Chapter 14 House Full Of Secrets
house full of secrets
The morning had arrived far too fast, and Lana woke up with a hangover.
Great, she thought. It was all she needed on top of everything that she had going on today, and she still didn’t know how she’d actually make her exit.
It would have to be today, though; her time was up, the fairy tale over.
Rolling over on her side towards Kayden, she saw he was still fast asleep.
He looked so peaceful and cute with his hair wild and crazy, so she reached over to the bedside table and grabbed her cell phone.
Placing it on silent mode, she snapped several pictures of him, then tucked the phone under the pillow.
Before he woke, she wanted to get showered and dressed and get her duffle downstairs without interference.
Slowly, Lana eased out of bed, feeling the familiar soreness of their lovemaking, and made her way into the shower.
She stopped at the mirror and looked at herself.
Her eyes were gaunt and puffy from spending most of the night crying after he’d fallen asleep.
She had a small hickey on her neck and wished it would never heal, as her mind flashed back to last night when he gave it to her.
Touching the spot, her ring was staring back at her, tauntingly, and she took it off, resting it on the counter.
After a quick shower, she dressed in the bathroom so she didn’t have to make much noise in the room. Lana left the ring on the counter, too. No need to prolong that anymore, either. As she stepped into the closet and grabbed her duffel bag, she heard her name.
“Lana?” He called out, still groggy from sleep.
She threw the bag back down and walked into the room. He wasn’t there.
“Hey,” he called from the bathroom, holding up the ring.
She forced a smile and walked in. Damnit, she thought. How was this supposed to work?
“You’re never to take this off again,” he deadpanned.
He grabbed her hand and kissed it, slipping it back on her ring finger. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“I promise,” she lied.
He kissed her again and took off his boxers, raising his eyebrows.
“I just came out of the shower,” she protested, backing away, a broad smile on her face. Insatiable.
He picked her up and carried her into the running shower, soaking her from head to toe.
“Kayden,” she moaned as his mouth closed over her water-drenched shirt and his teeth tugged on her nipple.
AFTER THEIR MORNING tryst, he got out of the shower first, and she was overcome with emotion—she didn’t want to leave.
Why should she? It wasn’t fair! What happened to Rachel wasn’t her fault either.
The only thing she was guilty of was loving a man.
Not being able to hold it in anymore, she sank to her knees in the shower.
The pain she felt as her knees slammed into the marble floor was nothing compared to what was happening in her heart. She sat there and let the water wash away her tears.
AS LANA DESCENDED the stairs, Maureen was sitting at the kitchen island, sipping coffee from her favorite mug again. Lana walked into the kitchen, and Kayden placed a mug of coffee in front of her and kissed her cheek. Maureen winked at her.
“Good morning,” she said to Lana.
Lana put on the phoniest smile she possibly could. Here we go, she said to herself.
“I was wondering if I could borrow my son for a few hours?” Maureen asked.
So this is how it was gonna happen. The sting of tears started to return as she looked at Kayden, who was drinking his coffee in the living room, watching the news.
“Don’t even think about it,” Maureen mouthed.
Lana looked at her, one tear defying her will and falling free. She wiped it fast before Kayden could see.
“Sure,” Lana replied, and was very chipper as she walked over to him. She slipped her arms around him and kissed him.
“Where are you guys headed?” she asked him.
“We’re gonna catch up a bit on the business stuff. I’m sure you could come with us if you wanted, right, Mom?” Kayden asked, looking at her.
Maureen looked at Lana, then her son.
“I was hoping we could discuss some personal family matters and get some time to bond again,” she spread that fake smile across her face like butter on toast. Lana turned to Kayden and smiled.
“It’s OK, honey. Spend some time with your mom. Besides, it’ll give me time to finally call my own.”
He bent and pecked her lips.
“You’re the best, you know that?”
He turned to Maureen. “You see why I want to marry her?”
The second smile Maureen forced looked like her whole face would snap off if she tried any harder.
But Kayden couldn’t see it. He was finally getting his mother back—a second chance at a family, so it didn’t surprise her that he couldn’t see what she did.
Eventually, he’ll see through it, she thought to herself.
She gave him one more lingering kiss, and he slapped her butt on the way to the kitchen, where he picked up his keys.
She couldn’t believe this was it, as she watched him walk towards the door with Maureen in tow.
He exited first, and before Maureen stepped outside, she turned around and winked at her and mouthed the words “So long” as she shut the door behind her.
Lana couldn’t breathe—that was it. It was really—it. She ran upstairs to their room and grabbed her bag. She wiped at her face, just wanting to get out of the house before she did something she’d regret. When she made it back downstairs, Kim was standing in the living room.
“What are you doing here?” Lana asked.
“I’m Maureen’s insurance policy. You’re gonna get back in your piece of shit car and leave, and I’m here to make sure that happens,” she said with too much pleasure.
Lana shook her head and grabbed Kayden’s jacket off the back of the dining room chair. She put it on and grabbed her keys off the counter.
“I don’t need a babysitter,” she replied as she started walking through the house, ensuring she didn’t leave anything behind. Nope, nothing. Just her heart. Kim followed behind her as she started towards the front door.
“Well, I’m just making sure the trash gets put out.”
Suddenly, Lana swung around and decked her in the nose; her fist tightened so hard her knuckles ached.
Kim stumbled back on her high heels, and her ass slammed the hardwood floor.
She was holding her nose, her face full of surprise and fear as she began to scramble backward away from Lana.
Lana grabbed a tampon from her purse and threw it at her.
“Here, cut this in half and stick it up your nose, it’ll help stop the bleeding bitch.”
She turned and walked out of the house, angry and ashamed at how she let Kim get the best of her.
She wasn’t sure whether leaving without something written and signed was smart.
It was doubtful either one of them would sign it anyway.
She stomped out the door and down the porch stairs, dragging her duffel bag like a rag doll.
She jumped into the repaired truck, as Maureen had promised, and started the engine.
Kim appeared in the doorway of the house, the tampon string hanging from her nose and her cellphone to her ear, then came running down the porch towards the car. She tapped on the window, and Lana glared at her. What does she want now, she thought as she lowered the window.
“If you come back here, I’ll put him away.”
“What are you talking about?” Lana was thoroughly confused.
“Everything Kayden’s done over the last couple of years, his mother got him off. I have all the evidence I need to take it to court and bury him if I need to.”
“You wouldn’t,” Lana replied, in awe of Kim’s spiteful nature.
“To make sure I get everything I’ve been working for and to keep him away from you? Yes, I would. This is my personal insurance plan,” she smiled, standing back from the window.
Lana couldn’t believe her ears. She was every bit the monster Maureen was.
“You don’t love him at all if you’d do that to him.”
“What’s love got to do with anything? Kayden’s mine, and that’s all that you need to know. You come back here, and neither of us will have him.”
She stalked back to the porch and walked up the stairs to the house.
Lana, her face fresh with new tears, backed out of the driveway, spun the car around, and careened away from the house.
The sobs coming from her body were intense as she drove closer to the town center.
Steering the Ford down Deleveaux Circle and around the roundabout, she applied pressure on the gas pedal and was on her way out of Hamby for good.
KAYDEN AND MAUREEN stood on a plot of land overlooking most of Hamby. She had her arm linked in his, and Kayden couldn’t help but smile at her.
“This is a beautiful place to build a house, son. I wish you many years of happiness in it.”
“Thanks, mom,” he replied, surprised at the new attitude she had. He turned to her and looked into her eyes.
“What is it, son?”
“Why the sudden change of heart? Why now?”
“I guess when you spoke the other night, I really listened for the first time.”
She unlinked her arm and looked back over the landscape. “It wasn’t fair of me to hold what happened to your brother against you for so long. I understand that now.”
He looked at her and believed what she was saying. Her face relaxed as she looked over the land, and although his mother was still a pretty woman, her age was starting to catch up with her.
“So you’ll come to the wedding?” he asked her.
She looked at him, not sure what to say. Surely she couldn’t tell him that Lana was gone by now; it would foil all her efforts.
“Of course I will. I only want to see you happy,” she said as the crocodile tears dripped down her face.
He wiped them away and gave his mother a huge hug, lifting her off the ground and spinning her.
“Kayden!” She screamed, startled, “Stop that this instant!”
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that, Mom,” he rested her back down. “Lana is an amazing woman, she really is. She’s smart and so kind—” he started, and looked down in his mother’s face, “She’s the completion of me, and I don’t know where I would be without her.”
Maureen smiled, but inside she felt a pang of fear for the first time when it came to her son.
If he ever knew the lengths she went to, he would never forgive her, and she truly would lose him and everything she had planned for the future.
She just had to make sure that never happened.
Maureen turned her head back toward the view of the town as Kayden continued to fill her in on his plans for the house.
He spoke of plans to build a gazebo for the wedding and of wanting to create a garden like the one Paula had in her yard.
He was enjoying his time with his mother for the first time in ages and couldn’t wait to get back to Lana and tell her the good news.
PAULA AND GARRET were buckled in their private plane, preparing to take off as Paula watched her laptop screen in horror.
There was her mother, setting up her best friend in an attempt to ruin her!
And Kayden had no idea. She snatched the headphones out; the look of disgust that crossed her face was obvious.
“What’s the matter, honey?” Garret asked.
“We have to get to Hamby now,” she replied.
She wanted to call her brother right that second and tell him everything she learned, but she knew that wouldn’t be enough.
She needed the evidence, and she wanted to be there to present it to him herself.
Paula opened the laptop up again and hit fast forward to watch the rest of the footage of what was happening in her vacation home.
She couldn’t be more ashamed that her own mother could be so calculating and evil!
Of course, she held a grudge against Kayden herself for a while, but she loved her sibling and only wanted the best for him at the end of the day.
If that was Lana, then so be it. She closed the DVR feed and clicked the web browser on her desktop.
In the search engine, she typed “Rachel Brown, Hamby, GA obituary” and waited for the results to appear.