Chapter Twenty #2
“Hey, I like your food,” Cameron says in his defense. “Just not your roast, or meatloaf. And I don’t like that one casserole thing either.”
Ella tosses her head back and laughs at her picky-eating son.
“Your food's good, Mom,” AJ mumbles.
After Cameron’s birthday party, Ella asked me to have a talk with her oldest son. She mentioned that he’s been lashing out at her, and she thought something was wrong. Last week, I sat AJ down and had that talk.
He wouldn’t tell me what was wrong, and I respected that, but I explained to him it didn’t give him the right to disrespect his mother. Although he isn’t his normal self, he isn’t being a complete ass to Ella anymore.
Ella places a hand on her heart. I know having AJ so snappy with her was wearing on her. Especially considering how much she loves these boys.
“Thank you, baby. I’m glad you like it.”
“See, Cam,” Jacob teases. “Everyone appreciates your mom's food, but you.”
Cameron sticks his tongue out at Jacob and playfully shoves him in the shoulder.
“Ow!” Jacob shouts, clutching his arm.
At first, I thought he was just teasing so that Cameron would think he had hurt him, but when I saw the way my son’s face reddened, I could tell he’s not joking. There is no way Cameron hurt him. He barely touched him.
“Jacob, are you okay?” Ella asks before I could.
Jacob drops his head down to his plate.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Sorry, Jay. I didn’t mean to hit your bruise,” Cameron says before slapping a hand over his mouth.
I immediately go on alert.
“What bruise?” I ask.
Both boys remained silent.
I look across the table at Ella, who looks just as worried as me.
“Jacob, what bruise?” I ask again, this time my voice dropping, letting him know I wasn’t playing.
My son sighs and looks over at me. “Mom said not to tell you.”
Alarm bells go off in my head. And if I were combustible, I’d have exploded right there at the table. I place my fork down on my plate and slid my hands into my lap. My fists are so tight that my knuckles are white. I take a moment before I speak again.
“We don’t keep secrets. You know that. Whatever you tell me is safe with me.”
He looks nervous, his blue eyes searching my face as if he’s trying to see if I’m being deceitful.
“Just show him,” Cameron leans over and tries to whisper.
I didn’t like that Jacob had forced Cam to keep this secret either.
Slowly, my son lifts the sleeve of his t-shirt, revealing a large, fist-sized purple bruise.
“Jeez,” AJ shouts.
Ella leans over the table to get a view and then gasps as water fills her eyes. I stare at the mark on my son, trying to calm down before I speak.
“He has another one on his back,” Cameron reveals.
I slide my chair back so fast it made a loud screeching sound. All eyes are on me. I understand I am around a bunch of impressionable boys and that I should choose my actions carefully. However, right now I can’t think straight.
“I need you to be honest with me, Jacob. No time for lies. Who put those bruises on you?” I had my idea, but before I lost my shit, I needed to know for a fact.
Jacob’s head drops again. “James.”
Ella
The moment the name came out of Jacob’s mouth, Mitch was moving toward the door.
I jump up too. “Mitchell,” I try to call out to him, but I can tell he’s too far gone to listen to reason.
He’s at my front door in no time. At this point, we are all out of our seats.
“AJ, watch the boys,” I say as I make my way to the door.
“Is Uncle Mitch going to be okay?” Cameron asks, his voice right behind me.
“I don’t want my dad to get in trouble,” Jacob cries. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
I stop and spin around to face the worried faces behind me.
“Jacob, you did the right thing. And I’m so proud of you. That was very brave.”
Jacob nods his head and wipes at his eyes. I knew he was nervous and scared and was probably thinking he had done something wrong.
“Now, everything will be alright,” I lie effortlessly.
I make eye contact with my oldest child. Without saying one word to him, I expressed that I needed him to watch his brother and comfort his god-brother.
AJ tucks his chin to his chest briefly at me. “Come on, guys. Let’s go into my room and play Madden.”
No matter how upset the boys are, they will never pass up an opportunity to play video games with AJ. Like little ducks, the two boys turn and walk out of the living room.
“I got them,” AJ says. “Take care of Uncle Mitch.”
I offer my son a weak smile before I head out of the house, hoping I’m not too late. I caught Mitch coming out of his house and heading to the truck.
“Mitchell,” I call out as I run across the yard to him. I tried to grab his arm, but he tugged away from me.
“Go back into the house, Ella.” His voice is too calm.
Mitch is never really a loud, angry guy, but this is too calm. I know he’s mad. Hell, he should be yelling. There should be a growl in his tone. That would be understandable. But this even-headed calmness makes me nervous.
“Mitchell, think about this.”
He spins around to look at me. I take a step back. There is something in his eyes, something in the way that the blue has turned so dark you can barely tell they are blue.
“Go back into the house.”
Even though I’m a little terrified, I don’t budge. “No. I’m coming with you.”
Everything in my bones is telling me that if I go back into that house, I will never see my man free again. My gut is screaming at me to get my ass in that truck.
Mitch doesn’t complain. He opened his truck door and climbed in. I rush around to the passenger side and jump in.
The ride over to Val’s is quiet. I steal glances at Mitch, hoping to see the anger. However, all I see is that terrifying calmness.
When we pull into the driveway, Mitch parks the car but doesn’t turn it off. He’s out before I can even say anything. I hop out too. My shorter legs have a hard time catching up to his.
He’s at the front door knocking before I make it up the stairs. By the time I get there, the door opens and a tall white man with a baseball cap opens the door.
“What are you—” his words are cut short when Mitch’s fist flies into his face.
The hit was so hard it sounded like a basketball hitting concrete. The man stumbles back, but he doesn’t have time to fight back or protect himself. Mitch pounces on him. One blow after another. I followed them inside the house, not sure what else to do.
Val comes running into the living room, screaming.
“What the fuck are you doing? Get off him.” She tries to grab Mitch, but I step in front of her.
“Don’t be stupid, Valerie.”
I’m not opposed to her getting her ass kicked. If you ask me, she deserves it. However, I don’t want her to get accidentally hit by Mitch, because this bitch would press charges.
The look she gives me could melt metal. In her eyes are years of hate and dislike. Like I give a crap. The feeling is mutual.
I don’t pay her any attention. Right now, Mitch is still beating the shit out of this man. Spinning around to face the men, I take in the scene.
James is not even attempting to fight back. In fact, if it wasn’t for Mitch holding him by the shirt, he’d be lying on the ground. I didn’t have to be a doctor or go to nursing school to know that if I didn’t get Mitch off James soon, I’d be an accessory to a murder.
Slowly, and with great caution, I placed a hand on Mitch’s arm as he pulled it back to land another blow to James’ battered face.
Those blue eyes, which have been so kind to me since the first day I met him in high school, turn to face me.
The absolute feral anger glaring back at me makes me want to step back.
If I didn’t have complete trust and faith in this man, I’d be terrified.
However, I know Mitch. I’ve known him for a very long time and even at his angriest, I know he would never lay a hand on me.
“That’s enough. You’ve done enough.”
His gaze narrows before he turns back to a bloody faced, James. I can almost see the debate in his head play out on his face.
“If you continue to hit him, you will kill him. And although what he did was deplorable, you can’t kill him.”
His head swings to me, and though the words, ‘wanna bet’ don’t leave his mouth, I can practically hear them in my head.
I chuckle slightly. “Well, you could,” I correct myself. “But where will that leave Jacob? Where will that leave...” I cut the last part of the sentence off. I didn’t have to fill in the blank for him to know what I meant. Where would it leave me?
He releases his hold on James, and the poor guy immediately hits the ground with a thud. Mitch stands up fully and turns to face me. I attempt to turn my head to watch as Valerie runs to James, but Mitch’s hands on my cheeks have me turning back to him.
The way he stares down at me makes my stomach flutter. Although he does not say those three words, I can read them clearly.
The first time he told me he loved me, I felt weightless.
My entire body tingled with happiness. And then panic set in.
The tingling turned to numbness. What if this doesn’t work?
What if he decides he no longer wants me?
Being loved and then betrayed by Andrew was one thing, but being loved and then dumped by Mitchell would devastate me.
You don’t walk away from a love like this without scars.
So, just like that day when he uttered those words, I changed the subject.
“Are you okay?” I tug his hand from my face to look at his bloody knuckles. After looking them over, I noticed that the blood isn’t from him.
“How could you?” Valerie’s angry cry has both Mitch and my heads turning to her. “I’m calling the police. I’m telling them what you did.”
“Are you kidding me?” I snarl.
Mitch handled James, but it was time I dealt with Valerie. How the hell could she let this man put a bruise on her child?
“Not only did you let this piece of shit of a man hit your son, but you also told him not to tell his father?”
Her face falls, and all the vitriol from earlier is gone. She had no idea why Mitch beat this man’s ass. The guilt on her face tells me everything I need to know. She pulls James’ head into her lap.
“He didn’t mean it, okay? Jacob was messing with his things and—”
Mitch takes a step toward her, and I quickly move to block him.
“You’re his mother. You should do a better job of protecting him.”
Look, I don’t blame Valerie for James hitting Jacob—not fully. However, I blame her fully for how she handled it. There is no way a man could still lie in my bed after he put his hands on my child.
Her face contorts in disgust. “Fuck you, Ella.”
“Hey, never disrespect her,” Mitch snaps, yelling at her.
Valerie shoots to her feet. “Oh, I forgot, no one can say anything to Mrs. Perfect, right?”
“No one said I was perfect—”
“Of course you’re not. If you were, maybe your husband wouldn’t have been fucking his paralegal.”
Admittedly, the first time she brought up Andrew’s infidelity, it stung a little.
Being reminded I wasn’t enough for him was a slap in the face.
But this time, her words fall flat. Valerie is lashing out.
And the only ammunition she has against me is Andrew.
If she really wanted a reason to be angry, I could tell her how her ex-husband is eating me off the bone every chance he gets.
But I won’t stoop to her level or allow her to upset me.
Mitch moves around me to face off with his ex-wife.
“I won’t even comment on that bullshit you just said because it has shit to do with what’s going on.
I’m keeping Jacob with me for a while. When he comes back, that motherfucker better be long gone.
” He points down to the unconscious man lying on the floor.
A man who should really probably be taken to the hospital.
“I’m giving you a pass because you’re his mother. But let me explain something to you. If you can’t protect my son, I’ll take him from you.”
Whew! It’s just something about seeing a man stand up and protect his child that gets to me. I swear it’s probably for the best Mitch and I didn’t get together when we were younger. I’d probably have a busload of kids for this man. We’d have our own TLC special.
“Don’t you ever—”
The way he steps up to Valerie so quickly, I gasp.
“Mitchell?” I warn. I knew he wouldn’t hit her, but I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t jack her ass up.
Even Valerie looked scared.
“I let you get away with a lot because I’m the one who picked your ass to have a child with.
But don’t test me here. I have the money and the means to take you to court for years, and it would never put a fucking dent in my pockets.
And if I thought I’d lose, I promise you, they’d never find your gotdamn body. ”
Valerie swallows and takes a step back. Hell, even I step back.
“Let’s go, Ella.” Mitch turns and walks out of the home just as fast as he walked into it.
I turn to follow but stop when Valerie speaks,
“You won’t keep him.”
“Excuse me?” I turn to face her.
“You don’t think I see the way you look at him,” she sneers.
“Mitch has a knack for wanting things he didn’t think he could have.
Like the sexy server at the bar all the men wanted but couldn’t have, or his best friend’s ex-wife.
But let me warn you, Ella Marie. The moment the newness wears off, and the fun is over, he pulls away.
Leaving you so emotionally lonely, you’d rather he cheated.
Instead, he’ll leave you in limbo until you will do anything to get some kind of reaction from him. Enjoy his interest while it lasts.”
The stuff she said about Andrew and Kiely rolled off my back effortlessly, but this one settles. It hits me so hard that my chest hurts. I try to remind myself she’s speaking from a place of anger and hate, but for some reason those words won’t seem to quiet.
“Ella?” Mitch reappears at the door.
Finally, I turn away from Valerie and head to the truck. However, for the entire ride home and all that night, I thought of Valerie’s words. Even at 2 am, when Mitch is pushing into me so deep and hungrily from behind that I can feel him in my stomach. Her warning remains.