Chapter 3
Chapter Three
LYNAE
M y body aches in places it’s never before. I wish I could have woken up with him. My heart actually hurts the further I get away from him, and for lying to him about this being something more than sex.
It can only ever be sex between us.
I drive out of town and make it to Phoenix before the sandpaper dryness in my eyes forces me to pull over. I check into another motel and take a shower, washing Ryker from my body.
There’s a hickey on my breast and a couple of love bites along my neck and stomach. There is also a huge hickey on my thigh near my tattoo. I wash my body, immediately missing his scent of leather, the outdoors, and musk. I step out of the shower and wrap a towel around myself. I walk to the bedroom, climb into bed, and fall asleep cuddled up to his shirt I stole. I didn’t want to put on my dress, and since he kept my panties, it felt only fair.
A couple of hours later, I’m woken up to my phone ringing. I roll over and answer it.
“Hello.”
“Lynae, it’s Clive.” Part of me wanted it to be Ryker, but I never gave him my number.
“Yes, Mr. Merchant ,” I respond to my grammy’s attorney. He flew in after she died and has been in Tucson since. I tried to talk him into returning home, but he told me my grammy would haunt him the rest of his days if he left me alone.
“I’m sorry to report your apartment and storage unit were vandalized.”
“Dang it.” I roll out of bed, and the towel drops from my body. I move around the room naked and stop when I catch my reflection in the mirror. Ryker’s fingerprints and love bites are more prominent now that time has passed. He made sure to leave his mark. “I’m on my way.”
I head out, returning to the hell of my life in Tucson.
W hen I pull up to the apartment my grammy rented for both of us, I find her attorney waiting for me. He walks over and wraps me in a hug.
“Most everything was destroyed. Furniture, clothes, and some recent pictures. It’s a good thing we had most of your memories in the other storage unit under my name. Not only was the apartment hit, but so was the unit that had all of your furniture from Sayler.”
His words stop me. Who would do this? Besides us and the Benedicts, no one knew about these places.
“Could it have—” I stop.
“I thought of that already,” he says, knowing where my thoughts were leading. “We can ask, and I’ll have the sheriff ask, but it’s not going to look good.”
“I know, but she threatened me after she assaulted me.”
“I know.” He wraps an arm around my shoulder, and we both wait until the sheriff’s department tells us we can go check out the damage.
“How was your weekend?” he asks.
“It was good.” That reminds me, I need to make a stop at the pharmacy.
When they finally let us into the apartment, I could cry. Everything is ruined. I’m going to have very little to move. It’s a good thing the house in Prominence Point is furnished.
T wo weeks later, we’re all sitting in the courtroom. I’m tired of court motions. Attorneys. The Benedicts. All of it. I’ve had to move into the same hotel Clive is staying in after the apartment manager evicted me. He didn’t want me staying there any longer after everything was settled. Sayler’s parents are practically trying to run me out of town. If it weren’t for my job, I would leave now, but I made a promise, and I intend to keep it. So here I am, waiting for this to finally be over. For me to be free of the Benedicts.
I try not to squirm in my seat as Sayler’s parents sit across the aisle from me. When the bailiff finally calls for all to rise, I stand up, and in walks the judge we’ve been working with for a year now.
The Benedicts have filed so many motions over the last two weeks, trying to drag out this marriage, but I’m not giving up. I’m no longer going to put up with being tied to that crazy train of a family.
Grammy and I worked too hard for my freedom to let them get me back now.
“I understand that no agreement has been reached,” the judge says as he looks over the paperwork.
“No, sir,” Clive and the Benedicts’ attorney say in unison.
“I see that Ms. Amberley tried artificial insemination as part of the prenup, and you still won’t allow for the divorce, Mr. Pikard?” The judge turns to the Benedicts’ attorney.
“She purposely did something to prevent the pregnancy,” Cherise interrupts.
“Mr. Pikard, please get control of your client.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Ms. Amberley, I see from your medical records that your physician made recommendations for treatment, but Mrs. Benedict insisted on doing it her way. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir,” I answer.
“Ms. Amberley, how old were you when the prenup was signed?”
“Objection,” Mr. Pikard interrupts. “That has already been ruled on.”
“Mr. Pikard, if you don’t want to be held in contempt of court, you’ll let me look over this situation again. I don’t like that you used the motion that her father had the power of attorney due to her age and could sign off on it. She is an adult now and should have the right to decide whether or not she wants to get pregnant by a possibly dead man.” The judge turns back to me. “Ms. Amberly, you are aware that by divorcing Sayler Benedict, you will no longer be eligible for any of his military benefits?”
“Sir, I don’t use them. And to answer your previous question, I was sixteen.”
“I find for the plaintiff. The marriage of Lynae Amberly and Sayler Benedict is hereby terminated. There will be no division of property, as each party will retain what they brought into the marriage. Ms. Amberly will keep her inheritance, and if Mr. Benedict is found safe, he will retain his, with neither party claiming a share of the other’s. Mrs. Benedict, you will cease all motions and all contact with Ms. Amberly.”
I sit here for a moment after the judge exits, taking it all in. Memories flood my mind. Being forced to marry a man four years older than me, someone I thought was my best friend. Sayler only married me because he had to join the Army to be eligible for his inheritance, a clause his grandfather put in place so he wouldn’t “give money to a lazy man.” I had to marry him because my father threatened to beat me if I screwed up his payday. The Benedicts had found out he owed serious money to a bookie for gambling on horses. He was the horse trainer on the Benedicts’ horse farm at the time. My mother had already died. My father would have done anything to get rid of me because he couldn’t use me against her any longer. He needed the money so he could go get drunk again.
Little did they all know that, four years later, Sayler and I would be getting a divorce. That he’d been sleeping with someone else. Or that, during our divorce proceedings, he would go missing in action and be presumed dead. I’m no longer the quiet, docile girl. I have money and position now. I have my degree, and up until a few months ago, I had family.
My grandmother swooped into Tucson a year and a half ago and took over my life, demanding to see the paperwork my father had signed. Now, I’m divorced and ready to start my life over in Prominence Point. I’ve been fighting for over a year to get out of the marriage. I need to get away from Sayler’s family. His mother spent every day I was in their life breaking me down. I’ve tried to build myself up since my grammy came here, but it’s hard when all you’ve ever heard is that your only value lies in your beauty and your ability to make babies. That I’m too stupid for anything else. The worst part is, I’m extremely smart, just not smart in the areas Cherise deems valuable, like fashion and design.
I graduated as valedictorian of my class in early childhood education. I’ve already landed a job as a first-grade teacher at Prominence Point Elementary. I’m excited to start this new chapter of my life. But I do worry a little about running into a tall, dark, and blue-eyed handsome man named Ryker. I dream of him almost every night and wake up panting for his body.
“I will make you miserable.” I turn to see Cherise standing behind me.
“Don’t worry, we already filed the protective order to keep you away from Lynae,” Clive says, and smiles down at me.
“I should have had that baby. It would have been mine to raise.”
I pause and look around the room, trying to figure out who she’s acting for.
“Cherise, there was no baby, and if there had been one, it would have been mine. Not yours. Mine.”
I turn my back on her, and Clive and I walk out another set of doors. I pray I never see her again.