Next, I went to Dudley’s all-too-small closet that currently housed a few of my dresses. My clothes were practically bursting from the dresser drawers already and I had been extremely disappointed to find that Dudley only had a sum total of 6 hangers. I picked out a yellow sundress with a white flower print and went back to the bathroom to complete the look.I walked to the only full length mirror in the house, in an upstairs bedroom, and smiled at my reflection. I looked good. Even though the rude mountain man, who I’d guessed hadn’t trimmed his beard in at least two months, probably wouldn’t even notice, I liked getting dressed up for myself. Plus, the man was probably too self-absorbed to notice me; the good looking ones usually are.I spent my remaining hour cleaning up some of the rooms I’d be spending most of my two weeks in. Dudley had a home office where I set up my remote work supplies and I did a sweep of the kitchen so that it would be fresh for me to bake in as I wished. I
EDWARDS“So, Miss Washington, who gets to go first?” I asked Kristen as she took her seat back at the table.I served her a piece of steak that I had cooked to perfection and some potatoes that I grew in my greenhouse a few miles away. I also poured us glasses of red wine. I was aching to go first, to ask Kristen if I could buy her property or at the very least harvest those apple seeds, but I needed to present myself as a perfect gentleman tonight. I needed to get on her good side if I wanted any access to that tree whatsoever.I watched Kristen adjust her dress, still eyeing the sunset. I had missed almost the entire thing, choosing to watch Kristen instead. My eyes were fixated as her mouth opened and closed, unable to find words to express the sight before her. I had felt the same way when I saw my first sunset up here. It was one of the reasons I stayed.This sunset felt a little different than ones prior though. Kristen’s red hair reflected the sun’s orange hue beautifully. Her
“Um, something like that. There’s a few things I need to take care of first. Things to settle up for Dudley and what not.” Her face turned bright red again. She blushed often, a characteristic she probably inherited with her red hair and freckles. I didn’t altogether mind it, finding the red hues quite captivating.“Do you have a buyer in mind?” I grew bolder.“No,” she responded, sipping her wine. “Why? Are you interested?”“Actually, yes.” I watched as her eyes widened and her mouth fell open just slightly, her lip gloss shimmering under the moonlight.“Really? And why is that?”“Well, as you’ve probably noticed, Dudley’s property is right in the middle of my acreage. I’d love to use the land for more harvests. I have so many seeds ready to be planted with no space to plant them.” I hesitated to bring up the apple tree in her backyard, not wanting her to realize its potential out of fear she might change her mind about selling.“I see. That was something I meant to ask you about act
KRISTENThe cold water shocked me a bit and I almost giggled to myself under water. The wine had made me bold and while he had been talking about apples, I just kept staring at his chest, rising and falling as he spoke, wondering what he looked like underneath his shirt.Just as I suspected, Edwards couldn’t resist my seduction. By the time I had resurfaced in the pool, he had pulled his shorts and his shirt off to reveal chiseled abs. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. I didn’t know many men his age who’d kept their bodies in such perfect physique. His six glaring abs worked their way down his torso to form a distinct V above his boxer line.My eyes followed the V shape to below his waistline where there was still a large bulge. I motioned my fingers for him to join me.He responded by taking a running start and cannonballing into the pool, splashing me with his wake. He resurfaced, beads of water dripping off his salt and pepper beard and down his chiseled pecs. He inched closer
EDWARDS“EWWW!!”I shot up, my legs flailing beneath the satin sheets. “What? Shit. What happened?”I rubbed my eyes and looked over, tracing the freckles up Kristen’s body. My gaze found her red hair tousled from a good night’s sleep and her face scrunched in a disgusted expression. Samson was up on his hind legs, leaning over Kristen’s side of the bed to greet her with generous licks and slobbers to the face. I normally let him sleep with me, but Kristen had taken his spot last evening and I could tell he was itching for attention.“Ugh, stop it!” Kristen groaned.“Samson! Here boy!” Samson’s face shot up at my call and before I knew it, he was up on the bed, bounding over Kristen to my side of the mattress.“OH MY GOD!!” Kristen continued to yell.“Shhhh!” I planted my palms over my ears, which were still ringing from the piercing scream that first woke me.I could feel Kristen’s labored breathing beside me as she tried to catch herself. What was with her and this dog? Sure, being
“Is that my pool?” I asked and Kristen looked up.“Yes. I’m sending my best friend Lisa a few photos of the area. She’s the one who insisted I come here. I was about ready to call the whole thing off, but she convinced me,” Kristen said as she continued to type out the text.I got closer and noticed that it was more than just a photo of my pool that she was sending.“Hold on one second! You can’t send those.”Kristen looked up at me, her brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”“That’s my property in those pictures, my business,” I exclaimed, staring at her selfie taken in front of my orchard.“And that’s me.” I pointed to the photo of me standing beneath her apple tree.“I’m sorry. I, I didn’t think you’d mind.”“Well if you would have asked then you’d know that I do mind.” I put my hands on my hips, enraged at her complete disregard for my privacy. “Listen, maybe things work differently in the city where you’re surrounded by people addicted to social media and their phones, but out here
KRISTENWhat an absolute and utter disaster! I accepted Edwards’s dinner invitation last evening with the sole purpose of gathering information about Dudley, but then things changed. He opened up to me, and he actually listened to what I had to say. I was so refreshed by a man treating me with respect that I let things get carried away.Then he called me delicate and he kept looking at me with judgment in his eyes every time I swatted a mosquito away or adjusted my hair. It made me want to prove something to him. I wanted to prove that being from the city didn’t make me soft. Edwards thought he knew me based on the small amount of details he’d been able to gather, but he didn’t know the first thing about what I’d been through. Surviving my family gave me tough skin, and I’d survived more evils than just them.I shuddered at the thought. The way Edwards bossed me around this morning, the way he’d ordered me to delete those photos on my phone, it brought me back to some dark memories t
I blushed a little and she finally caught on.“Oh my god! You slept with him, didn’t you?”“Uh…”“You did!” The sudden exclamation came from Sonja. Lisa and I exchanged a surprised look.“Sorry,” Sonja said, finishing her final coat on my toes in silence.“Um, yeah I did. And immediately regretted it.”I shook my head. I wasn’t normally someone who slept around with just anyone. I mean, I hated dating sites and despised Tinder most of all. I wanted to connect with someone before I took things to the next level. In the moment, I was drunk and thought I was beginning to know Edwards, but I soon found out that I didn’t know him one bit. The next morning started out fine aside from Samson’s slobbers. He made me delicious coffee and didn’t act uncomfortable or embarrassed about the events that had transpired the night prior. I felt at ease. That is, until he turned into a controlling maniac.“What did he do? Couldn’t perform?”“No! Not that!” I blushed even more, remembering how good he ma
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