Chapter 2
2
Heaven – Nineteen Years Old
I try to breathe through the panic hitting my chest as I watch my son sleep in his crib, my husband on my mind.
I understand the club surprised him with his patch, but it’s our anniversary, our first wedding anniversary—an anniversary he forgot….
My tears fall, and I quickly wipe them away, not taking my eyes off Micha, the most important little boy in my life.
After Travis and I married, we were living on a high, but a few months into my first year of college, I found out I was pregnant. God, was I scared, but Travis tried to hold me up, even after my mother slapped me for being “stupid.”
Travis was my rock despite the growing distance since he started prospecting.
Mom didn’t want this life for me. She wanted me to have a career and not rely on men like she does every single day, especially when she went through two boyfriends that year. It's only a miracle that I even finished high school after I met Travis.
At my graduation, she told me she was moving, and I needed to help pack our stuff. That was also the same day I told her Travis and I were getting married and buying a small house, because he didn’t want club life to touch me.
I worked my butt off, not allowing him to pay for the whole thing, and our mortgage is quite high, something we only got because his dad co-signed.
It's safe to say she wasn’t happy about that, and to this day, she still hasn’t met her grandson.
Gently, I rub my hand over my son’s head as he sucks his pacifier, sleeping peacefully, and I walk away, ensuring his night light is on, then carefully close his door and walk down the hallway and look around the living area.
This is our home, something we’ve worked hard to have.
From the dark gray couch to the light gray paint on the walls, it’s ours, and even though it took us a few months to make it, we did.
My eyes go to the photo from our wedding day hanging above the fireplace. My dress isn’t fancy, just a white knee-length skater dress, but my smile is wide, and so is Travis’s, who is wearing a black button-down shirt and jeans, his arms wrapped around me from behind.
Other than giving birth, something he nearly missed because of the club, our wedding was the happiest day of my life.
A horrible feeling settles in my gut, and I know we can’t leave it how we did.
This man has become my world, the reason why I breathe, and I know that’s stupid, especially when I’ve seen what my mother has turned into because of relationships she can’t hang onto, but he has.
I need him, and I can’t let our argument fester until tomorrow. Honestly, he needs to understand where I was coming from.
It’s our anniversary, for Christ’s sake.
Taking a deep breath, I quickly grab my phone and call our neighbor, whose fourteen-year-old daughter wants to earn money, to see if she can watch Micha for half an hour.
Hopefully, we can hash things out, and Travis will come home with me. He can party with the brothers whenever he wants, our first wedding anniversary is different.
I take a deep breath as the guy on the metal gate lets me in, not even asking why I’m here but by all the cars outside, I’m guessing the party is huge.
Why would I want to be with others on our wedding anniversary?
Shaking my head, I pull up near the door, adamant I won’t be here long because I don’t like leaving our son. I put my car in park and climb out, my legs feeling like jelly, nerves hitting me hard.
I’ve never been here before.
Biting my bottom lip, I head to the large brick building that looks like it could be a hotel.
I walk into the dimly lit, rowdy room, and instantly, the smell of sweat and sex hits my nostrils, making me want to vomit, but I swallow it down and slowly descend the steps, my eyes taking in the chaos around the room.
Seriously, my husband wanted me to be around this?
The men are currently screwing women on the couches, there are two women on the floor making out while rubbing their bodies together, and I’m pretty sure that’s a man on his knees, sucking off another guy, who is leaning on a pool table watching the guy suck him off.
My heart pounds as I try to find Travis.
He was so angry at me when he left the house because I didn’t want to come here and celebrate him getting his patch on our wedding anniversary—our first wedding anniversary at that, and only two months after giving birth to his son, and it’s clear he forgot the meal we decided to have.
We need to talk.
He can’t just walk out like that, and I refuse to be like my mother and be a doormat.
I take a step forward but gasp when some large man knocks into me and chuckles drunkenly as he looks at me up and down, making me feel dirty and very naked despite wearing one of Travis’ shirts and jeans.
“Hey there, beautiful, the names Brute,” he slurs, and I swallow hard.
“I, uh, I’m looking for Travis Turner,” I stutter, my palms sweating, and the man chuckles.
“Travis? You mean Anchor, right?” he slurs, and I nod once, wondering if that’s his road name now, which would make sense because he’s my anchor as well….
“Unless you’re into threesomes, you may want to wait until he comes down. He went to his room upstairs with Ginger,” the guy says with glee.
My eyes widen at his accusation, but I see the truth in his words—the happiness he’s showing for my husband. Absolute pain fills me as I whisper, “Where is his room?”
Brute groans, “Lucky fucker,” then nods to the stairs. “Third door to the right.”
I nod in thanks and walk around him with my heart in my throat.
“Please, please, please,” I whisper, full of pain as I climb the stairs, hoping that guy, Brute, has it wrong.
Surely, he wouldn’t cheat on me after he forgot our anniversary, all because the club surprised him with a patching he wasn’t even sure he wanted to begin with, and I wanted to stay with our son.
Please….
I look at the doors until I reach the one the man indicated, moans echoing from beneath, and my tears blur my eyes.
Oh God….
My body trembles, but knowing I need to witness it, to make it concrete that our relationship is over, I slowly turn the door handle and silently open it, and the sight before me kills me.
Ginger, as in Harley, the girl who made my last year of high school hell when he made me his girlfriend, is currently gripping his blue sheets, her naked chest squished on the bed, her ass in the air as she moans while my husband, the man who promised never to hurt me, grips her hips tightly, his head tilted back with pleasure as he screws her ass, his moans and groans mixing with hers.
Why, why would he do this to me after I’ve given him everything?
I shake my head as my tears fall, and slowly begin to shut his door, not willing to even make myself known, but freeze when I hear him grunt, “Fuck, sex hasn’t felt like this in months.” And I look at him with absolute heartbreak.
The jackass—I’ve just given birth to his son!
His eyes are now open and on Harley as he leans over her and shoves two fingers inside her.
Breathing becomes difficult, and I know I’m about to break so quickly I shut his door, not caring if he heard, and I rush toward the stairs, my tears uncontrollable.
I don’t think about anything; my mind is on the door. The laughter, the moans, and the music all sound underwater as my mother’s words from the day I married Travis echo.
“He’ll hurt you. Today, you are making the biggest mistake of your life. He’ll knock you up, you’ll have to drop out of college, and then he’ll hurt you and throw you away like trash.”
Guess Mom was right, huh?
Without speaking to anyone, I run out of the clubhouse. Just as I make it out of the door, I bump into a hard body, hands quickly wrapping around my shoulders before I can fall as a sob wretches from me.
“Whoa, whoa,” the voice says, and I look up, making eye contact with Colt, my soon-to-be ex-husband’s best friend. He furrows his brows and asks, “Heaven, what’s happened?”
I shake my head and pull out of his hold before my eyes go to the gold wedding band, and suddenly, my finger feels like it's burning, like the ring is melting my skin.
Sobs burst out of my chest, and I quickly pull the band off and slam it into Colt’s chest. His eyes widen in shock as he quickly catches it, and I state, “Once your best friend is finished with my high school bully, let him know we’re done and that I want a divorce…. Oh, and tell him happy first wedding anniversary, hope he enjoyed it with her.”
That said, I quickly run around him and toward my car.
“Heaven!” I hear him shout but ignore him as I climb into my car. My hands shake as I insert the key and turn the ignition before quickly spinning out of the spot.
The prospect doesn’t open the gate, something I’m guessing Colt told them not to do, and watches me, expecting me to stop, but without a care for my safety, I smash into it, causing the front of my car to crumple, the sound of crunching metal shrill in the air. Still, I ignore it and speed down the road with my bumper scraping on the road, my only thoughts wanting to pack Travis’s crap and change the locks.
That man and I are done; the moment he allowed another woman to touch him, he lost me, heck, the moment he walked out of our house, throwing a tantrum because I’m a mom first, he broke us.
I should have listened to my mother….