting at home worrying herself sick.

I waved to Conner and I pulled out of the driveway and headed for Heather’s place. Her mother worked weird hours at the hospital and there was no telling if she would be there when I arrived. I kind of hoped that she would be, because I didn’t want to be alone with Heather.

I sat out front of her house and thought about any other way that I could save my daughter from that woman. Did I have the balls to hire a hit man? Could I go through with something that evil for my daughter? What would something like that even cost? Miranda and I weren’t hurting for money, but I was certain something like that didn’t come easy.

Finally, I got to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed my phone and set the plan into motion.

I’m here. I love you more than you’ll ever know. Start sending the messages and stick to the plan. This is for Isabella. This is for our family.

I deleted the message and with shaking
hands, awaiting
what Miranda and I had planned on saying.

I hate you for what you’ve done to our family. Rot in hell Ty. You will never touch me again.- M

Even though I knew it was a lie, to read the words coming from my wife ripped my heart out.
I never wanted to feel this way. I leaned over the
steering
wheel and tried to get my shit together, but the more I thought about those messages, the more upset I became. Soon, I had tears falling down my eyes and I was dialing my wife.

Ty?

Baby, I can’t do this.

I could hear her crying on the other end of the phone and I just lost it. Tears wet my cheeks and I listened to her pain.

I love you so much, Ty. I know you can do this for Bella, for your Izzy.

I can’t lose you to save her. I can’t choose.

You can’t lose me, if I’m not goin’ anywhere, okay?

I’m scared.

Please Ty, don’t make this any harder. Knowing you’re there and that you’re goin to have to touch her, it’s killin’ me. Get those papers and come home to me. Come home to us.

That’s the only place I want to be, Baby. I love our life.

Bye Ty.

She could barely talk and I wasn’t much better. After looking in the mirror, I decided to use the real tears as an advantage. I took a few deep breaths and grabbed the bag Conner had given me. I knocked on the door just once and Heather opened it. She saw the look on my face and I actually sense
d
genuine compassion.
This plan may actually work.

“Ty? What’s going on?
What happened to your face?
”

“It’s Miranda. I defended you after our talk and she kicked me out. She said we’re done.”

She held the door opened and gestured for me to come in. “I’m sure she’ll get over it. You two seem to be attached at the hip. Besides, she is carrying your real children.”

Don’t clench your fists…

“You don’t understand. This isn’t the first time this happened. I’ve cheated before, so you claiming we had something, well it nailed my coffin. I tried to change, but I was no good at it.”
I am lying…

Heather sat down beside me and I could tell she wanted to smile. I clenched my jaws and thought about hitting a girl again. I loathed her. She was a fucking evil person.
“It’s okay to admit that you still
haven’t found the one person to satisfy your every need. I mean, maybe you just aren’t looking hard enough.”

She traced my arm with her hand and I wanted to cringe. My phone vibrated again and I opened it up, hoping it was my wife, telling me to get out of dodge. Instead, it was her sticking to the plan. I wondered if she was having Conner send the messages,
because
it was just too hard for her to handle.

Packing my shit and moving back to KY. I will never forgive you.

My eyes burned and for once, I was happy about crying. I took the phone and showed Heather the messages. “I can’t even stop her. The whole family knows about this and they’ve pretty much disowned me. Even Van won’t speak to me.”

“So, are you here because you hav
e no other place to go, or is it
something else you want from me?”

Oh God! Concentrate.
“Maybe both. I’m a little confused right now. A few weeks ago, I had the perfect life. Now everything has turned to shit.”

“Baby, I can think of a few ways to make you feel better.” She traced around my busted lip with her finger. “What happened here?”

“Brother in law came to get Miranda, punched me in the face as I was leaving.”

She got up and came back with a wet rag and some ointment. While Heather focused on my busted face, I tried to close my eyes and
imagine
myself anywhere but where I was. All I could picture was
Miranda
crying against Conner’s chest. I knew he was there and it made it a little better, but this bullshit plan was tearing her apart, I just knew it.

After a few minutes, and her purposely taking her time, she sat down the rag and ointment bottle. “So, I don’t really know what to say to you right now. I knew you’d come around sooner or later. I mean, I really
missed
you TY. I wanted to be the one you fell for.”

Oh shit. This was it. This was my moment to make her believe this was real. I needed to grow a set of new balls and get this shit done.

“The timing was wrong.” I should have grabbed her hand or something, but I leaned on my knees and covered my face when I talked. Smooth talking Ty had l
eft the building. I was a sap. A
happily married sap.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

This is it! Swallow your pride. “
Me too. I missed hanging out with you. It was always a good time.”
If I had a gun I would just shoot myself. I wanted to vomit.
“So where’s your mom?”

“Working.” She slid do
wn the couch and kneeled in front
of me. Her hands slid up my thighs and then back down again. When she saw how I didn’t react, she pulled them away.

“Sorry, it’s just been a while and after the fighting I’m still fucked up in the head. It’s not just Miranda, you know. I love my daughter. Even if I wasn’t with Miranda, I would still want that paternity t
est. I know my daughter will miss
me and even if I have to visit her in Kentucky, I will know she is safe.”
The mere thought of not seeing my daughter for even one day burned through my mind.
More tears rushed down my face, imagining having to see her once a month or less than that. It was tremendously depressing.

Heather reached up and wiped my tears. “I have the papers, Ty. My brother gave them to me the day after the test, but I was just so mad at you. Then your wife made those comments and I just refused to help someone like her get what she wanted.”

“Those papers ar
e
for me though. I don’t want to share custody of my child with an evil lady. Miranda will always have her daughter. This was all for me.”

She stared at me, as if she we
re trying to see
if I was lying. “Wait a minute.
”
She stood up and put her hand on her hips. “How do I
know
this isn’t some ploy? You’re a smart guy, Ty, and I know you love that little girl enough to break all the rules for her. How stupid do you think I am?”

No no! Fuck!

I took a few deep breaths and looked her dead in the eye. “One thing you’re not
,
is stupid. I really didn’t come here to trick you, Heather. How could I have known you still had the papers? Think about it? I came here because you were the first person I thought about. The first person I wanted to see.” My hand
grazed
her cheek and I had to swallow
down the vomit that was fighting
its way into my throat.

“Prove it!”

“What? What do you mean? Prove what?”

“If you are really here because you missed me, touch me. Kiss me Ty.”

Miranda…..

She was all I could see in my mind. I couldn’t cry like a baby, because it would show I was lying. I couldn’t talk my way out of it. I was stuck in this situation that I didn’t want to be in.

One kiss. It’s one fucking kiss, Dude. It means nothing. It’s for your daughter.

“Okay, come here
.” My throat started
burning and I knew it was only a matter of time before I lost it again. This idea was horrible. I hated myself for agreeing to it.

Heather leaned forward, waiting for me to reciprocate. I closed my eyes and let my head move forward. As soon as her lips pressed against mine, I felt her wet tongue sliding over my bottom lip. I pulled away and turned my body from hers. Instantly I realized what I had done. “Sorry! My lip is throbbing.”

Before I turned back around to face her, I heard something unzipping.
“It’s okay. Maybe you’d like to use your hands instead.”

Heather stood in front of me and removed her zip up jacket. Underneath was a pink bra. I purposely looked up to her face. She may as well have been colored red with horns, because that is how I saw her.
“It’s just been awhile since I’ve been with someone else. How bout a drink? Got anything strong?”

“Ty, I am starting to wonder if this is all some scheme. I mean, you have never had any problems touching me before.”

“It’s been a long night. I just need to relax. You know I can’t get it up if I’m stressed.”
What the fuck did I say that for?

Heather must have
believed
me, that or she was just so obsessed with sleeping with me again that she would stoop this low. Whatever the case, I sat back down and pondered how the fuck I was going to convince her I needed those papers without physically having to touch her anymore.

“My mother only keeps scotch.” She handed me the glass. I swirled the ice around and took down the whole thing at once. It burned my throat and tasted horrible.

I sat the glass down on th
e table and contemplated my next
move. Heather, wearing only a bra, sat down next to me and started kissing my cheek and neck. She was purposely pressing her chest against my arm, seeing if I would react.