KRISTENIt was starting to get dark as I made my way to Dudley’s apple tree. I looked over and saw no signs of life at Edwards’s. I didn’t see his truck either. Maybe he had taken his daughter out to dinner. His daughter. I shook my head again, but shrugged it off. I was potentially onto something huge, and Edwards was not going to ruin my excitement.I observed the tree under the gray dusk sky. I didn’t want to dig up the entire plot, so I had to be meticulous in how I did this. The tree had a sparse amount of apples, just over a dozen. Most of them were tucked amid the leaves and branches, but one apple hung at the very edge of a branch, its weight pulling the limb down.“It’s a crap shoot, but so is this entire idea,” I said as I started digging into the ground directly below that apple.I was gentle at first, not wanting to damage any roots. Eventually, I fell into a rhythm, ramming my shovel into the earth and scooping with vigor. The more I dug, the more I began to feel hopeful
That afternoon a grin formed as I looked out my window. My basket was no longer on her front step. She had found it. I spent the rest of my day in my basement, thinking I’d be more satisfied than I was at her acceptance of my offering. Instead, I spent the entire afternoon thinking about what it meant that she accepted the basket. She wasn’t angry enough to return it, but she hadn’t left me anything in return. I knew because I checked once an hour. Candace mumbled several times that I needed to get a life during my routine sweep of both the front and back porch.Still not satisfied that evening, I decided to leave another basket, this time with a note. I filled it with some fresh vegetables from my greenhouse and a letter inviting her to dinner tomorrow. I apologized for the surprise introduction to my daughter the other day, and told her a proper introduction was in order if she was up for it.“Anything yet?” Candace had asked me at the dinner table. I was surprised at how invested s
EDWARDSKristen and Candace’s official introduction started off rocky, despite my interventions. Kristen had promised to bring Candace’s boots back soon and I told Kristen I’d help her pick out her own pair. This earned a scoff from Candace. I tried to keep the conversation going, but Candace managed to derail it each time. I could tell Kristen was a cross between nervous and stunned. We sat in awkward silence for some time before Kristen spoke up again.“So, Candace. Do you have a boyfriend?”I coughed on my water. I thought that was probably the last thing Kristen should have asked. Before I could steer the conversation in a new direction, Candace responded.“Oh yeah. Alex. He’s a hottie.” Candace was chewing her food with her mouth open, just aching to get a rise out of me.“I see. Does he play any sports?”“Baseball. Do you have a boyfriend that my dad and I should know about?” Candace squinted at Kristen.Kristen chuckled. “No, I do not. I had one not too long ago, but we broke u
“What are you running back to so quickly? I could employ you at TruFruit for the time being. You know, until you find a job.”“I don’t want handouts, Edwards.”“I’ll do anything to make you stay.”“Make me? You are way too used to getting what you want.” She was stern, but she didn’t speak with any malice. There was a challenge in her eyes that lit a fire in me.I closed the distance between us and took her face in my hands. “Stay. Even if it’s just for a few days. Stay here with me.”“Edwards—”I stopped her protest, leaning in and planting a kiss firmly on her open lips. I traced her lips with my tongue and pushed in deeper. She groaned into my mouth. I was breaking her down. I could feel it.“Stay,” I said, kissing her cheek.“Stay…stay…stay.” I kept repeating it, moving my kisses to her nose, her eyelids, up to her forehead.She leaned into me, wrapping her arms around my waist. I hugged her tight. I realized in that moment that I never wanted to let her go.“Okay,” she finally wh
Then, he moved into me slowly, filling me up. He sped up, pulsing in and out while I thrust my hips against him to push it deeper. He looked at me as we fucked, his eyes filled with want and passion. Edwards leaned in and kissed me hard, his pace growing faster and harder.“Take my cock, baby,” he said into my lips.I just moaned back, feeling his head hit my back walls and shattering my thoughts. He sent me over the edge again, tingles soaring up and down my body as I trembled.“Good girl,” he said to me as I came. Then, he grabbed both of my legs and held me to the wall himself. I wrapped my now freed arms around his neck. We were so close, every inch of our bodies touching. My heavy breasts moved against his hard pecs as he bounced my hips against his.“God, I love your ass,” he told me, grabbing it on both sides and squeezing as he tensed and then groaned into my ears, finding climax and filling me up. Warmth spread inside of me as he panted to catch his breath. After some time, h
EDWARDSI could not have been happier than I was at this moment. Last night solidified my feelings for Kristen. I liked her as more than just a friendly neighbor, and something about the way she touched me last night told me she reciprocated the feeling, but I couldn’t be entirely sure. I hated waking up the next morning alone, with only the memory of her skin pressed to mine, but I relished in the fact that I’d be seeing a lot more of her again. She said she’d stay, she forgave me and then she invited me into her home, and to her bed. Even if she hadn’t fully sorted her feelings out for me yet, that was still an amazing start.Aside from Kristen, life was treating me well right now. I had my daughter with me and my business was booming. Summer was a great time of year for TruFruit because my competitors couldn’t get a good harvest in the heat. Meanwhile, my drought resistant trees were thriving. The money I was raking in would assure that I could afford any extra legal fees this cus
KRISTENIt took me a few moments to recover after the second rampage Edwards had gone on down there in under 24 hours. I tried to steady my breaths as he guided me over to his newest seeds. I had come down here to gather more information about his cross-breeding in case I chose to use it, but my brain was mush. I asked a few basic questions, but I barely paid attention to the answers as I replayed the image of him between my legs over and over again in my head.“Kristen? Hello?”“What?” I finally responded, shaking away the fog.“I asked if you wanted to help me pot a couple of these.”“Oh. Sure.”He led me to a wall of empty terracotta pots and we each grabbed one. Then we went over to a giant bag of potting soil that was overflowing onto the floor. He gave me a scoop and instructed me to fill the pot about half full. I did as I was told and then he led me back over to the seedlings. Now that my head was a bit clearer, I noticed the small white roots that were sprouting from each of
“Yeah, very.” I chuckled. “Well, if you don’t want to take my word for it, at least take hers. Everyone goes through guy trouble at some point.”“Yeah.” Her arms were still crossed, but I had her attention now. “What did yours do to you?”“Mine used to insult me. Tell me to lose weight or to wear more makeup. Has Alex ever done anything like that?” I asked as gently as I could.“What? No! He’s never called me ugly or anything like that.”I watched as she slurped down the rest of her coffee and set it in front of her, eyeing her phone. I’d let her call an Uber and leave if she wanted to, but she didn’t yet.“Alright. Well, that’s good.”“It’s more like the opposite. We used to see each other all the time and now that I’m at my dad’s, it’s harder to hang out. He has a car, but it’s a far drive and I don’t really want him hanging around at dad’s house all the time. That’s embarrassing.”“I get that.”“So now when I do see him, he just acts all pissy about it. The other day he dropped me
EDWARDSI walked out into the hallway, ensuring Kristen I’d be right back.“Hi Charlie.”“How are you doing, bud?”“Fine, considering. What’s up?”“I’ve got great news for you. Custody is yours, obviously. Amber will be in jail for a long time after this. They’re thinking at least fifteen years. And she won’t be allowed near the kids once she’s out.”“She deserves more than that.”“Ain’t that the truth. But listen, this also means, you won’t have to write another child support check in your life.”I grinned cheek to cheek. My kids were mine, fully mine. Finally. But then my grin fell, remembering the bomb that had just been dropped on me. The last thing Charlie had said wasn’t necessarily true. I didn’t know what the future held with Kristen and my child that she was carrying. I knew what I wanted, though. I wanted a family, one that was complete and whole.I thanked Charlie and hung up. I rushed back into Kristen’s room, knowing what I needed to do.“So?” she asked.“It’s official.
EDWARDSI fought with police officers for what seemed like hours, as patrons continued to stream out of the bar. I stopped to examine each one. None were my daughter.“She’s still in there! What are you guys waiting for?”I just kept screaming and they just kept ignoring me. I tried to run in myself a few times, but each time I was caught by an officer and dragged back behind the wall of squad cars they had formed in front of Rita’s.“We have to do this strategically, so no one gets hurt,” the commander told me after my third attempt to get in.After some discussion, they decided to call the bar, in hopes that Amber would answer and that they could talk her off the ledge. I jumped nervously back and forth on my feet as he tried to reason with her. He hung up.“She wants money.”“What else is new? How much?”“A million.”“What?!”“You won’t be giving her a penny. Now that we know she won’t reason with us, we’ll come up with a plan to force entry and remove your daughter as safely as p
KRISTENI pulled up to Rita’s just fifteen minutes after Edwards and I had spoken still reeling from my conversation with Wally. I had to find a way to stop Carter from purchasing the house, but I had larger priorities right now. I took the handicap spot out front. I figured if I didn’t find anything, I’d be gone before anyone knew it. And if I did find Candace, then I had bigger things to worry about than illegal parking.I ran inside, leaving my purse and phone in the car. I burst through the front door and scanned the bar area. It was filled with burly men in flannel and jean jackets. Almost every single one had facial hair. The bartender was an older woman, with a heavy spray tan and wrinkled skin.No sign of Amber or Candace yet, I walked in further. As I walked forward, my flip flops squaked on the sticky, tiled floor. There was squished popcorn and spilled beer coating most of it. In the middle of the room was an aged pool table and nailed to the wall were a couple slightly ti
EDWARDSI hung up with Kristen, hopeful that we might be onto something. I called the cops right away and updated them. I told them that Kristen would be to Rita’s very soon, and that they needed to meet her there ASAP. I was fairly certain Kristen had been right that Amber wasn’t dangerous enough to hurt her, but I didn’t want to take any chances. They assured me they’d have officers on the scene as quickly as they could.I gave Samson a rub on the head.“We’re gonna find her, bud.”He whimpered beside me. I didn’t want to consider the fact that we could be way off. Amber and Candace could be well past Rita’s by now, and potentially even out of the state. I had tried the phone tracking app several times, but Candace’s phone was still off. Amber must have taken it from her.No matter how hard I tried to rationalize it from Amber’s perspective, I just couldn’t understand why she’d do this, unless she really had just gone off the deep end. Nothing she gained from this aligned with any
KRISTENI got back to the motel around noon. I applied for a secretarial position very close to here last evening and got a call back almost immediately. They seemed desperate, and so was I. I scheduled an interview for the next day and here I was. I thought the interview went quite well, actually.The job didn’t pay anything special, but it would do. After a few weeks there, I’d have enough to start making rent payments. I’d be out of this motel in no time, or at least well before the baby came. I wasn’t immensely excited about typing memos and completing invoices all day, but work was work. I didn’t have the luxury of being picky right now. I also called my landlord and got out of my lease in San Francisco. I told them to scrap anything I had left, which earned a few curse words.I hung up and sat back on the motel’s floral print couch that I thought was probably from the seventies at the earliest. There were several stains that could have been from any decade quite honestly. I tho
EDWARDSI woke up the next morning, forced to remember for a split second everything that had happened the day prior. I laid in bed and crossed my arms over my face as I thought of Kristen and her betrayal. I saw what Dudley had written, how Kristen was supposed to get her inheritance. Her newfound interest in apples made all too much sense now.I knew she was probably desperate after losing her job, but that didn't make it right. What hurt me the most was that after all we had shared with one another and all that trust I assumed we had built, she still didn’t trust me enough to let me help her. I had wanted to provide for her and I would have gladly helped her get back on her feet. She was just too stubborn to let me.I pushed my sheets back and got out of bed, more determined than ever to get full custody of my kids back. After getting ready with Samson hovering by my side—he knew something was wrong with me—I called Candace.I tried several times, but her phone kept going straight
“It’s none of your business.”Before I could reach over and grab it, Edwards picked it up, sifting through the worn yellow pages.“Did Dudley write this?”My face had gone pale white. I gulped and nodded. It was the second half of the journal, the one that detailed most of Dudley’s plan to steal TruFruit’s patent.“To you?” He asked, continuing to scour it.I nodded again, having no words for him at this moment. How dare he? This argument is about him and his lies.“So, we were right then? He was fired.”I didn’t respond to this inquiry. He didn’t even look up to see if I had answered. After a few moments, he found the note that had fallen out of the journal when I first found it. I stuffed it back in between the pages, so I wouldn't lose it. I watched his face morph into despair.“He wanted you to rip me off?”I stood still.“Were you going to do it?”I was frozen in place.“How could you?”I wasn’t going to bother telling him that I hadn’t planned to go through with any of it. The f
EDWARDSI walked into the other room and talked to Charlie in a hushed tone, hoping to make Sabrina squirm a bit. As I did so, I heard footsteps on the stairs. I looked over to see Candace running down them with a duffel bag.“One second Charlie.” I put the phone to my side and approached my daughter who was angling toward the front door.“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked her.“My friend’s house.”“Who gave you permission to do that? We have some things to talk about, Candace.”“Not interested.” She reached for the knob.“Hey!” I yelled to her, in a firm tone I rarely used. She turned on her heels, one arm on her hip and the other clutching her overnight bag.“You know, maybe you should save the parenting for all of the kids you haven’t told me about yet.”“Candace!”She opened the door and I ran out after her, Charlie still waiting on the line.“Sweetheart, wait! Let me at least explain!”“No! I’m sick of being constantly disappointed by you and mom!”Candace ran towards a b
I responded to Kristen’s text, telling her I’d be over in a couple hours. I wasn’t expecting a package, so it was either a mistake or a ruse to get me into bed. My heart sped up at the thought.A couple hours later, I was on Kristen’s doorstep ringing the doorbell, ready for whatever surprise she had waiting. But when the door opened, I found myself completely caught off guard. A small boy stood below me, looking up with piercing blue eyes. I looked up and a small blonde came out from the kitchen.“Sabrina,” I gasped. “What the hell are you doing here?”“They lost the keys to the house. It’s been lovely meeting your fiancée and son, Mr. McLean,” Kristen said to me from the living room, her tone ice cold.“We have a lot to talk about, darling. And I’ve been waiting for you all day.” Sabrina grabbed her purse and the backpack from the hangers by the front door and met me outside. “Thanks for your hospitality, Miss?”“Washington. Kristen Washington. And you’re welcome,” Kristen responded