Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Scarlett
“ I cannot wait until tomorrow! I’m so happy!” I tell Anna on the phone as I pull into the driveway. When I get closer to the house, I spot an unfamiliar car near the garage.
“Hey, I’ll talk to you later, I just pulled up and I need to get a few things out of the car,” I tell her, not mentioning this strange vehicle.
“Okay, hunny-bunny. Love you!”
“Love you too, tootsie-wootsie,” I say before ending the call.
I get out of my car and walk closer to the unfamiliar one parked in front of my spot. It’s empty. I take out my cell and think about calling Zander, but I don’t. Dread settles in my gut as I reach the front door and find that it’s unlocked. My feet still move forward, not heeding the possible waiting danger.
I open it and go in. The worst feeling tickles my spine. This isn’t fear, this is something else entirely. The kind of feeling when your brain suspects what your heart refuses to admit. That feeling when you find out bad news…and it’s the soul-crushing kind.
The house is strangely quiet yet pulsing with heightened electricity, and I take my time walking to our bedroom only to find a woman sitting on our bed. She’s got curly, blonde hair. It’s about shoulder length. She’s wearing next to nothing, covered only by a robe. Her brown eyes widen as she sees me. Then her gaze drops to my pregnant belly. The gravity of how bad this potentially is starts to settle in my chest and it stings.
“Who the hell are you?” I ask, not caring how I sound. Because I’m sure I already know who she is, but it’s my wretched heart that won’t admit the truth.
“I’m Vivian. Who are you?” she asks and lifts a brow with a smirk on her face like she has one-upped me.
“I’m Scarlett, Zander’s girlfriend. I’m going to need you to get the hell out of our house,” I say, somehow keeping my voice steady even though my hands are shaking, and my heart is pounding so loud it’s deafening.
“Your house?” she laughs. “Honey, he built this house for me…for us. How do you think I got in?” she asks, jutting her chin in the direction of the dresser where it appears she set her purse and keys. “Never changed the locks so I could come back anytime, and trust me, I have. This isn’t my first time back in his bed since we broke up.”
“Get out,” I say calmly although I’m anything but.
She stands and cinches the belt around her silky robe to cover her near nakedness, then moves to stand in front of me. She’s taller by a few inches and much slimmer than me, even before I was pregnant. “You’re a phase, darling. He still loves me. He never got over us. I could tell when I talked to him the other night at his bar. But this time, I’m back to stay.”
I feel the blood rush from my face, and she sees it too because her smirk turns into an almost evil grin.
“Didn’t tell you he talked to me, did he?” She bends a little to be eye level with me. “Like I said, you’re just a phase. Something to fill the gap until I came back. So, I think maybe you better leave. After all, you’re in a very delicate condition. Wouldn’t want to upset you too much,” she says with a cruel glint in her eye.
How could Zander have ever loved someone like her? And after the way he says she hurt him; has he really been hooking up with her on the down-low?
I place a hand protectively on my belly. “This baby is his, and we’re happy. I don’t know where you came from or why you came back, but he doesn’t love you anymore. He loves me,” I tell her. Even as my heart is quivering with fear, I believe he loves me. But is he in love with me?
“I’d never guess he had someone in his life. I mean, look around,” she says while holding her arms out. “There are no pictures of you, or of the two of you together. No evidence in this house that he cares about you or has someone else in his life. The only thing he changed was trying to erase me. But I’m back to remedy that. I made a huge mistake and it’s time for me to come home to him where I belong.”
I scoff. “He doesn’t want you back. You’re lying. You haven’t been with him since you broke up. We’re having this baby together and we’re going to be a family,” I say as a tear drops off my chin, betraying my emotions and the sliver of doubt swirling in the back of my mind.
“He never wanted kids. I hate to break it to you. So, if that baby you’re carrying is actually his, he’s only doing the honorable thing. He doesn’t want it. People change, but not something like that,” she says while patting my shoulder. “And the pressure will push him right back to me. It may take longer than I anticipated, but he’ll come back.”
I knock her hand away from me and she laughs. “Have you ever been in his office? That’s where you’ll find all the evidence of me and how he feels. But what you won’t find is anything about you,” she says, enjoying this entirely too much.
I don’t say anything because he told me in the beginning, before we got close, to stay out of his office. It was the one place he wanted to keep for himself. And I never questioned it, nor have I thought about it again until now. I simply assumed it’s where he kept his art, his photography, his paintings. There’s nothing wrong with keeping some things for yourself. Art is and can be extremely personal. But now, I wonder what he’s keeping hidden in that room.
Our early dinner rolls in my stomach and I know I’m going to throw up. I rush past her and into the bathroom, then empty the contents of my stomach. When I’m done, she’s not in the bedroom anymore.
I walk back into the front of the house and find her sitting on the couch. “You should probably go back home, sweetie. We wouldn’t want the stress of being here to harm your baby.”
I don’t know and don’t care who she thinks she is. She’s the one leaving. At least for now. This time I walk over to where she sits and bend to eye level with her.
“He asked me to move in with him. I’m not going anywhere. You, on the other hand, are going to get up and walk out of here. Whatever is between me and Zander is none of your damn business. I’d almost feel sorry for you if I didn’t know what you did to him. Love is raw and real. It means growing together. And we certainly have all the above going for us. I don’t know if I’m his future, but I do know that you’re his past and I am his present. I know that we’re both hoping to be each other’s future, and I know that this is—at least for now—my home. So, get the hell out before I call the cops,” I tell her.
She holds my stare before moving, so I step back to allow her to get up. She stands and walks to the door without another word, letting it slam so hard I jump as she exits. I wait until she leaves to fall apart.
Later, when I’ve watched the sun completely set through my tear-filled eyes, I grab a blanket and pillow from the couch, then curl up on the floor. I don’t want to touch the furniture she touched, so the couch and our bed are off-limits.
My first instinct after the most uncomfortable encounter of my life—more so than my ruined wedding day—was to bolt even though I defended our love and this new little family we’re becoming. But something still kept me anchored here. I think it was because I know I owe it to him to hear what he has to say.
I may have had my heart tossed into a blender, but I feel the intense need to protect his, and my son’s.
I’m not sure what time it is when Zander says my name effectively shaking me from a restless sleep. “Scarlett, why are you on the floor?”
I turn to look at him. His worried eyes are accentuated by furrowed brows. “Scarlett. Talk to me, please. Is everything okay?”
I don’t get up, instead I bring myself to a sitting position, still covered by the blanket as if it can somehow shield me. I’m not sure how to start, so I just blurt out what comes first. “Have you seen Vivian since you broke up?”
His eyes narrow in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I mean has she been sneaking into your house and into your bed over the years?”
“Hell no, she hasn’t. Why would you ask a question like that?” There’s an edge to his voice making me doubt his answer, but his eyes reveal nothing.
“Have you seen her recently?” I ask, rewording the question. She said she saw him at High Road Bar the other night.
His jaw clenches but he remains silent.
It’s all I need to know the answer. Of course he saw her the other night. And if that’s true, then maybe the other part is too. I start to stand, and he reaches out to help me, but I push him away. I walk down the hall toward the bedroom intent on gathering my things.
“What’s going on, Scarlett?” he asks as he trails behind me.
“You’ve seen her. And I’m not okay with that or the fact that you hid it from me,” I say through the tears that have started to fall again. I grab a bag and start throwing stuff in it.
He moves to stand in front of me and takes my wrists in his hands to stop me. “I’ve not been seeing her, Scarlett. You know what she did to me…the way she broke me. I’d never let her back in my life.”
“Not even to have sex? They say angry sex and makeup sex is pretty spectacular,” I quip, before catching a salty tear with my tongue.
“Scarlett, I don’t know why you think?—”
I cut him off and shout, “Because she was here, Zander! Because she told me she’s been sneaking into your house for years to have sex with you after you broke up. She said you never changed the locks so she could come and go whenever she wanted, and she said she saw you the other night at your bar. She said it was time for her to come back home to you.”
He stares at me in disbelief.
“She said you built this house for her, for the both of you together and that you never wanted kids. She said you’re doing the honorable thing with me…if this baby is even yours. Did you tell her you didn’t think he is?” I ask as my lip quivers.
He continues to stare at me in silence.
I nod to let him know I’m interpreting his silence as confirmation and then turn back to focus on my bag. In minutes I have some things packed and I move past him with it.
He follows me. “Scarlett, please don’t leave.”
I whirl around. “I’m not staying with someone who can’t or won’t communicate with me. Someone who is still in love with his ex and trying to hide because I’m pregnant.”
“I’m not in love with her, Scarlett,” he grits out with his jaw clenched tight.
“So, you’re just screwing her?”
He runs his hand through his hair in frustration. “No, I’m not.”
“But you have since you broke up?”
“No. I haven’t seen her at all or talked to her until she showed up at the bar the other night.”
Then it dawns on me. When the waitress came in to tell him someone was waiting, it was her. How could I be so stupid and trusting after what I just went through with Eric?
“And it just slipped your mind to tell me that your ex-fiancée was at the bar waiting on you while your pregnant girlfriend was in the kitchen?”
He almost winces when I ask like I’ve slapped him.
“I didn’t tell you she came because it didn’t matter. I was shocked since I haven’t seen her in so long. And I didn’t want it to worry you or stress you out for no reason because she is nothing to me,” he says quickly.
“I wouldn’t have worried. You told me how badly she hurt you, and I believed you when you promised to protect my heart. Instead, not telling me led to me being ambushed by her lounging on the bed we’ve been sharing half naked, and making claims she’s been screwing you all along and she’s ready to come back for good,” I tell him while shaking.
“Scarlett, this will never happen again. I’ll make sure it doesn’t,” he says as I watch his jaw pulse.
He moves toward me again, but I step back. His arms drop to his sides in defeat.
“Do you still love her?” I ask point-blank this time.
He just stares at me with not so much as a word uttered, so I turn to leave.
He reaches me and turns me back around. “No. I don’t.”
I’m barely holding it together now. “Do you have doubts about this baby being yours? Do you want us?” My chin wobbles as I wait for his answer…for him to prove my fears are unfounded. But nothing comes.
He glances at my pregnant belly and then back to my eyes. I give him about thirty seconds, and when he continues to stay silent, I choke out a sob and pull my arm free before fleeing his house as quickly as possible.