Chapter 9
Harding~
T he banging on the hotel room door snapped me out of a dead sleep, one which I hadn’t thought possible. I was feeling the weight of everything very heavily, and if I didn’t get my shit together before Monday, then I was going to be a danger to myself and others while on the job. Even if I didn’t deserve it, I needed rest. However, my guess was that it was Paige banging on the door, so rest was not going to happen tonight.
Throwing on a pair of pajama pants, I quickly glanced at the clock on the nightstand, and I was surprised to see that it was only eight in the evening. How could it be so early, yet feel so damn late? Dinner with my parents felt like a lifetime ago now.
When the banging started again, I made my way to the door, not needing to get kicked out of here for disturbing the peace. This hotel was close to town and the office, and I needed all the help that I could get right now. However, when I finally swung the door open, it wasn’t Paige standing on the other side. Instead, Trista stood before me, and she looked as badly as I felt.
“What’s going on?” I immediately asked, knowing that she wouldn’t just come here for no reason. While we weren’t exactly hiding what we’d done, we were still trying to respect how delicate the situation was. “Are you okay?”
Trista muscled her way past me, and dread began to settle in the pit of my stomach as I closed the door to the suite. “No, I’m not okay.”
“What happened?”
She stopped in the middle of the room, then turned to face me. “That…that person called my father, Harding,” she said, flooring me. “She called him, pretending to be a cop, telling him that I was under investigation for fraud or something stupid like that.”
“What?” I shook my head. “What…no…no way…”
Her brows shot upward. “She also sent me a text, threatening my children.”
That had my back straightening immediately. “What are you talking about? I mean…I know…I know she’s…I know that Paige is having a difficult time, but she’d never threaten a child, Trista.”
Her green eyes blazed with an anger that I’d never seen before, but I couldn’t fault if she was telling the truth. “Check my phone,” she said as she stretched her hand out, the device sitting in her palm. “See for yourself.”
I grabbed her phone, praying that this was just one big misunderstanding. However, when I looked at the text that Trista had kept on the screen, my stomach nearly emptied on the carpet.
Unknown: Karma is real n ur going to get what’s coming 2 u. U might think that ur safe, and maybe u r, but ur comeuppance might not come n the form of sumthing happening 2 u. Maybe ur children will end up paying 4 ur sins. Maybe ur happiness will come at the cost of ur children’s happiness. Maybe ur children will b better off being raised by sum1 that DOESN’T think it’s ok 2 steal another woman’s husband. Watch urself, and if I were u, I’d keep a better eye on my children.
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered, not wanting to believe what I’d just read. “How…how did she even get your phone number?”
“Who gives a fuck about that?” Trista snapped. “She probably paid one of those sites, especially since she managed to get my dad’s phone number as well.”
I handed her back her phone, my fingers shaking a bit with adrenaline. This was not okay. While Trista and I were in the absolute wrong, threatening her children was crossing a line that Paige had no right to cross, no matter how angry she was. Trista’s children were innocent in all of this, and I couldn’t fault her for being furious that someone would drag them into this mess.
“Okay…let’s just…we need to think-”
“Think about what?” she challenged. “If Paige wants to come after me for my part in all this, then fine. We can do this, Harding. I’ll meet her any place and time of her choosing, and I’ll answer any questions that she has. However, I’m not going to let that woman threaten my children.”
“Trista, she’s just upset,” I said, trying to calm her down. “She didn’t mean-”
“I don’t give a fuck!” she yelled. “My children are babies, Harding!”
“Okay, calm down,” I ordered more firmly. “We’re not going to be able to figure anything out if we begin arguing about this.”
Trista’s green orbs flared, and a part of me wondered if she was going to leave me, and the other part of me wondered if I’d even have the right to try to stop her. “She threatened my children,” she repeated. “Now, I can handle her harassing my friends and family because they’re grown adults that can handle her nonsense. However, mentioning my children is going too far, no matter what she believes I’ve done to her.”
“I agree,” I quickly assured her. “But if you go after her, then that’ll just make things worse. We can’t have any record of you threatening her in return.”
“Then what do you suggest?” she bit out. “Because I’m about to go to your house and kick her fucking ass for daring to even mention my children.”
I walked over to her, then placed my hands on her shoulders, running them up and down her arms to offer some sort of comfort. “Let me call her best friend, Heady,” I replied as evenly as I could. “If anyone can talk some sense into Paige, it’d be her.”
“That still won’t take away from the fact that she threatened my kids, Harding.”
As I stared down at the woman that had captured my heart, I hated how her beautiful face was twisted with anger, worry, and regret. At only five-foot-three, her black hair and green eyes were the complete opposite of Paige’s five-foot-five of auburn hair and brown eyes, and I didn’t even know if that was a good thing or bad right now. I had hurt two different women, and I had no idea how to ease any of the pain to a reasonable level.
“Look, can we just…can we hold off on filing a report?” I asked, though I knew that it was asking a lot. No one had the right to ask a mother to stand down when it came to her children. “Let me call Heady, and if Heady can’t talk any sense into her, then we’ll call the police.”
Trista’s shoulders immediately slumped with the weight of her responsibility in all this. “Harding, she can’t just be able to threaten and harass whoever she wants,” she said tiredly. “I get that we hurt her, and I get that her emotions are all over the place right now, but we’re still responsible for our actions, despite what we’re feeling. Otherwise, murderers would never be brought to trial.”
“Paige is hardly on the same level as murderers, Trista,” I remarked dryly, not necessarily defending Paige, but not leaving her to hang, either. “She’s just hurt, and she’s lashing out like most betrayed wives would.”
Trista’s head reared back in a bit of shock. “No, Harding,” she snapped. “That’s where you’re wrong. Most wives would go after the husband or the mistress. Most wives would have gone through the husband’s phone to find out everything that they could about the ‘other woman’. Most wives kick their husbands out of the house, then go after them for every dime.” She cocked her head as she slipped her phone back in her pocket. “They don’t call their husband’s bosses or send out group texts. They don’t post Christian passages on social media at the same time that they’re making harassing phone calls and pretending to be a cop.”
“Trista-”
“And they sure as hell do not threaten someone’s children,” she went on, her voice hard and full of fire. “She’s posting about faith and God, and her idiot friends and followers are eating it up because you refuse to stand up for yourself.”
“I am not not standing up for myself, Trista,” I corrected. “I’m trying to take responsibility for what I did. I’m trying to show her some grace, some compassion for what she’s going through.”
“Well, so was I,” she fired back. “But that all went out the window the second that she decided to bring my children into this. So, I’m telling you now, either get her in check or else I will. I no longer care that I’m in the wrong. Nothing matters more to me than my children, and that includes right and wrong, Harding.”
“Okay, okay…” I rushed out. “Just…just let me call Heady, and then we’ll go from there.”
“If that doesn’t work, then tell Paige that I will meet her whenever and wherever she wants,” she replied. “Whether for closure or to make my stance on my children clear, I don’t care.”
“No,” I told her, my voice leaving no room for argument. “If calling Heady doesn’t work, we will call the police and let them handle Paige. At this point, we have no idea where her head is at, and so we don’t need her manipulating the situation to her advantage, getting you in trouble.” I ran my hands up and down her arms again. “Your children do not need to see their mother getting in a fight or worse.”
Trista just shook her head. “I’m going to have to tell Frank. I’m going to have to warn him, and he’s not going to like it.”
Yeah, as if this shitshow wasn’t enough of a disaster.